Discussing and Discovering Community (Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, IL)

A book review by Jon Zabrocki

I”ve heard it said the motivation to do something in life can be traced to one of two things: either the desire to avoid pain or the desire for personal gain. For example, we pay our taxes, not because we enjoy doing it, but because the thought of the IRS agent camping out in our living room brings a certain amount of discomfort.

But these competing motivations are not equally balanced in most areas of our lives; more often the avoidance of pain outweighs the desire for gain. Paying bills will always get done before you write the next great American novel.

WHY DO WE DO THIS?

Joseph Myers, in his book Organic Community, examines the way small-group ministry is done and peels back to the motivational core of why we are doing what we do. After reading this book, I found myself asking, “Why do we do small groups this way?”

Now realize, our small-group program is the prototypical program most churches offer””we have a congregational sign-up, short-duration introductory groups, followed by long-term in-home groups that ultimately produce new leaders and groups. We have always done it this way.

Sure there have been various minor tweaks, but it has always been variations of the same thing. And for the most part, we have limited success and many of our groups have been short-lived. The bottom line is you cannot just throw a random group of people together for an eight-week study of some kind and expect them to become an instant community.

WHAT IS COMMUNITY?

Myers”s book is inspiring in that it asks us to look at community in a whole new light. He explains how people naturally connect and how community occurs, not in the master-planned, tree-lined streets of utopia, but in the real world where people are smart enough to see the snake-oil salesman walking up the block. Our one-size-fits-all mentality will not work. Myers”s recap of the various patterns of connection, presented in greater detail in his first book, The Search to Belong, is a helpful foundation to the concepts presented in this work.

His insights into measuring the success of small groups, not by number of households, but by the stories these groups generate, are liberating. As Myers puts it, “Shared stories may not fit neat and tidy into a chart, but we grow to trust them as a powerful way to measure whether what we are hoping for is taking place. Shared stories are the easiest way to ensure what is important is taken into account. Story helps us measure the life of our communities.”

WHERE IS THE ANSWER?

The frustrating thing about Myers”s book is that I kept looking for the final answer. I kept wanting him to provide the small-group model-to-end-all-models. Unfortunately, it doesn”t exist.

What this book does is provide starting points for discussion. We have already begun to look at how we invite people to join groups and have expanded our definition of what a “small group” is. We have begun to explore how Myers”s approach to change and growth can help us marshal our resources and effectively use them as we plan our next steps.

After reading this book, I revisited something said in the first chapter, “It would do us well to remember that our job is to help people with their lives rather than build infrastructures that help institutions stay alive.” Speaking for my church, we have been avoiding some pain by continuing our current small-group model. Not that it needs to be scrapped and started over, but the time has come for us to reexamine our approach and reconnect to our own community.

If you think your ministry would benefit from the same examination, I would recommend Myers”s book, Organic Community, as a place to start the discussion.

 

 

Jon Zabrocki is small groups director at Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, Illinois.

 

 

RELATED ARTICLES:

ORGANIC COMMUNITY, an excerpt of a new book by Joseph R. Myers

CREATING ENVIRONMENTS, a review of Organic Community, written by Myron Williams, Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky.

SEEING GOD’S WORK, a review of Organic Community, written by Bill Search, Southeast Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky.