Principles for

Church Growth

Bob & Mary Hopkins

All rights reserved
 2008 Bob Hopkins & Anglican Church Planting
Initiatives

Published by: ACPI, Philadelphia Campus, 6 Gilpin

Street, Sheffield, S6 3BL

All biblical text used taken from New International Version

1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
 CONTENTS

“Go Anywhere” Church Growth Page 5

Biblical Vision of Kingdom Page 12
Shapes of the Growing Community of Faith Page 15
The Radical “Significant Renewed Shape” Page 21
The Vital Shape to Recover Page 28
The Challenges of 4 Categories of Page 43
Numerical Growth
Other Resources from ACPI Page 46
 “GO ANYWHERE” CHURCH GROWTH

Introduction

Growth is an essential quality of the Kingdom of God that

Jesus proclaimed and taught. His short and long
parables; principles of fruitfulness; commission to go and
make disciples; and more examples, all make it clear that
growth is not negotiable. The book of Acts is a story of
mission, church planting and church growth and
underlines that growth through the church is a significant
part of the wider Kingdom growth. So if church growth is a
given, let’s explore HOW. We can get to the essentials
with four sets of four.

4 Dimensions of Growth

The diagram below comes from the Bible Society, and

shows there are four dimensions of church growth... UP,
in maturity and discipleship; TOGETHER (IN), in
fellowship and community; OUT, in mission and
engagement with society and MORE, in numbers.
Church growth thinking is often criticised as just about
numbers and head counting – this should not be true
since it’s about all four dimensions.

See how UP; IN; OUT corresponds to the 3 dimensions of

church life that we are taught to expect at every level and
in every aspect of our life at St Thomas’... but on that
note... we must not forget the fourth dimension, growth in
numbers. In the New Testament God added to their
numbers daily, as they did the other 3 things (Acts 2:42-
47).

Growth may not happen in all four dimensions all the

time. In some contexts of very hard mission fields, it’s
right to expect slower growth in numbers, and even in a
declining population a healthy church may not grow
numerically. So church growth isn’t just about numbers,
but with some important exceptions, there is something
wrong if increasing numbers never come! The knowledge
of the Lord is promised to fill the earth, as the waters
cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9 & Hab 2:14).

4 Internal Dynamics of Growth

The following four internal dynamics of Kingdom Growth

are in each case the power for Church Growth.

1. God the HOLY SPIRIT is the only SOURCE of growth.

Again church growth ideas are criticised as too
mechanistic and man centred, whereas most
teachers/writers emphasise that they are observing God’s
ways with his people, the church. The church is a living
body and any healthy organism must grow and whilst
God is the ultimate source of life and growth, he works
through observable conditions, processes and people
doing the work.

Jesus made the only source of Growth abundantly

clear. You cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me. I
am the vine, you are the branches, apart from me you
can do nothing (John 15:1-8).

Paul further emphasised the point:

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it

grow. Neither planter nor waterer is anything, but only
God who makes things grow (1 Cor 3:6-7)

2. The Bible and especially Jesus’ teaching on growth,

makes it abundantly clear that the SCALE of Kingdom
growth is nothing less than MULTIPLICATION.

From Genesis 12 and God’s covenant to Abraham:

 God’s promise is of a people who will multiply as the
stars in the sky and as the grains of sand on the
seashore. A specially blessed people but with the
mission to multiply the blessing so that all peoples on
earth may be blessed.

From the growth parables, the sower and especially

the “leaven”:

The promise of Jesus is of growth based on

multiplication. Multiplication of cells, of seeds, of fruit,
of talents, of hardship and struggles. Always the scale
is not addition but a process of MULTIPLICATION...
from 2 to 4 and 5 to 10; from 1 to 30, 60 or 100.

3. If the scale of Kingdom growth is multiplication, its

SYSTEM of working is SACRIFICE... we are not talking
about consumerism and the market economy. Biblical
church growth challenges us to lay down our lives.

Again Jesus gives many indications that we gain

through losing – letting go. He stresses that unless a
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains
alone... but if it dies, it bears many seeds (John 12:24).

4. Lastly, church growth works through a STREAM of

RELATIONSHIPS. The power of sacrifice functions
through the network of relationships of love through which
the life of the Kingdom is transferred from one to
another...

This life transfer through relationships Paul describes

as death being at work in us, but life in you.
4 Elements of Growth

There are 4 elements or units that are multiplied in

Kingdom growth in the church. These are the building
blocks for growth and multiplication.

First there is a multiplication of Converts, then of

Disciples, then of Leaders and lastly of Communities.
Communities are structures or vessels for the
relationships to grow and reproduce more of all four
elements.

