Discipleship Framework

Description: Small groups often find success when they are organized by life stage: youth, college, young adult, newly married, married with kids, empty-nesters, etc. Groups can capitalize on common experiences and shared affinities, which make forming friendships easy. However, much more is required of church staff and ministry leaders, who have to develop leaders and form enough groups for each stage of life represented in their congregation.

‍Pros:

• Life-stage groups encourage deep friendships to form quickly.
• This is a common model for groups many Christians grow up with in children’s ministry, in youth group, and as young adults. As a result, churches may find it to be an easy model for congregations to implement.  
• This model allows churches to equip groups with curricula relevant to their stage of life.  

Cons:

• Life-stage groups tend to divide churches making it difficult to build relationships with people outside of their stage of life.
• This model requires a church to create more groups and develop more leaders to meet the needs of each demographic within their church.
• A change of life stage, like a young adult getting married, can force a member to leave their group.

Is this for my church?
‍
‍Life-stage groups have become traditional in many churches. Many adults who grew up in church have been in life-stage groups since preschool. They are effective, allowing groups to address issues common to their current circumstances. If you want to introduce a familiar format that makes relationships easy, try life-stage groups.

Description: This model focuses on the unique experiences and callings of men and women, providing space for them to build friendships and interact with God’s Word. This is often the model of church Bible studies and accountability groups.

Pros:

• Gendered groups give space for men and women to focus on issues they may not be comfortable talking about in mixed company.
• This model provides space for men and women to connect over specific affinities and hobbies that may not be shared by people of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups make space for young men and women to build relationships and learn from their elders, which can create a natural mentoring ministry within your church.

Cons:

• Gendered groups can ignore the goodness of the other gender, making members feel divided from half of your congregation.
• This model has limited applications because it separates married couples and keeps single adults apart from members of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups can fall into unhelpful stereotypes that are dictated by culture rather than God’s created purpose for genders.

Is this for my church?

While this model is less common for church-wide small groups, it is a favored format for Bible studies or Sunday school classes. You should consider this dynamic for some of your small groups if you want to foster mentoring relationships or simply give space for each gender to flourish.

Next, let’s discuss group size. You want groups to be small enough for everyone to be fully known, but large enough to meet the demand for small groups in your church. Your model may determine your groups’ size—open groups tend to be larger than closed groups. Alternatively, you may want to limit the size of groups to foster deep friendships. We have found that five to ten singles or four to six married couples are great sizes for fostering relationships.

If you are starting small groups for the first time, your group size may be determined by your number of leaders. For example, if you have sixty people who want to join small groups and only four leaders, you will need to have fifteen people in each group, regardless of your ideal group size.  

Our advice is not to wait until your ideal group size can be met to start small groups. Instead, start your small groups and work to develop more leaders so that you can multiply your groups to a more ideal size. This will not only set a standard for developing leaders but also model healthy group multiplication for your church.

Reflect: Let’s determine how large your groups will be when you launch your ministry. Leaders are your limiting factor when it comes to forming groups—you can only have as many groups as you have supported leaders. Use these questions to determine your group sizes:

How many people will be in groups when your ministry begins? How many group leaders do you have or hope to have when you launch groups?

Divide your number of group members by the number of leaders: the result is the size of each group. What is your ideal group size? If your groups are larger than your ideal group size, how can you develop more leaders to help reduce the size of your groups?

If your groups are smaller than your ideal group size, here are some options:

• Ask some leaders to wait to lead until the groups grow and multiply.
• Ask leaders to partner up to make the groups bigger.
• Invite your leaders to recruit more group members—both inside and outside the church.

Which of these strategies, or others, would work best in your context?

Description: Small groups often find success when they are organized by life stage: youth, college, young adult, newly married, married with kids, empty-nesters, etc. Groups can capitalize on common experiences and shared affinities, which make forming friendships easy. However, much more is required of church staff and ministry leaders, who have to develop leaders and form enough groups for each stage of life represented in their congregation.

‍Pros:

• Life-stage groups encourage deep friendships to form quickly.
• This is a common model for groups many Christians grow up with in children’s ministry, in youth group, and as young adults. As a result, churches may find it to be an easy model for congregations to implement.  
• This model allows churches to equip groups with curricula relevant to their stage of life.  

Cons:

• Life-stage groups tend to divide churches making it difficult to build relationships with people outside of their stage of life.
• This model requires a church to create more groups and develop more leaders to meet the needs of each demographic within their church.
• A change of life stage, like a young adult getting married, can force a member to leave their group.

