Small Groups 102: Discipleship Cohorts

The Small Group Discipleship Ministry of Waypoint Church

Since the appearance of sin in the garden, and the fall of the world into brokenness, God has been working to restore this world, and he has decided to do it through people he calls apart to be His own. This is why the church exists, to bring renewal to the lives of believers (Discipleship: teaching people to live more like Christ) as they live in community with one another (Fellowship) and to inspire them to go out on as agents of restoration on God’s mission in the world (Outreach).

Each generation is called to figure out how best to do Discipleship, Fellowship, and Outreach in their cultural context. For two thousand years, the primary strategy of the church has been to share and teach the word of God through local gathered worship on Sunday mornings. Sunday morning is where we practice the marks of community like baptism and the Lord’s supper. It’s where all of us are gathered together, all the parts of the body, all the parts of the family come to publicly proclaim Jesus as our Lord. But since the 1970s, a new ministry has begun to spring up within churches, Small Groups. This was largely due to churches growing in size and small groups being a way to promote Fellowship in a deeper way.

But with the rise of small groups, some new challenges have arisen. And for this reason, we have to be conscious of a few things to keep small groups healthy.

Clear Discipleship Objectives: Groups need a clear purpose for why they exist and must have leaders who can bring the group there. After all, it's not that small groups create discipleship in some general way, but rather disciples (in those groups) are the ones who make new disciples.

Relational Dynamics and Fellowship: Small groups can come with a few relational pitfalls. Either groups form and people commit to them, but those attending never really “click” with each other. Or groups connect really well, but they become “clique-y” and off-putting to newcomers.

Fellowship should be about Unity not Uniformity: Oftentimes, people seek out groups that share their values or beliefs or are filled with people in the same stage of life. However, limiting our exposure to likeminded peers can mean we miss out on hearing from people of all different ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, family statuses, etc., that help us see beyond ourselves.

A tendency to turn inward instead of reaching out: While groups can be excellent at discipleship and fellowship, they often lack outreach. After all, God brings people into His church and renews them so that they can now be part of His mission of restoring all things. If we aren’t turning outward and impacting our community, we’ve missed the point.

So, like every generation must do, we are called to examine our culture and find the best ways to engage in Discipleship, Fellowship, and Outreach. And so there are a few things we are looking out for when we put our “tweak” on small group ministries. We’re calling them “Discipleship Cohorts.” A Cohort was the name of a group of 10 soldiers in the Roman Army, but today it typically means a group that gets together for a set period of time to intensively study a topic, and then stay in touch as they apply what they have learned in practice.

Semester Rotation: Cohorts will last for one semester (12 weeks in the Fall and Spring, 8 weeks in the summer). This will allow there to be easy on-ramps for newcomers to jump into a group and easy-off ramps to try out other groups and topics. This is especially helpful for us as we think about reaching those who may only be in town for 2 to 3 years. It also allows for flexibility with busy schedules, e.g., maybe you know you only have time for a group like this for a short time and so by having clear expectations, you know exactly what you are committing to. It also means you can have seasons of study, and seasons of building relationships and reaching out to non-Christians through hospitality. This will help us embody our value of “rest.”

Usually centered around a topic: The truth is we are much more likely to learn and engage when studying a topic that we currently have some curiosity about or would be directly applicable to our lives. This can mean that the group studies a book on the topic, they pick a topic on their own to study, or they look at what a book of the Bible says about how to live. Examples would be, “Faith and Work,” “Gospel Centered Parenting/Marriage,” “God and our Trauma,” “How to read the Bible,” “The art of neighboring,” etc. This helps the groups have very clear objectives and encourages selecting leaders that are able to teach on these issues. It also keeps groups more open to all types of people rather than specific demographic groups.

Application focused with follow-up: Too often we can study the Bible just as an excuse to get together, but we want these cohorts to be focused on the “so now what” of life, now that we learned this—how will it impact our life. And groups can stay in touch afterwards to ask that very question, “How are you doing at putting this in practice.” This will especially help us keep the groups mission focused and outward-facing by nature.

Allows for relationships to be more organic: There will always be a desire to go deeper, and temporary groups won’t provide that, but most group settings aren’t great for going in-depth. But in these small groups, you will meet people that you’d like to spend more time in community with, and so we want these groups to be the jumping off point for people to connect informally. Sometimes long commitments can get in the way of developing deep relationships because you don’t click with the members but are committed long term to a group. Ideally these groups would be around 4-6 people, so you can get to know one another in the shorter time frame.

There will never be a perfect solution on how to do Discipleship, Fellowship, and Outreach that fits all people at all times. However, we think this tweak to small groups will help us do it in a way that is best for our particular cultural, suburban, context. Small groups will never be the end-all-be-all; it is more important to develop a culture of disciple-making, a culture of hospitality, and a culture of outward-facing focus on fulfilling God’s mission. Discipleship Groups and Sunday worship will help shape us toward this, but ultimately we must be reliant on God to grow us all in this direction.