by Tim Howington

Men’s groups meet all over the place. Go into any coffee shop or diner in the morning most mornings and you will find a group of guys with their Bibles open and discussing spiritual things. Some groups don’t have their Bibles open, but they are talking about spiritual things. We love all these groups. Each in their own way add spiritual values to our lives and godly friendships are being forged.

But what is the outcome?

After it is all said and done do these groups actually add more laborers (disciplemakers) to the force. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send out workers. Does your small group approach actually produce disciplemakers.

Back in the day, when we were ministering to students, we had 3 levels of small group studies.

1. Investigative Bible Studies– these groups are for seekers who are investigating the faith
2. Discipleship Groups– these groups are for committed Christ followers who are looking to strengthen their faith
3. Ministry Team– these groups are for dedicated disciplemakers who are involved in disciple making and gather together to hold one another accountable to fulfill the Great Commission.

To be honest, for the last 20 years, most of my discipleship has been one on one and I have not really used groups as much as in the past. But, I am resurrecting the groups here in 2022. Groups add a kind of synergy that I feel like I have been missing in my discipleship.

For years, I have been saying that people grow best when they are involved in 3 kinds of growth. Large group, small groups and one to one. Each of these components add a piece of the puzzle to someone’s growth. For the last 20 years a lot of my discipleship ministry has been with guys who are going to church- so they are getting the larger group from church, most are involved in small groups, so they have that too so I have focused on meeting one to one. That has been ok, but I don’t know that I have seen the same kind of movement with the guys I am discipling.

But the gap I am seeing is that- in order to multiply disciplemakers, they may need large group, small group and one to one training that is focused on disciplemaking. Not just spiritual growth in general.

in order to multiply disciplemakers, they may need large group, small group and one to one training that is focused on disciplemaking- not just spiritual growth in general

So, this spring I am starting some discipleship groups using this new material we created. It is some of the same stuff we have always focused on just packaged a little differently. Click below to download.

Click Here to Download