8. Chat groups
Simple and reproducible. Chat groups meet weekly for 1-hr in local coffee houses or workplace meeting rooms where participants read and discuss a book of the Bible or work through a shorter-term study delivered through platforms like YouVersion’s Bible App or RightNow Media. These are casual and culturally-fitting gatherings can empower small group leaders to attract people who want to start off with a lower-level of commitment and/or can’t take on an additional evening commitment for whatever reason. This approach is very portable and flexible and can help to engage people in the marketplace. Consequently, chat groups can call out new small group leaders you would have otherwise never known were there.
9. GroupLink
This is a 1-2 hour “connection event” that allows participants to spontaneously start a new group together. Leadership can organize the room based on geography, marital status, or stage of life to increase the likelihood of people finding others with whom they can relate. Your job is to create the right environment, offer conversation-starting questions, and encourage lift-off with the participants engaging with each other. Small group hosts are appointed during the event itself and a short-term (4-6-wk) study is recommended/distributed that new small groups use for their first ‘season’ of life together.
10. Online Groups
People are attracted to groups online for many different reasons. It could be they live at a distance from your church, they’re in the military or travel a lot for work, or maybe they have health conditions/concerns that prevent them from attending gatherings in person, especially in this day and age. Zoom, for example, can empower small group leaders to host or participate in a group anytime, anywhere and share digital content with one another. Online groups enable more people to be involved in your church’s community life and allow more people to serve as small group leaders who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do so through local physical gatherings alone.
