Of the many attractions that Church Under the Bridge has (ok, so I think I just made our church sounds like a theme park...not my intention), their small groups were one that we were excited about diving into once we became involved. Designed to provide "discipleship, initmacy, and growth" on a completely voluntary level and not pressured or forced, much like my days at seminary. Admittedly, I've always tended to be skeptical of churches and other institutions that use small groups, but with CUB I've always admired their intentions. Meeting under an interstate highway overpass, there's not much room for conversation and intimacy...heck, we don't even have a bathroom! Further, the groups seemed to strive to reach across typical boundaries of money, education, race, etc. The plan for small groups is listed as one of CUB's "Nine Core Values":

Discipleship through Small Groups. With a growing group of unchurched and "baby" Christians, many of whom are living in struggles of immorality and biblical ignorance, a commitment to small groups is the basic tool for discipleship adopted by the Church. Though not ignoring Bible Studies, Sunday sermons, and other forms of discipleship, continued emphasis by small group leaders to recruit church attendees for involvement in weekly or regular small groups is important. Due to the unique needs of people in poverty or marginalization, mature Christians should lead and guide new or young believers into responsible Christian lifestyles.

Surprisingly, after a few months in a terrific group, Faith and I were asked to lead one this past winter. We took the bait and soon found ourselves scrambling to make our home presentable each week. There were the destined up's and down's and everything in between. Typical struggles were trying to maintain a healthy group size and cohesivenss. Absolute joy was found in forming true relationships with people of different backgrounds, races, handicaps, bank accounts, etc.

Now that the summer is here, our group is taking a bit of a break--meeting every other week or so to do community-building activities. Faith and I are hoping to catch our breath and finally find some encouragement, admonishment, and hope from other group leaders. Well, we're still waiting for that to happen. BUT, on one of our monthly visits to the local Christian sideshow, I mean bookstore, I came across a book entitled The Big Book on Small Groups by Jeffrey Arnold. Seeing that I've got about a dozen books waiting on me to finish the mammoth 700 pager that I'm crawling through right now, I opted not to toss out $16 on the book. However, I did get to sit down and thumb through the table of contents and introduction.

Interestingly enough, Arnold right away tries to define small groups by contrasting them to cliques. He does this in a neat list:

Cliques
closed
inward-focused
controlling leadership
past oriented
elitist
static
talk
segmented
unintentional

Small groups
open
outward-focused
spirit led
future oriented
inclusive
fluid/multiplying
do
integrated
intentional

The two lists definitely got me thinking. While I don't totally agree with everything he wrote (specfically, the idea that cliques form unintentionally and that small groups have to form on purpose), I did tend to see truth in much of the analysis. Arnold's given me a start for evaluating our small group.

Do we tend to be inward focused, static, and elitist?
Or are we truly striving to be fluid/multiplying, inclusive, open, and outward-focused?

Over this summer, perhaps this book we come across my path again. At the very least, other small group leaders at CUB will come together for some common purpose. In the meantime, our hopes are that we continue to build relationship with our small group members, while remembering to reach out to others.