The 90s Called…They Want Their Small Group System Back

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First, you might be wondering, what would be some distinctives of a 90s-style small group ministry?

Here are what I think of as typical 90s-style small group ministry elements:

1. Before you could lead a small group, you needed to be an apprentice small group leader (and before you could be an apprentice small group leader, you needed to be a member in a group).

2. Additional leadership prerequisites were often church membership and attending a mandatory 4 to 8 week (or longer) small group leadership training course.

3. The most zealous adherents of 90s-style small group ministries often held a monthly on-campus leadership community with a time for vision, huddle with coaches, and skill training (VHS).

4. Healthy groups grew and birthed when they reached a certain size. Typically, there was the understanding that when they had 10 to 12 members they were pregnant and began preparing to birth.

5. While personal invitation was practiced (which led to groups growing and birthing), a standard operating procedure was to assign newly signed up members to newly credentialed graduates of the mandatory small group leadership training course.

Second, if you're currently running a 90s style small group ministry, why should you be concerned? What might be the issues to be aware of?

1. There is a high probability that your best potential leaders are not yet in a small group. Unless your current percentage connected is very high (more than 80%), it is almost certain that by requiring new leaders to have already been members of a group and to have already served as an apprentice, you are missing out on a very large undiscovered and untapped leadership resource.

There is a high probability that your best potential leaders are not yet in a small group. Click To Tweet

2. By requiring potential leaders to attend a mandatory leadership training course before beginning it is very likely that the candidates you are working with are often willing but not qualified. Since the proof is in the pudding, you are likely discovering that many newly qualified group leaders aren't able to launch and sustain their new group.

By requiring potential leaders to attend a mandatory leadership training course before beginning it is very likely that the candidates you are working with are often willing but not qualified. Click To Tweet

3. The pace of life has increased dramatically since the 90s. As theoretically effective and unifying as the monthly leadership gathering was, it is very difficult to provide frequent centralized leadership gatherings and expect a high percentage to attend. All centralized and synchronous leader training and encouragement must be replaced (or supplemented) with decentralized and asynchronous gatherings.

As theoretically effective and unifying as the monthly leadership gathering was, it is very difficult to provide frequent centralized leadership gatherings and expect a high percentage to attend. Click To Tweet

4. Even the most effective Western culture churches have struggled to fully encourage (or enforce) the patterns of the pastor and church where the practice of growing and birthing originated (David Yonggi Cho and the Yoido Full Gospel in Seoul, Korea). A far more effective strategy in the West is to focus on new leader identification and launching new groups.

5. Assigning newly signed up group members to newly credentialed small group leaders (or existing group leaders with opening in their group) are both ineffective measures that are difficult to accomplish without coming at the expense of more strategic initiatives (i.e., identifying, recruiting and developing coaches; developing small group leaders, and partnering with the senior pastor to leverage influence).

Assigning newly signed up group members to newly credentialed small group leaders (or existing group leaders with opening in their group) are both ineffective measures that are difficult to accomplish without coming at the expense of… Click To Tweet

Want to build a thriving small group ministry in the 21st century? Better adopt a new system.

Want to build a thriving small group ministry in the 21st century? Better adopt a 21st century system Click To Tweet

Further Reading:

Top 10 DNA Markers of Churches with Thriving Small Group Cultures

5 Things You Need to Know about 21st Century Small Group Ministry

Image by Greg Jordan

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