A Church of Small Groups
"There are two primary types of churches - churches with small groups and churches of small groups. Here's the difference: A church with small groups offers its attendees a buffet of ministry options to choose from....Small groups are just one of the many options. A church of small groups focuses on and runs all ministry through the small groups system."
- from Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups
- from Activate: An Entirely New Approach to Small Groups
Connecting through a small group allows us to connect more fully with ourselves, with others, and with something larger. Small groups help us move from a social connection into a deeper, spiritual connection. And small groups help us practice our covenantal faith, learn together, and become better human beings together.
What would it look like for us to be a church of small groups? To begin, it would mean that all of our "task" groups would consider their gatherings small group gatherings, and would use the practices of small groups. It would mean that relationships and how we work out our differences in community are always the core questions before us. It would mean that as we gather in groups of 6 or 8, we are already a "body" of the church, empowered to discern where and how the spirit of love and life is moving us now. It would require a certain discipline, a commitment, a prioritizing of deep learning and deep relationship. And it would mean we would create a clear and simple path for our members - stages to move through - throughout their stages of membership and faith formation, all carried out in the contexts of small groups.
To be clear - this does not mean you stay with the same 6-8 people and this is your designated small group! On the contrary, a church of small groups is constantly inter-changing group members after sufficient time to grow deep and trusting relationships. Over a few years, members in the church will have had the opportunity to know a wide variety of other members in meaningful way. We all benefit from this cross-pollination of learning and understanding - particularly because it will mean building relationships with people that you may have never otherwise gotten to know.
A church of small groups supports the concept of a simple path of membership and faith formation, offering members 2 or 3 solid ways to keep moving forward along their spiritual path towards a greater sense of spiritual maturity, and the quest towards becoming your best self. Rather than a million different ways you might choose to practice your Unitarian Universalism, a church of small groups offers you just a few. The best few. The ways we have discovered will best allow you to go deep, to connect fully, to bring more love and goodness to the world.
How this is evolving at Foothills:
Where we might go next:
What would it look like for us to be a church of small groups? To begin, it would mean that all of our "task" groups would consider their gatherings small group gatherings, and would use the practices of small groups. It would mean that relationships and how we work out our differences in community are always the core questions before us. It would mean that as we gather in groups of 6 or 8, we are already a "body" of the church, empowered to discern where and how the spirit of love and life is moving us now. It would require a certain discipline, a commitment, a prioritizing of deep learning and deep relationship. And it would mean we would create a clear and simple path for our members - stages to move through - throughout their stages of membership and faith formation, all carried out in the contexts of small groups.
To be clear - this does not mean you stay with the same 6-8 people and this is your designated small group! On the contrary, a church of small groups is constantly inter-changing group members after sufficient time to grow deep and trusting relationships. Over a few years, members in the church will have had the opportunity to know a wide variety of other members in meaningful way. We all benefit from this cross-pollination of learning and understanding - particularly because it will mean building relationships with people that you may have never otherwise gotten to know.
A church of small groups supports the concept of a simple path of membership and faith formation, offering members 2 or 3 solid ways to keep moving forward along their spiritual path towards a greater sense of spiritual maturity, and the quest towards becoming your best self. Rather than a million different ways you might choose to practice your Unitarian Universalism, a church of small groups offers you just a few. The best few. The ways we have discovered will best allow you to go deep, to connect fully, to bring more love and goodness to the world.
How this is evolving at Foothills:
- As of mid-November 2013, we had 14 small groups up and running at Foothills.
- The Board regularly integrates small group practices into our meetings.
- The Worship Learning Community aligns with the practices of small groups.
- We have established a Small Group Ministry Steering Council, dedicated to setting a vision of becoming a church of small groups.
- We have simplified the "New" stage of membership to include: Connections Dinner, Explorations (Small Groups for those who are New) and Path to Membership. These are the 3 things we promote as a part of your early stages of discovering the church and Unitarian Universalism. This simplified process is already showing to be very effective; in the first year we have seen over 60 people participate.
Where we might go next:
- What's next after being "new" to the church? What simple process do we recommend you take on next? We are discovering and experimenting with this now.
- We must expand our small groups offering, with the hopes of having 20 small groups running regularly by next year.
- What if every committee transformed itself into its own small group?
- The Worship Learning Community is beginning a monthly vespers service with the hopes of serving small group facilitators. We need also to establish routine ways to train and support these vital leaders for our church.