Organic Small Groups
Advice on creating a place where people naturally connect.
| posted 10/06/2008
| Topics: | Authenticity, Community, Connecting, Fellowship, Organic, Relationships |
| Filters: | Coach, Group Leader, Host, Member, Train, Young adults |
| Purpose: | Discipleship |
| References: |  |
| Date Added: | October 06, 2008 |
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What do you mean by the phrase "organic community"?
What I hope to communicate is that there is a way people naturally connect with each other—that you don't have to coerce it or force it, that people are naturally doing it already.
In your book you seem to say that churches often use a "master plan" mindset instead of creating community organically. What does that look like, and why is it a bad idea?
First of all, let me say that what I mean by "master plan" in the book is a specific kind of master plan that's common in churches. I don't ever want to communicate that all master plans are bad. I mean, when I fly on an airplane, I hope it has been put together using some kind of a master plan—I really hope that that's true.
But when dealing with people's lives, what I hope is that we're thinking more as artists than assembly line workers. Almost everyone I meet wants to live their life in an artistic way. They want to be the artist of their life, or at least collaborate with God to be the artist of their life.
Our churches know this, and we genuinely want to help. So what we often do is give our people a paint-by-numbers kit—a way to ensure that when someone takes certain steps in the right order with the right colors in the right framework and stays within the lines, he or she will come out with a painting that looks how a "Christian" is supposed to look. That paint-by-numbers kit is what I refer to as a master plan—a structure way of accomplishing something that is very linear and very simplistic.
But in reality, life just doesn't happen that way. What people want is an empty canvas; they want us to show them all the different ways that a horse can be painted, how it's been painted throughout history with different creativity and different strokes and different mediums, and then send them off and say, "Go paint your life."
Why do churches tend to drift toward master-plan thinking?
I think that it comes from several things. One is that we are definitely unschooled in the art of a modern mindset. This industrial mindset says that everything works by X + Y = Z. But what we've found in things like medicine is that, when you're talking about things that are alive, things just don't happen so simply.
Second, not only are we culturally romantic toward the Industrial Age, it's just easier. It's easier to put on paper. It's not easier to do, but it's easier to put on paper and show people that you're actually accomplishing something. It's easier to measure.
How does this master-plan mindset reveal itself in small-group ministries?
One way is phrases like, "100 percent of this congregation needs to be in small groups," or, "The best way to connect here at this church is through small groups." Any time we say best in our culture, those who hear us will interpret it as only. But in reality, we should give everyone the opportunity to decide individually whether they need a small group in their particular season of life. It may be that certain people naturally build intimacy in other settings and other ways, and we should respect that.
What about all of the different models of small-groups ministry that are currently available?
I would like for us to think about small-group models in the same way we think about model human beings. For instance, some people are beauty models, meaning we find them so beautiful that they stand before us and we want to paint a picture of them or wear this certain kind of clothing, because they're a model. But there are thousands of models in the world, and none of them look the same. We can admire and even benefit from the styles of several different models without becoming permanently attached to one.
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