“Are Small Groups Just For White People?

Why don’t more ethnic churches have a small groups ministry?

by Sam O’Neal

I came across an interesting interview in the recent issue of Leadership Journal. The subjects of the interview were from River City Community Church—a multi-ethnic ministry located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. Leadership talked with Daniel Hill, who founded the ministry, along with several key leaders of the church.

Here’s a brief excerpt of their conversation:

What kind of person is attracted to River City?
Hill: Most of our new people are white. But there’s a revolving door with the white community here. They have a romantic notion of being part of a multi-ethnic church, so many of them get frustrated and leave when they realize how difficult it is to erase their assumptions about the way church is supposed to be.

What assumptions do white people carry into the church?
Arloa Sutter (pastor of community life): When I came I said, “Let’s just start small groups! Everyone wants to be in a group, right?” The fact is small groups aren’t as important to other ethnicities as they are to white people.

Small groups are a white church thing?
Hill: White people rely on small groups to connect. Other ethnicities form community more organically, more relationally. Immigrant communities find fellowship within extended families. In the city a lot of community happens on the front porch or sidewalk. So non-whites aren’t as eager to set up structures and systems like small groups.

Carlos Ruiz (coordinator of community groups): I think whites really value efficiency.

Antoine Taylor (director of Sunday morning ministries): And releasing that value is really hard for a lot of them. They perceive other ways of operating as inefficient or disorganized.

Jennifer Idoma-Motzko (elder): They say it’s not the right way to do church. And I respond bluntly by saying, “You mean it’s not the white way to do church.”

Obviously, there are some pretty strong statements there, and they raise several important questions:

1. Are small groups primarily a “white” way to do church?

2. If we assume that non-white ethnicities connect more easily and organically than whites, does that mean small groups have no use in those communities? Or can they be a supplement to those organic connections?

3. Are small groups really about efficiency? Is that the appeal they bring to churches, whether white or otherwise?

I’ve got some thoughts on these questions, but I would really like to hear what all of you think before I let loose.

You can read the full interview with the leaders of River City Community Church in Aug/Sep issue of our digizine, Catalyst Leadership.”

So, I have a few questions as well…

1. I definitely agree that other ethnicities often develop community more naturally than white people do. Is this a fault of white people/communities? Why or why not? And, if so, how do we change?

2. Pertaining to ’small groups’ that form naturally in other ethnicities and are Christian: Are these naturally occurring groups Christ centered, as in, are they hanging out for the sake of hanging out, or is there a bigger purpose behind them? Are they discussing how to grow closer to God and how to reach people around them or are they primarily just for community/hanging out?

I’ll hold off on any more questions for a bit. Your thoughts???

I’ve then watched as the pastors of these congregations take up lofty offerings to accomplish lofty goals from their impoverished congregations while if they would just sell 1 of there 5+ $100,000+ automobiles could accomplish these goals immediately. It just seems to me like there’s a huge disparity between these teachings and the way that Jesus lived here on the earth.

Anyway, take a gander at these videos below and then let me hear your thoughts…

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

P.S. – more blogs to come. We haven’t had internet for a bit and I’ve had a lot swirling around in my head as well as fun NYC experiences that we’ve had so far. BUT, yesterday, we finally got internet, so, it’s good to be back in the real virtual world!

We got the call from our realtor yesterday that we were approved for our first choice of apartments. THANK YOU JESUS! God was faithful, even when we struggled to trust Him. Wow…

It’s a bit smaller than our place in Atlanta and about 2 times the rent. That’s not bad considering when we first looked in December/January of last year we were expecting 3 or 4 times our Atlanta rent and a much smaller place than we got.

I put together a silly little video of our apartment to the tune of U2’s ‘New York’ which you can view below. Welcome to New York!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

A few weeks ago Jess was in the dentist office and I was waiting in the lobby. I picked up the National Geographic issue on the table which was all about the discovery of NYC, etc… really interesting stuff. There was an ad inside for a National Geographic Special Edition on the ‘State of the Earth 2010′ and the urbanization that’s happening around the globe. Needless to say, we left the dentist office and immediately went and purchased both.

As we read through the ‘State of the Earth…’ issue we were amazed. An entire section was dedicated to the urbanization of the globe. It was yet another reminder as to why God has called us to reach cities. Last year was the first time the earth became more urban than rural and that’s only going to go up from there!

