Starting new groups

 In our late 20s my wife and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ and began attending a church our neighbor attended. I still remember the first time we went into the Young Adult Sunday school class. There were about 40 people in the class, all who had been together for years. We felt like outsiders...because we were. It was an uncomfortable feeling, and it took several months before we felt we fit in.

After a couple of years the pastor asked if I would help him start a new class for that age group. It had stopped growing, and he felt a new class might appeal to new people who would visit the church. For the first quarter he taught the class, and I was his substitute. After that three months I became the teacher. We did not divide the existing class but did let anyone interested in the new class know they could transfer into it. When new young adults attended the church they were invited into the new class. In a very short while we had grown to a couple of dozen people, most of them new to the church. 

We have known for a long time that new churches reach new people. That is why so many denominations seek to plant new churches. What we often fail to consider is that new small groups also attract new people. Go into many smaller churches and you will find the same people sitting in the same classes they have been in for years. Now, consider what it would be like for a new person or couple to begin attending that class. They will feel like my wife and I did when we first attended the Sunday school class. Most small groups do not intentionally try to make new people feel uncomfortable, but they often do. New people are surrounded by conversations being held by people who have known each other for years (decades). It can be very intimidating.

Church growth experts recommend that a new adult Sunday school class should be started every 18 months. This allows new people to connect with other new people. That will be difficult to do in many smaller churches. There may be space limitations, leadership limitations and other issues that make this difficult. But, small groups include more than just Sunday school classes.

A small group might include a church choir, a book study group, a group focused on more in-depth theological study, a sports group, a quilting group, a fishing group, or any other groups that might attract people to the church. Many of these groups would not meet on Sundays and often will not meet at the church. But, they do provide opportunities for people to build relationships with people from the church and to be exposed to the Gospel. People such as Gary McIntosh suggests that one of every five groups in the church should be less than two years old. This provides a comfortable place for new people to become connected to the church.

Many small churches will argue that they are already a small group so they don't need to start one. I suppose that's true if they are only interested in the persons already in their small group, but if they are interested in reaching new people they may find it easier to do in additional small groups.