Jesus only speaks of calling and making disciples who

grow into ministry and leadership. So strictly we should
see the whole process as discipleship, which involves
converting, maturing and leading. So Jesus’ biblical
terms for these three stages of Christian discipleship
that need to be multiplied, could be followers, friends
and fathers, gathered in fraternities.

communities The Heart of Church

Growth:
leaders
Multiplying these 4
disciples elements

converts Each should produce

growth in all the others
– forming a circulation
system.
So growth in individuals moves from followers (converts)
to friends (disciples) to fathers (leaders) and happens in
highly relational communities (fraternities), which all
produce more of each other by multiplication (individually
and corporately) in a self-reinforcing cycle.

And don’t forget, because Kingdom is the full context for

multiplication growth, the church and also needs to work
with the King for multiplication beyond itself, or
righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit, Justice and
Jubilee throughout creation!

4 Levels of Relational Community

Traditionally church growth has identified three levels of

social sizes of community in which the church can
express its life. Cell, Congregation and Celebration. We
explore these crucial concepts in the next section and see
why we rename congregation as Cluster.

However, we need to add a fourth indispensable level of

relational community if we are looking at growth through
life transfer and multiplication. This is the one to one
pairing we have called Couplets, which may also be
called accountability relationships.

Jesus spoke of a disciple not being above his master but

when he is fully taught he is as his master... the
master:disciple relationship therefore being key to growth.
The New Testament has many examples of these
mentoring couplets so strategic to the mission through
multiplication. Jesus also sent out two by two and
endorsed this smallest unit of church growth by promising
that where two or three gathered in his name... he was
present.
Cells are the most basic and multipliable unit for
multiplying converts, disciples and leaders. They do this
best when one to one mentoring is part of cell life.

St Thomas’ has been transitioning for the past 4 years

precisely to put in place these structures of couplets,
cells, clusters and celebrations, to release further growth
through multiplication.

The phenomenal success of Alpha has worked by

combining multiplication through a relational
community/group context. In fact its effectiveness draws
on its multiplication of 3 out of the four elements. It helps
multiplying converts, leaders and small groups. This
highlights the need to complement Alpha with the fourth
element – discipleship, and to ensure continuity of
converts in small groups post-Alpha.
 BIBLICAL VISION OF KINGDOM
MULTIPLICATION IN CHURCH

One of Jesus’ shortest parables is the story of the women

baking with leaven (yeast). Matthew 13:33 tells how she
took a large amount of dough and put leaven with it...
mixing it till the leaven had leavened the whole dough.
Yeast in leaven is a classic organism growing through
multiplication and able to colonise or infiltrate the whole
lump.

Kingdom Growth is Multiplication Growth

Jesus’ parables were special sorts of truth tales, usually

designed perfectly to tell one central truth. To do this they
often had a startling detail acting like a hammer to hit
home the intended truth... arresting the hearer’s attention.
The NIV version of this single verse relegates the surprise
detail to a footnote! It’s the amount of dough the women
took... not just a lot, but 22 litres in today’s equivalent! In
those days when everyone home baked she either had
the first New Testament deepfreeze, or was baking for a
party for the whole town! The impact would have been
like Jesus telling today’s farmers of the power of
multiplication and spread of rabbits! Jesus intended us to
realise this multiplication produces such limitless growth
that it will fill as much dough as you could imagine...
multiplying witnesses from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,
even to the ends of the earth! (Acts 1:8)
 In nature God has illustrated the explosive power of
multiplication

Mission Multiplication of Kingdom Growth Knows No

Bounds

One lump of leaven can spread throughout as much

dough as you could imagine ever taking. This shows that
its power to multiply results in the yeast colonising and
infiltrating the whole lump. It penetrates and permeates
every bit of dough.

Kingdom Multiplication Produces Incarnational

Growth

Jesus uses the original word leaven not the modern

translation yeast. Yeast is the pure organism with the
power of life to multiply. However, leaven is just a bit of
yesterday’s dough that already had active yeast in it and
was put aside before baking. Kingdom growth works in
the same way. It spreads from an ordinary person just like
all the rest of us... except they have the active ingredient
of the life of Jesus in their heart. This spreads as it is
passed from one human being to another. It’d an active
agent that can be transmitted to any other heart and so
transform lives, families, neighbourhoods, societies and
the world.

Kingdom Growth Works Through Ordinary People

Multiplying Changed Hearts

Such is the power of live yeast to grow and multiply that it

could spread through limitless dough. Having started, the
only thing to stop it would be to subdivide the dough into
plastic bags. I wonder if our poor experience of growth in
the Church in Europe is due to our metaphorical “plastic
bags”. One such may be our inflexible structures and
concepts of the church, which we carry in our minds.

New Ways of Being Church Could Release

Multiplication Growth.
 SHAPES OF THE GROWING COMMUNITY
OF FAITH

The 3 C’s of Church Growth

The church growth movement helped us see that it is not

a case of “the church is the church is the church.” But
rather, the church as a community, is a social organism
that can express its life in different sized groups, each
having distinctly different characteristics and ways of
organising themselves. Each level is best suited for
district qualities and ways of working.

