Craig Groeschel has begun a series on small groups this week.
Why I Still Believe in Small Groups
How to Make Sure Your Small Groups Fail, Part 1
Stay tuned to the LifeChurch blog throughout the week to read the next installments.
Lots of people agree small groups (or whatever you want to call them) are the key to relational community in churches, but most people in the know agree hardly anyone is doing them well.
From my perspective, I think most small group ministries/programs fail because they are trying to meet a need that people in the community don't feel. Yet. I've expounded on that a bit in an article I wrote for the November/December 2008 issue of Rev! Magazine. That issue is apparently not available online (yet?), but the kernel of it first appeared in this previous post of mine called Small Groups Start on Sunday Morning.
1 comment:
I think most small group ministries/programs fail because they are trying to meet a need that people in the community don't feel.
Nail. Head. Bang!
From my perspective, most small group ministries also fail because they become "object oriented" rather than "other oriented". People discuss a book, passage, topic in the third person. It is few and far between that the focus ever turns to each other.
For my part (and this is the conundrum I face because I also think small groups have value) I have never been able to have a *real* conversation with more than one person at a time. One-on-one (or married couple-to-married couple) there is a completely different dynamic than if there is even one more person present. Turn it into a group of 10-15 and fa-geddabowdit.
Have you noticed this?
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