In an effort to align the goals of the kingdom with the needs of the teacher, we create new classes. Call it what you will, dividing, creating new groups.

Incubating new groups is based on what I call the iron law of Small Groups. The iron laws states that there is a 1:10 ratio between the number of groups and overall attendance. I have asked hundreds of churches about this, and it never deviates very far from this iron law. That is why we call it the iron law.

If a church has 200 hundred in Small Groups, they have about twenty groups. It may be eighteen and it may be twenty-two, but it will be about twenty.

If a church has five hundred in Small Group, they have about fifty groups. It may be forty-eight and it may be fifty two, but it will be about fifty groups.

You double a church by doubling the number of groups. You do not double a church by doubling the size of each group. It has never happened, and it will never happen. You will not be the first-ever exception to this. It is the iron law.

To be fair, let me make a couple of other observations. First, as a church grows larger, this number will stretch slightly. I have been in some churches that had over three thousand attending Small Group each week. In this case, it will stretch just a bit. It may stretch to twelve or fourteen. But it will stretch; it won’t double. The iron law still stands.

I have known plenty of individual classes that went way beyond this average of ten. Still, if you look at the overall attendance of the church and the number of classes, the average class size hovers around ten.Adult classes tend to be a bit larger on average, where children’s classes tend to be a bit smaller. But, the average hovers around ten. It is the iron law. You double a church by doubling the number of groups. You do not double a church doubling the size of each group.