The church growth movement has analysed world trends

and identified three broads sizes of social expression of
Church. Small = Cell; medium = Congregation and large
= Celebration. The table on the next page is the way the
Bible Society seminars over the past 25 years presented
these 3 social sizes and linked them to home, parish
church and cathedral. The table also makes a claim for
the main function of each level of church life. This may
reflect our pastoral centred church in that none of the 3
levels is described as having primary mission purpose.
 CELL
3-12 people
MAIN FUNCTION
PERSONAL INTIMACY

CONGREGATION
25 – 175 people
MAIN FUNCTION
SOCIAL FELLOW SHIP

CELEBRATION
175+ - THE BIGGER
THE BETTER!
MAIN FUNCTION
W ORSHIP

The 3 C’s of the Bible

It is my contention that the biblical roots expressing these

three levels are the healthiest and are substantially
different from the images in our table.

Firstly the people of God in the small was represented by

the extended family. This has been the most common
expression of family since biblical times and still persists
in much of the non-Western world cultures. It is not the
modern Western nuclear family represented by the two
up, two down. Some would consider that this nuclear
family was bound to suffer a high breakdown rate, being
too small to provide the stability to withstand the
pressures that a more extended network could take.
“Nuclear family” having an unavoidable tendency to
“fission.”
The biblical extended family included aunts, uncles,
grandparents, cousins, etc. This was the context for all
aspects of the life of the people of God. The extended
family included worship and learning the faith in the
weekly Sabbath meal with readings and shared cup, and
also in the annual Passover celebrations. The equivalent
of our communion was a family ceremony with a
requirement that it includes a stranger! The faith was also
passed on at home through bible texts in phylacteries, on
doorposts, family bibles, etc.

The medium size expression of the people of God would

be the village community or synagogue. This might not be
equivalent to our larger congregations of two or three
hundred. It only required 10 circumcised males and
seemed to have been interactive in style. Anyone who sat
down indicated they would interpret the scriptures as did
Jesus and Paul.

The celebrations at regional shrines or festivals at the

Temple are perfect examples of the people of God
gathering in the large. Here the tribes of the Lord went up
and celebrations were extravagant and could last days.
They were impersonal gatherings where it was easy to
get lost in the crowd and their size meant that
representative, priestly, leadership was fully appropriate.
These were memorable occasions talked about for
months afterward.

The Shifts in the 3 C’s over History

Through history the church in the home persisted through

Christian family for many centuries and is still alive in
some parts of the world today. However, it has been
largely lost in England now for decades.
The medieval cathedral probably represented very well
the biblical temple tradition being the spiritual centre of a
wide region, with pilgrimage and grand festival
celebrations to remember and recount the events of the
much wider and comprehensive people of God.

However, over time this cathedral tradition declined in its

breadth of influence. Also the local parish church as the
mid-sized expression took on many elements of the social
elements most appropriate to the large celebration level.
Unlike the more interactive synagogue, it seems to have
aped the cathedral (perhaps because pilgrimage venues
are so special). So we have robed choirs, processions,
mini-cathedral organs, representative priestly leaders and
the main parish service is even called “celebration of the
Eucharist.” Furthermore the parish congregation became
impersonal, private worship, where there was little
meeting in the meeting... all more appropriate social
aspects of celebration rather than community qualities of
synagogues.

This analysis shows that the church in England 50 years

ago had much to recover from the richest expression of
Cell, Congregation and Celebration life of the church. We
had largely ended up with only one level – the parish
church... which we called the congregation even though
its character resembled more celebration... and this form
of congregation we evn used to define what church was
(Article).

In the last 35 years we have re-introduced church in the

small with “Home Groups”, Lent groups, Bible study
groups and fellowship groups. We have also begun to
rediscover celebration level, with recovery of festivals and
pilgrimage at Cathedrals, as well as newer events like
bible weeks, songs of praise in stadiums, etc. These
developments are taking us in the right direction and we
shall take them further.

Our Mission Context and Priority of Discipleship

Groups & Reformed Shapes

Through centuries of Christendom, the churches mission

job was the discipling of the next generation in the faith
and challenging societies institutions back to Christian
values. These tasks, when they were performed, were
largely not done by what we called church, but by
extended Christian family and Christian schools where
children were discipled in small classes. Some analysts
claim that where the Orthodox faith has survived in
Russia through a couple of generations of institutional
atheism – it is due to the discipling by Christian grannies,
quite apart from institutional church.

