Small groups are one of the best things a church can offer. People get to know one another, open Scripture together and pray for each other in a way that is hard to do on a Sunday morning. Yet many pastors and group leaders have seen a group meet faithfully for years, enjoy real fellowship and good discussion, and still see little change in how its members live. When that happens, it is natural to wonder whether the problem is the format, the curriculum or the people.
The group format is not the problem. Gathering together gives discipleship a place to happen, but gathering does not by itself produce growth. In Scripture, the church grows as its members actively help one another grow: speaking the truth in love and building each other up toward living what they believe. A group can enjoy each other’s company and talk well about the Bible without that ever becoming its main purpose.
Community Is Part of How God Grows His People
Paul describes the church as a body that grows together:
“…we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
Ephesians 4:15–16, NLT
Christian growth was always meant to happen alongside other believers, and a small group is one of the clearest places where the body can work the way Paul describes. That is why groups are worth the investment so many churches put into them.
Notice, though, what makes the body grow in Paul’s picture. It is not only that the parts are together. It is that each part is doing its work and helping the others grow. Christ fits the body together, and growth comes as its members speak the truth to one another in love.
When the Meeting Becomes the Goal
A group can drift, without anyone intending it, into being mainly about the meeting itself. The meal, the conversation and the study are all good. But the study can stay a discussion of what a passage means without anyone talking about where it meets their week. Members can care about each other without ever asking, “How did that go?” The people in the group may sincerely want to grow, and the leader may prepare faithfully every week.
None of this means anyone has failed. It means that what Scripture describes, members helping one another grow, has not yet become the group’s deliberate aim. When it isn’t the aim, it tends to happen only now and then.
What Helps a Group Grow
Paul wrote to one church, “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NLT). He affirmed what they were already doing and urged them to keep at it. That is a fitting word for a small group where the care is already present. What helps is turning that care toward growth on purpose.
In practice, that can be simple. A discussion can move from what a passage means to where it applies in the coming week. Someone can ask next time how it went. Members can be honest about where they are struggling, and pray for each other about those specific things. A group that does these things is still a place of fellowship. It has simply made helping one another grow part of why it meets.
Keeping It Going
A group can do this for a while. Keeping it going week after week is harder. Schedules fill up, people come and go, and good intentions fade. That raises a deeper question: why doesn’t growth stay consistent on good intentions alone, and what does Scripture say structure is for?
That question is the subject of Why Consistency Requires Structure.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
