Small groups that multiply. That’s almost every pastor’s dream. But when you went to Barbara to ask if she’d consider leading a new small group, she flat-out refused. Apparently, Barb was under the impression she needed at least a Bible degree to lead a small group. She told you she doesn’t know enough about the Bible to answer questions, so the search for a new leader landed right back on your desk. Again. Before you start working through the church directory again, let’s take a look at what you’re asking a leader to do.
Why in the world would Barbara think she’s got to be the resident theologian to lead a small group? Well, it’s probably because you inadvertently taught her that. Remember all those times in the Sunday school class or the Bible study group? You weren’t necessarily even leading, but then someone said, “Pastor, what did Jesus mean when … ?” and you answered like the scholar you are. Good job. BUT … you just subconsciously communicated: If you don’t have formal training in the Bible, then you’re probably not qualified to lead. I hear the protests already: “But I AM the resident scholar and theologian!” Yep. No argument. But the question is, “How’s that working for you?” Ever wonder why so few people volunteer … or can even be coerced … into leading small groups?
I recommend a different approach: Train everyone to lead, then let the Holy Spirit do the choosing. That means making small group leadership simple enough for anyone to learn, ensuring no one needs an MDiv to lead a Bible study, giving everyone a turn, and praying for God to raise up the next leader. The fact is, you don’t have to spot the next leader when the Holy Spirit does the work. But you’ve got to give the Spirit a chance!
Your first choice isn’t God’s only choice
We sometimes think that we’re better at choosing leaders than God is. The gregarious person catches our attention, and before long they get the invitation to lead. Being comfortable talking, though, isn’t the same thing as being able to lead.
The apprentice approach I associate with Dale Galloway asks each leader to choose an apprentice. There’s nothing wrong with training an apprentice, but notice who gets to choose. When you train just the person you pick, everyone else watches someone else learn the job.
Take another look at 1 Samuel 16:7–13. Samuel sees one of Jesse’s sons, but God tells him that people look at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. David, the youngest, is still out keeping the sheep until Samuel asks if someone is missing. The one who wasn’t in the lineup is the one God tells Samuel to anoint.
Then there’s Gideon in Judges 6:15. His own description puts his family at the bottom in Manasseh and himself at the bottom in his father’s house. He’s the runt of the runt. Not great leadership qualifications … but God chose him anyway.
And Jesus chose four fishermen to be his first choice for church leadership. Four guys who probably spoke like sailors and who likely were pretty loose with the truth about things like how many fish they caught (which is probably why we know for sure there were only 153 “large fish” in the miraculous catch, not 347 whoppers!).
Those passages don’t give you a small-group leadership staffing chart, but perhaps they give you a reason to stop treating your first choice as the only person God has to work with. Train the people in front of you, including the ones you haven’t pictured leading anything.
Train Everybody
Lyman Coleman of Serendipity Bible fame put it this way: “If you can read, you can lead.” With Simple Small Groups, you don’t even need to read if you can remember the six Discovery Questions. Start with a passage and get someone – or someones – to read it aloud in at least two different translations. Then the study leader asks the group those questions one at a time and gives people room to respond. That’s it. Just ask the question.
“But what happens when somebody asks something Barb can’t answer?” Listen, the study leader isn’t there to deliver a lecture. She doesn’t have to have answers for them. She just says something like, “That’s a good question. What do y’all think?”
And here’s the thing … that one little question is what keeps the group from depending on a resident expert. Every time the study leader tosses a question back to the group, people dig into the passage for themselves and figure it out together. And that’s exactly what you want them learning, since the people sitting in that room are your next study leaders.
Hand Off Every Job
Of course, leading the study is just one piece of a small group. Somebody has to welcome people, handle the meal or refreshments, keep the evening moving, lead the prayer time, record the commitments people make, and encourage folks during the week. In a Simple Small Group, every one of those jobs gets handed off. (There’s literally nothing that can’t be delegated.)
Here’s how it works. You lead the first meeting yourself, and then you start handing out the roles: Welcomer, Meal, Facilitator, Study Leader, Prayer Leader, Recorder, and Encourager. The next week everybody moves to a different role, and the week after that they move again. Keep rotating until each person is comfortable doing every part, and in fewer than twelve weeks everyone in the group has done everything.
And yes, that includes Barbara. When her turn to lead the study comes around, all she has to do is read the passage and ask the six questions … and she’ll find out she can do it.
Nobody ever learned to drive from the passenger seat. At some point somebody hands you the keys and lets you practice until it feels normal, and the rotation does the same thing for your people. Which means you’ve got to resist grabbing the wheel the first time somebody does a job differently than you would.
Then Pray
Once everyone in the group has been trained, ask them to do one more thing: Pray about it during the week. Ask each person to pray that God will raise up a new leader for a new group. In my experience, I’ve never had to wait even a week before somebody reached out. And that’s no accident … they’ve been praying, and God’s been moving.
And when that person steps up, you don’t have to wonder whether they can lead. They’ve already practiced every part of the meeting, right there in the group. So they start a new group and do exactly what you did: Lead the first meeting, hand out the roles, and rotate them until everyone is trained. That’s the difference between picking a leader and praying for one. You get the person God chose, and they’re ready.
Is there a cost? Sure. You’ll have to give up being the answer person, and some weeks the group won’t run the way you’d run it. But Jesus didn’t call us to run good meetings. He called us to make disciples. Every week in a Simple Small Group, people answer “What are you going to do about it?” and then report back on how it went, so they’re learning to put Scripture into practice, not just talk about it. A group like that makes MORE disciples … and then turns around and does it again.
Want to see how to start that first group and get it multiplying? Join me for Simple Small Groups: A Group Replication Model, a free Catalytic Conversation on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 10 AM Central. I’ll walk you through starting a group, rotating the work, and preparing it to multiply. Sign up free here.