Definitely a worthwhile read and a motivator to reach cities!

You can read more about the issue here…

The Springs currently has 4 or 5 services going on between Saturday and Sunday. They’re doing a series called ‘Servolution’ and wanted to impact their city which has been ravaged by the economic crisis more than most. They found out that a lot of the food banks were starting to get short on supplies. So, they took up an offering So, at the end of each service they got practical. They rented a uhaul size truck and took it to Wal-Mart. They challenged their people to head straight from the service to Wal-Mart and buy stuff to fill the truck with. People showed up…

(pulled from Ron Sylvia’s twitpic)

1 truck turned into 7 trucks and 7+ tons of food. There were empty shelves at Wal-Mart because of all the food they purchased (see above pic). And, while people were shopping other people were asking what they were doing. They’d tell what was going on and other people started joining in to fill the truck/s. It spilled over from the church and into the community.

Way to lead the way Church @ the Springs!!!

(quick backstory… we’ve positioned ourselves to move to NYC, all we need is to sell our car. As soon as that happens we’re on our way…)

We woke up this morning and attended LifeChurch.tv. Great message by Craig Groeschel. We then decided to go grab some breakfast. We’re staying at a friends apartment and were on our way across the parking lot to our car when God hit me. “It’s time to go.” It hit me strong. Really strong. So strong that I didn’t even hear my phone ringing, my wife got my attention and said, ‘hey, your phone…’.

I answered to find someone calling about our craigslist ad. They said they’d meet us right about that time we’d be finishing breakfast. Perfect.

We finished breakfast and called them to find out where to meet them, they were literally about 100 yards from us. Great couple with one car looking for another one. He drove it around for a bit and said he wanted it. We VERY briefly negotiated price and we got the price we wanted. Banks aren’t open today, so, he gave us a deposit to hold the car and we’re meeting tomorrow morning at the bank to make the swap. Awesome.

(Backtrack again… we’re moving without an apartment to move into. We need a place to stay for a few weeks while we look for an apartment up in the NYC area…)

So, I text our pastor to let him in on the good news that we’re ready to head up to NYC. Now all we need is a place to stay (kind of important I think). And here’s what was happening on his end…

He was getting up at church to tell Grace (our church family in NYC) that we were selling the car and heading up. Text arrives that the car sold. He tells church that all that’s needed is a place for us to stay for a bit. Guy in the church walks up and says, ‘hey, I’ll be out of town for the next 2 weeks, here’s the keys to my place’.

So, let me go through this again really quickly…

God Speaks… (1 hour later) Car sells… Announcement made… (2 minutes later) text from Pastor Dave in response to our text that we sold the car: ‘We just got a place for u while u look for an apt.’

And that is what God does…

I’ve been loving what Ben Arment has been up to lately. He’s currently working on a project called Story. Head on over to the website and check it out. Awesome stuff.

I thought it would be appropriate as my first ’cause’ post to highlight an opportunity with the conference. They’re trying to scholarship tickets to the conference for pastors who can’t chip in. Maybe you’d like to get involved…

Check out Ben’s post on scholarship-ing a pastor here.

I’ve created 5 different categories. I’ve categorized all my old posts (not necessarily, super accurately, but, that’s ok…). Here’s how they break down…

Category 1 – Living – This category will just be stuff that’s strictly me. Probably not too deep or anything, just me…

Category 2 – Divine – Here’s where I’ll post ministry related stuff, revelations that I receive from God, and, just generally, God related things.

Category 3 – Urban – We’re moving to NYC in about 2 weeks. Here’s where we’ll post stuff about why we’ve moved to NYC as well as exciting, funny, weird, etc., experiences that we may (or most certainly will) have. Remember, we’re from the south. We’re bound to have some good stories!

Category 4 – Visual – Pretty much what it sounds like. This will be a place for visual media. Inspiring pictures, humorous videos, etc… All that fun stuff.

Category 5 – I really wanted a place where I can highlight what I think are some worthwhile causes to check out or get involved with. Here’s where I’ll post that stuff.

There’s also an ‘about’ page, but, that’s pretty much what it sounds like.

So, there you go, a little more focused blogging forthcoming…