Home Small Group Leaders Articles for Small Group Leaders A 3-Step Plan for Mobilizing Your Small Group Outreach

A 3-Step Plan for Mobilizing Your Small Group Outreach

  1. Make new friends at church and invite them to your small group. Strike up conversations with people you haven’t met yet at weekend services and events. Find out about them and look for natural connections (community, kids, school, etc.). Let them know you’d love for them to check out your small group!
  2. Take the lead with inviting and share about attempts you’ve made. You’re not being prideful. This actually encourages people in your group to take steps toward inviting their friends. They don’t have to fear being rejected (Mt 10:40; Jn 12:47-50). Tell your group members that all they’re doing is sharing an opportunity for a friend to join them in doing something if their schedule allows, which helps the person being invited to not feel awkward if they can’t participate for any reason.
  3. Affirm people in their efforts. Whether or not a guest decides to come and stay with your small group, encourage the person who did the inviting to help their friend connect into your church’s community life in a different way. Follow-up helps bring closure so the person who did the inviting isn’t left ‘hanging’ and it shows the person invited they are sincerely cared for.
  4. Learn about the neighborhood / community where you meet. Research the immediate area of your host’s home and get a general ideas as to who lives there based on demographics (age, gender, ethnicity), interests (shared affinities that big clusters of people hold), and lifestyle (such as married or single, community-oriented or separate camps, active or quiet, etc.) Reserve a meeting to talk about your discoveries and insights. Talk about ways your group members can build relationships with neighbors and allow your surrounding community to literally see your small group in action through “servant evangelism.”
  5. Adopt a people group or sponsor a child. At some point, your group might become interested in adopting a child through Compassion or an entire unreached people group (www.peoplegroups.org or www.joshuaproject.net). Your group can pray for them, offer financial support, or partner with indigenous Christians and actually go to them (www.thepeaceplan.org). Concentrate on praying for this people group or child. Write to them and build a relationship.

Your small group is a powerful catalyst for personal evangelism. You’ll see your group members share their faith in ways they would not have otherwise done without the encouraging voices of those who are part of your ever-growing community of friends. So don’t wait, pray beyond your small group, and share your heart! As a result, the faith of your group members will be built up so they can step outside their comfort zones and share their faith in ways that will allow more people to hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus Christ (Rom 10:14-15).

This article about small group outreach originally appeared on smallgroupnetwork.com, and is used by permission.

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ReidSmith@churchleaders.com'
Reid serves as the Director of Communities of Purpose for the Small Group Network and has been a Pastor of Groups at Christ Fellowship Church in Palm Beach County, FL since 2008. He has been equipping leaders in churches of all sizes and stages of growth for effective disciple-making since 1996. Reid has been a contributing author for Christianity Today’s smallgroups.com, LifeWay’s Ministry Grid, and he developed small group training for the North American Mission Board’s Send Network. One of the ways he expresses his love for helping leaders start and multiply healthy groups throughout their churches is through www.reidsmith.org.