LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Pioneers of Small Groups Assignment
Submitted to Dr. Dempsey
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 630-001
Small Group Ministries
by
Kaitlyn Burrell
January 19, 2021
1
“The Pioneers of the Small Group Movement” is an article written by Michael Mack. In
this article, Mack identifies how the small-group movement emerged, the lessons we can learn
from it, and the stages of movements of small groups. Mack argues that much of the church
today has strayed away from the original design for small groups, and pushes for a return to
outward focused groups. He quotes Ralp Neighbor saying, “Small groups are Christ’s basic
bodies, made up of people who see themselves as ministers empowered by the Holy Spirit, and
they exist to reap the harvest.”1
Mack first discusses the emergence of the small-group movement. This term was first
used in the 1920’s and 1930’s and was primarily an underground movement. These small groups
were revolutionary to the church. They attempted to pull the church back to the what the New
Testament church modeled. Mack writes, “Two major themes in these early days of small groups
emerged: (1) commitment (to Christ and one another) and (2) the giving away of one's life,
which involved a strong sense of calling and personal surrender”.2 The group that launched this
movement was frustrated with organized religion and its shortcomings. They strove to return to
an outward orientation with missional priorities. These groups had three priorities: to nurture its
own member, to serve, and to evangelize. Identifying the biggest downfall of small groups, they
write, “The biggest danger of the small-group movement is that as individual members begin to
get 'changed,' they sometimes tend to form pious cliques that meet only to mirror their own
goodness, and under the guise of study withdraw from the world rather than seek to be used by
God to become his lights in the darkened situations of our communities."3
1 Mack, Michael. “The Pioneers of the Small Group Movement.” 2.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 3.
2
Mack then discusses the different stages of social movements. The first is emergence. In
this stage, there are pioneers who have a radical and contagious passion for an idea. The next
stage is coalescence or synthesis. In this stage, leaders funnel all the passion from the pioneers
into purpose driven plans. The next stage, bureaucratism, is when the movement fits into
conventional lifestyles and rituals by the establishment of procedures and rules. Mack writes that
a lot of influential leaders agree that the small group movement has plateaued at this stage. He
says that the movement has become more about forms, structures, and numbers rather than
simply reaching the broken people in the world.4
While reading this article, I found many things that I agreed with. I can see the
shortcomings of the church today when it comes to small groups. I think of the impact that small
groups done well could have and I get so excited for their potential. I truly think the church could
flourish under the adoption of small groups. I truly think it is a very effective way of reaching the
lost. Thinking about it though, I realized that a lot of the people in the church are stuck in the
rituals of church and have a set mindset of what they think church should look like. Growing up
as a pastor’s kid, I have seen firsthand the church really struggle with adapting to change. I
wonder how well this reinvention of church itself would be taken. However, I do think it’s a
necessary and important risk to take. I agree that we are stuck in a level three stage of a social
movement when it comes to small groups. A lot of the churches that do small groups, really don’t
do them as well as they could. They are more about structure and numbers than being a light to
the lost. There was nothing that I read that I disagreed with. I would have like to read what an
ideas level four for the church would look like.
4 Ibid., 5.
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