Keeping growth groups on time

Picture this: you’re leading your growth group and the study is going great—people are getting into the Bible, going deep into its meaning and wrestling with ideas together. You look at your watch and see that you’re supposed to finish in ten minutes! This is not good—you’ve still got more verses to cover, application questions to get to, and you haven’t even prayed yet. Why has this happened (again)? What should you do? Will you go over time and put people out, or awkwardly cut things short?

Staying on time is one of the perpetual challenges of growth group leading. There are all sorts of reasons why we go over time: late arrivals, too many questions, poor questions that go nowhere, great questions that go everywhere, lengthy tangents (good or bad), talkative members and (if we’re honest) our own lack of time-awareness. How can we get better at staying on time?

Before we get there, though, is it even worth staying on time? Though there will be nights (or mornings or afternoons) when we do go for longer, there are several reasons why it’s worth finishing when planned. Firstly, it builds trust. When we regularly finish on time our group members will come each week even when they’re tired or busy. They can be confident they’ll still get home as planned to sleep or work. Secondly, staying on time allows us to prioritize application questions and prayer at the back end of the study. These are the things that drop out most often when we’re running late.

Thirdly, and somewhat paradoxically, finishing on time encourages people to stay later. When we finish late people won’t want to start a new big conversation—they’re pretty much out the door. When we finish on time (or early) they’ll often be willing to start talking about something significant with you or each other. They figure that now’s a good time to ask an extra Bible question, or questions about all the many challenges of living as a Christian. Finishing on time actually creates the opportunity for the new godly (and time-consuming) conversations.

So what are the strategies for staying on time? The main one is to set expectations clearly at the start of the year. Talk about what arrival time you expect, and when the study will actually start. This means you shouldn’t find yourself waiting for people to arrive and delaying the start time. Talk about when you’ll finish and how you’ll make time for prayer. People will then appreciate your effort during the year to meet these expectations. Hopefully they’ll also play their part and be on time themselves.

The other strategies for staying on time are mostly practical. Here’s five:

1. Put a clock in the room. This will help you see how time is passing without awkwardly looking at your watch or phone.
2. Plan the study. Think ahead about how long you’d like to spend on each section of the study and how much time you’ll spend on prayer.
3. Start slowly but speed up if necessary. Starting slowly is important because it gets everybody on board and moving with you through the passage. If you speed up later most of them will still hang on.
4. Manage tangents. Tangents are great, but if your group is prone to going on them you’ll have to manage them well. Choose to explore some but not all, and don’t feel bad about wrapping some up or postponing them until later.
5. Sometimes go late. Sometimes it’s just worth going late. Maybe your group is grasping a big idea you’ve wanted them to get for ages, maybe a group member is sharing something deep, maybe application is really flowing. In these situations it’s worth going late—people’s Christian maturity is more important than time keeping! One thing you can do is flag early to group members that you will run a bit late this time. Afterwards, express your appreciation that they stuck around longer for good reasons.

Staying on time can be hard, but if you can manage it you’re serving your group well! They’ll be keen to stick with you for the long run and keep learning, changing and praying in your limited time together.