This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of the Activate book with Nelson.  Nelson asked me to answer the following question about moving an existing small group system to the semester-based groups that we recommend:

The question I have for you deals with our groups that have done really well.  Five or six of our small groups have been going strong for a full five years.  They have invited people in and are still active.  They have never gotten stagnant.  How do you best get these groups to buy into breaking apart each semester?  Most of these groups have met every week for 5 years.  There are strong relationships there and I am afraid they will be hesitant to break apart and join a new group.  Do you have any suggestions?

First of all – when it comes to groups ending – we never use terms like “break apart” or “split up” or even “multiply.”  Groups just come to an end naturally because we are on a semester-based system.

If I were trying to convince already existing groups to join this model I would take several approaches:

1- I would invite the decision makers in each group to lunch/coffee/meeting.  I would cast vision to them for the new direction and let them know why we are doing this.  To get more people plugged in, to develop more leaders, to increase the spiritual growth in the church, more friendships developed, more variety in the small group system, etc.  If you get them on your side – things will go well.

2- If you sense some hesitancy you can visit some of the groups yourself to cast the vision.

3- I would ask the leaders of the existing groups who in their group do they think would be a good group leader.  They may or may not give names.  Either way – identify people within those groups and go to them and ask them to lead one of the new semester-based groups.  Ask them to just try it for a semester.  It’s best to get two people who are in one of those groups to lead together.  Once people in the existing groups begin to leave to lead new groups the group might have less hesitancy.  Make sense?

4- If the groups are not trouble makers and there is a lot of resistance and some of them insist on continuing to meet together – continue the plan of pulling leaders out from those groups – but you might also allow them to keep meeting.  Just be sure not to promote their group and make sure no one new signs up.  It’s the philosophy of not fighting an unnecessary battle.  Just move forward with the new system and make sure no one knows about the old group that’s still meeting.  Usually the group will break-down after a while and get excited about checking out the new groups with the more diverse options.

Those are just my initial thoughts.  I hope they are helpful!

Blessings…

Kerrick

PS – For more information about how 100% participation is possible in your church’s Small Groups system, get a copy of The Activate Seminar.