New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 760

Starting Small Groups in a New Church

Vance Pitman, Noah Oldham & Spence Shelton

Episode 760

Hosts Vance Pitman and Noah Oldham spend some time with pastor, author, and discipleship consultant Spence Shelton to uncover the role community groups play in the life of the local church. Tune in to discover how you can cultivate more group-centric rhythms while furthering the gospel’s reach within your own community.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • How NOT to start up a groups ministry in your new church plant
  • The importance of meeting and empowering your people where they are
  • Three qualities to look for in your small group leaders
  • Why your plant needs a disciple-making mentality
  • What you can do to avoid lay-leadership burnout!

Helpful Resources:

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

Clarity creates confidence, so give leaders clarity on what their expectations are. That’s going to give them the confidence to carry it out. — Spence Shelton

We plant because healthy churches plant churches and healthy groups plant groups. — Spence Shelton

We want to keep reaching people with the gospel. So, whenever you want to make disciples and reach lost people, that’s when you plant community groups. — Spence Shelton

We have to think multiplication at every level, and that’s not just multiplication of churches. It’s multiplication of disciples, which means multiplication of groups. — Vance Pitman

It’s not driven just by a systematized approach; if we’re not careful, we can make this a math equation. This is the activity of God in making disciples and multiplying churches for the expansion of His kingdom. — Vance Pitman

That’s what we’re after: making disciples. The Lord is the One who gives the growth. We are just here to seed and water, and as we see the Lord growing, we harvest. — Spence Shelton

Published on August 15, 2023

Relationships Mission The Church Practical Leadership Pre-Launch Growing Multiplying
About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Authors

Vance Pitman

President Send Network

Vance Pitman is president of Send Network, founding pastor of Hope Church, and author of UNBURDENED: Stop Living for Jesus So Jesus Can Live Through You and The Stressless Life: Experiencing the Unshakable Presence of God’s Indescribable Peace. As a seasoned church planter and now leader of the largest church planting organization in North America, Vance seeks to inspire people to join in God’s eternal, redemptive mission of making disciples, by multiplying the Church all over North America, that the nations may come to know Him.  Vance and his wife Kristie have four children and four grandchildren, and live in Georgia.

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Noah Oldham

Executive Director Send Network

Noah Oldham is the Executive Director of Send Network. He served as the founding and lead pastor of August Gate Church for 15 years and the Send City Missionary to St. Louis for almost 10. In both these roles, he led his church and dozens of others to plant churches throughout the St. Louis region and beyond. He holds master’s degrees in Biblical Studies and Christian Leadership and is a certified personal trainer and nutrition coach. He writes, speaks, and trains in the areas of two of his greatest passions: the local church and physical fitness. Noah and Heather have been married since 2005 and have 5 children.

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Spence Shelton

Spence Shelton is a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate and earned his Masters in Divinity in Biblical Languages and Christian Ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He planted Mercy Church in 2015, where he currently serves as Lead Pastor. Spence loves being in the mountains and traveling with his wife Courtney and their four children.

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