National Community Church (NCC) in Washington, DC functions on the free market- semester system model for their small groups. They have dozens of small groups that meet in workplaces, homes, and coffeehouses throughout the DC-metro area. They provide the following types of small groups:      

* Bible or Book Study    
* Core Discipleship    
* Couples    
* Interest    
* Men    
* Mission, Service and Outreach    
* Weekend Ministry   
* Women  

Their small groups range from 5-12 people and they meet regularly for fellowship and discipleship. Some of their groups are typical Bible studies or book study groups. Others are focused on outreach and missions. Their interest-based groups create environments for people to do life together within the context of shared activities—fantasy baseball, sports, arts, etc. All of their groups exist to help people connect to God and connect to others. 

They also encourage every NCCer to begin their journey with Alpha and to start with the Discipleship Map. The Discipleship Map lists their core discipleship experiences. These are the groups, retreats, and classes that they believe every NCCer should participate in at some point during their time at NCC. It is built around four dimensions of discipleship that is in Acts 2:41-47: Seeker (the spiritual dimension), Learner (the intellectual dimension), Influencer (the relational dimension), and Investor (the stewardship dimension).  

Next is the outpost island Journey, an 8-week small group that introduces the four dimensions of discipleship. From there, they are invited to explore the other islands. Each island contains a “port city” as a recommended starting point, but you can visit any spot on the map whenever you want. It is not linear, does not have an endpoint, and is flexible to meet individual needs.  

Their vision for small groups is Be One, Make One, For One:     

* Be One: a disciple.    
* Make One: a disciple.    
* For One: Christ and his glory.  

The reason NCC meets in semester systems is because between the large number of students and the typical flow of Congressional activity, DC tends to operate on a semester-like system. In order to harness the natural momentum created by the ebbs and flows of DC life, they experimented with running all of their small groups on a semester system. They found that implementing a semester system is helpful because first, semester-based groups allow easy entry and exit points; you don’t have to commit to a group for the rest of your life. Two, they believe NCCers are able to move more easily from one group to another as their spiritual needs and interests change. Three, they believe it encourages more involvement by allowing people to experiment with leading a group for a short period of time.  

They believe this schedule gives you easy entry and exit points and the opportunity to explore several group options throughout the year. Their semesters are consistent year-to-year:      

* Spring: February - April    
* May Term    
* Summer: June - July    
* Fall: September - December  

The above case study is a brief overview into the way NCC does small groups. The Editorial Team at Small Group Trader will be adding a more in-depth study in the months to come.