Euthanizing Small Groups
Posted by Todd Rhoades in Leadership on Feb 11th, 2011 | 11 commentsPastor Brian Jones tells of the response he got from one ‘nationally recognized’ pastor when Brian told him that he hadn’t figured out the whole small group thing yet. Â Brian said the pastor’s response was something like this:
“Well, Brian, that’s because they don’t work. Small groups are things that trick us into believing we’re serious about making disciples. The problem is 90 percent of small groups never produce one single disciple. Ever. They help Christians make shallow friendships, for sure. They’re great at helping Christians feel a tenuous connection to their local church, and they do a bang-up job of teaching Christians how to act like other Christians in the Evangelical Christian subculture. But when it comes to creating the kind of holistic disciples Jesus envisioned, the jury’s decision came back a long time ago—small groups just aren’t working.â€
Wow. Â My experience in the church is that, many times, small groups DO NOT work. Â But sometimes they do.
But, that said, even when they do, this person is right, they many times take an inward rather than outward track.
What do YOU think? Â How do you make your small group make a difference. Â How do you make your small group be in the top 10% that actually create disciples (what we’re all hoping to do!)
In full disclosure, we’re hosting a new small group. Â Our first study is this weekend… so your input will help me much!
Todd
You can read more of Brian Jones’ story here…
11 Responses to “ “Euthanizing Small Groups”
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Todd,having participated in and led many, many small groups, I’ve sworn off of them. I agree that, “They’re great at helping Christians feel a tenuous connection to their local church, and they do a bang-up job of teaching Christians how to act like other Christians in the Evangelical Christian subculture.”
I think that pastors like them often times because they provide numbers to “prove” their effectiveness in a church. But as for real change- I haven’t seen it.
It would seem to me that the argument Brian is making is less that the concept of small groups needs to go away, but rather that there are specific problems with the way they are executed. Specifically that:-
Essentially, it’s not a problem that</b? small groups are happening, but rather the problem is the way that small groups are happening.
Good article. I’m going through this thought process right now in our church: should we do small groups? What about the dangers of them?, etc.
I just wished the author would tell us what we should do. It’s easy to rant against something & say, “Let’s get out there…. Hurrah!” But practically speaking, what is the alternative?
Wow, a lot of ranting about the ineffectiveness of small groups. As a pastor in a church of about 1000 my experience has been radically different. I do agree with Brian’s observation that churches have lowered the bar when it come to their expectation of small groups, and perhaps that is where root of the problems lies. What Brian says about small groups could be said of any ministry in any church. How many other church “programs” have failed for the very same reasons Brian gives for the invalidity of small groups. My experience is that when expectations are high and your reasons valid, then small groups are very effective. I have seen God’s undeniable power at work in people’s lives as the result of small groups. I have seen marriages saved, lives, both spiritually and physically saved, lifetime friendships formed, and people challenged to do more and go well beyond what they thought themselves able to do on their own. After all, wasn’t Jesus a small group leader? Just a little rant of my own
Amen Pastor Chris…I couldn’t have said it better!
Ok then, what are the options, solutions, and answers.
Hogwash, and where does this guy get his 90%. Does he work for Barna?
As with almost any church program… small groups work for some and not for others. I find that disciples are also not made during worship services, mission trips, church potlucks or emerging church non-structured worship experiences. But then, these are almost exactly the things that DID work for me.
Depends on what you set as your goal for small groups. Discipleship in Acts 2 seemed to consist of 4 things: a connection to God (worship), to one another (fellowship), to ministry (service), and to the world (evangelism). Our small groups are only designed to be one piece of the puzzle – fellowship. They are Bible & prayer centered, but if all we do is get them connected to their church family, we have succeeded. To expect a small group to do all four sets it up for failure, in my opinion.
Totally depends on what the small group is designed for. Most books promote creating “Home School for Sunday School” attempting to re-create Sunday School at the home. That didn’t work so why would it work at home? Define the win and then get rid of things that don’t accomplish that. I would submit if your goal is to create disciples then you are having a “Home School for Seminary” and if you run it like that,,, well good luck. btw it took Jesus over 17,000 hours to make his disciples give or take a few depending on how long they slept, just sayin.
There have already been some great comments here…all I would add is that discipleship can happen (in my opinion) in any one of the aforementioned dynamics; it just depends on our focus/motivation.
Discipleship is about mentoring and training people in EVERY context. The most effective (of course) is when we purpose to pour into one person’s life such that they can then duplicate themselves.
Specifically, our church uses small groups as a means to a dual end.
1) Basing our groups around common interests along with outings appealing to the same demographic, this approach gives a built-in appeal that nonbelievers are much more drawn to.
2) We briefly revisit our Pastor’s recent messages to cement the concepts as statistics show that we forget 95% of what we hear after 72 hours.
So…where does the “Discipleship” happen? We use the group as a BRIDGE to our Discipleship classes. Those who are already a part of our church are encouraged to take our discipleship classes (leaders are required to) so they become more effective at discipling those they DO LIFE with? So, even those who are still hesitant to get involved in church can still be ministered to by our people.
Again; the hope is that nonbelievers are drawn to God through our groups where we can then funnel them into discipleship.
This may not differ greatly from that being implemented by many of the other respondents, but some were asking for specifics, so sorry for the length of my response.