Religion as a tool

Have you read Lisa Earl McLoud's November 2004 article Did religion steal our spirituality?

In it she states that "purpose of religion is to provide people with a language, a process and a community that supports them in deepening their spirituality." Thinking of religion as a tool, or set of tools, to facilitate a process of awakening to our own inner spirituality, the proliferation of small group ministry makes sense to me. We've suffered without some essential tools for far too long.

In our UU congregations we have not done enough to create in our communities structures that assist in spiritual growth at all levels, from beginner to advanced. I have known many people to leave my church to go to do more advanced work at zen and yoga centers and other organizations offering more rigorous programs.

We will become irrelevent if we can't figure out how to offer, as some have called it, graduate level church.

How would you use a small group ministry system to offer various levels and areas of study?