An article based on interviews with Gordon Oaks, Sheila Brown, and Terry Kassa.
Gordon Oaks was well aware of the number of main-line churches that were dying. He had five years before retiring as minister at St. Paul's United Church in Edmonton. "How was I going to spend those last five years?" was his question. "I could let things drift, or say there is potential here."
Gordon knew his people and their potential. He also believed in the importance of small groups. All too often, he had found, lay people looked to him to do all the leading. His insight: "If I'm not equipping lay people for their ministry, I'm not doing my job. Unless we begin to do ministry in a different way, empower lay people, the church will continue to decline."
"Gordon took a bunch of us to Calgary about six years ago to listen to success stories," Sheila Brown remembers. Sheila has been a member of the congregation since the early '80s, and has served as Board chair. That experience, together with a small house church that had been established in the congregation, were seeds that could be grown.
The first phase for Gordon involved reading all the material on small groups he could get his hands on. Books like Loren Mead's Once and Future Church provided an overarching picture of the current situation. Embracing Trans-formations was the theme of material from the United Church. The focus of Gordon's study leave became church transformation and he visited churches that were trying to do things differently. He also read all of Easum and Bandy's books on church transformation - like Spiritual Redwoods, Addicted Churches, Dancing with Dinosaurs, and Sacred Cows Make Good Burgers.
The
focus the second year was to bring more people on board. "If I attend any
conference, there are lay people that go with me," was Gordon's resolution.
Teams of people attended several events in Edmonton and Calgary. The Board and
the congregation got regular reports on what the lay people were hearing. All
of the ministry team? Kathryn , Denise (the Youth and Young Adult minister)
and Gordon?were together in supporting this commitment and approach.
At that point the ground had been prepared and it was time to begin a training process. Letters were sent to any who were seen as potential leaders for small groups. When the replies came back, sixteen people had signed up. Both Gordon and Kathryn had led cell groups so they knew about them first hand. They shared leadership of the facilitator training sessions. The term "Cell Group" was chosen as the best term for this small group ministry. A cell is a living organism, and the idea was that these could multiply and divide as they grew and expanded. It is also a term that other churches involved in transformation have used.
Each training session began with people in two cell groups of eight people, the ideal size for this small group ministry model. This was to give people an actual experience of being in a cell group. Gordon and Kathryn each facilitated a group. In the second half of the evening everyone came together for a session on the theory of small group ministry. Each person did a Spiritual Gifts inventory that Gordon and Kathryn adapted. The approach in the cell group sessions was to ask people to identify their spiritual gifts and see how they were being called to exercise these gifts. People were challenged to see themselves exercising a ministry, based on living out of their spiritual gifts.
The expectation was that groups would be launched in September. The initial group of leaders, however, wanted longer to meet and consolidate their learning. Training for a second group of facilitators began in September, and by January what had come to be called the "mother group" was ready to start cell groups.
Sermons were used to talk about cell groups and spiritual gifts. The program was widely advertised. The approach in the congregation was to not just ask lay people to fill a slot in the church's life and work, but to challenge people with the question, "What are the gifts you have to give?" Gordon became clear it is in using their gifts that people find the greatest fulfilment in their Church and Christian life.
At the beginning (in January), there were ten cell groups with two trained facilitators for each. People committed themselves to eight weeks, meeting in private homes. At the end of that time they could decide if they wanted to continue. Most groups did continue until June.
Cell groups are built around four pillars:
1. An opportunity for socializing and fellowship includes sharing what has happened
during the week.
2. A study focus that encouraged personal and spiritual growth.
3. Each group has an opportunity to pray together in a closing prayer circle,
something that is a "steep learning curve" for many United Church
people.
4. Once people get to know each other in the group, there is an outreach component
- serving others in some way.
The facilitators, of which there are some 40 now, get together twice a year for a potluck supper to evaluate how the groups are doing and to enjoy each other's company.
Excitement in the Making
|
Cell Group Purpose
· Friendship & Support |
What Gordon has found exciting is that the Cell Group leaders are really alive in their faith and have a real sense of ministry. They see changes happening in people, and they see real support for one another in the groups they are leading.
"It has been exciting getting to know a few people in the congregation really well," says Terry Kassa, one of the facilitators and a Board member for the past three years. "At church I seek out those people and find out how their week has been. I have a deeper relationship with the people in my church, and have developed some really deep friendships."
