The below excerpt is from my book Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups. This revised and expanded edition shows church leaders how to make their small groups work.

Each semester, encourage your group to play together at least once. They can plan any type of fun activity they’d like–from attending a sporting event to going out to dinner to taking in a movie to going bowling. Let each group decide what they want to do. Leaders should schedule this event about halfway through the semester or at the end of the semester to celebrate the completion of the group.

Encourage leaders to build this play night–which will ideally replace the meeting the week it is scheduled–into the syllabus from the very beginning. Keeping the fun event consistent with your group’s meeting time will allow more people to take part. However, if everyone in the group agrees, there is certainly nothing wrong with doing your fun event at another time. Here are a few keys for success:

• Appoint a leader for the fun event, preferably someone besides the group leader.
• Plan an event that everyone can participate in without prior experience. For example, dinner and a movie will attract more participation than rock climbing (unless everyone in the group is a rock climber).
• Keep the participation commitment as low as possible. Again, some kind of night out will attract greater participation than an overnight retreat.
• Keep the cost low.
• Make sure there will be plenty of time and opportunity to talk and build relationships. After all, that’s the point!

– Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas, with Jennifer Dykes Henson

The above excerpt is from p. 292-293 of Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups.

Drawing from the startling success of small groups at The Journey Church, Nelson Searcy and Kerrick Thomas debunk the myths, set the record straight, and show how church leaders can implement a healthy small group ministry that gets the maximum number of people involved and solves many of the important problems facing churches of all sizes. These practical strategies will produce life-changing results.

P.S. – Click here to grab your copy from Amazon today!

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.

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.