A new approach to small groups

Activate: an entirely new approach to small groups, by Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, contains a lot of contrarian wisdom concerning small groups for churches. According to the book, a successful approach to small groups must focus more on getting new people into groups than on optimising the experience of people who are already in groups. Successful groups should be larger (15 to 20 people) rather than smaller (6 to 8 people), and they should aim more for friendship than intimacy.

Small groups should be short-term (10 to 12 weeks) rather than long term (18 months to life). They should be heavily promoted before the start of each season, rather than lightly promoted all the time. There should not be any other church activities which compete with small groups. Signing up should be an extremely easy one-step process. Each season should be planned several months ahead, and each staff member must be involved in small groups.

The book contains plenty of other wisdom, and it seems to me that most of it is right on the mark. In my own experience it has been very difficult to have a consistently good small group experience with fewer than 8 members. In a typical church the barriers to getting into small groups are too large for newcomers, and too many small groups are “toxic”, in the sense that they have been around for too long without any challenge and without anyone’s life being changed. The book is essential reading for anyone who has an interest in small groups.