Ken Braddy

Don’t break this rule if you want to grow your group!

• Don’t walk on the grass
• Don’t smoke in the airplane lavatory
• Don’t talk
• No swimming
• No diving
• Do not block the driveway
• Do not cross the white line

These are just a few of the rules we love to break. In fact, it just feels like some rules were made to be broken. Here’s one rule, though, as a Bible study leader, that you’d better not break if you want your group to grow.

The 80% Rule

This little rule simply says that your room is going to be full when it gets to 80% of its capacity. At 80% capacity, your group will stagnate and stop growing. Oh, it might keep growing temporarily as you break the 80% rule, but in time attendance will level out and many times it drops below the 80% level.

When a room is over 80% full, it looks full visually. Sure there are empty seats, but when a person walks into the room, it seems as though there isn’t a place for them. Many times the only places left are right up front and in the center of the row.

Do the Math

Let’s take the place where my Bible study group meets. We are in a classroom on our church campus. It’s a nice sized room with 20 chairs. 80% of 20 is 16, and that’s about what we average each week in attendance. I might set up a few more chairs to help us grow. Let’s say I do that and we cram 24 chairs into our classroom. At 80%, the room is going to feel full when 19 people are present. I simply don’t have enough space to continue growing my Bible study group.

The Solution

There are two main solutions to the 80% rule when attendance gets close to that percentage:

1. Find a bigger room
2. Start a new group

The second option is much better than the first for any number of reasons. Sadly, many groups won’t stand for the second option, so haggard church staff leaders place groups in larger and larger spaces. Growth isn’t a bad thing…it’s a very good thing. But there’s “good growth” and there’s “bad growth.” Larger rooms and bigger groups lead to what I’ll call “bad growth.”

If you are a group leader, the better solution is to constantly be preparing your group to be excited about the opportunity it will one day have to “franchise” itself and start another group.

The 80% rule is alive and well. It cannot be overcome. As a group leader, be aware of its effect on your group’s ability to grow, and be proactive.

Guests, gaps, and groups – Mind the Gaps

Mind the gap

Your Bible study group is designed to reach a certain kind of person. I teach a group especially designed to reach empty nest adults. My target audience is somewhere between 45-59 years of age. The people have older, grown children. My target audience is not single adults, nor young adults, nor senior adults. If someone visits our church in this age range and demographic, they are brought to my group. If I see a visitor in our worship service who appears to be in my target audience, I strike up a conversation and invite them to my group. In fact, I can enroll anyone, anywhere, who fits the demographic of my Bible study group.

Mind the Gap

As a leader in your church’s groups ministry, be sure you have a place for every person to attend Bible study – a place that fits their age and life stage. This means you must pay careful attention to the “gaps” in your Bible study groups. Ask yourself, “If a young college student wanted to attend Bible study, would we have a good option for him?” In a similar way, you must be sure that all kinds of people have options in your Sunday School ministry. Where are the gaps in yours? Do you have groups for:

• Single moms
• Men
• Women
• Younger married adults with no kids
• College students
• Single adults (younger)
• Single adults (older)
• Parents of preschoolers
• Parents of grade school children
• Parents of students (how about parents of junior high or high school students?)

You get the idea. Make sure that you have all the bases covered so that when a guest tries to plug into a Bible study group, you have a great option for them.

Tuesday Teaching Tip: Know the 3 Types of Learners & What They Prefer

There are 3 kinds of learners in each of our Bible study groups. These three types of learners include (1) auditory learners (2) kinesthetic learners (3) visual learners. Every group will have a mixture of all three kinds of people. As teachers, you and I must know the differences each one of these has from the others. We must also be careful not to let our own learning preference (I’m a visual learner) overpower the other two kinds in the way we guide people in the Bible study. As a visual learner, I must make sure that I don’t primarily use methods that appeal to visual learners. If I do, I am ignoring the other two kinds of learners in my group. Think “balance, always.”

1. Auditory learners – These learners pay careful attention to the sound of your voice. Their motto might be, “Tell me something.” Auditory learners will actively participate in group discussions, and they enjoy responding to discussion questions. They enjoy interesting lectures, plus they are great at remembering instructions.
2. Kinesthetic learners – These learners like to touch things – that’s how they learn best. Their motto might be, “Let me do something.” Kinesthetic learners enjoy holding objects and they enjoy creating things with their hands. These guys are active learners – they want to do something.
3. Visual learners – These learners learn best when they can see what you’re talking about. Their motto is “Show me something.” Visual learners like charts, maps, posters, PowerPoint slide decks, and object lessons. They also appreciate being able to clearly see the marker board, and they love having a handout. They will often sit towards the front of your meeting place so they can have an unobstructed view of the focal wall, including things like the marker board and any posters and maps you use.

Like it or not, all three kinds of learners are in your group. The only question is, “How will you engage each learning preference through the course of your Bible study?”