Friday, January 16, 2009

What's My Small Group About?

Have you ever seen the famous episode of Seinfeld where George and Jerry come up with the pilot for a new show? When people ask them what it's about they gleefully respond "It's a show about nothing!" "Well what do the main character's do?" the exasperated television people ask them. "That's the beauty of it; nothing!" George and Jerry model the show on their own lives and think it's genius.

At our small group on Tuesday we stopped for a few minutes and I asked everyone how they felt the small group was going and asked them if we needed to tweak or change anything. I asked this because if you'd ask me what the topic of our small group is, the answer is "nothing." We don't have a topic or anything to study. We don't really have an agenda. We just get together talk and usually pray. Often we eat stuff. That's it! We basically just "do life together," kind of like on Seinfeld. We're a small group . . . about nothing.

This kind of group is an experiment for me. I had this idea that because small groups are supposed to be about fellowship (common sharing) that maybe we didn't need to have a teaching/learning time to go with it. What would happen if we just shared each other's lives? I don't think this group would be for everyone and it depends on everyone valuing the power of fellowship (and getting their discipleship needs met elsewhere) but I think that it's working. No one seems to want to make any changes. I guess nothing is something after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

having community is never "nothing"

Elayne said...

WOW! Good for your group! I've wanted to do that sort of thing for years but it just doesn't seem to work with our age group. If it's not "productive" we don't have time for it. I'm not sure if it's age related or if we just haven't found the right group of people.
When Christians get together they naturally talk about Christian things and I find it refreshing to simply talk and not "study" anything in particular. NOTHING is fantastic!!

Jobina said...

oh, we all had a good laugh over having a group about nothing! Just the way we like it!

Anonymous said...

Our church's catch phrase is 'doing life together'. There's encouragement to do 'home groups' in whatever form that works for the people involved. So, yours would fit right in. :)