Our mission crisis today in the West is that Christendom

is passing; the extended family has gone; Christian
nuclear family as a place of prayer, bible story and
discipling values is going, and Christian schools have
largely gone. Add to this the breakdown of
neighbourhood and communities and we can say that the
paramount importance of the recovery of a small
missionary discipling faith community – small group, cell,
base community or household church – seems
overwhelming. For centuries the main job of the church
has been performed outside the structure/building we
called church. Now all these expressions of discipling
relationships have gone, we have to recreate these small
group shapes of the church with full missionary vigour
(see next chapter). Somewhere we have to do the
community-based discipling job that Jesus did with the
twelve.

Equally, we have seen how over history, our mid-sized

shape of congregation has shifted from its biblical identity
and function. These changes have limited its contribution
to the mission and growth of the church overall. We need
to rediscover new ways of configuring this shape. The
“cluster” is one exciting example of renewing this shape
of church (see chapter 5).
 THE RADICAL “SIGNIFICANT
RENEWED SHAPE”

So what is a cluster? It doesn’t seem so radical! Just a

group of small groups... a combining together of some
cells or house groups. And in terms of size... yes, it’s in
the mid-range. It’s somewhere larger than a cell and less
than a celebration... so it’s equivalent to a congregation,
and it’s radical and very significant for three main
reasons. We look at the first two now and the third later.

1st Key Significance of Cluster

Anything that enables us to re-imagine congregation is

very important, precisely because the congregation level
is what historically we have all known as church and even
defined church by... it’s all our congregational
assumptions that are the plastic bags to inhibit growth
and mission effectiveness. I believe that... “Congregation
is the concrete in which our cultural concept of church is
set” (set – as in concrete!). Hence to release mission and
growth we need to re-imagine new ways of being church
at the congregation level... and that’s just what a cluster
is!

2nd Key Significance of Cluster

Closely linked to this is the second key factor. Western

church is incredibly building centred and Sunday
(religious event) centred. We have taught for years that
church is the Body of Christ – but out congregations
having special services in special buildings reinforces old
ideas. But with clusters suddenly where I belong is a
community of people. On “Cluster Sundays” we are
pilgrims looking for any places to meet... our primary
identity at last is as an organic Body of Christ. Ever since
I heard of clusters I thought WOW! Groups meeting
Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday, here, there, anywhere.
Communities of Jesus’ disciples meeting wherever,
whenever! That’s church!

Under Robert Warren, St Thomas’ grew on the old model

of multiplying to 4 congregations, which were experienced
as 4 services on Sunday in the parish church building.
Each was structured to be a separate congregation with
their own leadership ministry team and ethos, etc. It was
one of these different services that was the place where
you belonged. Truly wonderful so far as it went. However,
there is a limit to the number of Sunday time slots in a
building of limited size... and we reached this arbitrary
limit.

Under Mike Breen we have undergone a process of

restructuring to free us from the arbitrary limitation of
building size/hours on Sunday.

a) The Sunday services became Celebrations not

Congregations – so there were no set leaders for one
particular service, no specifically allocated ministry
team and folk could go to whichever suited this week.
b) The place of belonging, with fixed leadership,
worship/ministry team, ethos and identity became
THE CLUSTERS.
Because Clusters aren’t related to the parish church
building or a Sunday event – we could suddently grow
well beyond just 4 of these congregation level groups.
Explosive multiplication has resulted with more than a
dozen clusters. The limitation is no longer the
building/hours in a day... but the increase God gives!

Figs 1 and 2 show the shift from service based

congregations to Body based Clusters with 4 Sunday
celebrations. Then Fig 3 (at the end of the chapter) shows
how this new structuring has enabled the subsequent
shift at celebration level in January 1999, to two new
focuses of mission and ministry, Crookes and City. This
highlights the third radical significance of Clusters.

Fig 1 Stage 1 – 3 Sunday Services = 3 Congregations

Small Groups Services = Congregations Periodic

Celebrations &
Socials
 Fig 1 Stage 1 – 3 Sunday Services = 3 Congregations

Small Groups Clusters Celebrations

3rd Key Significance of Clusters

Cluster has not only released multiplication at the

congregation level... it has provided the stability to enable
us to cope with phenomenal change (even if with some
stresses!). Most churches experience mayhem if you
move the lectern by 1 foot! These figs show the
phenomenal change we have undergone in our Sunday
habits in 4 years... and especially at January 1999.
With our rapidly changing, pluralistic society, its essential
that our way of being church is able to cope with constant
change. Change is a mark of the new missionary church.

The key is that our place of identity, belonging and

primary task focus... is the new Clusters and they can
hold us through substantial change... provided our
clusters have three key ingredients!

