It seems hard to believe, but I have been leading group ministry in the local church since 1989. My work of supporting group ministry has continued through my role as Lifeway’s Director of Sunday School over the past five years.

Central to my thirty-year ministry message has been challenging churches to start new groups. My wife and I have started new groups over the past decade, and I have seen the benefits of planting those new groups. Was it easy to release people from my group to start the new one? No! Was it the right thing to do? Yes! And by the way, every time my group released some of its members to start new groups, God always brought us new people and grew the group again.

Starting new groups isn’t easy, but it is some of the most significant work that a church does. In books and blog posts, plus in-person and online training events, I’ve shared the following reasons why it is good for a church, any church, to start new groups. Which of these ten reasons would be most important to you and your church?

1. New groups grow the church. For every new group that is properly started, a church’s group ministry grows by ten people on average. This month I am beginning a short-term staff position at my church where I will be my church’s Director of Group Ministry, and the first thing I am going to do is to lead the staff to start new groups. Stagnation in group ministry can often be traced to the lack of initiative in starting new groups. If your church isn’t growing, ask yourself when was the last time you started new groups.
2. New groups cover “churn.” Every church has a percentage of people who leave the church over the course of a year – that’s what we all churn. In most churches, the churn can be anywhere between ten to twenty percent. Sometimes people die, on other occasions their work schedules change and they can no longer attend on Sunday morning, or they have a disagreement with someone that causes them to stop attending. Before a church can experience positive growth, it must cover the churn that is bound to take place. New groups fill that void, and then allow the church to move forward.
3. New groups can reach the formerly connected. It’s a fact of group life that on any given day a group meets, about fifty percent of the group’s members will be in attendance. Some of those missing people reappear in a few weeks, but others silently slip away and stop attending. If those chronic absentees try to reconnect with their group, it can be awkward and often prohibitive to them rejoining the group because of their long-term absence. But when new groups are started, chronic absentees can be informed they have new options and new opportunities to start fresh with a new group, making re-entry much easier and less embarrassing for them.
4. New groups create and outward-facing culture. As new groups are started and celebrated during a worship service, it sends a signal that new groups are desired by the church (I’ve always believed that if something is important to the pastor, it becomes important to the church). Regularly starting new groups keeps the focus where it should be – on people who are far from God and disconnected from Bible study and fellowship.
5. New groups make room for new leaders. New groups must have people to lead them. In adult groups in particular, group members often step into leadership roles in which they care for a portion of the group members, plan regular ministry action days, plan ongoing fellowships, lead a prayer ministry, and more. These kinds of leadership opportunities increase their commitment to the group and to the church, while giving people a safe place to learn how to lead.
6. New groups have a positive financial impact on the church’s giving. Every church has a per capita giving amount. This figure varies from church-to-church, but once it is established it rarely varies significantly from year-to-year; you can figure your church’s per-capita giving by dividing weekly financial giving by the number of people in worship, or in Bible study groups. A twenty dollar per-capita giving amount is considered on the low end of the spectrum (I’ve served churches where per-capita giving was almost $60 per person). So, if we assume a $20 per-capita giving rate (just to be safe), every new group that a church starts will reach ten people on average. That equates to $10,400 annually. If a church’s per-capita giving is $40, then the financial impact is $20,800 annually. Now imagine if a church started, say, 4 groups a year. The blessings of obeying the Great Commission become obvious. When we evangelize people and teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded, God gives us the resources to continue His kingdom work. If a church started new groups every year for the next five years, think about the cumulative financial impact of starting new groups! It is a fact from the Transformational Groups Research study that people who are in groups give at a higher rate than people who are not in groups.
7. New groups give people choices. People like choices. New groups allow people to choose a group leader and a group that best fits their needs. But don’t forget that although expanded choices are great on a Sunday morning, new groups that are started on other days and times also provide people with choices. In most communities, up to 25% of people work on Sunday morning and cannot attend any new groups that are started at that time. To give those people choices, consider morning, evening, and mid-week groups.
8. New groups support your church’s disciple-making strategy. Your church’s group ministry provides foundational discipleship through its ongoing group ministry. As such, it is the most highly-attended ministry of your church, besides the worship service. Since your group ministry is the second-most-attended ministry weekly, it must be infused with new life through new groups.
9. New groups prevent “the LEGO® factor.” LEGO® blocks are a popular toy for children. The LEGO® blocks connect with one another, with the largest blocks having eight small nobs for connecting with other blocks. When Bible study groups have been together longer than two years, they tend to turn inward because the people in the group get “LEGO’d up” with other people in the group. When a new person or couple appears for Bible study, it’s often very hard for them to connect relationally with people in the group – those people have all the connections and relationships they can handle. Not so in new groups! Just like the largest LEGO® blocks, people in newer groups have open connection ports for new people.
10. New groups overcome the 80% Rule. When a space (worship space or group Bible study space) reaches 80% of its capacity, growth tends to slow. Rooms begin to look overly full, even though there are still some places to sit. New groups allow guests to be channeled to them, making sure that the 80% Rule isn’t in play.

Those are ten reasons for your church to do the hard work of starting new groups. Discover the possibilities you have for reaching new people, find the space for them to meet, train the leaders, and go after the people.

Be positive as a group leader when your pastor asks your group to plant another one. When you start new groups you’ll reach new people, see new people step into group leadership, and you’ll grow the group ministry year-over-year. Starting new groups is part of your church’s obedience to the Great Commission in which Jesus told us to “go and make disciples.”