Why You Should Lead a Community Group

"We're committed to this: everyone who walks into Stonegate has a place to belong and be known."

300+ people have been baptized at Stonegate so far in 2026. Two hundred and four of them in one day! That's insane to even type in a sentence (but we serve a BIG God who loves to save!)

Each of those is a person who said yes to Jesus and stepped into water to tell the world that only Jesus satisfies. Nothing else. No one else.

Pastor Rodney mentioned this recently, baptism is the first step. It's not the finish line. Look at Acts 2. The same day three thousand souls were added to the church, they were baptized. And almost in the same breath, the very next verse tells you where they went from there — they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They didn't stay three thousand anonymous souls in a crowd. They moved into homes, broke bread, prayed, learned together, cared for one another and became a community partnering on mission.

That's the flow:
Belief leads to baptism.
Those who were baptized took steps to being known in community.

The next step was not to stay as a crowd. It was into a home, around a table, with people you enjoy Jesus with together.

Which means for every person who gets baptized, someone has to have already said yes to leading a group. Multiplication rarely happens on its own — it happens because someone was willing to put their YES on the table.

This Is Why You Should Consider Leading a Community Group

1. More Groups Means the Gospel Gets Into More of Our Hearts

Sunday matters. The preached Word and the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting. And... God didn't design it to be the only thing. He designed his people to carry a role in your discipleship too. The writer of Hebrews was pretty clear: don't neglect meeting together, but encourage one another (Hebrews 10:24-25). The Bible won't let you be an island, growing alone.

At the same time... a sermon can't get into the parts of your story you don't say out loud on a Sunday morning. It doesn't know your wounds. It doesn't know where you're struggling this week. A group does, or it can, if you let it.

Groups exist so that through conversation, fellowship, care, and prayer we can see more of the gospel get into the places of your heart that a sermon can't reach on its own. We want that for anyone and everyone in our church family.

2. More Group Leaders Means More People Cared For

You don't have to be a pastor vocationally to shepherd someone walking through their best and hardest moments.

Here's the truth: most of the care in our church doesn't happen from a stage. It happens in a living room, in a group.

More leaders means more people getting the kind of care that reaches into their life when their marriage is struggling, when they lose a job, and when a family member is sick.

If you've ever felt the power of being known and cared for in a group, you owe it to someone else to start the conversation about leading one.

3. More Groups Makes Room for More People

As our church and city grows, we need more community groups.

Our Sunday Morning gatherings happen on a Sunday morning for an hour (and some change). But where you're actually going to be known, where you're going to experience the body of Christ, is in a community group.

We're committed to this: everyone who walks into Stonegate has a place to belong and be known. Your yes makes room for someone else to have that too.

Now, I Know What You're Probably Thinking: This Isn't for You

Before you say no, a couple things worth reflecting on:

"I love my group. I don't want to leave it." Good. That's what a healthy group is supposed to do to you. I celebrate with you that God has given you a group like that in this season of your life. At the end of the day, this is about discipleship (even yours!), and part of what multiplying looks like is a hard, honest moment where, for the sake of the mission, you say: these friendships aren't ending, they're just moving into a different season, a different pace. You step out so someone else gets what you already have.

"I don't feel ready or trained." Our church is more than committed to developing you. Every group leader can begin their group in Enjoy Groups. We provide leader training, a leadership coach, and weekly instruction. We walk with you in every meeting for the first 8 weeks of your group from formation to launch. And once you launch your group, we give you a group guide to help you facilitate your group each week, as well as a coach to answer any questions you have along the way.

A great next step to grow in your leadership is to check out The Essential Guide for Small Group Leaders by Bill Search. We provide a copy to everyone who becomes a leader at Stonegate. It's extremely practical help for navigating many of the situations you will face as a leader.

You can also check out our Group Leader Resources, attend the Institute, or apprentice at Redemption Weekend. (I'll link these below.) These are all phenomenal greenhouses of development for your leadership. Here's the reality... You grow into this. You don't wait until you've arrived to start.

"I'm too busy." If you don't have a group, start there first. If you do, look at the time you're already spending — bumping into people at church, at events — and put that same time toward gathering a few of them in a group. If you love Jesus, can host people, and lead a conversation, that's most of what leading a group takes.

Find the belief under the "no." There could be many reasons that keep you from leading. I'd encourage you to reflect with Jesus and a journal to dig underneath it.

Plant with friends. You don't have to lead a group alone. When we planted our group, we asked our closest friends to start the group with us. It's been amazing to have them by our side.

Invite a friend or couple that you love and multiply that joyful community you have with others.

Will You Lead a Group?

At the end of the day: more groups means the gospel gets into more of our hearts.
It means more people in our church get the care they need.
And it means we make room for those being baptized to now practice being known in community.

If you've been at Stonegate for a while, and you've benefited from the discipleship of this church family, and you feel ready to take that step — What are you waiting for?
Lead a community group. 

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