4. Showing a lack of hospitality.
Groups ought to be growing or else they will become stagnant and die. You can’t grow if you have really poor hospitality.
5. Having a culture with a lack of gospel love.
If Life Groups are really going to be life giving then there had better be an atmosphere of genuine repentance, confession, and love. How else will sinners come to find life?
6. Not outward focused.
If we are not careful our Life Groups can become cliques. One way to prevent this is to be intentionally outward focused. We always challenge our groups to think of unbelievers they could invite to join us.
7. Only meeting when obligated.
This is more of a symptom, but it is important. When Life Groups really love one another they’ll want to get together more than just when the group meets. It’s wise to schedule opportunities for this to happen.
8. Not reproducing leaders.
Leaders should always look for other leaders within their group. We are constantly challenging our Life Groups to grow and multiply into other Life Groups. This can only happen when leaders are being trained.
9. Setting the expectations far too low.
When we refuse to challenge our Life Groups we sign our names to their death sentence. We should search the Scriptures and paint a picture of community for our Life Groups that is as big and earth-shattering as what God paints. That’s where we aim as we celebrate baby-steps along that journey. Aiming at only what we think our people want is ripping off God’s people. If He intends to place them in a robust community how dare we attempt to create something different?
*In preparing for this I found myself repeatedly helped by Brad House’s excellent book Community. It’s possible that some of his wording or lists have slipped into this article. So, if you found something helpful credit him. If it’s dumb, it probably came from me.
This article on the reasons life groups go south originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
