Small Groups, Huge GrowthSample

How Groups Grow

According to scientists, the adult human body is made up of around 37 trillion cells. For those of you who are counting, that is 37 with 12 zeroes behind it. What’s more amazing is they all originated from one single cell. How does one cell become 37 trillion cells? Simple—they grow!

The first church grew like mad. Jesus started with 12 disciples. After Jesus ascended, the first chapter of Acts recorded the number of believers at 120. By the end of the second chapter of Acts, that number had grown to over 3,000! At the epicenter of this growth were small groups.

It is easy, especially in today’s culture, to focus on the numbers. You might even be thinking those numbers aren’t super impressive. It’s likely there were people focusing on the numbers back then too, but that’s not the growth biblical authors were focused on. Scripture reveals these six ways early believers experienced rapid spiritual growth.

Generous living
Regular fellowship
Oneness in worship
Wise teaching
Tenacious prayer
Holy Spirit power

Pray: Holy Spirit, will You show me how my group can grow spiritually in these six areas? Where are we doing well? Where do we need the most work? How can we fuel the growth of Your Church?