Social Capital and Small Group Ministry

Recently the UUA held a conference for our large congregations, those over 550 members. Held in Boston, MA, this event's featured speaker was Don Cohen, co-author of In good Comapany: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work.

Attending this event on behalf of our UU SGM Network was... what shall I call it... affirming. In his presentation Cohen upheld small groups as one of the two most important factors in generating social capital, or an organizations wealth or resources in terms of human connections, trust, social/personal networks, and sense of community. The other was have a shared higher or larger purpose.

We are just scratching the surface of our potential to use small group ministry to multiply our ministry and effectiveness in bringing about social change and justice.

Even ministers of our largest churches told me over this four day event that their small group ministries are still just at the stage of being another pogram, far from being the primary social architecture that serves as the foundation for larger and mega sized churches in other denominations.