Small Group Attendance Through the Holidays

It’s about this time every year that small group ministries see a lull in attendance. I would speculate on a few reasons.

1. No more daylight savings. When it gets dark at 5:30PM, people tend to move around less, and want to stay home.
2. Deer season. I’m not against hunting. I like a little venison in the freezer (hint) as much as the next guy. It just seems like about half the guys in church (or at least the ones in which I’ve served) check out for 3 or 4 weeks this time of the year.
3. The holidays. In another week or two folks will start to travel. When you use up all of your relational energy on relatives, who has any left for small groups?

So what’s a small group leader to do? It just so happens that I have a list for that as well.

1. Acknowledge the reality and go with the flow. If you have to miss a meeting here or there it’s not the end of the world, just don’t make it a habit.
2. Work a little harder at staying connected. This is when phone calls, text messages, and personal e-mails become really important. Check up on folks. Oh yes, Facebook and Twitter work well also, for those of you connected to the “social media network.”
3. Plan some fun time. It’s not too early to start thinking about when you will have your group Christmas party.
4. Do a service project. Serving together seems to connect people in a different and perhaps deeper way than regular meetings. So if your group isn’t in the habit of serving together, this is a great time of the year to get started.

If you’ll spend just a little more energy keeping everyone connected, your group will be that much stronger when everyone settles back in after all the Christmas lights are taken down.

Note: At North Park we call ours Community Groups, but I’ve used the more generic term “small groups” for this article.