Groups vs Small Groups

When I talk about opportunities to meet other people at GCC, I've been trying to shift my language. I've done it randomly for about the past year. I'm going to be more intentional about it.

Something bugged me about multiple adjectives being used for our groups. I don't know if this will make sense outside my brain, so hang with me.

"Kathy has responsibility for our Small Group ministry. It includes small groups, support groups, Bible groups, etc." Huh? If a small group ministry describes all these groups, then what's a small group? (We define friendship as the focus.) Are the other groups second class citizens to the real thing, small groups? (That answer is, "No!")

In our Groups ministry, there are four different types of groups based on focus: friendship, support, study, serve. (One exception: our Merge groups focus on life stage for 18 - 25 year old adults.)

We are way short of our volunteer teams being seen as serve groups, from a ministry perspective or from a participant perspective. I don't know if or when we'll make that shift, but we clearly see volunteer teams as a way to connect in relationship with a shared focus on serving others.

There's something to all this...still trying to figure it out. I'll be exploring this a bit more during the Wired Churches workshop on groups. The next one is Monday, February 11. Hope to see you!

Comments

[Denise S]

Kathy, I love the shift to "groups are groups"! It's true that our Turning Point facilitator teams are, in and of themselves, groups. We are developing relationships with each other as we serve our group members. We've become friends who share a common passion and vision. Serve Group describes us very well.