Is this for my church?
‍
‍Life-stage groups have become traditional in many churches. Many adults who grew up in church have been in life-stage groups since preschool. They are effective, allowing groups to address issues common to their current circumstances. If you want to introduce a familiar format that makes relationships easy, try life-stage groups.

Description: This model focuses on the unique experiences and callings of men and women, providing space for them to build friendships and interact with God’s Word. This is often the model of church Bible studies and accountability groups.

Pros:

• Gendered groups give space for men and women to focus on issues they may not be comfortable talking about in mixed company.
• This model provides space for men and women to connect over specific affinities and hobbies that may not be shared by people of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups make space for young men and women to build relationships and learn from their elders, which can create a natural mentoring ministry within your church.

Cons:

• Gendered groups can ignore the goodness of the other gender, making members feel divided from half of your congregation.
• This model has limited applications because it separates married couples and keeps single adults apart from members of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups can fall into unhelpful stereotypes that are dictated by culture rather than God’s created purpose for genders.

Is this for my church?

While this model is less common for church-wide small groups, it is a favored format for Bible studies or Sunday school classes. You should consider this dynamic for some of your small groups if you want to foster mentoring relationships or simply give space for each gender to flourish.

Next, let’s discuss group size. You want groups to be small enough for everyone to be fully known, but large enough to meet the demand for small groups in your church. Your model may determine your groups’ size—open groups tend to be larger than closed groups. Alternatively, you may want to limit the size of groups to foster deep friendships. We have found that five to ten singles or four to six married couples are great sizes for fostering relationships.

If you are starting small groups for the first time, your group size may be determined by your number of leaders. For example, if you have sixty people who want to join small groups and only four leaders, you will need to have fifteen people in each group, regardless of your ideal group size.  

Our advice is not to wait until your ideal group size can be met to start small groups. Instead, start your small groups and work to develop more leaders so that you can multiply your groups to a more ideal size. This will not only set a standard for developing leaders but also model healthy group multiplication for your church.

Reflect: Let’s determine how large your groups will be when you launch your ministry. Leaders are your limiting factor when it comes to forming groups—you can only have as many groups as you have supported leaders. Use these questions to determine your group sizes:

How many people will be in groups when your ministry begins? How many group leaders do you have or hope to have when you launch groups?

Divide your number of group members by the number of leaders: the result is the size of each group. What is your ideal group size? If your groups are larger than your ideal group size, how can you develop more leaders to help reduce the size of your groups?

If your groups are smaller than your ideal group size, here are some options:

• Ask some leaders to wait to lead until the groups grow and multiply.
• Ask leaders to partner up to make the groups bigger.
• Invite your leaders to recruit more group members—both inside and outside the church.

Which of these strategies, or others, would work best in your context?

Location is an important factor for groups. Sometimes location can determine if a person is able to participate in groups at your church. Consider the following options for group location:

Description: All groups go through the same curriculum concurrently. Regardless of the model of your small group ministry, every church member is on the same page, working toward the same goals.‍

Pros:

• Requiring every group to go through the same content creates unity in your church.
• This approach keeps equipping simple: there is one strategy and content solution for every group.
• You can create congregational cultural changes with ease, providing a single equipping solution to meet your goals.

Cons:

• This structure does not necessarily allow space for life changes or individual needs.
• If you do not currently have a required curriculum for groups, you may find resistance to change.
• Low-quality resources can create frustration in groups and a hesitance to trust church leadership the next time they require groups to use specific content.

Is this for my church?
‍If you are wanting to create unity or address a single goal in your church, you may want to consider a unified study. This model can be a fantastic aid in establishing congregational culture or addressing specific issues in discipleship. For example: you are establishing or changing the church culture, trying to correct a congregational error or encourage corporate behavior (i.e. evangelism), or simply seeking greater church unity.

Description: Free study allows individual groups to address their specific discipleship needs within your chosen small group model. Every group is in a different place, some having little outside time for homework while others may want robust Bible study. Some groups may study a book of the Bible, while others read a book on prayer, and others focus on serving one another.

‍Pros:

• Every group can meet their specific discipleship needs and interests.  
• This model provides incredible flexibility for groups.
• This model takes the pressure off the pastor or ministry leader to find or create a curriculum.

