I have just completed months of asking more than 1,000 small-group leaders and Sunday-school teachers 13 questions designed to help us understand what makes groups grow. This article is the first in a series that summarize my findings.

Before I begin, allow me to say something. (I have always found that line humorous, but you kind of have to think about it.) I don't like some of the answers I found in this survey. I have taught the exact opposite of what this survey reveals at some points. I disagree with some of these findings. But, the facts are the facts and I am going to report them just as they are. If you disagree with the findings, please don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger.

Again, I asked 13 questions. The first was: Would you describe your class as: declining / stable / growing / growing rapidly?

This question was used as a point of comparison with all the rest. For example, the next question (which was really four questions) was: How would you rate your strength in the following areas on a 1-to-5 scale: Teaching ability / People skills / Spiritual vibrancy / Organizational skill?

In each case, I divided the responses into two groups: the high and the low. If there were five possible answers, I threw out the middle ones and just compared the top group with the bottom group. I wanted to see as much contrast as possible.

My question then became "Are 4 and 5 star teachers any more likely to report they are growing than are 1 and 2 star teachers?" What would you guess?

I then divided my findings into four groups: Things that didn't matter hardly at all (less than 10% difference in likelihood of growth in the bottom and top group), things that only mattered a little(between 11-100% difference likelihood of growth), things that mattered a lot (between 101-1000% difference in likelihood of growth), and things that matter most (more than 1000% difference in likelihood of growth between the top group and the bottom group).

Today we'll look at the "things that didn't matter much." Some of them may surprise you. Some of them did surprise me.

#1 Outsiders or insiders?

I asked who leaders spent more time with — people inside the group or people outside the group. I predicted that spending more time on people outside the group would be a significant predictor of whether the group was growing.

I was wrong. Leaders who spend more time on people outside the group were 4% LESS likely to be growing their group than people spending more time with those inside the group.

My take on this: If you ignore the people in your group, your group won't grow, no matter how much time you spend trying to get outsiders to join it.

I drilled a little deeper and found something else interesting: Those who were spending 80% or more of their time on outsiders were 12% more likely to be growing than those who were spending 80% of their time or more with people inside. Still, not a huge difference.

Balance in all things. Jesus taught us to walk the narrow way. We need to minister to outsiders as well as insiders.

#2 Embrace the vision of growing and dividing

This was a real shocker to me. The original question was:

How does your group feel about the idea of growing and dividing your group?

___ Openly embrace the vision of growing and dividing

___ Ambivalent about growing and dividing

___ Mildly opposed to the vision of growing and dividing

___ Strongly opposed to the idea of dividing our group

I have taught for several years that if we are going to see a doubling group movement in our county, the groups themselves must embrace the vision of growing and dividing. A group of 10 that doubles every 18 months can reach 1,000 people in 10 years. Why isn't it happening, then? It must be because we don't want it to happen.

Not so. There was almost no difference (2%) in the likelihood of growth between those in the top and those in the bottom of this scale. How do we explain this?

Here's my take: Imagine you're rocking along, leading a group, but not pushing them to grow and divide. How likely are you to report that your group is strongly opposed to the vision of growing and dividing? Not so much, right? Now, suppose you're by the group-multiplication bug, and start actively talking to your group about growing and dividing. How aware are you now of the group's resistance to the vision? How likely are you to report that your group is strongly opposed to the vision of growing and dividing? Very likely.

The more the teacher has embraced the vision of growing and dividing, the more likely he or she is to be aware of the group's resistance. Eventually, as the teacher succeeds in growing and dividing the group more people get on board with the vision.

The lesson is this: if you want to grow and divide your group, you don't have to wait around for your group to get the vision. Growing groups do not grow and divide because their group has embraced the vision. Sometimes they have embraced the vision and sometimes they have not.

#3 Organizational skill

This is the third thing in the "hardly matters at all" category. Teachers who report high organizational ability are only 7% more likely to be growing than those who report low organizational skill.

Next time, we'll begin looking at some of the things that do matter in growing your small-group ministry.

If you'd like to help us further our understanding of what makes groups grow, please take five minutes to fill out the following survey: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/49850/follow-up-teacher-survey. Thanks in advance for your input.

Josh Hunt is passionate about small groups. He encourages small-group leaders through online lessons, books, and live conferences. He is the author of You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less (Group) and Disciple-Making Teachers (with Larry Mays, also Group).