I remember when I was a final year student at Bristol University, I was part of a great church, and had a great student small group. There weren’t loads of students in our church but we had a really nice number. We’d started off in my first year with just a handful and grown organically to a group of around ten. We all knew each other well and were good friends, we loved spending time together and hanging out. We played games, we worshipped, we read the Bible and ate together. We even did outreach - we did DIY SOS projects together and went on the streets chatting to people about what we felt God saying to them. It was ideal!
Then came along Izzie*… Izzie ruined our small group.
The thing is, this fresher called Izzie just kept inviting all her friends along, and they all started coming. Before long our group started to get up to around twelve, then fifteen people. We couldn’t fit in someone’s living room anymore. You couldn’t raise your arms in worship without accidentally smacking the person next to you. More than this, some of Izzie’s friends weren’t even ‘Christians’, some were just kind of investigating faith and Christianity. We had to start rethinking the way we did stuff, how to do discipleship for this new group who hadn’t just grown up in church. It was really awkward… but it was also wonderful. Izzie had ruined our small group in the best possible way.
Eventually there was no other option, we didn’t have the space, so we had to multiply. It wasn’t easy, it felt really hard. It meant that the small group we’d known for the last two years would be really different - that some people I used to enjoy seeing every week, I now wouldn’t see as much. People felt a little unsettled by it. But it was so worth it.
We started meeting in two homes at the same time, with roughly half the people in each, and it meant we had room to grow. The new people had more space to ask questions - less overwhelmed by the sheer number of people, and we had time to listen to them. It meant that Izzie and others had the opportunity to step into leadership and begin helping to lead these groups - something they wouldn’t have been able to do had we not multiplied. Over time, people really grew in their faith, people became followers of Jesus, and we still had such a great time, and got to see everyone in both groups on Sundays and at other times. We wouldn’t have been able to do it though, if we didn’t have a multiplication mindset. We needed to have the mindset that multiplication - though painful - was worth it. We needed to create space for new people, and space for them to grow.
Do you have a multiplication mindset? Is it time to multiply in your context - to mix things up and stretch yourselves to create room for new people to find a place, and for others to develop their gifting and grow in leadership? All over the country, we’re seeing new students walk into church for the first time and finding Jesus - we need to make space for them. We’ll need new groups and new leaders to lead them - we’ll need to multiply! As our groups grow, we need to facilitate multiplication or we’ll stifle our student ministries. We need to be ready! Are you ready?
If you’d like more input on running small groups with a big mission, the Fusion Coaching Team can come and deliver training with your students.
We’ve also produced a book: ‘Small Groups, Big Mission’ with loads more helpful insight to equip you to run amazing small groups in your context.
*name changed to protect identity
