Ministries / Small Group Ministry
Find a Spiritual Home in Small Group Ministries
Small Group Ministry (SGM) provides a place for members to explore significant questions and to experience community through deep, intentional listening. This UU spiritual practice has a simple format, each member responds personally to a topic and is heard.
The purpose of SGM meetings is not to problem-solve, offer advice, or reach consensus but rather to hold and witness the amazing diversity of experiences and journeys. In the process, members come to know and care about one another as they provide intimate company in the search for meaning.
How Does Small Group Ministry Work at FUSN?
"Small Group Ministry is an attempt to develop community and promote spiritual growth by creating an environment in which participants regularly talk together about the events of their lives, and about the ideas that engage them. SGM groups are not therapy, or affinity, or family groups, though they have some aspects in common with each of those categories. They're not intended to solve anybody's problems, or to provide spiritual enlightenment. They are intended to enable people to get to know each other in a neighborly way, to feel in touch with each other's lives, and to provide a context in which to think about and talk through the big questions.
"It is both a blessing and a curse of Unitarian Universalism that we must each find our own spiritual path. I find that I need to talk about spirituality in the context of my own experience, in order to make sense of what I encounter along my way. My hope is that the regular meetings and familiar faces at SGM meetings will be an effective way for me to support talking and thinking about my spiritual path, and to learn from the experiences of others.
"The
idea in Small Group Ministry is that participants divide up into groups of
fewer than ten people and meet regularly a couple of times a month. At each
meeting, there is time to go around the room so that each person can say a
little about what's new or important in his or her life, and there is time for
general discussion of a prearranged topic. "Participants are expected to make
an effort to come to each meeting and stay with the group for a year or so;
after that time the groups disperse and re-form with new membership, so that
over a period of time, participants come to know people from many
groups.
"It's about small groups, because that's where there can be enough time and
attention for each of us to be heard, where the business of human contact
becomes our own personal business. And it's about ministry, the art of seeing
and appreciating each other whole, as a spiritual practice for anyone."
By Jud Leonard, excerpted from the January 2001 FUSNews.
