As you lead your Bible study group, you’ll face what others have in the past: swelling numbers of people on your group’s role. You may even consider dropping inactive people from your role. Please don’t.

You might ask, “Is it ever OK to drop a person from my group’s role?” The answer is yes. There are three times when you should drop a person from your group’s role:

1. Drop a person when they die. It’s safe to say they won’t be coming back to your group meeting. When a person dies, remove them from your role. They’re on a new role book somewhere.
2. Drop a person when they ask you to. On occasion, people make a decision to leave a Bible study group and they want no further contact from the teacher or group members. If someone requests they be removed from your role, do it. You can let them know how sorry you are they are leaving, but don’t keep them on the role when they’ve asked to be removed.
3. Drop a person when they become a member of another church. When one of your group members becomes a member of another church, it’s time to remove them from your role. Your mission is accomplished! You became their shepherd-teacher at some point in the past, and now they have a new church and a new group to belong to. They are now another group leader’s responsibility.

The one reason you should never drop a person from your group role is because of their low attendance. Over the years, well-meaning group leaders asked me to drop people from their roles because of inactivity. My response: never! Instead of dropping people because they aren’t coming, we should see that as a reason to reach out to them, check on them, and invite them back into the group.