Small Groups Give Every Member Personal Care and Attention
How do you maintain that “small church” feeling of fellowship as your church grows? This is one of the biggest fears members have about growth. The answer is two words: affinity groups. Affinity groups can provide the personal care and attention every member deserves, no matter how big your church becomes.
Develop a network of small groups in your church, built around different purposes, interests, age groups, geography, or anything else. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what rationale you use to start your new groups. Just keep starting them. It is unlikely that many new members will join existing small groups. New members assimilate best into new groups. You can even start new groups right out of your membership class. New members have their newness in common.
One of the sayings I repeat over and over to our staff and lay leaders is, “Our church must always be growing larger and smaller at the same time.” By that I mean there must be a balance between the large group celebration and the small group cells. Both are important to the health of your church.
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The large group celebrations give people the feeling that they are a part of something significant. Large group meetings are impressive to unbelievers and are encouraging to your members. But you can’t share personal prayer requests in the crowd. The small affinity groups, on the other hand, are perfect for creating a sense of intimacy and close fellowship. It’s there that everybody knows your name. When you are absent people notice. You are missed if you don’t show up.
Because Saddleback Church existed for 15 years without owning a building, we’ve had a heavy reliance on small groups for our adult education and fellowship. Using homes allowed us to expand numerically and geographically, without investing any money in buildings. Even though we now own a 74-acre campus, we will continue to use homes for our small group meetings.
In addition to being biblical, there are four benefits of using homes:
• They are infinitely expandable (homes are everywhere).
• They are unlimited geographically (you can minister to a wider area).
• It is good stewardship; releasing more money for ministry (you use buildings that other people pay for).
• It facilitates closer relationships (people are more relaxed in a home setting).
The larger your church grows, the more important small groups become for handling the pastoral care functions. They provide the personal touch that everyone needs, especially in a crisis. At Saddleback, we say the whole church is like a cruise ship and the small groups are the lifeboats.
Small groups are the most effective way of closing the back door of your church. We never worry about losing people who are connected to a small group. We know that they have been effectively assimilated.
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Adapted from Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox, a free weekly e-newsletter for pastors and church leaders, available at Pastors.com.
