You Can Double Your Group in Two Years or Less

Embrace the Vision

What are the Bridges of God?

Teach a half-way decent lesson each and every week, nothing less will do

Invite every member and every prospect to every fellowship every month

Give Friday Nights to Jesus

Encourage the Group Toward Ministry

Reproduce Your Group

A group of ten that doubles every two years or less will reach a thousand people for God in ten years. Here are the five steps to double a class every two years or less:

T – Teach a halfway decent lesson each and every week; nothing less will do.

You do not have to be Chuck Swindoll to grow a class. However, you must produce reasonably good lessons every single week in order to grow a class. The better the teaching, the easier it is to grow a class. Some teachers are so good at teaching they can grow a class on the sheer magnetism of their presentation. You are probably not that good. Not many are. But, you are probably good enough, or you can be. Strive to teach as well as you can. The number one predictor of the growth of a class is the teaching ability of the teacher.

For help on teaching, see Teach Like Jesus.

I – Invite every member and every visitor to every fellowship every month.

If we love them, they will come, and they will come to love our Lord. It is not enough to tell them about a God who loves them. We must love them, and show it by spending time with them.  We invite every member because it is good inreach. We invite every visitor, because it is good outreach. We do it every month because it is effective ministry.

G – Give Friday nights to Jesus for an informal time of fellowship, cards and Diet Coke.

People who are opposed to the gospel are not opposed to ice cream. The Bible says, Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (I Peter 4:9) If we will simply be obedient to this one command, we can double our classes every two years or less and our churches every five years or less.

For more on hospitality, see Christian Hospitality. 

E – Encourage the group toward ministry.

We do this by providing specific examples of ministry and personally enlisting people to join the team. I encourage people to pick from the following seven examples of ministry opportunities:

    • Class teacher People who are opposed to the gospel are not opposed to ice cream.
    • Outreach leader
    • Inreach leader
    • Fellowship leader
    • Hospitality leader (gives Friday nights to Jesus)
    • Prayer leader
    • Class president

Detailed job descriptions are provided in You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less.

R – Reproduce.

Doubling a class every two years or less is not about going from 10 to 20. It is about going from one group to two. Reproduction is hard on any level. Still, the future of the church is the reproduction of groups. The key to creating a new group is leadership. The price of creating a new group is saying good-bye. We must be willing to say good-bye in order to be obedient to the Great Commission. It is hard to say good-bye.

It is hard for missionaries going oversees to say good-bye to family and friends left behind. I know. When my parents announced that they were taking the family halfway around the globe to serve as missionaries in the Philippines, my grandparents response was curt and clear: “NO!” My parents’ eyes widened. “No you are not! You are not taking my grandbabies 10,000 miles from home to be raised in the jungles of the Philippines. We will not miss their next 4 birthdays.” They understood. The price of saying good-bye is extremely high.

I am not necessarily asking you to fly across an ocean and raise your family in the tropics. I am asking you to leave some of your best friends for one hour a week to help start a new class. This will be a higher price than some are willing to pay for the advancement of the kingdom. This is why we must produce mature disciples with a kingdom mentality. Only the mature can reproduce. Only mature disciples are willing to say good-bye. We must reproduce in order to insure the life of the next generation. There you have it. That is how you can double your class in two years or less. For more details, see my book You Can Double Your Class In Two Years Or Less. Doubling a class every two years or less is easy. Doubling a church every five years or less is easy. In the next chapter, I will show you why.

How this works at Andy Stanley’s church:

For more information on lessons that help groups to double, see https://www.mybiblestudylessons.com/