Bible study groups, no matter where or when they meet, are absolutely essential to the health and mission of a church and to the process of making disciples. The proof is in the results.
People who actively participate in a small group or study class are more likely to:
Share their faith.
Regularly repent of their sins.
Give sacrificially.
Serve faithfully.
Read their Bibles.
But before a church can have a thriving group culture, they must first consider their culture of discipleship. Recent research from Transformational Discipleship shows that effective discipleship occurs at the intersection of three key things: leader, truth, and posture. In other words, discipleship is most likely to occur when a godly leader applies biblical truth to a person in a receptive posture.
As we consider what is required for groups to reproduce disciples, we see that this is more likely to happen when churches do these three things: develop their leaders (leader), launch new groups (posture), and feed their people with Scripture (truth).
Let's look at each in a little more detail:
Leader: Develop Your Leaders
Healthy groups begin with healthy leaders as group leaders reproduce who they are. The apostle Paul told believers to not only put into practice what they heard but also what they saw:
"Do what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:9).
Your group leaders serve a critical role in ensuring the body is served and encouraged. When you commit to train your leaders, a holy cause and effect takes place. As a pastor, your role is not to do ministry but to prepare other people to do ministry. When you, as a leader, make training the saints your holy cause (Eph. 4:11-12), the holy effect is a healthier church body (Eph. 4:13). Simply put, you must develop your leaders.
Posture: Launch New Groups
Biblical community is essential for spiritual growth as it puts people in a posture to receive encouragement and to walk together with others. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:
"Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation."
New groups reveal an intentional desire to shepherd people, a passion to gather people in community, and a strong conviction that people must be known beyond a worship gathering.
Launching new groups also encourages connection. New small groups connect more people than existing groups because once a group has been established; it feels closed to many new people. As a whole, new groups connect more unconnected people than groups that have been meeting for years.
The reverse holds true, as well, as without new groups, you will not be giving new people who come to your church a place to connect. Without new groups, you will not be fostering a culture of reproduction. Without new groups, your church will grow stagnant.
Though the new is often risky and uncomfortable, it must be embraced by churches. For the sake of the expansion of His kingdom, you must become skilled in the art of launching new groups.
Truth: Feed Your People
A group is only as strong as the truth it is built upon. Jesus wants His people to be well fed through the Word of God and begged the Father for our unity:
"I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe in Me through their message. May they all be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You. May they also be one in Us, so the world may believe You sent Me" (John 17:20-21).
Jesus desires for His people to be unified as He is with the Father, reflecting the character of God with our oneness. And because our unity reflects the nature of
God, it is evangelistic and part of our mission. Jesus also prayed for His disciples to be made holy. How are we made holy? As John wrote in his Gospel, "Sanctify them by the truth; your Word is truth" (John 17:17). He wants us to be both unified and sanctified by the truth of His Word.
For this reason, Scripture must define our community, and we must hold Scripture as the common ground for our unity. We must build it around the holy text that endures forever (1 Peter 1:25), the living and active Word of God (Hebrews 4:12), that is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The strength of a church's community will only be as solid as the strength of what the people are united around.
However, giving your people truth is not something we can take for granted. According to recent research of small group leaders from Transformational Groups, the majority is given no direction at all on what to study and is left to select for themselves. And when asked, 75 percent of those leaders expect — even want — their pastor to offer them direction. There are a lot of choices out there which means leaders will need guidance to ensure they follow a wise plan. Your groups are too important to allow a haphazard approach to study selection. Ensure your groups are built on a solid foundation. Feed your people well. And you can guide them confidently knowing that your leadership is both needed and welcome.