How many people can you fit in a group?

At the start of the year, figuring out group size is one of the significant challenges for Growth Group leaders and pastors. How big is too big? How small is too small? I once lead a group that had 22 people. The space was so cramped, late arrivals had to sit in camping chairs in the hall. During discussion, they could only participate by leaning forward and calling out to everyone else in the living room. On the other hand, I once had a group that was so small, it consisted of only me; despite the 100 per cent attendance of its members, that group had to fold.

The Bible doesn’t give us explicit guidance on Growth Group size. Jesus met at least once in an upper room with 12 blokes around a meal, but that’s more descriptive than prescriptive; at other times, he met with just three, or had a gathering of thousands around him. So figuring out how many people we can fit in a group requires a bit of practical wisdom.

When considering size, it’s worth reminding ourselves of the purpose of our group. If the purpose is prayer and accountability, three people might be ideal. If the purpose is to create a social unit for relationships, then you might shoot for 20-30. Growth Groups, however, aim to mature Christians through Bible study and prayer, and encourage evangelism and ministry. Therefore, a good size, as suggested in chapter 13 of Col Marshall’s Growth Groups, is six to 12 (which is pretty broad, really). This size gives you the best chance of achieving those purposes as the group and its leaders are able to get to know each other, discuss a passage, pray and encourage each other. The size fits the purpose.

Unfortunately, though, the ideal and the reality don’t always line up. A shortage of qualified leaders at church might mean group size blows out way past the theoretical maximum of 12. (Nobody wants to tell people they can’t come!) On the other hand, there might be times when there’s a shortage of members: a group stuck at four or five may need to weigh up the pros and cons of persisting, closing up or morphing with another group.

But if we do have some flexibility with size, how many people can we fit into a group? Three key factors are leader capacity, the make up of the group and physical space. Leader capacity is important: how many people can a leader lead? Most leaders are busy people: they’ve got a full week with work, family, study, and so on, and we don’t want leaders burning out unnecessarily. Most leaders will find looking out for more than six or seven people a real stretch. This is why having a good co-leader is essential for moving into the 12-14 zone.

The make up of the group is also a big factor: is the group single-sex or mixed? Are there married couples in the group? Single-sex groups are a bit more intense, with each individual requiring a leader’s attention, so ten, rather than 12, is a good size for a group with two leaders. Married couples in a group function in some way as a single unit, so a group with a few married couples is better able to cope with 12 to 14 people. The maturity of group members also plays a part: a group with not only two leaders, but various core members and trainees who know each other reasonably well can do pretty well with a group size of 16 or so.

The third factor to consider is the venue: how much space do you have? You can fit more younger people into a room than older people: Uni students will happily squish four on a three-seater sofa, and they will sit around the room on camp chairs, stools and the floor, if necessary. Try that with any older age group and you’ll find people dropping out pretty soon. So groups of young people can better handle a size of 16 than groups of people in their 30s and up. If your group meets around a table (e.g. a women’s group in a church hall), the size of the table will impact the size of the group. To cope with larger numbers, you might need to find a larger table, or give up on the table idea and try a circle arrangement. These considerations may seem mundane, but they are definitely worth thinking through.

So there’s a few ideas on how many people you can fit in a group. Often things are not ideal, but hopefully with some practical wisdom, you and your pastor can make the best of difficult situations. The good news is that once the group is underway, there’s lots of things you can do to promote a healthy group—no matter what the size.