We know what you’re thinking. You like the people in your group. You’ve gotten to know them and have relationships built and established. You’re comfortable and don’t like the idea of starting again from scratch.

We understand these emotions and we’ve been there, too! But growing our groups is our mission and vision. While it may be hard, these tips can help you successfully multiply your group.

• We don’t maintain, we multiply. As we continue to grow as a church and reach more people, we must increase the number of groups available for the communities our church is reaching. Talk about multiplication early-on in your group. Plant the seeds of growth in your discussions so that your group isn’t surprised when the time comes to multiply. 
• Shift your mindset: groups don’t end, they multiply. One shift to make in your thinking and language to your group is that groups don’t end, they multiply. Just because you multiply the group doesn’t mean the relationships you’ve built are ending. The relationship will look different, but you can still be friends and involved in the lives of the people in your group!
• Recognize and raise up a co-leader. 
• Divide and conquer strategically. The best way to strategically multiply a group is to divide it in half when a new leader has been identified, is approved by your campus as a Group Leader, and is ready to start leading. Half of the members will go with the new leader, who also has some additional spots for new members, and the other half of them stays with the current leader, who is also able to add new members. When this is done at the start of one of our semesters, this will be successful in keeping relationships established and opening up spots for new people to join a group.