There are some tell-tale signs that your small group is running on fumes. If you find yourself burnt out after each gathering, struggling to convince people to attend, and wondering if it’s worth it to keep going, this post is for you. We will discover five possible areas of change to consider when it comes to effectively leading your small group of youth, emerging adults, or millennials.
1: The Need for Greater Discipleship: Are You Truly Growing Spiritual Depth?
Small groups are all about discipleship. It is a space for spiritual leadership outside the box of a local church and Sundays. Sometimes we think this means that our groups just need to be fun and games – but people (yes, even young people) can feel when something is not going deep.
For many evangelical Christians, being ‘woke’ is a term that younger generations use to describe a specific political stance on identity politics and social justice issues. However, the core meaning refers to someone or something that is aware of the real things, specifically the societal challenges and struggles we face, rather than a specific political stance. Maybe a better term is being “awake” to the current issues that are facing your community and being willing to discuss them from a biblical perspective.
Discipleship is a whole life thing where people come together, support each other, and learn from each other how to live more faithfully in fellowship with Christ. Furthermore, discipleship does not stop with learning, but it goes on to extend into the practical lived-out reality of faith (doing life together). And isn’t that what is modeled in the early church?
The leader of a group sets the pace, so whatever you want more of in the group is what you need to model. Want vulnerability? Share about something real that’s challenging you this week. In this way, you will invite the group deeper with you into spiritual maturity.
2: Overcoming Stagnation: Signs Your Small Group Is Losing Momentum
- The same people come every week, but no new visitors
- Nobody responds to your texts on the group thread
- They are on their phones and distracted
- Excitement is waning and people are coming late
- People leave as soon as they can instead of lingering
If you have been seeing the same people attend the group every week and now even your faithful few are coming up with excuses about attending, it might be worth considering bringing some secular ministry strategies into your group. Going back to the basics will save you lots of energy – and it’s better than reinventing the wheel.
Here are some examples of ways to rebuild momentum in your group: Share the Gospel and go out as a group into secular places to share it together. Dive into the spiritual disciplines and learn new ways to read the Word, pray, and practice silence and solitude.
3: Lack of Leadership Development: Why Your Group Needs More Empowered Leaders
Your role as leader of the group is not just to lead – it is building believers up so that they can lead others. Communities are not going to be transformed by one epic leader entering the scene – but if that leader starts training up other leaders, much more can be done.
One of the reasons why you are probably reading this post is ‘overwhelm’. Overwhelm is described as the feeling that everything is too much to handle or out of control. You might feel overwhelmed with the needs of your group, the pressure to succeed, and the competition with the other groups that are growing rapidly. Now, imagine how great it would be if you were not the only one the people in your group directed questions to… What would it be like if somebody else facilitated one week and you didn’t have to prepare anything?
There is a reason why Jesus commissioned the disciples. He did not want the Gospel message to end with Him. In a similar way, we need to be careful to not make the small group about ourselves.
4: Failure to Adapt: How Your Group Is Missing Opportunities in Secular Spaces
Most adults or young working professionals in small groups struggle with a disconnect between bringing ‘church’ and ‘faith’ into the secular world. They spend their days in the workplace, so one gathering a week is just a drop in the bucket of what’s going on in their weekly lives.
However, this does not have to be bad news. Changing your approach to train your group on living out their faith in the workplace can do wonders for a group that’s grown stagnant. Change up your meeting place and gather in a common space this week. Seeing Christian leadership in secular spaces can really help break the barrier when it comes to the divide between holy things and ‘real life’.
Furthermore, you might be missing out on engaging non-believers. Faith-based small groups are a great place for those who are new to the faith to ask questions and wonder together with others about the big things of God. When a group ‘adopts’ a new member, everyone suddenly has something to share.
5: Outgrowing the Structure: Why It’s Time to Rethink Your Group’s Format
Community is an important reason why people join local churches. We are facing a loneliness epidemic in the world that is getting out of hand. People crave connection and it is one of the main reasons why someone belongs to a small group.
It is possible that after a cycle of faithfully meeting in one way, it might be time to change things up. Since connection is so important to modern generations, it might be that they’ve outgrown the old way of doing things.
It is important to remember that the aim of the small group is not necessarily to gather in a living room for Bible study every week – it can be so much more than that. A great way to rethink your group’s format is to jump in with community service opportunities that already exist. Maybe you join an ongoing outreach that happens on Saturday, or you go on a prayer walk around your city with an at-risk youth ministry.
Final thoughts
All of these points have one thing in common: The needs of your group have changed.
It might be helpful to re-envision the small group not as a place where people go, but as a missional community joining God at work in your community. Imagine it this way:
The goal or purpose of a pen could be to “be a pen” or to “write a letter”.
If the pen thinks it needs to be a pen and its ink runs out, it will keep scribbling on an empty paper just for the sake of staying true to its old purpose… But if it understands that the aim was never found in itself, but rather in the way it serves, it will happily lay itself down and call up a pencil, crayon, paint, typewriter, and many other methods of writing instead.
In this metaphor, the purpose “be a pen” can be likened to the view of a small group as being a weekly gathering at somebody’s house where Bible study is done. The other goal “write a letter” might view the group differently: A community of believers who pursue authentic discipleship of Christ by joining the mission of God in the world. In the second view, the focus is not on the mode (be it a pen, or sitting in a circle) but on the way it serves (be it writing a letter, or uniting believers in fellow-discipleship in joining God at work in the world).
We hope that the points above helped shed some light on the roadblocks you seem to be facing in your small group. Furthermore, we hope that you feel encouraged that you are not alone in this and that there are surefire ways to get out of the rut. If you enjoyed this content and want to learn more about effective methods for leading small groups and doing discipleship with emerging adults, check out our courses on Emerging Leadership and Missional Practice.
Eljoh Hartzer is combining theology and art to nurture faith journeys across generations. She is a masters-level practical theologian with the University of Stellenbosch. She is also a writer and editor in the niche of Christianity and children’s content and she illustrates children’s books. Eljoh resides in the Swartland area in the Western Cape province of South Africa. She is a staff writer at Missional University focusing on missional theology and practice.
