Online Archives

BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

Q: When is a choir more than just a choir?

A: When it becomes a small group, intent on forming, informing and transforming people to be faithful disciples.

The same answer can apply to boards of trustees, administrative councils, financial committees, and even the groups that meet to schedule nursery workers or raise money for new carpet in the sanctuary, said the Rev. Diana Hynson, of the General Board of Discipleship

"The best way to accomplish the primary task of the church is through a coordinated system of small groups," said Hynson who led a workshop for more than 150 people at the Baltimore-Washington Conference Aug. 9.

Small groups are in the DNA of United Methodists, Hynson said. They're biblical, they're practical, and they bear fruit as nothing else can.

However, too often, said the Rev. Mary Dennis, a Discipler Guide in the Western Region who helped coordinate the training, churches tend to segregate the role of spiritual formation, handing it off to only a handful of specific people. But every small group in a local church has the potential to be a spiritual community. Without this component of practicing "means of grace" the group might as well be the Rotary Club or some other social service agency.

There are several factors that differentiate spiritual small groups from their more secular counterparts, Hynson said. Among them are:

• The offering of radical hospitality;
• Being Christ-centered;
• Practicing the means of grace (worship, Bible study, Communion, prayer, Christian conferencing, fasting);
• Providing opportunities for healing and wholeness;
• Evoking and celebrating God-given gifts; and
• Equipping members to live out their baptismal vows.

In the training, participants were given the opportunity to consider small groups within their own congregation, which traditionally fall into areas of nurture, outreach, witness, leadership development or administration.

In a series of conversations, they identified how each of the small groups operates as part of a larger body of Christ - with important functions to fulfill.

While maintain their own identity and purpose, the groups should all understand that they need to reach out to receive others into their midst, encourage one another to grow in faith, equip each other as disciples so that the world, and not just the church, can be transformed.

"But regardless of the functional purpose of the small group, it is a center for Christian formation and spiritual development -- growth in holiness of heart and life. Therefore, all group leaders, regardless of their skills, knowledge and background have the potential to be spiritual leaders who practice and model the means of grace," Hynson said. "This may seem like second nature to do this in a Bible study or faith-sharing group, but it can be a part of any small group."

As churches discussed their group ministries, they were asked to consider that church groups today don't need to meet face to face but can interact online; that no group should exist simply to serve the maintenance needs of the institution and that church groups need to be constantly looking outside their walls to the extended ministry of the church.

The purpose and character of each church's small groups will evolve, Hynson said. But the essential thing is that the agents to fulfill God's call "to form, inform and transform people as disciples."

The General Board of Discipleship offers a number of tips for health groups and spiritual leaders. They include:

• Be grounded in Christian faith and practice.
• Avoid making judgments.
• Be committed to excellence.
• Be willing to learn and to lead.
• Develop a clear vision, mission and goals that all understand.
• Start and end on time.
• Keep notes of what the group considers important.
• Listen.
• Keep on task.
• Ask good questions.
• Facilitate equitable participation.

Engage conflict in a healthy and proactive way.