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semperfidelis -> RE: Church Is a Team Sport (8/9/2008 10:00:39 PM)
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I'm a big advocate of small groups, but after 10 years a group of 5 leaders are pitching to our senior pastor that some of the groups take a break from them for 6 months. Sometimes there is a need to develop unity. Not that we have disunity, just fragmentation. Small groups that are too separate from each other and it is not helping the Body as a whole.
Aside from that, a good thing can be taken too far. Small groups' greatest strength can be their biggest weakness -- they can become clique-ish and too tight. On the other hand, I also know of leaders who have tried to rotate small groups, and this is often either done too much or it becomes difficult to know people well.
Small groups need to be used as a tool. My church (~700) does small groups quite well, 2 other churches (~300 - 900) I know have done well without them and have started or will be implementing small groups. Another church just about was destroyed by a legalistic application of the G12 groups program. They'd been around 5000 people, 3 services a Sunday and a night service, and massive outreach programs. They are now under 1500 people and two services (no extras) and the pastor and leadership apologized to the congregation for the mistakes made in trying too hard to apply what had the potential to work well.
Definitely see if small groups works for you. Just don't go nuts.
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