Multiplying Groups Online
This is part of a blog series about our free online training sessions that we’re running everyday. Our content is usually just for students and student workers, but in this time we realise our training is helpful for the whole church. So if you’re a christian why not sign up to a session here.
A few months ago when you could meet in a house for small group, you didn’t notice your group was more of a medium group. It wasn’t a huge problem because people could still have one on one conversations and feel included and valued. Now you’ve gone online and you’ve realised, uh oh, it’s too big. You can’t get everyone to contribute, the discussion is clunky and the prayer time is a mess.
You might be facing this now and you may feel the urgency to multiply. This is an excellent problem to have. Multiplication should be the goal for all our groups, we really want our groups to grow because people are saved, so we need to make sure our groups have a vision for multiplication. In this new season let’s set the expectation that our group won’t always look the way it does and that’s exciting. I’ll outline a few things to think through below but for more training on how to multiply your group in this time sign up to training here.
- A good small group size is 6-11 people. Any more than this and you start to feel the limitations of the online space. It’s hard for people to be vulnerable and share deeply in a big group.
- Take risks on new leaders. It will always feel like there is a shortage of leaders, but releasing leading is the only solution to that problem. Inviting people into taking steps to lead will help them in their walk with Jesus and will reenergise your group. Jesus took risks on all sorts of people.
- Recognise that multiplication is painful. It will be hard for some of your group members, they might not want to multiply because it’ll mean spending time with a different group of people. Always remind people of the why behind multiplication, it leaves space for non christians to join and hear about Jesus.
- Commission new groups. When your group multiples, make a big deal about it! Pray for the new group and give encouragements to the new leaders who have stepped up. You could even host an online multiplication party to officially launch the new small group. This helps create ownership and a sense of purpose
Have a read of the rest of the blog series:
Online Small Groups Vision and Values
Unmissable Online Small Groups