Three Key Ingredients of Healthy Churches

If Clusters are to fulfil their roles as a) a completely new

expression of the congregation level of church, b) a real
experience of the Body of Christ, unrelated to buildings
and Sunday services, and c) the place which holds us
through the changes of growth and mission... THEY
NEED what I call “GLUE!” This “glue” has 3 ingredients:

1. VISION: A clearly shared common purpose holds

together a Cluster of small groups. We are bound
together by the motivating power of the mission task
we own together. It’s therefore vital that Clusters pray
and work to discern their vision. It’s best to have it
written down for all, especially new members and to
repeat and revisit it often.
2. VALUES: A sense of community comes from shared
values that are people related (vision is task related).
Whereas purpose unites by motivation, community
unites by belonging.
3. VOCABULARY: Thirdly, a common language to
articulate our vision and values provides further “glue”.
It facilitates ownership of the purpose and the
belonging in community. At best, it further cements
unity without being exclusive.
CLUSTER GLUE:

VISION ) ( MOTIVATION
VALUES ) COMMON ( BELONGING
VOCABULARY ) ( IDENTITY

The High Calling: A Kairos Moment?

Putting all this in the language of the Exodus... I believe

we could be standing on the banks of the Jordan with the
Promised Land before us. The “wilderness wanderings!
Of ineffective, non-missionary church behind us... The
“Promised Land” of the missionary purposes of God to
transform the Nation, ahead of us...

Clusters promise the ability to set us free from old

structures of congregational church, the potential to hold
us through change into new ways of being missionary
church, and the possibility for the first time in generations
to experience church as an organic community, as the
Body of Christ...

In Clusters...

We can explore and enter the experiences of the church

not as a building, but as a PEOPLE. (IN) with a
PURPOSE (OUT) following the PRESENCE OF GOD
(UP), and POPULATE the Earth (MORE).
 Fig 1 Stage 1 – 3 Sunday Services = 3 Congregations

Small Groups Clusters Celebrations Mission

 THE VITAL SHAPE TO RECOVER

Home Groups... Past Sell-By Date?

One movement to recover the small shape of church has

been the introduction of Home Groups over the past 35
years. However, Robert Warren and others observing
Home Groups across the country have described them as
tired, stale, needing a revamp, even “past their sell-by
date!”

Vicars and ministers keep looking for new programmes to

freshen them up but Robert’s diagnosis is that the
problem goes deeper than the need for a bright new bible
study. He observes that any living thing with input but no
output goes stagnant. Our small Groups at St Thomas’
should be overcoming this problem as they all develop
Up, In and Out’s! Certainly Small Groups that grow and
multiply have to add to their numbers and be involved in
thoroughly mission/evangelism “outs.”

Multiplying Small Groups –Universal Growth

Principle

Christian Schwartz has carried out the most

comprehensive research into quality and growth
characteristics of churches. He analysed 1000 churches
from 32 countries in 5 continents. In his analysis he used
157 indicators and the one showing the highest
correlation with quality and growth was... “intentionally
multiplying small groups.”

Schwarz’s study further concluded that multiplying small

groups need tol be “holistic” going beyond just bible study
or fellowship groups, to shared life, discipleship,
evangelising groups. This further reinforces our analysis
of the priority need in our society today for a small
discipling community (see chapter 3).

All the largest and fastest growing churches in the world

are what are called “Cell Churches.” We need to adapt
models from other cultures if they are to be effective in
our context. Much of the rest of this material draws on
insights from this Cell-Church movement for you to
consider which elements may be helpful to incorporate
into your small group(s).

Cell Values: St Thomas’ Values?

The table on the next page lists 5 core values of Cell-

based churches. These are in harmony with our values
and teaching.

It is important to base any development or change in

Small groups on values the group owns. Otherwise the
cost of change will always be too high. So work on the
values in your group(s).

Because Cell Church believes that your values need to

work out in what you do, the dictum is, “we do what we
value and we value what we do.” Hence they have a
loose framework for small group meetings to ensure none
of the values get pushed out. There may be some helpful
ideas for you here in their four-fold pattern...
 1. Jesus in the centre
2. Small Groups are communities of sacrificial love
with open and honest relationships.
3. Every member uses their gifts.
4. Every member is maturing in Christ.
5. Everyone is involved in friendship evangelism.

Four W’s... The Shape of Cell Meetings

The four W’s structure used by the Cell movement is

listed in the Table below. Their order can very and more
time can be given to each at different meetings. Let’s
explain each element further:

WELCOME W

WORD I

WORSHIP N

WITNESS D

Welcome: This opening to the meeting includes all sorts

of activities to get to know one another better. Hence they
act to welcome non-Christians and newcomers who are
on a level playing field with existing members since no
Christian jargon or bible knowledge is involved. However,
what is often missed is that this section also opens up
members to one another to really know each other., their
history, likes and dislikes and all that makes them tick.
Exercises such as “Icebreakers” and “Quaker Questions”
are used which some Christians despise... but beware...
these are much more profound than at first glance. Just
one or two have led Christians in Home Groups for over
20 years to admit they didn’t really know one anotherand
have suddenly found compassion for the person they
found most difficult. Another strength is that there are no
right answers, everyone’s experience is valid and
everyone is involved. It also helps to build a sense of
family.

