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Guiding Assumptions

It’s important to recognize the assumptions you have about your small group strategy. Can you articulate what they are? Have you recently reviewed them? Here are some of our current group strategy assumptions—they may or may not resonate with your own assumptions about your church and small group strategy. 

1. Small groups are a key part of our organizational strategy to meaningfully connect and grow people. 
2. Everyone, regardless of where a person is on his or her spiritual journey, should have a place to connect, because people won’t grow spiritually unless they are connected relationally.
3. The spiritually curious and new to faith should have a mentoring environment in which to explore and start their spiritual journeys.
4. Groups should be large enough to have an effective core and small enough for people to be noticed when they miss (six to fourteen people). 
5. Groups need to meet often enough for relational trust to be built and long enough for spiritual growth to be encouraged and recognized. 
6. Closed groups are an important part of creating a predictable, safe, and meaningful group experience.
7. Our responsibility is to equip leaders to create safe and predictable small groups where participants pursue authentic community and spiritual growth. 
8. While embodied community may be preferred, we should leverage digital options to create on-ramps into group life and additional connection opportunities. 
9. The takeoff (first ninety days of a group) and the landing (last thirty days of a group) are the most critical for the success of the group and for community to become a way of life for participants. 

We also have guiding assumptions when it comes to group connection: 

1. Some level of connection (a short-term group) is better than no connection. 
2. Leveraging an online, centralized connection approach is an effective way to connect our attendees. 
3. Long-term connection is necessary for relational trust to be built and for spiritual growth to be experienced. Therefore, our promotional activity should market long-term groups while providing short-term options. 

Many of our assumptions have changed over time. That’s why we go through the process of challenging them periodically. But it helps any small group or leadership team to be clear on their current assumptions so they can continually cast a vision for new growth.

Have you identified your working ministry assumptions? Which of your current assumptions might be limiting or have changed over time?