In Case You Were Wondering …
Have you ever wondered how many people at EBC are in Small Groups (or Life Groups as we call them)? Have you ever wondered if it’s a healthy percentage of those who call EBC their church home? My guess is that you haven’t. After all, we’re busy people living in a busy culture. I get it. But I’d also guess that now that I’ve mentioned it, you’d be curious to know. And since I myself was recently curious to know, and since I just did the research, I thought I’d share it with you. And by the way, I’ll be sharing this information in greater detail with the Elders at our Leadership Team meeting tonight. So no need to spy on tonight’s meeting with your super cool listening devices; feel free to take the night off.
As of today, we have 22 Life Groups at EBC. That’s a lot! In those 22 groups, we have 255 members. That’s an average of 11.5 people per group (pray for the .5 person, j/k). Now, some of those members attend more than one group and some of them are not EBC attenders. Thus, the actual amount of EBC adults attending at least one Life Group is 213. When you divide this against our weekly adult worship service attendance, we learn that our Life Group attendance is approximately 51% of what our Weekend Worship Service attendance is.
What does that mean? Good question. According to an article I found from pastormentor.com, “healthy churches have at least 40-50% of their attendance in some form of Small Group. Great churches have upwards of 80% of their adults in Small Groups.” Thus, according to at least one source, we have a healthy amount of people at EBC in Small Groups. But, also according to at least one source, we have a lot of room for growth.
Our desire is to see everyone at EBC connected into the Body of Christ. Why is this our desire? Because Scripture makes it clear that this is God’s desire. And this can only happen in the context of a regular gathering of Christians where you know and are known. It’s nearly impossible to “know and be known” by attending a weekend worship service. You need something more intimate. Jesus had his twelve and you need your “11.5”. So if you’re part of the 49% of EBC adult attenders that are not in a Life Group, strongly consider joining one today. We’ll make room for you.
See our complete and updated list of life groups at EBC here.
Pastor Matt
Categories: Evergreen Connection