Mid-Sized Missional Groups

[Trey Finley]

Let me recommend this resource from the European Church Planting Network. I'd also recommend its partner resource. The book is called Clusters and it's written by a church planter in Great Britain. You can find the book on Amazon.

[James Nored]

Hey Trey. I hope you are finding ways to spend some good time with your family this week.

I had a post today about how many sociologists believe that 150 is the highest number of relationships that a person can really maintain. Check out the post here. Would this be a mid-sized group or a large group in your mind?

[Trey Finley]

Well, the number of relationships in a group is exponential. In a group of 3, there are six relationships (3 people with 2 relationships each). By my math, 13 members would have 156 relationships. That is a size I would recommend for a small group. A mid-sized group is usually defined as 20-40 people.

We have traditionally recommended groups in our churches be kept "small" in order to know one another. Missional group life has a different purpose than our traditional small groups. That will require us to more carefully examine the appropriate size for a missional group. It may or may not be 12-14.

The question of group size inevitably returns to the purpose chosen by the group, the reason their group exists. What will 20-40 people realistically know about one another? Is that knowledge enough to serve alongside them, to share a common mission field? Similarly, how many people are truly needed to accomplish the kingdom purpose envisioned by the group? Will 12-14 people be enough?