Sheila Brown's group is involved in a Bible Study. "I don't think we would have initially agreed to provide pastoral care for one another, but now that is what is happening."
A concern on the part of some in the beginning was that cell groups would be divisive in the church, their members forming cliques. The opposite has been the experience at St. Paul's. There is more participation in leading worship, and the atmosphere has become more warm and caring. At coffee time, people really connect with each other. Worship has become more meaningful, and there is an air of excitement.
"A couple of years ago," Gordon reports, "there were only a couple of people we could ask to lead a pastoral prayer. Now there are many." Cell groups have provided leadership in worship.
Cell groups are a place where people can talk about issues, about faith, about the care people need. If there has been a challenge or a key topic raised in the Sunday sermon, the small groups provide a place for further exploration. On the other hand, feedback from cell groups provides fuel for Sunday sermons and services.
It has changed the Board and Committee structure. The Board sees its role not as controlling but as setting policy and encouraging ministries and programs. Committees are operating more as cells that support one another as well as carry out a task. The Board sees itself as permission giving rather than controlling. If a cell group wants to do something, they are encouraged to just go ahead and advertise and see if there is a response. One group took the initiative in coordinating the congregation's support for two families from Kosovo and helped them get established in Edmonton.
"Outreach is a crucial part of the cell groups," Gordon insists. One group with the theme "the power within" decided to take on a project in South Africa. They sold muffins after church and had an African lunch, raising $1,000 for starting small businesses in South Africa. A different cell group raised funds for a centre in another part of Africa.
"What cell groups do within a congregation is give some autonomy to individuals," reports Terry Kassa. "We have done away with the hierarchical format where you have to ask permission. If an outreach project comes out of a cell group, they just do it."
Sheila Brown estimates that there are some 100 to 150 people involved in cell groups at St. Paul's, somewhere between one-third and one-half of the active members in the congregation.
Rocks on the Road
|
Cell Groups at St. Paul's
· Faith Exploration |
The process has not been without its challenges. The first obstacle was fear of the unknown. People asked, "Are we going to lose what we have? How are things going to change?" Many do not want change, even when their congregation is faced with declining membership and youth are notable by their absence.
Some people in the congregation had bad experiences with "touchy feely" groups during the '60s. Those fears had to be dealt with.
A number of people said they couldn't make a commitment for the three months. For some of these, the four-week sessions during Lent met their needs. Others felt their study and spiritual needs were being taken care of elsewhere. In setting up a small group ministry, there needs to be flexibility and a sensitivity to respond to differing needs and lifestyles in the congregation. There also has to be an opportunity for more intense participation by those who want to delve more deeply into Christian spirituality.
The process requires patience. It takes time. It was three years at St. Paul's from the beginning until the first cell groups were formed.
Some of the people taking facilitator training didn't feel ready to lead a group. That is all right. A number have put their leadership training to work in other areas of the congregation's life and in the community where they live.
Groups often decide their focus based on the particular interests of the people involved. Once they start meeting, others join them because they like that particular topic. A good focus from the beginning has been found to be an important asset.
At St. Paul's, some groups meet weekly, some every two weeks, (which is the suggested model), and some are meeting monthly (they met more frequently at the beginning). Some decide to meet for eight weeks, others make a commitment to continue through the church program year-September to May.
Cell groups pop up when there is leadership available and where some special interest or need captures people's attention. As a result of a Sunday worship on the environment, for example, two people signed up for training to facilitate a cell group on the environment. After attending Diarmuid Ó Murchú's talk at a Pastoral Care Conference, one person decided to start a cell group based on Ó Murchú's book Reclaiming Spirituality. He had taken the training and was waiting for the right topic to come along.
In it for the Long Term
St. Paul's clergy see their role as planting seeds, then training lay people for the ministry of the church. "As leaders our job is to do that," says Gordon Oaks, "rather than just being the ones doing ministry." The key to a thriving congregation is helping people to discover new ways of using their spiritual gifts and doing their ministry. "As Christians we all have a ministry. The key is to acknowledge it and to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us. The church's role is to encourage and support people in those ministries."
Small group ministry "has to be seen as a new way of doing church, not just a new program," says Gordon. "Our evaluation at this point is that it is working."
Gordon
Oaks is now retired from St. Paul's United Church, but remains an active member
of the Doctor of Ministry Committee at St. Stephen's College. You can reach
him by e-mail: goaks@ualberta.ca.
Congregational Life Newsletter Vol. 9 No. 1 December 2002