Cons:

• Leadership can have very little oversight on what groups choose to go through, risking groups choosing studies with poor theology or rejecting equipping as a purpose for their group.
• Free study puts much more pressure on group leaders to pick a curriculum and prepare each week to lead a conversation.
• There is no central goal of small group equipping beyond that they are equipped with something. ‍

‍Is this for my church?
‍Free study groups are good for churches that are looking for a more hands-off approach to groups and are excited to see how God uniquely calls their congregation. God might lead them to serve or to a devotional that they would not otherwise have discovered. For leaders with a high level of trust in their ministry team and a desire to let their groups go anywhere God might be leading, free study can be an excellent group structure.

Description: A hybrid structure gives groups the freedom to choose their resources from a predetermined list. Church leaders maintain control over the theology and scope of group equipping while group leaders maintain the freedom to pick what interests and works best for their group.

‍Pros:

• Church leaders oversee the equipping of their groups.
• Group leaders feel trusted by church leadership and are equipped to choose what’s best for their group.
• There is little pressure on church leadership to equip their groups beyond providing a list of potential resources.

Cons:

• There may not be a central goal of small group equipping when suggesting a wide variety of resources.
• Regardless of how long your list is, groups may feel restricted and want more freedom to choose how they are equipped.
• Ministry leaders will have a lot of leg work on the front end to identify and review multiple resources and ongoing work to provide new resources as groups go through the list.

Is this for my church?
‍This is a great model for church leaders who want some control, but also want to give their groups the freedom to chase their curiosity or a specific issue within their groups. Maybe you want to give groups options or guide specific groups to particular studies that fit their stage of life. Going hybrid is a great balance of freedom and doctrinal oversight that can allow your people to find the right study while giving them the choice to follow their curiosity.

Description: Small groups often find success when they are organized by life stage: youth, college, young adult, newly married, married with kids, empty-nesters, etc. Groups can capitalize on common experiences and shared affinities, which make forming friendships easy. However, much more is required of church staff and ministry leaders, who have to develop leaders and form enough groups for each stage of life represented in their congregation.

‍Pros:

• Life-stage groups encourage deep friendships to form quickly.
• This is a common model for groups many Christians grow up with in children’s ministry, in youth group, and as young adults. As a result, churches may find it to be an easy model for congregations to implement.  
• This model allows churches to equip groups with curricula relevant to their stage of life.  

Cons:

• Life-stage groups tend to divide churches making it difficult to build relationships with people outside of their stage of life.
• This model requires a church to create more groups and develop more leaders to meet the needs of each demographic within their church.
• A change of life stage, like a young adult getting married, can force a member to leave their group.

Is this for my church?
‍
‍Life-stage groups have become traditional in many churches. Many adults who grew up in church have been in life-stage groups since preschool. They are effective, allowing groups to address issues common to their current circumstances. If you want to introduce a familiar format that makes relationships easy, try life-stage groups.

Description: This model focuses on the unique experiences and callings of men and women, providing space for them to build friendships and interact with God’s Word. This is often the model of church Bible studies and accountability groups.

Pros:

• Gendered groups give space for men and women to focus on issues they may not be comfortable talking about in mixed company.
• This model provides space for men and women to connect over specific affinities and hobbies that may not be shared by people of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups make space for young men and women to build relationships and learn from their elders, which can create a natural mentoring ministry within your church.

Cons:

• Gendered groups can ignore the goodness of the other gender, making members feel divided from half of your congregation.
• This model has limited applications because it separates married couples and keeps single adults apart from members of the opposite gender.
• Gendered groups can fall into unhelpful stereotypes that are dictated by culture rather than God’s created purpose for genders.

Is this for my church?

While this model is less common for church-wide small groups, it is a favored format for Bible studies or Sunday school classes. You should consider this dynamic for some of your small groups if you want to foster mentoring relationships or simply give space for each gender to flourish.

Next, let’s discuss group size. You want groups to be small enough for everyone to be fully known, but large enough to meet the demand for small groups in your church. Your model may determine your groups’ size—open groups tend to be larger than closed groups. Alternatively, you may want to limit the size of groups to foster deep friendships. We have found that five to ten singles or four to six married couples are great sizes for fostering relationships.

If you are starting small groups for the first time, your group size may be determined by your number of leaders. For example, if you have sixty people who want to join small groups and only four leaders, you will need to have fifteen people in each group, regardless of your ideal group size.  

Our advice is not to wait until your ideal group size can be met to start small groups. Instead, start your small groups and work to develop more leaders so that you can multiply your groups to a more ideal size. This will not only set a standard for developing leaders but also model healthy group multiplication for your church.

