New small groups start in a few different ways. Some start as a result of a campaign that the entire church participates in, some are birthed from existing groups in your church, and others start in a more organic way as new friendships develop.
Eric Metcalf at Community Christian Church recent shared his thoughts on the topic and how they handle it at their church:
Remember multiplication in school? Yeah, I didn't enjoy that either. But when it comes to multiplication in small groups, I love it!
What's the best way to multiply the number of small groups in your church?
There are lots of ways to multiply small groups - we do it through apprenticeship with an existing leader, coach, staff person, turbo group, or church campaign. After someone goes through that experience then we lead them towards multiplication. So let's take each scenario listed above:
- An existing leader/small group: We multiply this group based upon leader readiness vs. group readiness. Why? Because a small group rarely ever ready.
- A coach: An apprentice leader would meet with a coach one on one to prepare him or her for leadership and then launch a new small group.
- A staff person: An apprentice leader would meet with a staff person one on one to prepare him or her for leadership.
- A turbo group: This is a six week experience we provide for small group apprentices that equips them to launch new small groups. Not everyone will step into leadership after this experience, but it's a great way to discern who is ready. Small group coaches, staff or leaders can lead these groups.
- A church campaign: We utilize our Big Idea curriculum and a DVD message to launch these groups. Ask people to host a group, play the DVD and discuss the curriculum. Recruit coaches who will meet hosts and see if the group would like to continue after the allotted time (usually 6 weeks). If they'd like to continue have the coach identify an apprentice and then start a turbo group for those apprentices or do one on ones to develop them.
All of these methods are quite effective in multiplying small groups. Some will give you massive results others will help you build towards results. We prefer to do all 5 methods throughout the year, because we believe all are effective. Essentially everyone apprentices, and its through our apprenticeship that we prepare our leaders for 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation reproduction.
Click here to see Eric's original post.
