Meaningful personal relationships are desired in every community, and leveraging place (where you live, work, or serve) is a great way to enhance your relational world. Focused, intentional community is necessary if people desire to learn spiritual practices, create loving accountability, build deeper friendships, and pursue the practice of biblical truth. It takes work.
That’s why it is becoming clear to churches with place-based models (and I observe this at Willow) that without intentional, life-on-life small groups the strategy is fragile. A monthly neighborhood or regional gathering is simply too little, and if you miss it for travel or illness, you have nothing—unless you have a group. At most churches members are encouraged to attend regular services, connect to a group, and serve somewhere. Some churches have mid-week gatherings but many cannot attend because of work commitments and kid’s homework. The small group is the spiritual support network where there is accountability, deeper relationships, and opportunities to grow in skills for life and leadership.
Within geographic communities wise church leaders are launching affinity groups of all kinds to meet the various needs and spiritual journeys of people in the area. In all the churches I have spoken with that use some geographic approach, groups are being formed for men, women, couples, families (with kids present), singles, serving opportunities, seekers, serving, recovery and more. Intergenerational groups, like the family groups we have developed since 1994, are being embraced by neighborhood communities and those living in apartments. So groups can become the backbone of the geographic community.
Some churches use a Sunday morning gathering as the backbone, calling them Community Groups, ABF’s (Adult Bible Fellowships) or Sunday School Classes for connection and biblical instruction. These are facilities-dependent strategies. Churches with few or no facilities, or no weekly adult-learning community, recognize the essential role of intentional small groups to provide the needed depth, leader development and spiritual growth people long for.
To be continued…
