Growing UUCF Small Groups
Ways To Form Small Groups and Make A Difference in the World—
The Natural or Organic Development Basic Outline (best done in order):
- Grow personal relationships. (party, eat together, trips, conversations) and always invite others and provide hospitality. Help people connect with one another. Know each other’s birthdays, for example. Remember that where “two or more” are gathered in his name, the spirit of Jesus will be present and alive. Don’t worry about numbers, programs. Refresh yourselves in the Spirit of God for service to and with others in the Spirit.
- Share Spiritual Passions (do spiritual autobiographies of defining or transforming movements in your lives of faith, and each person’s top three issues of commitment and how they see their own gifts they might bring to these passions.)
- Service Together in your immediate area, within your church, to another church, Random Acts of Kindness (outside church and inside church). Ideas at www.kindness.com.
- Small group worship, communion, singing, sharing joys and concerns, prayers and blessings. The UUCF has the special issue of the UU Christian Journal, the red one, for Communion Sermons and Services, and consult the website for more links to resources.
- Study Together—go through the book Christian Voices within UUism by Skinner House Press, or one of the UU Christian Journals or an issue of the Good News periodical or a book by Marcus Borg or Brian McLaren or other contemporary Christian writers. Maybe looking at the books of our recent or future speakers at UUCF events, such as Jim Mulholland, Gary Dorrien, Kathleen Norris, John Dominic Crossan, John Dear. Bring in favorite spiritually-themed web sites to share. Explore hymnals together. Do Bible Study with the Bible Workbench (www.bibleworkbench.com) or from the resources at www.textweek.com. Bring in favorite sermons or blog entries and have a discussion. See the UUCF website for more links, ideas.
- As you grow, Spin Off/Create Multiple groups. One size doesn’t fit all. Let the spirit of abundance work. Don’t fear having different groups evolving to focus on some of the particular areas above; just schedule a time, like your own regional revival, when people can be together.
- Depending on your local area and church culture and policies, you may be a group that exists just of the people connected with a single UU Church, or become a group attracting people from different UU churches, or an ecumenical area progressive Christian group with people from different faith communities. If you are a single UU church group, be sure to consult with church small group leaders and ministers.
Whether you meet once a month, twice a month, or weekly, intentionally do these:
Socialize Together, Study Together, Serve Together, Celebrate Together, Take Care of the Structures of the Group together, be that officers or rotating duties.
The UUCF Office will send an instant library to you to use. Contact RevRonRobinson@aol.com.
- Share Spiritual Passions (do spiritual autobiographies of defining or transforming movements in your lives of faith, and each person’s top three issues of commitment and how they see their own gifts they might bring to these passions.)
Also take up an annual offering for the UUCF and support the UUCF by encouraging your participants to subscribe to the Good News periodical and the UU Christian Journal and joining our free online communities. Especially UUCF-L for newcomers, UUCF-Chapters for ideas on small groups, or UUCF-Bible for bible study discussion. See elsewhere on the website for more information on these.
Use these covenant style guidelines based on the work, altered slightly, of Buddhist monk Tich Nhat Hanh: Show Up, Pay Attention, Speak The Truth In Love, Work toward outcomes, but be flexible, and When all of the four previous processes are broken, as they will be because of our blessings of human imperfection and finitude, Show Up Again.
Many recent books by progressive or emergent Christians contain small group exercises and study guides which are good resources. Some of these include Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. Another good book of resources comes from the house church or simple church movement and that is The House Church Manual by William Tenny-Brittain. All of these can be adapted easily to fit local needs and more progressive theologies.
Web resources are also helpful, such as http://www.united-church.ca/smallgroup/ from Canada, and also those at the UU site, www.smallgroupministry.net