How important are you showing that your small groups are?

One of the secrets for effective discipleship, not to mention church member engagement and retention, is a group of believers who meet regularly to study the bible, pray, share life with and hold each other accountable. While these things happen on a Sunday, the best place for them to occur are within a smaller setting.

Ministers know this.
Churches know this.
Larger churches depend on this.

Yet, you’d never know it from the way many churches behave.

They don’t push the importance of small groups.
They don’t explain the significance to new believers.
They don’t show their importance by publishing when and where they are.
They don’t provide space in their services to advertise them.
They don’t share what is happening within their small groups.
They rarely have someone dedicated to oversee them.

So, the message sent is, they are a luxurious extra which don’t really matter.

If we measure the importance of something by the way they are publicised or the amount of time they are given up the front on a Sunday, then it could be argued that many churches value their rosters or the protocol required to send in a notice more than their small groups.