Worship: So often Home Groups either have no worship,

or try a thin imitation of congregational or celebration
singing. Singing can be helpful in a small cell but the gold
to be mined is releasing those with gifts of creativity and
imagination who can help a small group discover worship
together in ways impossible in larger groups. They may
bring objects that express their worship, write their own
psalms, etc.

Word: Here is another major shift from the tendency of

the Home Group just to downscale from the congregation
and deliver the mini-sermon style bible study with some
discussion. Typical of most European Home Groups,
treatment of the Bible is to gain more insight and
understanding of the bible. In radical contrast, cell
principles say that the unique role that only the small
group can play is to apply the truth of the bible to life. So
the bible becomes the “action manual” and the question is
not “what does this mean?” but “how do I need to change
to live this?” Add accountability to this approach to the
bible and cell church claims this is why their model is the
only way to produce Christians with significantly different
lifestyles from prevailing culture and social norms. To live
counter culture involves costly sacrifice and only living
alongside others in this way can it be achieved. Many
Cells may take the application points of Sunday’s sermon
and share how it challenges them and pray for one
another.

Witness: If small groups are to be evangelistic then time

must be given to this priority at meetings. This will range
from i) planning how the Christians intend to get out of
their “ghetto” and make non-Christian friends – at the
badminton club, pub, weight watchers, neighbourhood
association, etc to ii) praying for one another’s non-
Christian friends and contacts, to iii) planning and holding
periodic social events to invite them to. Don’t
misunderstand, non-Christians are not invited to all cell
meetings and on the occasion when they do come they
may find they know half the group!

Alongside these four W’s some have applied a fifth...

“Wind!”... referring to the need to be open to the Holy
Spirit throughout the time together.

Small Group Quality: Small is Best?

Traditionally Home Groups have tended to follow our

culture and equate larger groups with success. It can
seem more encouraging to have 15 to 20 crammed into a
home than fewer numbers. However, from around the
insight comes that for quality, go smaller.
Some Home Groups console themselves when fewer folk
show up for the meeting that despite lower numbers, they
had a specially good quality time! Maybe that’s the key!

This approach says that 8-12 gives best quality and that
in preparation for multiplication you can grow from 12 to
16. But during this period you should sub-divide during
the meeting (giving 2 groups of 6-8) in order to maintain
quality and get used to multiplying.

Why should quality come with smaller groups? The

answer lies in the number of interactions within a group.
As the size of the group grows the number of interaction
goes up disproportionately. Inevitably some then are
“passengers” and little involved and the power of multi-
directional inter-change is reduced.

Let’s illustrate this by giving the maths. The number of

interactions is (n-1)n, where n is the people present.

We illustrate with just 5 group members only because it

gets too complicated with more! Fig 4 shows the
interactions when a leader leads a prepared bible study
or bible meditation on a one-way, teaching style. There
are just 4 interaction relationships.

Fig 4: Four Interactions

Fig 5 we move to the teacher posing questions on the
passage, opening up response to him – from all the
participants if he draws out everyone. Now we have
doubled the interactions to 8.

Fig 5: Eight Interactions

However, in Fig 6 we release everyone to address and

respond to everyone else... the leader being a facilitator
of multi-directional discussion. Now we have jumped to
20 relationships (5 –1)5.

Fig 6: Twenty Interactions

This is a picture of a powerful “catalytic community”. It’s
impossible over 12... just work it out (12 –1)12 is 132
interactions!

This principle doesn’t only apply to the group working with

the Bible. It can work with any activity of mutual
discipleship and fellowship.

So when our primary values are relational quality and

growth to multiplication, we need to consider these sized
groups. Other values may conflict and over-ride these.
For example, one cluster found that their values of
running programmes from the small groups made them
prefer larger groups to avoid the stress all falling on a
few. However, note there are other ways to resolve these
values. Like two small groups co-operating to run a
programme, or maintaining the larger group but sub-
dividing for much of the meeting.

How to Multiply Small Groups

Here are 10 tips to work with to aid multiplication:

1. Value Growth... get a vision for multiplication.

2. Have goals for multiplication.

3. Have smaller groups of 8 to 12... multiply from 12-16.

4. Prepare the group by sub-dividing meetings.

5. Have clear plans for gathering new folk.

- develop evangelistic outs with prayer
- “fishing” in the large celebration meetings
 - identify your evangelist(s) and encourage to
encourage you all
- have an “empty chair” to focus faith

Ldr Evang

Asst EGR

New Xn
Empty
Chair

6. Pray for it – celebrate it, meeting up again after.

7. Have assistant leaders to train up for the next group.

8. Be aware of gifts and roles in the group. The mixer who

creates community, the evangelistic, those with
imaginative ideas for worship, etc.

