Why Leadership Matters for Small Groups

What you think about church leadership affects how you conduct small groups.

At LifeWay Research, we are passionate about the state of the church. It is the focus of the vast majority of our work. One of the conclusions of an overwhelming amount of statistical evidence is that healthy churches are utilizing small groups.

Whether they call them cell groups, small groups, Sunday School classes, missional communities, or one of a number of other monikers, healthy churches are moving people move from sitting in rows to sitting in circles, in order that they might engage in community for ministry and mission.

If we take a good look at the state of our churches, however, we also see that there is a dearth of disciple-making. People are neither being discipled nor trained to make disciples, and much of that problem springs from a lack of small group community participation.

We surveyed North American churchgoers, and found: less than half sacrifice their own desires to provide for those in need; over one-third never exercise their spiritual gifts to serve God and others; and only 19 percent read their Bible every day. Keep reading