Thursday, March 26, 2009
Connecting - Whither Small Groups?
MMI links to a story on a church reorganizing its small group ministry.
Good thing - by changing focus of the group, they removed the overwhelming tendency for such groups to become therapeutic in nature - they forced the focus outward. Bad thing - there are lots of ways to do that and to present "mission" as THE way, short changes all sorts of small groups that might be called to all sorts of other things.
I wrote a while back about Evangelicalism being "a mile wide and an inch deep." Here we see another ramification of that fact. Into the void has swept psychobabble - self-absorption in substitute for the real mystical, and out from it has swept the formulaic instead of a method of building real understanding - or perhaps leading.
Both the good and the bad we find in this article flow from the same root source. A lack of real depth and exploration of faith on the part of the average Evangelical congregation. At the root of that problem lies a focus on growth rather than people. I mean look at the solution offered here - it still does not ask about the lives of the people involved - it asks how the group functions.
Do we have any record of Jesus' concern for how the disciples functioned as a group? I certainly cannot recall any. But I do recall His concern about some of them as individuals.
Technorati Tags:church, small groups, growth
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
While the Austin-based church was certainly growing, the need to deepen relationships and raise and engage disciples became larger as well.Good thing or bad thing? Gee, I think both.
And although Carter’s church had formed what they called “community groups” and congregants “signed up in droves,” most of the groups weren’t working.
“Some of them worked. Some of them formed actual community,” recalled Carter, whose church was co-founded by Christian music star Chris Tomlin.
Most, however, didn’t.
“Most of them were dismal failures. They couldn’t connect with one another. They didn’t feel like they fit in. Or they became inwardly focused and were completely not on mission to engage culture or the city or people that didn’t know Jesus. Or they began to fight and argue ... it was ridiculous,” Carter said. “We stunk at building community as a church. [We were] growing, but stinking at community.”
[...]
“What happened to this group of people that formed such a significant sense of community?” Carter posed. “[T]he answer is very simple. It’s one word: mission.”
And as Carter noted after the “ah-ha moment,” that is exactly how Jesus built community.
“He called them (his disciples) to himself, and secondly ... he called them to mission,” Carter said.
After identifying that principle, Austin Stone staff took it and applied it to the church's small group ministries, centering them on mission – around a cause or a need – rather than around “chips and dip,” fellowship, or on Bible studies alone. And the result was “missional communities” that looked far different from “community groups” the church started off with.
“Bible studies are happening. They’re loving each other. They’re walking together. They’re serving together. And this beautiful, beautiful picture of biblical, authentic, deep bond and community is forming there,” Carter reported. “And it’s happening all over our church. We have 300 ‘missional communities.’”
Good thing - by changing focus of the group, they removed the overwhelming tendency for such groups to become therapeutic in nature - they forced the focus outward. Bad thing - there are lots of ways to do that and to present "mission" as THE way, short changes all sorts of small groups that might be called to all sorts of other things.
I wrote a while back about Evangelicalism being "a mile wide and an inch deep." Here we see another ramification of that fact. Into the void has swept psychobabble - self-absorption in substitute for the real mystical, and out from it has swept the formulaic instead of a method of building real understanding - or perhaps leading.
Both the good and the bad we find in this article flow from the same root source. A lack of real depth and exploration of faith on the part of the average Evangelical congregation. At the root of that problem lies a focus on growth rather than people. I mean look at the solution offered here - it still does not ask about the lives of the people involved - it asks how the group functions.
Do we have any record of Jesus' concern for how the disciples functioned as a group? I certainly cannot recall any. But I do recall His concern about some of them as individuals.
Technorati Tags:church, small groups, growth
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