Reflect: Let’s determine how large your groups will be when you launch your ministry. Leaders are your limiting factor when it comes to forming groups—you can only have as many groups as you have supported leaders. Use these questions to determine your group sizes:

How many people will be in groups when your ministry begins? How many group leaders do you have or hope to have when you launch groups?

Divide your number of group members by the number of leaders: the result is the size of each group. What is your ideal group size? If your groups are larger than your ideal group size, how can you develop more leaders to help reduce the size of your groups?

If your groups are smaller than your ideal group size, here are some options:

• Ask some leaders to wait to lead until the groups grow and multiply.
• Ask leaders to partner up to make the groups bigger.
• Invite your leaders to recruit more group members—both inside and outside the church.

Which of these strategies, or others, would work best in your context?

Location is an important factor for groups. Sometimes location can determine if a person is able to participate in groups at your church. Consider the following options for group location:

Description: All groups go through the same curriculum concurrently. Regardless of the model of your small group ministry, every church member is on the same page, working toward the same goals.‍

Pros:

• Requiring every group to go through the same content creates unity in your church.
• This approach keeps equipping simple: there is one strategy and content solution for every group.
• You can create congregational cultural changes with ease, providing a single equipping solution to meet your goals.

Cons:

• This structure does not necessarily allow space for life changes or individual needs.
• If you do not currently have a required curriculum for groups, you may find resistance to change.
• Low-quality resources can create frustration in groups and a hesitance to trust church leadership the next time they require groups to use specific content.

Is this for my church?
‍If you are wanting to create unity or address a single goal in your church, you may want to consider a unified study. This model can be a fantastic aid in establishing congregational culture or addressing specific issues in discipleship. For example: you are establishing or changing the church culture, trying to correct a congregational error or encourage corporate behavior (i.e. evangelism), or simply seeking greater church unity.

Description: Free study allows individual groups to address their specific discipleship needs within your chosen small group model. Every group is in a different place, some having little outside time for homework while others may want robust Bible study. Some groups may study a book of the Bible, while others read a book on prayer, and others focus on serving one another.

‍Pros:

• Every group can meet their specific discipleship needs and interests.  
• This model provides incredible flexibility for groups.
• This model takes the pressure off the pastor or ministry leader to find or create a curriculum.

Cons:

• Leadership can have very little oversight on what groups choose to go through, risking groups choosing studies with poor theology or rejecting equipping as a purpose for their group.
• Free study puts much more pressure on group leaders to pick a curriculum and prepare each week to lead a conversation.
• There is no central goal of small group equipping beyond that they are equipped with something. ‍

‍Is this for my church?
‍Free study groups are good for churches that are looking for a more hands-off approach to groups and are excited to see how God uniquely calls their congregation. God might lead them to serve or to a devotional that they would not otherwise have discovered. For leaders with a high level of trust in their ministry team and a desire to let their groups go anywhere God might be leading, free study can be an excellent group structure.

Description: A hybrid structure gives groups the freedom to choose their resources from a predetermined list. Church leaders maintain control over the theology and scope of group equipping while group leaders maintain the freedom to pick what interests and works best for their group.

‍Pros:

• Church leaders oversee the equipping of their groups.
• Group leaders feel trusted by church leadership and are equipped to choose what’s best for their group.
• There is little pressure on church leadership to equip their groups beyond providing a list of potential resources.

Cons:

• There may not be a central goal of small group equipping when suggesting a wide variety of resources.
• Regardless of how long your list is, groups may feel restricted and want more freedom to choose how they are equipped.
• Ministry leaders will have a lot of leg work on the front end to identify and review multiple resources and ongoing work to provide new resources as groups go through the list.

Is this for my church?
‍This is a great model for church leaders who want some control, but also want to give their groups the freedom to chase their curiosity or a specific issue within their groups. Maybe you want to give groups options or guide specific groups to particular studies that fit their stage of life. Going hybrid is a great balance of freedom and doctrinal oversight that can allow your people to find the right study while giving them the choice to follow their curiosity.

Description: Instead of having a set curriculum, groups focus on answering a series of questions. There is not a study, per se, but a standardized list of questions that every group discusses or a loose set of topics you want every group to discuss (accountability, personal well-being, spiritual discipline, prayer requests, etc.). While the conversation will feel more organic, group leaders will focus on facilitating the conversation toward discipleship and specific goals that you determine. While this may seem like a Unified model, each group conversation will be different, depending on the demographic of people in each group, and there isn’t a curriculum the entire church is going through—just a set of questions that are the same.

