In my last post, Beyond Small Groups, I argued that many of our small groups are stuck. Everywhere I go ministers agree. We have good numbers in small groups but they are often not dynamic in growing the Christian or the gospel.

I outlined the experiment into changing the psychology of small groups - and seeing them as disciple-making teams.

Let me explain more.

Why turn our small groups into disciple-making teams?

1) The purpose of any small group of Christians is to grow in the knowledge of God that we might live a life worthy of the Lord and bear fruit in every good work (Col 1:9-11). To make progress toward maturity in Christ (Col 1:28)

2) The gospel should impel any group meeting in the name of Christ, to get the news out. Groups that become inward looking ghettos are not mature Christian groups. How can we be filled with the knowledge of God and be brought into the Kingdom of the Son through the Word of truth, the gospel (Col 1:3-14), and not break our necks telling others? No wonder Paul tells this small group meeting in Christ’s name in Colossae, not only to pray for the apostolic mission, but to take every opportunity with outsiders in their community, to act wisely and speak with grace and truth, knowing how to answer everyone (Col 4:2-6).

3) Not only is being mission-minded one fruit of maturity but being on mission together promotes maturity. We know this intuitively and by experience. For example, when we have been on a short term mission team of any kind (like a beach mission) there is an immediate motivation to deal with sin in our life, to pray earnestly rather than perfunctorily, to know the Scriptures and wrestle with the big ideas of the gospel, to think through how to answer everyone. And to grow in love and patience with outsiders and, more often, with our team members. Being on mission together deepens our discipleship, as we obey Christ and give ourselves to others.

4) Mission teams are ideal training grounds.

Many of our members are quite jaded by all the training programs we add in to church life. Often the same faithful few turn up to the next course we run.

Lesley Ramsay spent many years training men and women to teach Scripture in our schools. She told me once that she never had any worries about new Scripture teachers turning up for training sessions. Once you know you are going into battle with a class of Year 9 girls for 40 minutes to teach them the Bible, you will turn up for training at 3 am if necessary!

If our small group is a mission team, working out how to win and grow new disciples, there will be a hunger to know the Bible well, to know how to explain the logic of the gospel, to think through what stops people believing Christ.

5) Making disciples is hard work alone.

Our churches often churn out mantras like ‘each one win one’. Some members get excited, but most groan. It just makes us feel guilty or very tired or both. The beauty of disciple-making teams is that we are not alone. My wife and I are trying to reach neighbours and friends with the gospel. It’s very hard to keep working on this on our own, but if we are on a mission team the fellowship of the team keeps us going even when the response is slow. We pray, give each other ideas and get motivated by others faithfulness.

And on any team we have disciples with a diversity of gifts. Some are the inviters, others offer hospitality, some make friends easily, some love organizing, others are the talkers or persuaders. The teamwork is brilliant and motivating.

6) Learning to plant teams like this is essential to evangelistic church planting

Sometimes we are quite naïve about church planting. Let me speak more plainly. When I helped to plant a church some years ago I naively thought that by moving 30 members of our sending church into a school auditorium on Sunday in a different suburb, that we were doing church planting. What we were doing was relocating a team to start the hard work of evangelism to win and grow new disciples. Just doing the relocation was not enough. We had to be a disciple-making team.

I am convinced we will see more healthy church plants sprouting out of our established churches if we learn to build disciple-making teams.

Why we won’t turn our small groups into disciple-making teams

I can hear your reservations about disciple-making teams, because I feel some of them to.

1) Small groups are about pastoral care not disciple-making

We have needy members in our small groups who barely survive through the week in the midst of all kinds of suffering and anguish. Do we really expect them to be on a mission team? It depends what we mean by pastoral care. If we mean showing understanding, compassion and practical kindness, that’s exactly what we will do as disciples of the crucified and risen Lord (Col 3:12-15). If we mean urging those in need to trust in the Lordship of Christ and give thanks to him in the midst of crises, that’s disciple-making (Col 3:16-17).

Sometimes the best thing we can do for someone in need is to give them responsibility. One single mother I know is a great welcomer of new people, even though her life is very stressful and uncertain. She fits perfectly in a disciple-making team.

2) Small groups are about building community not disciple-making

‘Community’ continues to be a buzz word in churches. If we mean a fellowship of people of different races, cultures, educational backgrounds, and social status who are not angry or deceitful, who do not slander but treat each other with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and who forgive each other and live in peace – then that’s the community created by the gospel of the risen Lord Jesus as his disciples set their minds on things above (Col 3:1-15). This kind of community is the fruit of disciple-making.

And such a community will be attractive to some who will also become disciples, and obnoxious to others.

3) Our members are too pressured to join disciple-making teams

They just don’t have the mental and emotional space in complex lives to serve in making disciples. They need a safe group where they can share their life and apply the Word and support one another. It’s too much to expect them to help in growing disciples.

We all feel sympathy with this reaction. And we must not make being on a team the new legalism and we must understand each member’s situation. Answering these questions will help. Are we calling for a life of discipleship beyond what the Lord calls us to? Could we cut back on other church programs if we had effective disciple-making teams? Or could we connect teams with existing programs to provide more people power to make them effective? For example, a team could connect with parents at the after school kids club.

4) Our leaders are group facilitators not team leaders

My conclusion is that we have lowered the bar too far for group leaders. We need to equip our leaders to be disciples and make disciples, not to run a group. There is a big difference but we will need to tease this out another time. Basically we are asking leaders to be Christians, leading by example in loving and obeying the Word, giving themselves to others sacrificially and praying with fervour. We’re not asking them to be clever evangelists or strategists. They will lead teams for strugglers. But we will need to inspire them with this disciple-making vision and impart some skills and provide resources. This equipping of team leaders becomes a priority in church life.

How to start?

Changing our small group ethos is challenging. There are lots of faithful, skilful leaders seeing good fruit from their ministries. Don’t throw a wet blanket over everyone. Don’t expect all your small groups to suddenly become disciple-making teams. It is a significant mind shift to take on board and will require some re-envisioning and re-training.

Identifying discontentment is a precursor to change. If people don’t see the need to change something, they won’t be on board. With a few leaders start thinking theologically about small groups. How should our convictions about the gospel, the Christian life and the nature of the church shape our small groups? Drive the whole evaluation process from the Scriptures not from sociology or systems thinking or church growth principles. The aim is to build passionate, Christ-like servants who live sacrificially for Christ and people. Who knows what God will do in our particular patch?

Experiment with one or two teams and learn what works in your context. Gradually train some new leaders to work with disciple-making teams.

At the same time, work with your current small group leaders to shape this vision of groups being teams. As they see the team idea being demonstrated around them, some will get excited and want to learn how to lead a team. But some will find it hard to change the way they lead groups. A healthy mix of groups and teams could work well.

You will also need to talk about the team idea with the whole church so that they see from the Word why this change is important.

Change comes about through top down and bottom up processes. Teach a biblical vision of disciple-making teams to all and demonstrate in real life what these teams are all about.

Col Marshall is the director of Vinegrowers, running workshops now around Australia and overseas

Feature photo: simonyates