John Van Pay is lead pastor of Gateway Fellowship Church (Assemblies of God) in San Antonio. From the start, this church plant has had a strong vision for small groups. As one of the fastest-growing churches in the country, Gateway Fellowship Church continues that model in ways that multiply disciples.  

INFLUENCE: What is the role of discipleship in multiplication?
VAN PAY: From Jesus and through a biblical first-century lens, there must be a common understanding of what is discipleship. Every pastor will say discipleship is important, but what does the Bible teach us about becoming a disciple?

Jesus was part of a small group. He was in relationship. He spent three years pouring into His disciples and equipping them. When He told them to go make disciples, their response was, “OK, I’ll just do what Jesus did with me.”

So, they met in small groups, in homes, praying and breaking bread together.

As a pastor, and for every person on our staff, we must model discipleship. We need to make disciples, but also we need to equip others to make disciples. And for us, the system is the same that Jesus used: small groups.

“As a church grows, especially quickly, there has to be a healthy leadership structure to support that.”
— John Van Pay

How do you create an environment where small groups are a priority?
We must be intentional about it, and for us it’s the heart and culture of our church. It’s how we started, and as we grow, we continue meeting in homes. It is just part of who we are.

We keep it very simple. We focus on small groups and our weekly worship service. That’s it. We do that in adults, students and children. Sometimes we’ve made church so complex that discipleship can’t happen. We have to say “no” to some good things to make sure the main thing happens.

As a church grows, what barriers have you found to keeping your small groups flourishing?
As a church grows, especially quickly, there has to be a healthy leadership structure to support that. Recruitment and retention are important, of course. But you also need to support the leaders you have.

Every five small-group leaders have a coach they report to who supports them. Each coach has led a small group in the past, and many still do. Every five coaches have a head coach over them, and every five head coaches have a lead coach. This structure means that every person along the pipeline is leading people and being led by someone.

What role do small groups play in ongoing evangelism?
Our goal for small groups is for 100 percent of our church to belong to a small group. So, we are training our small-group leaders to go door-to-door, be friends first, invite people to their homes, and then let their small group become a front door to the church.

What God does in us, He will do through us. Healthy things grow, and one sign of growth is to reproduce. When you have a healthy small group that is full of people loving the Lord, each other and the lost, they will see their friends come to Christ.  

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2018 edition of Influence magazine.