This is great advice from John Burke in No Perfect People Allowed: Creating a Come-as-You-Are Culture in the Church:

“What I’ve found in the past twenty years of leading small groups is this: if you help people feel at ease and enjoy being together, opening up to each other early on, you’ll have years of time to truly go deep in study and prayer. If your group fails to achieve that homestyle, laughing-around-the-dinner-table feel, your group will never become the healing, life-giving family environment God intended. Groups who do life together, share a meal together, play sports together, have game nights, and serve others in need describe the early church community who ‘worshipped together…and shared their meals with great joy…’” (p.292)