Small groups are the building blocks of small churches

Our church is typical of many established, small town churches.  Three years ago, our congregation was made up mostly of older adults.  Of course, older adults are the backbone of many congregations.  They provide a higher-than-average amount of financial support, they attend with above-average faithfulness, and they love their church.

Our senior adults are wonderful, and they realized that for our church’s future we needed to reach out to younger adults and young families.  But the mass mailings we had tried did not produce new visitors.  To add to our difficulty, the region in which we live has been in an economic downturn for several years.  Few jobs exist for younger adults, and few young families were moving to our area.

But three years ago we started a younger adult Sunday School class with about 5 younger adults.  I’m using the term “younger” because age is a relative thing.  We needed to reach folks in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s, but we weren’t going to do that all at once.  We believed that if we started lowering the age-range, we would eventually reach young families with young children.

Yesterday at our church-wide covered-dish lunch, 12 children were running around the fellowship hall while the adults finished eating and talking.  Six of the 12 were preschoolers; 5 are elementary schoolers; and, 1 is a middle schooler. These are our class members’ children.  As the sound of giggles and laughter bounced around the room, all of us were glad to see children playing around us, again.

Our class also had a record attendance yesterday with 19 present. A couple of our class members were out, so the number could have been higher.  These younger adults have already begun taking leadership positions.  One was elected a deacon last year, another takes a turn once a month leading our children’s time during worship, and 6 of the class members are leading our new Family Ministry Team.

Three years ago we started with five.  Now there are over 20.  Our class with their children now account for 20-30% of our attendance each week.

Starting a new class or small group isn’t glamorous, and it’s not a new idea.  But, starting a new class is a strategy that works.  I remember years ago Lyle Schaller, author and church consultant, saying “new people need new groups.”  If you want to attract new people to your church, start a new class, be patient, practice hospitality, and watch as the group grows and matures.  Small groups are still the building blocks of small churches.

The church as abbey

Last year, several of us in the Fuller DMin Missional Leadership program had dinner with Alan Roxburgh one evening.  Alan is one of the DMin adjunct professors, and author of The Sky Is Falling, co-author of The Missional Leader, and contributor to Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder, the book that started this whole missional conversation.Since reading about the early Celtic Christians, I have had the idea that a local church could function like the old Celtic abbey.  So, I asked Alan about this concept of church as abbey at dinner.

Alan mentions in his book, The Missional Leader, that we need a new concept of church leadership in a reimagining of the eccleisal role of abbott or abbess.  My thinking fits Alan’s at this point — to have an abbott or abbess, you must also have an abbey which would be the local church.  Alan has visited the Northumbria Community, an early Celtic Christian region, now home to a modern-day neomonastic movement.Roots In Celtic Christian Communities

In Celtic Christian life, the monastic group established their community near a town or well-traveled crossroads.  Unlike later monastic communities, the Celtic Christian communities were not cloistered — they were open to passers-by, neighbors, and townspeople.  When disputes arose, the village knew that refuge and peace could be found inside the walls of the Celtic Christian compound.  As these communities of Christ grew, they became the centers of the community.

The abbeys were resources for worship, commerce, craft and trade, advice, hospitality, evangelism, catechesis, healing, care, and a host of other needs and ministries.  The surrounding pagan community learned that the abbey was a place where they could go for help, food, shelter, and guidance.  The concept, according to George Hunter’s Celtic Way of Evangelism, was that “belonging comes before believing.”  The monks were quick to welcome the stranger, inquirer, refugee, and others into their midst.

The Church-As-Abbey Reimagined For Today

The modern day church-as-abbey would function much the same way.  Worship, prayers, instruction, meals, and hospitality would be practiced there.  But also the church would be the “hub” in the “wheel of ministry.”  Spokes in the wheel could be house churches, small groups, ministry and social action groups, alternative worship experiences, off-campus locations, and off-site ministries.  All of these would relate to the church-as-abbey as the central resource for coordination, planning, prayer, and support.

Small groups would be connected to the abbey through the use of in-house instructional materials available by video and podcast.  Small group leaders would be facilitators using the resources from the abbey thereby preserving the clarity and consistency in teaching.

Small groups of all functions would worship at the church-as-abbey at least monthly, reporting to the abbey on a regular basis.  Small group leaders would be held accountable for ministry design, content, and outcomes.

