But It’s Better

I’m gonna do a series this week “announcing” some of the decisions we’ve made on what Verve is going to look like, outside of our worship services and youth/children’s ministries. How will we connect and grow people and serve our community together?

So what’s probably become obvious is that we are not going to offer traditional looking small groups. Most of us are probably familiar with a small group that meets every week from 7 to 8:45 on a weeknight and where there is a bible study and prayer time and a game and snacks and maybe a little accountability and hopefully the group has a serving the community component.

What we feel like we’ve done is extract the different things that happen in small groups and put them into venues that better serve their purposes. People are supposed to learn the Bible in small group, but we think that will probably happen better in our God Stalker University seminars. Small groups are a horrible environment for teaching, so it’s usually just discussion. In our seminars there will be some time where people break into smaller groups for discussion and application, but there will also be a big chunk of actual teaching, by someone qualified and prepared to teach on that topic.

People are also supposed to find healing and recovery in small groups, but we think that will happen better in our Grace Groups. It’s difficult to deal with people’s problems in a normal small group as it’s not really the focus of the group, and there is not enough time, and often not enough expertise. But in Grace Groups healing people’s hurts and addictions will be the whole purpose.

Small groups are also often asked to serve the community in some way, but we know that will happen better in our Guerrilla Groups. In small groups, serving is typically an after thought, and difficult to add on with everything else the group has going on. But in Guerrilla Groups serving is not an add-on, it’s the focus of the group.

We also believe that fellowship will happen in a surprisingly powerful way in the Guerrilla Groups. Yes, it is true that they will only meet once a month. But there’s something magical that happens in relationships when people serve together. (Ever been on a mission trip?)

So, though we won’t have “traditional small groups,” we’re hoping that what we have is actually better, and we feel confident that – at least for now – what we have will better fit who we are and who we’re trying to reach.