Multiplicity

A good title for a strange movie and not such a bad idea for evaluating small groups! I recently read an article by small group guru Mark Howell that talked about the efficiency or lack thereof in using the group assistant model in expanding and growing groups. He identified the fact that even though we have good intentions and actually identify the assistant or apprentice, do they actually ever leave the nest? In his experience, Mark mentions that most assistants will gladly lead the group when the leader is on vacation, but they rarely take the leap and go on to lead their own group.

This had me asking the tough questions; first, are we identifying assistants, and second if we have, do they really plan to start their own groups when they feel comfortable in their abilities? I know we have had one group follow the model with the best of intentions, but end up not finding a host and now we face being creative in finding a meeting location, which may actually be a good thing. I know I for one would enjoy having small group in a coffee house! Still yet, another group has successfully multiplied and both of those groups have remained healthy, which allowed more people of the church to get connected.

Obviously, the ultimate goal is to get a larger percentage of the unconnected people in our congregation plugged into groups, and our current assistant model should be producing leaders to start new groups. With that, we have a few questions to answer… Can we afford to develop leaders through the assistant model fast enough to keep up with future growth demand and if so are you taking active steps with your assistant? Let’s take some time here and measure our results by leaving comments on this topic for the next few days.