UU Cell Groups

Email: Peter, We have two leaders in many of our groups. With co-facilitators the group is still resistant to growth and division. I don't understand how two leaders drive the next step of the group life cycle. (permission to use excerpt)

Many small group ministries do not expect the group leaders to do much outside of the group time. All the "ministry" takes place during the group sessions. This is a recipe for generating long term, closed, stable groups.

Much of the SGM literature uses the term cell groups. This is because the successful christian mega churches follow a model that is based on the life cycle of living biological cells. This is something which pleased me as it meant I could go directly to the source for a guide to growing small groups. No, not the Bible --- biology text books. I suggest you check out some biology illustrations of cell division.

For the sake of this post, let's call UU small groups that follow a model based on the life cycle of living cells UU Cell Groups.

Here are some characteristics of UU Cell Groups:

Span of care
Span of care is limited to 10, but it is always restricted to half of the small group. The group leader and apprentice split up the group, taking responsibility for the shared ministry and leadership development of that subgroup. Well, the subgroup and the other leader.

What about the other half of the 10? That is left for people who will become part of the new groups which each of the two leaders will lead.

The community of the cell
There is always an intentional community of each UU Cell Group which extends beyond the 8-10 attending the session. This includes friends of people in the group and others peripherally connected to the leaders and group members through church life. This larger community of the cell is analogous to the inside of a living cell. The nucleus of the cell -- the genetic core -- represents the group session and official members.

The shared ministry of each group focuses on the members of the cell community, not just the nucleus. Tending to the needs of the community keep the nucleus or group wall porous.

Growing the cell community
The cell community must grow in order for a group to naturally grow and divide. It is the people in the community which become the new members of the group. Each of the two cell leaders focus on their half of the group outside of the session time, such as on sundays and at church functions, and ideally for a periodic social event. By being in relationship outside of the group, each leader develops relationships with her half of the group and their friends.

Since the subgroups have stronger relationships than the group at large, the session group, members are more open to change in that group. Over time, the people in the cell community clustered around each subgroup start to take on the size and appearance of a new small group of 8-10.

As the subgroups and their informal relationships with other cell community members strengthen, they may discuss forming a new group. Upon identifying an apprectice leader and host in each subgroup, now of 8-10 members each, these two subgroups may start meeting as two new daughter groups.

If the process of sharing the ministry continues with the new leaders, the group will again start to form two new subgroups, maintaining the intimacy and quality of ministry. And on it goes...

Cell Cycle
UU Cell Groups on spend a small portion of their time with the core members meeting for a session. In fact it is only for about 4 hours per month. The rest of the time is spent being in relationship with the community of the cell, the group members and the people they are close with both in and out of church. But for this to work, you must have two leaders with an expectation of participating in the community. This does take more time, but it is closer to what people really want!

A higher bar
Fewer people will sign on to be leaders of groups following the model of UU Cell Groups. But the cool thing is that UU Cell Groups grow. Plain old UU small Groups do not! You can identify a great facilitator and explain the model to them. Let the majority of your groups carry on. But try raising the bar...

I am in the process of writing up a more thorough resource on my UU Cell Group approach. If you have comments and or ideas, please email me. --Peter.