LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
Analysis Paper 4
Submitted to Dr. Gary Waller,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 630
Small Group Ministries
by
Halley Nguyen
December 17, 2017
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Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................4
How to Grow a Small Group........................................................................................................5
Challenges to Growth....................................................................................................................6
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Small group is important to discipleship process. According to Stetzer and Geiger’s
research, people who are involved in a spiritual community tend to have higher commitment to
practice spiritual disciples than those who are not. They mention, “A person actively involved in
a group or spiritual community is 2.5 times more likely to read the Bible versus someone who is
not in a group.” And it is not just about engaging with the Word but their research also shows
that those people pray, give, serve, and fellowship more than people who are not.1 As we already
have a small group. Jesus did not just ask us to make believers, he called us to make disciples,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.”2 The question is how can we make disciples.
Since I understand small group ministry, I would say small group really provides the
environment for successful discipleship and allows for deep growth and specific ministry
experience for the individual. Moreover, Christian small groups should always be seeking to
grow through evangelism and discipleship. The small group should create a culture of invitation
to show that the group is open and there are still people can come to the group. And when the
group becomes big enough, we can divide and multiply this model. Rod Dempsey illustrated that
the small group ministry should follow the open group which desires to grow numerically as well
as spiritually. “An open group is a group that is open to new people joining at time during the
year. An open group understand that one of the main goals of developing Christ followers is to be
fishing for people who don’t know Jesus to come into a community of believers where they can
1 Stetzer, Ed. “Successful Discipleship in Small Groups”. Accessed December 17, 2017.
https://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2014/successful-discipleship-in-small-groups.html?paging=off
2 Matt 28:19, ESV
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see and hear about Christ.”3 A growing group is a sign of a healthy group. If the overall goal of
the group program is discipleship and spiritual growth of the congregation then continual
expansion is something we should aim for. This paper is going to discuss how to grow a small
group and express the author’s opinions about suggestions and challenges of growing a small
group.
How to Grow a Small Group
The first thing that should be taken into consideration is what type of group are we
planning to have. Brad House explains that most small groups were created as a reaction to
certain needs. Therefore, we have to consider our purpose and vision for the group. However, the
ultimate purpose of small group should be to receive God’s grace and respond by imaging Christ
and exalting Him4. Brad House really makes me think about my future small group when He
says, “While affinity-based groups are often very attractive, I have found it to be presumptuous
to assume everyone has a people with whom they identify.”5 So we should pray about who God
desires to be in the group. As people are recruited it is important again to be upfront as to the
direction of the group and what is expected from the membership. When people know the
expectations, it is likely that eventually they will make good commitments. A group with a
definitive direction and purpose will likely see the most successful growth and duplication.
3 Rod Dempsey and Dave Earley, Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying Small Groups, (Lynchburg,
VA: Liberty Press, 2015), 32.
4 Brad House, Community: Taking your Small Group Off Life Support (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011),.,
61.
5 Ibid, 124.
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My first suggestion is having a clear vision. To grow a healthy small group, the leader
need to have a clear picture of what the group want to achieve and how to accomplish that6.
Some small groups may focus more on fellowship, praying, music worshipping while others
focus on serving the community. However, whatever the vision is, the goal must be making
disciples. On the one hand, we build relationship within the group. On the other hand, you have
to give them the reason to participate to the small group. Jeffrey Arnold writes, “In the absence
of clear direction and vision, many churches experience conflict and strife.” 7 Therefore, we
should make sure that the group members understand the vision of the group.
Another suggestion is “do not dare to start small, and intentionally invest in people.” In
the group, as leader, we care more about the people and cast the vision for them and encourage
them to invite people to join the vision. To me personally, the purpose for my group is to help
people know God intimately, and to reach to the full potential of the real disciples. When people
understand God’s will for them is making disciples, they will start to invite people, start to make
more disciples. Through an intentional purpose to grow spiritually a group will start to see that as
they grow closer to Christ and each other they will start to desire to spread the Gospel and
continue to make more disciples. I would love to intentionally invest in some people and let them
continue to pass the vision to others. It does not mean that I do not care about the growing
numbers of people. But if there are time that the group does not have many people, it does not
bother me because I still can teach do discipleship with just a few people.
Challenges to Growth
6 Dempsey, Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying Small Groups, 84.
7 Jeffrey Arnold, The Big Book on Small Group (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 45.
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“Is your group working hard to include new members as well as disciple the existing
people in the group?”8 In my opinion, the first challenge is that existing group members do not
create a welcoming atmosphere for new people. This happens when existing members in group
do not understand or forget the purpose of the group. This is normally seen in the youth when
they focus too much on fellowship within the group. As I observe in many different groups,
current members sometimes just stick together and do not reach out to new people.
Consequently, new people may feel left out and they do not come back. To solve this problem,
we must create a culture of welcoming new people to the group. We have to assign certain
members to a duty to reach out/ talk to new members.
The second challenge is lack commitment. If group leader and members have not
commitment to the purpose of the group, the group will likely not grow. So much of the success
depends on the quality of leadership that their role is of the utmost importance. People in general
like relationship, however, human nature is selfish so that they tend to like type of
fellowship/relationship that make them feel good. But the meaning of discipleship and small
group ministry are totally different. To be able to archive the purpose of making disciples, leader
and members have to sacrifice time and effort to invest in the group. It takes dedication to the
group and prioritization to develop the relationships necessary to help it to succeed. Comiskey
says, “Moving from a life of individualism toward one of community requires a powerful inner
transformation.”9 In Vietnam, working with the youth is hard because they do not have
commitment and are not very disciplined. It is difficult for the group to grow in numbers and in
faith. Sometimes they do not do their task in the group, for example, members forget to lead
8 Dempsey and Earley, 32.
9 Joel Comiskey, Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church (Moreno Valley, CA: CSS Publishing,
2012), 47.
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worship or Bible study. Sometimes they do not do the things that they have promised then the
group night just end up as wasting time of others because people just do not know what to do. To
a small small group (3-5 people), sometimes people just do not show up due to laziness or lack
of priority. We want a small group to grow, but what happen if even the existing members do not
come regularly and sacrifice for the group.
Bibliography
Arnold, Jeffrey. The Big Book on Small Groups. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2004.
Comiskey, Joel. Biblical Foundations for the Cell-Based Church. Moreno Valley, CA: CCS
Publishing, 2012.
Dempsey, Rod. Leading Healthy, Growing, Multiplying Small Groups. Lynchburg: Liberty
University Press, 2015. MBS Direct.
House, Brad. Community: Taking Your Small Group off Life Support. Wheaton. IL: Crossway,
2011.
Stetzer, Ed. “Successful Discipleship in Small Groups”. Accessed December 17, 2017.
https://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2014/successful-discipleship-in-small-groups.html?paging=of
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