9. Have a strategy for multiplication – including leader

and assistants both identifying their new assistants as
they take half the group each.

10. Preserve Key Relationships in the New Group – i.e.

one-to-one discipleship couplets/accountability
relationships and the pairings of those who have brought
new people to the group.
How to Multiply Small Group Leaders

General Principle: Steve Nicholson of the Vineyard

brought to us a key foundational principle to extend the
pool of potential leaders. The graph shows that within any
group/church, there will be a “bell curve” spread of people
with increasing gifts and experience. What we normally
do is pick only the most gifted/experienced to lead and
this confines it to a very small slice at the higher end of
the bell curve.
Numbers in Group (church)

To increase
pool of
leaders

Gifts & Experience

The secret to extend the pool of leaders is to shift the line
left and begin to draw on the majority rather than a tiny
minority. The following are tips to encourage this:

1. Have a “light-weight” model of leadership with smaller

groups.

2. Have a “light-weight” model with reduced “span of

pastoral care”
- have more than one focus of pastoral care per
group
- encourage one another/care for many things

3. Don’t require bible experts

- use a model where leader facilitates interaction
- approach to Bible is more application than
academic
- work with last week’s sermon main points

4. Develop assistant leaders at all levels

- The more experienced help develop the newer
leaders

5. Give developing leaders part responsibility

- To lead part/one element of the meeting
- Sub-divide the group for part of the meeting

6. Give leaders and assistants more ongoing support and

training.

7. Honour the “average” not the “exceptional” by giving

prominence. This releases others to feel “I could have a
go too.”
Small Group Key Role to Create Multiplication Growth

We have already said in a previous section that

cells/small groups are one of the most effective places for
growth through mission and evangelism.

Most traditional Home Groups lack this element and may

even tend to resent visitors/non-Christians as inhibiting
deep bible-study or deep sharing. Purely on the basis of
physics, the smaller the circle, the higher the proportion of
its surface is in contact with the area around – so it is
argued that small groups can better develop links and
penetrate social settings.

Again it may be true that when evangelism is only

implemented at the congregation level it will a) always
tend to degenerate into event centred “missions” and b)
involve only a few – the evangelists and the keenly
evangelistic. Cell based evangelism claims that mission
and outreach naturally become a continuous way of life
when it is part of cell identity and activity. It also involves
everyone in evangelism. John Finney’s research not only
showed that relationship with a Christian friend was the
most effective aid to people’s journey of faith – it
emphasised that even more effective was a group of
Christian friends. Hence the evangelistic power of an
open small group.

Yet another benefit of the cell as the place for

evangelism, is that it enables evangelism to flow into
nurture without the convert having to move into an
unfamiliar group. If more arguments were needed, the
effectiveness of Alpha confirms the place of the small
group i evangelism and a cell-based church addresses
the occasional problem of fall-out post-Alpha.
Now if small groups are to grow through evangelism we
need to honestly review the “outs” of St Thomas’ groups.
A significant number have “fellowship” listed as their “out”,
which sounds like an “in”, unless they mean friendship
evangelism! From the current lists, there appear to be 4
categories of “out” as shown here. Now some “outs” that
currently minister to the wider church like marriage or
parenting could easily be offered to non-church folk with
powerful evangelistic potential. So we could see 3 sorts of
“outs” for groups grasping the vision to grow and multiply.
These are shown in the second table.

Table 1: St Thomas’ Small Group “Outs”

1. Ministry Out – marriage, worship, etc

2. Mission Out – Justice, Homeless
3. Evangelism Out
4. Fellowship – No Out!

Table 2: Small Group Outs for

Growth & Multiplication

1. Evangelism Outs – especially networking

your contacts.
2. Pursuing a “fishing license”
3. Add outreach dimension to an existing
ministry – ie. marriage

Friendship evangelism has been referred to under the 4

“W’s” of witness. Identifying, praying for and networking
with contacts such as friends, neighbours, colleagues,
relatives. If every group member focuses on three, that
gives 30 non-Christian contacts prayed for and networked
by a group of ten. Small groups may also play a part in
evangelism and conversion growth if they catch a vision
for “fishing” for non-Christians in the celebration events
(provided we see more non-churched folk drawn to these
events).

Friendship evangelism should open up the possibility of

witness to every group member. It’s back to the Bell
Curve we looked at earlier – but substituting evangelistic
involvement for leadership gift/experience. The aim now
is to shift the line from just involving the keen
evangelistically, to all of us. We just need to be able to
socially network our friends and contacts and use the
small group to encourage us in this ad to provide the
focus for lots of social events for invites.

Small Group Key Role to Support Growth

Steve Croft has identified a crucial dilemma for the

traditional church. Namely that achieving its goal to grow,
produces an inevitable reduction in quality of pastoral
care.