Pros:

• Groups focus on each other rather than on discussing specific content.
• Group discussions are intentional but feel natural, normalizing deep spiritual conversations in your community.
• Group leaders are relieved of the pressure to prepare content for each meeting.

Cons:

• It is difficult to measure progress or the success of conversations and, as a result, can be more difficult to gauge the success of your small groups.
• Group leaders need to be more prepared to engage in deep spiritual conversations and pastoral care as people share their stories and experiences.
• Foregoing content in groups takes away the ability for church leaders to address specific problems or gaps in their congregation through small groups.

Is this for my church?
‍There are many reasons to opt for a more conversational group: maybe you want your groups to focus on personal discipleship rather than education, or you want to foster a community of deep relationships, or maybe you don’t have time for content review in your groups. If you can refine a specific set of efficient and effective questions for your groups, conversational content might by a great option for your ministry.

Description: Pastors spend long hours planning, researching, and refining their sermons so that the Word of God can impact their congregation. Sermon-based curriculum reminds groups of what they were taught so that they can apply God’s Word to their lives together. Often, churches will provide summaries, key verses, and discussion questions to groups to guide group conversations.

‍Pros:

• Working through a sermon after it is taught allows groups to contextualize and apply the Bible.
• Group leaders are not responsible for creating or finding a curriculum to use in their groups.
• Communal study can get a whole congregation moving in the same spiritual direction.

Cons:

• Pastors need to finalize their sermons far in advance to ensure the curriculum can be written for groups.
• Small group discussions can turn into critiques of the pastor’s sermon rather than engagement with the content.
• Small groups focus a lot of attention on Sunday sermons, limiting their discipleship to the specific topics of sermons.

Would this work for my groups?
‍Sermon-based curriculum reminds your people of what they heard on Sunday and helps them apply it to their lives. While it does require more legwork from pastors and church staff, a sermon-based curriculum can focus a congregation on a single goal, vision, or cultural change. If you need everyone to focus on a singular message to create a powerful cultural shift or simply want groups to discuss and apply the sermon throughout the week, consider this model for your small groups.

Description: A Scripture reading plan points groups to equip themselves with the Bible. The plan may follow along with a sermon series or take groups through the Bible in a year—it is up to you. The central goal is to create a congregation of people who have encountered the Word of God and been changed by it.

‍Pros:

• Groups are equipped with their own experience and knowledge of the Bible, the living word of God.
• By focusing on Scripture, this model allows space for the Holy Spirit to challenge and encourage each individual in unique ways.
• Group members become self-reliant disciples who know how to dig into the Bible for themselves.

Cons:

• There is a risk of poor exegesis and groups creating false interpretations of Scripture.
• Without a guided conversation, groups may not know what to make of their reading or how to apply what they have read.
• A reading plan can feel more like a task to be completed than an opportunity to enjoy God’s revelation. ‍

‍Would this work for my groups?
‍If you want to increase the biblical literacy of your congregation or simply have groups focus on a particular book or passage, a Scripture reading plan may be a great way to equip your groups. You may want to give groups more than a roadmap of what to read each week—a reading plan with questions for discussion can be a great way to teach groups how to read, interpret, and apply Scripture for themselves.

Description: A standardized conversation is a list of questions or topics that every group discusses in each meeting. This allows groups to focus on specific elements of the Christian life, like accountability or evangelism. For example, every group member might answer a head (What is God teaching you?), heart (How is your relationship with God and others?), and hands (How did you serve God and others?) question during the meeting.

‍Pros:

• A standardized conversation frees group leaders from the pressure to prepare for their group meetings.
• Group members know what to expect from each meeting and, like leaders, don’t need to prepare for the group.
• Discussions focus on the practical ways God is leading each group member and the specifics of their Christian lives.

Cons:

• Conversations can seem rote or boring.
• If it is not fine-tuned, standardized conversations can overlook important facets of the Christian life.
• Conversations can focus more on what a person is doing for God than their relationship with God and the people in the group.

Would this work for my groups?
‍Standardized conversations give each group a focus and tend to set a strong culture in your small group ministry. A well-crafted set of questions can be difficult to create but will allow pastors to set the direction of conversations and align the goals of every small group. If you want to establish a specific purpose or cultivate a particular culture in your groups, equipping your groups with a standardized list of discussion questions may be the right fit for your church.