When to Start Small Groups in Church Planting

This is Kerrick Thomas (Executive & Teaching Pastor at The Journey and co-author of Launch and Activate.

Nelson asked me to address a key question that we are often asked by church planters: When should we begin small groups?

Our standard answer to that question is to wait until you have over 100 people attending before beginning small groups, but I thought I’d go a little further today to elaborate on the “why” behind the “when.”

So, why wait to start small groups?

Reason #1 - When you are first starting a church, you should  not expend the energy required to get small groups started in the first 6 months regardless of how big you grow.

There is just too much to do for a church planter that early in the process.  We recommend get your other systems under control at the beginning of the new church before moving on to small groups.

Systems like the Worship Planning System, the Assimilation System and the Evangelism System are foundational to a healthy start of a church, and they deserve your focus and energy before Small Groups.

Reason #2 - When you have fewer than 100 people your church basically is a  small group.  Everyone knows everyone anyway – so the importance of  small groups is minimized.

It’s okay to start small groups if you are still under 100 if you’ve been going for over a year.  Ideally you would have grown past 100, but even if you are running 50-80 people you can begin small groups and see positive spiritual fruit.

The whole idea behind holding off boils down to this:  It’s best to wait to begin small groups until you can implement and facilitate them effectively, right from the start.

I hope that helps!

Blessings…

Kerrick

P.S. Adam Bishop and I are about to begin a brand new Small Groups Pastor Tele-Coaching Network in just a few weeks.  For more information and to download an application, CLICK HERE.