The percentage of people in small groups wasn’t nearly as high as I knew it needed to be. I had to ask myself the question… What value do the people in our church place on small groups?  In all honesty… The silent response that came to mind wasn’t that impressive. If I were to be honest, on a scale of 1 to 10, we’d hit at about a 6. If I was going to get people to be meaningfully involved in our groups I had to find ways to raise the importance of them.

Being a legendary brain-stormer, the ideas came quickly and there were a plethora of them. I soon found out that all of the ideas I wrote down weren’t workable or just didn’t work. But some of them did. I hope a few of the ideas that worked will be helpful to you.

Small Group Leaders, the Church's Heroes

Turn small group leaders into the church’s heroes. Since small group leaders were the individuals with the responsibility of accomplishing one of Jesus’ most important directives, “make disciples,” it wasn’t difficult to put them in the spotlight. When a small group had a significant experience I shared it in team meetings, during a Sunday service (when the story went along with the topic of the sermon), at the small group huddle, and any other time a group of people gathered and it seemed appropriate. And each time I did I either mentioned the name of the small group leader and spoke of how great a job they were doing or actually brought them up front so they could be seen by those in attendance.

Stories of Life-changing Relationships

When possible, get small group members to tell their stories.  Many people in our small group ministry had had life-changing relationships and experiences. When possible, they were asked to tell how the group had been instrumental in their lives. This was most effective in weekend worship services. We also found that these comments should be scripted and that each testimonial should include:

1) The group member telling who they are, whose group they were in, and how long they had been in the group, 2) what situation caused them to need the group so desperately, 3) how the group came to their aid, 4) how their life was different since the group interceded for them, 5) why they believed everyone that wasn’t in a group should join one. A word of wisdom… We found that it was necessary to review the script, sometimes request or make changes and then demand that the group member read the script verbatim.

Position Small Groups as High Priority

Make connecting to a small group a very high priority and remind the church of this often. From the very beginning, we made small groups one of the highest priorities for a church member. We did this by including small group life as one of our core values and, in another church I worked in, we made it an expectation for church membership. But there were long periods of time that we didn’t remind people of these expectations. We realized that people needed to be reminded of these expectations at least every 30 days.

Budget significant amounts of money for the small group ministry. We found that some people determined what the church believed to be of high importance when they looked at the annual budget.

Partner with the Senior Pastor. While each of the suggestions above are important, it’s my opinion that the senior pastor’s influence is the most vital aspect when raising the value of small groups. Below you’ll find a list of ways that the senior pastor can champion small groups and make them of extremely high value.

•    Cast vision for the small group ministry (at least every thirty days) from the pulpit.

•    At every opportunity remind decision-making church leaders (elders, deacons, trustees, etc…) how important this ministry is to the church.

•    Tell stories of lives changed through the small group via video, testimonies, or as sermon illustrations.

•    Encourage church members to join a small group.

•    Come to small group events and training opportunities, stay for a few minutes, and thank the leaders for all they are doing and tell how much it means to the accomplishment of the church’s mission.

•    When necessary, let the church know of the need for small group leaders and apprentices and who to talk to become a leader or apprentice.

•    Go to bat during the budgeting process ask for money for the training of leaders, the nurture of leaders, and the resources leaders need.

•    Be in a group (or lead one) and talk about it.

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