There are some blogs that I keep on my monthly radar to see what they're saying, and I found this at Willow Creek Association Group Life. I was connected to this article from the Washington Times talking about the aging of the small group movement. I thought the article had validity.
The concept of small groups, as we've known it and developed it, is old. Small groups have replaced Sunday School, so what will replace small groups?
Church leaders are asking the same questions they've been asking for sometime: How do we attract people to join a small group? How do we find leaders? How do we maintain leaders? How do we measure growth? How do we help people be real? There've been enough books written and conferences attended that I think we can conclude there are no solutions that fit all churches or people.
Church people are now familiar with what to expect at a small group. While it may be a positive experience, it is equally as probable that it may not. We can do our best to make it a safe and helpful experience, but as long as we have hurting people and people who exercise free will, we will be challenged.
People who haven't chosen to follow Jesus (or don't know what that means or are afraid of what that means) don't know what a small group is and have very llittle interest to find out. The only organizations that use small group, life group, home group, growth group, etc., are churches.
I mean no disrespect to all those who are strongly convinced that small groups are the way. I do think that small groups as we've known them are dying and will continue to do so.
What many people seems to be looking for: significant relationships. If we focus on ways for people to enter into relationship with one another rather than focusing on getting people into groups, we're saying, "people matter" rather than "groups matter". I think we all know that, but it's so easy to stray!
We've been intentional over the last couple years to change our language. We welcome people to group environments at GCC where they can meet some people in a short-term way based on what they're personally looking for. That may be friendship, personal change, Bible Study, or financial responsibility. (We already tried neighborhood, life stage, and interest based groups.)
All of them are short term, (6 - 10 weeks in most cases.) We don't measure sucess on whether a group is formed. We measure success on the basis that relationships are formed; they now have met a few more people that will help them better connect to the church and hopefully the message of Jesus.
A challenging and thoughtful post, Kathy. I'm enjoying the healthy discussion on your blog and Dave Treat's. (I've chimed in there and on my own blog) At the core both of you are agreeing that connecting people in real ways to each other and with Christ is paramount, and are both trying to figure out some good ways to do that. Keep it up!
I do have a question for you with regard to pastoral care. In a churches larger than what one pastor can support, small groups are often a tool used to provide pastoral care for people - putting 'love one another' in action. With groups as one option among many, what does pastoral care look like in at Granger? Is that something that you expect will happen in existing relationships and leave it at that, are groups an intentional avenue for pastoral care, or is there some kind of counseling ministry or training there?
Larry -- http://stepuptothecall.blogspot.com
Posted by: Larry | February 24, 2009 at 04:03 PM