Most churches take a break from small group meetings during children’s summer vacation. Our church tried this for the first time last year. However, it seemed that many people missed the cell group meetings—so much so that more than half of the groups continued to meet. The reason we planned a break for cell groups was to give our hardworking cell leaders a time of rest.

A few years ago, I visited a church member who had returned to Korea. Before going back, they invited me for a meal and shared during our conversation that they strongly suggested having a break for cell groups. The person had been a researcher in Korea and came here to study for a year. During that year, they served as a cell leader with great dedication—adjusting their family vacations to weekdays so they wouldn’t miss Sunday gatherings and faithfully participating every week

Leading a cell group for a year helped them understand how important this ministry is in our church and how much dedication it requires from a cell leader. They told me that in order for cell leaders to continue in their role long-term, having a period of rest is essential. They shared their experience from their church in Korea. When the cell groups took a month-long break, the leaders were able to catch up on postponed personal matters, care individually for people they hadn’t had time for, and return refreshed and renewed after the break.

Preparing and delivering the Word each week without rest, engaging with unfamiliar people, and trying to bring together people with differing opinions—all of this requires significant mental and emotional effort from the leaders. Even when they take personal vacations, they still have to write cell group reports, so they don’t really get to rest.

So, it does seem that a cell group break is necessary. But as we experienced last year, if we leave it unstructured, some members may ask to continue, or groups may choose to carry on just because they always have. If that happens, some leaders rest while others continue, which could make the resting leaders feel awkward or guilty toward their group members. As a solution, we came up with the idea of “peer group gatherings.”

Given the nature of our church, there aren’t many opportunities to meet people outside of your own cell group. Some have suggested reorganizing the groups once a year to mix things up, but because of our church’s high turnover rate and the presence of many who are shy or reserved, that’s not easy. So instead, we thought it would be better to create a new type of gathering outside of small groups to give people a chance to meet others. We’ve held peer group gatherings during our barbecues, and many gave positive feedback, saying it was a good way to meet people they hadn’t known before.

So for the month, we plan to form peer groups—not necessarily by exact age, but grouping together people of similar age ranges, especially where numbers are low. We’ll ask someone other than the regular cell leader to guide these meetings, giving others a chance to show leadership. We also plan to support those leading the groups by meeting with them in advance to ease the burden. In August, our sermons will also follow a specific theme to support this initiative.

Some people might really miss the cell groups during the month-long break, but I hope our leaders can use this time to recharge, and that others see it as a great opportunity to meet new peers and build good friendships. I truly believe it will be a meaningful and enriching time.