A RED group is, by definition, Reproducing, Evangelistic and Discipleship orientated.
What that means is that the group intends to multiply. It intends to multiply through reaching out to others rather than waiting for them to come. And it intends to grow people to be like Jesus. How many of those do you have in your church? How many of those would you like to have? You probably have more in your church than you think.
Here I am going to use the word ‘Evangelistic’ in a broader term. In this article I am defining ‘evangelistic’ as the act of reaching out to those uninvolved with the intention of involving them. A lose definition but a helpful one. A mindset of reaching out beyond our own group is contagious and will lead to a desire for evangelism toward seekers.
Within any church there are a lot of small groups of people. Some of these sets are organised and some aren’t. And they go by all kinds of names. Bible Study Groups, Connect Groups, Care Groups, Prayer Groups, Youth Meetings, MOPS, ALPHA, Committees, Teams, Worship Teams, Ministry Teams to name a few.
Although they all have different purposes they all have a few things in common. They are small. Each group can grow through recruiting outsiders, growing them, developing leaders and giving birth to new groups. The church (and God’s Kingdom) will grow as these groups multiple.
Firstly, they are a small group. By definition a small group is small. Sounds obvious I know. The strength of growing and multiplying small groups is that it decentralises ministry. For example, if all the pastoral care was in the hands of one person then as the church grew the quality of pastoral care would diminish. If the pastoral care was decentralised across a growing network of small groups then the quality could be maintained as the church grew. Likewise, in a decentralised network if one group leader is struck with illness (or needs to step down due to sin) the whole network isn’t affected.
Secondly, each group has outsiders that they could recruit to make the group larger, develop new leaders and birth new groups with a similar purpose. This is also true of a worship team. If you have 1 drummer, 2 guitarists and , 1 keyboardists and 3 singers who make up the worship team and they sought to RED their group then purpose over the course of a year or 2 you would have 2 worship teams. This could lead to a second service or even a church plant.
Lastly, when every group (team, committee) within the church is looking to reproduce leaders, recruit new people and help each grow the impact is a growing church. When different groups in your church take on board a reproducing, evangelistic, discipleship mindset it affects everything. The guy at the sound desk starts to ask who else could be discipled in their role. The drummer starts to help others to learn, not just the drums, but how to love others through music and worship.
Which of the two scenarios would you prefer?
A team of 2 greeters who faithfully, cheerfully, and lovingly meet people at the door for 10 years.
A team of 2 greeters who faithfully, cheerfully and lovingly invite people to be a part of their team – their RED group. As new people join their group they begin to disciple them in hospitality. As the new team members learn how to create a warm welcome for visitors they in turn also recruit others and disciple them. As the team grows they find new ways to offer hospitality to visitors. They make sure that no visitor is left standing alone after the church service. They spend extended time with guests. They help connect those on the fringe with connect groups and affinity groups. More than just meeting and greeting, they disciple others; they grow people, grow a culture of hospitality, and expand how that happens.
There are a lot of activities we can do for our small groups. But there is one thing that we all know that we need to do more of. You will hear preachers preach it. You will discuss it at length in your groups. In leadership meetings it comes up all the time. And now, research has shown that it is in fact the most important thing you can do to grow your discipleship group. In the very well researched book, 
another disciple-maker. Whether it’s teaching them to lead a bible study or how to pray or how to lead a church of 5,000, MAWL reproduces. When MAWL is applied you end up with this diagram: That’s much better than the first diagram, don’t you think? I think so. MAWLing will get you to the second generation (you being the first). To get beyond the second generation you need to do one thing – MAWL MAWL.
Using the process of Model, Assist, Watch, Leave, you now need to apply this to the MAWL process. In other words, you need to show (Model) your new disciple-maker how to do MAWL. Then you need to coach (Assist) them as they begin to put it into practice. As they build confidence and competence in the process your role moves to observation (Watch) and when they are ready you release (Leave) them. Just because they have been through the MAWL process doesn’t mean they know it. Remember, knowing is not enough. People need training. Training means more than head knowledge. It means helping them to put it into practice and do what they can until they can do what they can’t. When you MAWL MAWL you fully reproduce yourself by enabling them to reproduce too.
In an orchestra there is one conductor and lots and lots of musicians. Some musicians are super stars. They could be the soloists or the leader of their section. They do most of the work, sound the loudest, and play all the best parts. And then there are the minor musicians. They have a smaller part to play. Notice two key things about an orchestra.
One of the stated goals of this discipleship group blog series is to reproduce. While the group process will equip the group participants to facilitate their own small group a few more things are required to get to reproduction. The first thing is a list of people whom they can invite to join their group. How do we do that? You ask them to map all the people they know: family, friends, neighbours, co-workers/student, and common interest people they know. If this sounds like the exercise you did in week 1 it’s because it is. Teach them how to do week 1. At the end of it they will have their own map of the people they can begin praying for an to invite to a group. If they have developed their facilitation skills to the point of leading a group then it’s time to have them practice how to invite and then releasing them to start. But, and this is a big but, don’t abandon them. I will talk more on this in week 6. But this week we need to address a small problem.
Gather
them and find a way to overcome their barriers to obedience. The fourth element is a time of casting vision for the discipleship of other believers and sharing their faith with those far from God. In this time take out your maps and pray over them, pray for each other’s maps, pray that everyone on the map would have a chance to grow in God’s grace. The final element is reviewing what you have been doing and studying together as you move into the second part, Grow.
Grow
There will be six questions that you will ask each week. For a few weeks you will want to restrict yourself to just these questions. The reason for this is to help in reproduction. If the Bible study component is based on your Bible knowledge then you need to teach them what you know in order for them to reproduce. If you ask deep, creative questions each week then you will need to teach them how to generate deep, creative questions. If you ask the same six questions each week then you need to teach them the six questions. This restriction makes reproduction easier. I’m not saying you must remain with just these questions. These questions are for the starting of groups in helping them to get to reproduction – that’s all.
Go
There are three elements to learning obedience in this final part. The first element is to practice what they have just said they will do during the week. Using Mark 5 as our example, if they said they will share the gospel with a friend have them practice with another group member. It is here that people discover the cliche, “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.” Many people will discover that they don’t know how they are actually going to do what they said they would. This is the time to show them how. If you don’t know then as a group you will seek the answer and grow together. The second element is to practice the first two parts. While you may not have time every week to practice all the elements of the first two parts you can choose one element and have the group practice it. For example, if in the worship time you begin with a song then have the group members practice introducing the song to the group and how to start singing it. This may sound simple but if you have never introduced a song before and led off as the first singer it’s a very difficult task. Asking the six questions needs to be taught and practised. At the end of this practice time look for someone who could lead that element the following week. Each week involve more the group members and you will slowly train them how to facilitate the group. It’s this practice time where they get to train that will lead them to being able to do during the group time. Lastly, you will want to pray for each other that you would have God’s grace to live in obedience to his will.
