This is Kerrick Thomas – Executive Pastor at The Journey and co-author of the Activate book with Nelson. Nelson and I recently led the Activate small groups webinar and he asked me to share my reply to this follow-up emails:

Thanks so much for offering this webinar on the Activate small groups system.

We like this system and have serious intentions to work it in but would like some reassurance on a couple questions like this:

Does the semester-based small group system enable people to simply hop around from group to group between semesters without ever going deeper or committing to life-transformation?

Thanks so much for offering any additional insight on this that you can.

I’m glad that you found the webinar useful and am excited that you guys may be moving to the semester-based option for small groups. And thanks for the question.

A couple of quick thoughts. At the end of every semester the groups end. So, everyone signs up for a new group each semester that will study a new topic with a new group of people. However, there are a couple of traditional assumptions about spiritual growth and small groups that we believe are a little off base when it comes to thinking that this model won’t lead to real life-transformation and real life-changing relationships.

1 – It’s easier to remain stagnant in your spiritual growth when you attend the same group with the same people month after month and year after year. What you are doing is staying in a comfort zone. And whether you are speaking physically or spiritually – you don’t grow stronger unless you get out of your comfort zone and add stress to the environment.

For instance – a body builder doesn’t do the same exercises on the same body parts every day. No, to experience muscle growth the body builder must work out all the different muscle groups and then do different exercises on each muscle group. Then the body builder must also take time off to rest his entire body. All of those are physical growth principles.

The same principles apply to spiritual growth. You can just meet with the same people over and over again month after month and expect to grow. You need to (a) bring new people in the equation on a regular basis; (b) introduce new and relevant study topics; (c) and have time off when you aren’t meeting for rest (stress and release – the same principle as letting the farming groud lie fallow every few years or taking the Sabbath every week). The semester-based small group system allows for all of this.

By putting people in on-going groups of the same people – we actually keep them from deepening and growing their faith.

2 – Although you are changing groups from semester to semester – in each group you are making important and valuable relationships that will carry with you outside the group. In your small group perhaps you really click with 4-5 of the 12 people who attend. After the group the 5 of you may decide to be in a group the next semester together. Perhaps 2 of you will even decide to lead together.

That’s an example of close personal relationships developing within the safe social environment of the group and then continuing outside of the group where real life is done and even perhaps to another group.

Whereas if you force the group to stay together in the hopes of everyone developing deeper relationships, it’s not going to happen. Not all of the 12 people are going to click. And after a while the group will dwindle down to those who do click. You’d probably end up with no more than 5-6 in the group after a year. That’s what typically happens in the most successful of on-going groups anyway.

The semester-based model allows for those valuable relationships to form and then move outside of that initial group. And if I’m in that group and had a good time but didn’t really connect with anyone. That’s okay. When the group ends I can sign up for a new group, get plugged in and take another shot at it.

I hope that makes sense and helps answer your question. Let me know if there is anything else at all that I can do for you!

God bless…

Kerrick

PS – For even more information about how to implement semester-based small groups at your church, check out the Small Groups Intensive.

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About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.