Small churches could act as abbeys, too, without buying additional land, building additional buildings, or hiring additional staff.  The key would be creating groups external to the abbey, but related to the abbey to maintain the practice of the community.

The abbey would adopt a “rule of life” — a set of practices which its members followed, thus identifying them with the abbey’s particular philosophy and calling.  This rule, patterned after the Rule of St. Benedict, would at a minimum include regular prayer, Bible reading, worship, and service to others.  Specifics would be developed by each abbey in conversation with leaders and members of the community.

The church-as-abbey solves many of the problems of engaging the area surrounding a church.  Most ministry happens outside the church, with the church as resource.  Individuals are not first invited to “church,” but are invited, for example, to join a social action group that feeds the homeless each Tuesday night.  Churches need to get past the idea that only our church members can be involved in ministry projects.  Participants relate to the church as abbey — as resource — to their ministry long before they feel any need to join the abbey.

Only as the church moves out into the world to do the work of Christ in the way of Jesus, will we again find the vitality which the Christian community has lost to institutionalism.  The church as abbey has great potential for each church, regardless of size, to engage and befriend its ministry area — its geographical “parish.”  More work needs to be done on this concept, but I am convinced it holds great promise for the future of the church. 

6 Shifts in the Church and How Your Church Can Benefit

Today’s spiritual earthquake 

Several years ago, I was in Taiwan on business.  About 2 o’clock in the morning, I gradually awoke to the sound of the bathroom door repeatedly slamming into the wall.  The bed was shaking, too.  As the fog of sleep cleared from my head, I jumped out of bed, only to find the floor was moving.  I was in the middle of an earthquake!

Fortunately, the quake subsided quickly, and the damage to Kaoshiung was minimal.  But I never forgot the experience of having the world shift under my feet.  The same thing is happening in the world of church today — the ground is moving under our feet. 

Six major shifts are taking place in churches — large and small — and here’s how your church can benefit:

1. The shift from observation to participation.  A 23-year old graphic designer recently said about her generation, “We’re creators.”  We are in the age of the prosumer that Alvin Toffler predicted in Future Shock — those who create and participate in their creation.  Content on the internet is the prime example.  The age of the spectator in worship, learning, and service is over.  People want to creat worship and participate in ministry, not just watch someone else.
2. The shift from religious education to spiritual formation.  During the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, the education model drove church programs.  Church buildings were designed with small classrooms.  Churches enlisted “teachers” and planned curriculum.  Now the shift is to spiritual formation.  Willow Creek has just discovered that church programs, based only on an educational model, don’t make better disciples.  Spiritual formation — building in the practices of faith in everyday life — produces “self-feeders” that Bill Hybels now says he wants to produce.
3. The shift from “what does it mean” to “what does it say to me” in Scripture reading.  Ancient practices like lectio divina make followers of Christ aware of what Scripture is saying to them, not just what it means in its historical setting.  Paul wrote, “All Scripture God-breathed.”  The old view interpreted that text as the explanation for how scripture was inspired.  The new view interprets that passage as meaning God is present today in the pages of Scripture speaking to us now. 
4. The shift from “hereafter” to the “here-and-now.”  Following Christ is no longer just about going to heaven when you die.  Rick Warren’s PEACE plan for aid to developing countries, and his ministry to those with AIDS has broadened awareness of God’s work now, not just in eternity.  Care for creation, service to community, and engagement with culture are examples of good news in this life, too.
5. The shift from the individual to the community.  For the past 100+ years, we’ve focused on the individual in personal salvation and spiritual growth.  We now realize community is both the incubator and facilitator of our spiritual lives.  New expressions of community are helping people find their calling, their passions, and a new relationship with God.
6. The shift from belief to practice.  People want to actively express their spiritual life, not just agree to a set of beliefs.  More church groups are now focused on “doing” rather than “talking.”  In pre-industrial society, the apprentice learned by doing, not just listening or watching.  The spiritual director of the ancient abbeys provided guidance in how to live, not just what to believe. 

 Your church can benefit from these shifts in the religious landscape by offering your congregation new ways of living the old story.  Experiment with small groups.  Do short term projects.  Introduce ancient spiritual practices.  Try on new ways of being Christian yourself. 

Of course, many of your members will be more comfortable keeping things as they are.  But new generations of younger adults want the experience about which John wrote,

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  — I John 1:1