Group Life: The Ancient Future Community

A report from the Willow Creek conference

by Allen Kleine Deters, Guest Writer

Ancient Future is quickly becoming the hip new Christian catch phrase, especially in the emergent church community. Robert Webber, of “Ancient Future” writing fame, and other modern pastors and authors are addressing the need to strip away all that hinders in the church. They seek a return to the church’s earlier Acts 2 roots, as well as its theology of community, in order to foster an environment of spiritual formation reminiscent of Prof. Rylaarsdam’s IDIS 901 course.

Being somewhat sympathetic to these emergent ideas, I was immediately drawn to a Willow Creek advertisement for their Ancient Future Community small group conference, September 27-29 at their Chicago campus. I serve as the Director of Adult Ministries in a local CRC and am in charge of small groups, so I am always looking for good leadership training, and the student fee was a minimal $135. Thankfully, my church was willing to pay for registration and lodging for me and John, one of the small group leaders that I coach.

Scot McNight, Professor of Biblical Studies at North Park University in Chicago, author, and blogger (jesuscreed.com), kicked off the three-day event with a powerful message of encouragement and a challenge to develop table fellowship as the hope of the church, and ultimately the world. “Table fellowship is more than a technique,” Scot acknowledged, “more than a holy huddle of Christians gathering together to talk about their favorite sports teams or their favorite Bible passages.” He continued, “If we are going to be like Jesus at the table, we’re going to have to open up the windows; hear the sounds of the neighborhood and look out and see them, and reach into those neighborhoods.” Doing this requires us to understand how to move strangers and people who are not normally part of our circles into our group, because that’s what Jesus did. As such, small groups become the heart and life of the church’s mission to the world, and in particular our neighborhoods.

Inspired by Scot and the WCA team, the breakout sessions took the overarching theme of ancient future community down to something more tangible and practical for leadership. No one was pushing a model that had to be adopted in order to grow your groups. Rather, there was a common philosophy floating around the rooms: refocus and make sure key biblical elements are in place, then let the groups develop more organically to fit their context. Having been a developer, leader and participant in small groups for the past twenty years, I was thrilled to hear something that echoed what had been in my heart for a long time.

I used to think that small groups were about developing relationships, but over the years my heart has yearned for a better framework. I believed we were barking up the wrong tree by implementing model after model. Ministry is about transforming lives. The conference affirmed my suspicions and pointed toward spiritual formation as the goal of any small group. Relationships are simply one part of the process of developing true community in order to bring about deeper transformation. Is it anything new? Not really. But it is very worth revisiting and being reminded of time and again.

Refrigerator rights are a gauge to help determine the depth of relationships within our communities. This was Will Miller’s premise as he brought his humorous style to the stage. A professional comedian (he hosted Nick-at-Nite), psychologist, pastor, author, and currently campus chaplain at Purdue University, Will confronted us with ourselves and the nature of our culture in regard to the lack of depth in our relationships. “Belonging is the crisis of the American heart,” he stated. “There has never been a time when the work of the Church, the body of Christ, especially in small groups, has more sociological, psychological, social science support and urgency than now.” People in our culture, according to Will’s research, are more isolated than ever. Community is crumbling to a point where few people, if any, have the right to snoop through our refrigerators at any time or help themselves to an Advil from our medicine cabinets.

The conference was refreshing and challenging as we rethought small groups in our church’s context. The pendulum is swinging back towards simplicity and truth. I was impressed to hear a mega-church like Willow Creek stand up and say, “I think we had it wrong – at least partially anyway.” They didn’t push models for ministry, just a biblical philosophy from which to develop healthy small groups, growing toward authentic community, and ultimately creating a genuine culture wherein spiritual formation can take place and even thrive. For that I’m truly thankful and encouraged for the future of small groups in local congregations.

I brought a lot of wonderful, tangible ideas back to my church that I pray will help continue the development of healthy small groups and transformed lives.

In the aftermath of the conference I got to thinking about the place of small group ministry here at CTS and within its curriculum. I hope, as students heading into ministry, that we seriously consider the importance of small groups. It’s one of those put-yourmoney- where-your-mouth-is opportunities to develop as leaders. If small groups are to be the heart of the church’s ministry to reach its neighborhood, shouldn’t we be part of that heart even now? I tend to believe that if we we’re not doing it now because we’re “too busy” we’re probably not going to do it once we get into our churches. In fact, I guarantee you that if you’re too busy now, you’ll still be “too busy” preaching and pastoring to do it down the road.

And what about the curriculum at CTS? I don’t believe we have any courses specific to small group development, coaching, and leadership. Of course we do touch on models and theory in some practical theology courses, but only enough to graze the surface of the issue. FFM groups, on the other hand, get us together consistently, but are fairly prescribed. A course focusing on group dynamics, and specifically leadership in small groups, could go a long way towards developing us as viable proponents of this ministry in our congregations. I remember taking such a course back in the early ‘80s at Reformed Bible College, now Kuyper College. That course has been one of the most influential for me in the ministries I have been involved in ever since. Hmmmm, something to think about.

I’m sold on small groups! Just a heads up professors, I’ll be gone for three days at the end of September ’08. Maybe you should join me.

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