Just imagine our church fulfilling a vision to double in

size... how would pastoral care cope if it’s dependent on
the staff and a central pastoral team. Either the staff and
pastoral team burn out, or the quality goes down.

However, Steve Croft identifies two solutions to the

dilemma. Firstly, we need dispersed pastoral care with
the small groups becoming the first line of care and one-
another support. Secondly we have to limit the span of
care. This means that no-one is responsible for care for
more than a very limited number. With the Cell Church
idea of leaders plus assistant leaders and beginning to
sub-divide at 12 to 16 – no-one should care for more than
6 or so.

high
Numerical
growth

Pastoral
low quality
time

Solution to Growth/Quality Dilemma

Multiply Pastoral Care

Dispersed Care Reduced Span of Care

 THE CHALLENGES OF 4 CATEGORIES OF
NUMERICAL GROWTH

“So here’s another set of 4!”

Accepting that growth needs to happen in four

dimensions – UP, IN, OUT and MORE, there are 4 ways
that more can be added.

Biological: Transfer: Conversion: Bridging

First there is Biological growth. Christian parents have

children who are discipled within the community of faith.
This is one way “to be fruitful and multiply!” And it is one
way to extend the church down through the generations.

Secondly, growth in numbers in one church can arise

through Christian Transfer from another church. This is
often viewed negatively on the grounds that there is no
growth overall and one local church is growing at the
expense of another.

However, in today’s mobile society people often move

home at regular intervals. Relocation is a time when
people often drift away from church. So it’s really positive
if we pick up and welcome those who move. There may
be no gain overall, but it’s very significant to stem the
haemorrhage.

There are particularly two key times of loss:

 a. Adolescence, when young teens change outlook
and their relationships widen to trans-local. It’s key
to pick up this emerging generation.
b. Young adulthood is often a time to leave home and
physically relocate with college, new jobs, etc. The
church has been losing enormous numbers at this
stage just when, if drawn back they can be
discipled as emerging leaders.

Thirdly there is Conversion growth, which extends the

church with a net increase in the proportion of the
population churched. This is real advance for the
Kingdom of God and we need to “plant, and water that
God might give this increase.” Without it the numerical
aspect of church growth is standing still. Furthermore,
conversion growth releases further potential for the first
two sorts.

Conversion growth is hard at the congregation/cluster

level... it tends to be limited to special programmes that
are very resource hungry, and only happen periodically –
evangelism as a way of life can best be developed from
the cells/small groups and from celebration. Ideally, this
sort of small group will be by nature, outward looking,
praying for non-Christian friends and developing
friendship evangelism or a mission “out” as part of their
lifestyle. Also, if we get the celebration focused right and
members invite friends, non-churched folk can be drawn
in.

Fourth and last is Bridging growth. This is when the

church bridges into a new culture or social group. Such
cross-cultural mission and evangelism takes the previous
category of conversion growth into new contexts and
adds another aspect to the advance of the Kingdom. For
this we need mission eyes and cultural sensitivity. Again
small groups may play a key role in incorporating the fruit
of numerical church growth in socially/culturally
appropriate forms.
 OTHER RESOURCES FROM ACPI

Workbook 1: Evangelism Strategies &

Role of Evangelist 1
Written by Bob & Mary Hopkins

The first in this two-part worksbook series

exploring strategies that will open up
evangelism for all. This work book in
particular focuses on the biblical bases for
evangelism, especially Jesus’ principles and how they
can apply to the many opportunities for evangelism open
to the church today.

Workbook 2: Evangelism Strategies &

Role of Evangelist 2
Written by Bob & Mary Hopkins
Part two of the Strategies for Evangelism
workbook series. This booklet particularly
focuses on exploring an eight-sided shape
to help us understand and implement
evangelism in our lives.
 Listening for Mission
Written by Steven Croft, Freddy
Hedley & Bob Hopkins

Keen to start a fresh expression?

Before leaping into action this booklet
encourages churches to develop the
tools to 'listen for mission'. This involves developing an
attitude where you learn to 'multi-listen' to God, to society,
to your community, to your church - so that you can find
out what God is doing and know how best to join in. This
short and accessible guide can be used with church
councils, deanery synods, circuit meetings and house
groups.

Enabling Church Planting

Written by Bob Hopkins & Richard White

A training and resource book to aid those

thinking of or embarking on planting a new
church. The work book can be photocopied
for use with your team and includes many exercises.
Each of the five sections is split up and includes some of
the following elements: Introduction page, briefing paper,
discussion paper, collection of ideas and illustrations.
This book is not a source of ready-made answers.
Instead it offers practical, experience-based guidance for
the whole of the church planting process.
 Cell Stories as Signs of Mission
Edited by Bob Hopkins

4 fascinating and very different stories of Cell

life in Anglican churches sandwiched
between pithy comments from Bob.

More resources, articles and stories are available from

www.acpi.org.uk