The session plans for group meetings call all of us to intimacy, learning how to be together, and ultimacy, going deeper in topics of life and witness. These session plans have been created by clergy and laity, from congregations of all sizes, varied geographic and demographic settings, and settings within and outside of congregations. Small Group Ministry provides the process for deepening our listening from the heart, learning from the experiences of others, and sharing because we all contribute to the faith community. Our divergent world views both complement and clash. We learn to set aside our own views in order to engage in and receive new insights, and we hone the ability to share in such a way that others can hear what we have to offer.

Let's start considering the Small Group Ministry (by whatever name locally) session plans as a form of Unitarian Universalist literature that is accessible and usable, continually being written, and being shared. And by their very use, ever influencing Unitarian Universalist thought. Consider these notes, and add your thoughts.

How many Small Group Ministry/Covenant Group session plans are there?
Over eight hundred in the UU Small Group Ministry website session plan directory, with more sessions for posting sent in continuously. There are several hundred more in the session plan collections that are linked from the website. Numerous session plans that have been created locally and not shared yet. So, how many? We estimate several thousand.

Who writes these session plans? The origin of a session plan should be noted, including the congregation and an individual. This includes writings of parts that are created for a session plan by people in the local setting. We need to acknowledge the contributions to UU thought and spirituality. Several hundred people have been involved in writing session plans, as noted on sessions that have been sent for inclusion on the Network website. There are many more who have contributed. This may be a team of writers in a congregation. Also, small groups themselves develop session plans. Writers include people who have been life-long UUs, and those who are newly exposed to UUism.

Ministers have frequently been authors of such session plans, writing on their own or with lay congregants. This was particularly true in the early development of Small Group Ministry. Ministers publish collections of meditations and sermons. Will published session plans be the next type of published collection - for ministers and laity? Some congregations have compilations of session plans for distribution and sale.

It is exciting to see session plans that are noted as being based on a session plan written by another person. That is sharing and networking. We need to include original authors, just as we would like to be acknowledged.

Why are session plans written? There may be a story behind a session plan or a specific reason for writing it. Sometimes notes accompany the plans that are sent in for inclusion on this website. These show that the session plans develop from our experiences, literally, or engaging with a topic that impacts our lives. These notes also may provide nice historical reference for congregational life.

Is the format the same for all writers and congregations?
Basics: are delineated in Basic Elements and Implementing Small Group Ministry, (http://www.smallgroupministry.net/basicelements.html)

Session plans include local preference. Some session plans are written to be used spontaneously; others have pre-session readings or questions for reflection. Groups have various ways of interacting to allow openness without interference. Some groups have the check-in/sharing before the opening words, though most use the opening words to move into the sharing. The variations can be seen by looking at a variety of sessions on the Network website (http://www.smallgroupministry.net/public/sessions/index.html)

Benefits to writers
Developing a session plan with a broad introduction to the topic and questions that open into new visions is a creative act. It allows participation from all levels and corners of the community and denomination.

Considerable thought and intention are required to present an idea so that another person can connect with it. You write the session without knowing the result. This is precisely the difference between a session plan and a lecture. Set the stage but not the result. Invariably I find that perceptions and ideas that I never would have imagined emerge from what I have written. Small group ministry sessions encourage a sense of openness and adventure.

What topics are included? We are continually trying to organize the sessions for ready accessibility. Some of the broad categories are:
Life and life issues
Spiritual journey, beliefs
Community relations and life, covenanting
Social Justice, witness
SGM group practices and dynamics
Celebrations
These are always changing as we write for a new time and focus.

What are your thoughts about Session Plans as a form of UU Literature? If you are attending General Assembly June 20-24, 2018, Kansas City, MO, share them at the UU SGM Network Booth #114 or send them for publication in Covenant Group News. cgneditor@smallgroupministry.net

General Assembly 2018 information includes an invitation "to submit a proposal to host a networking session at General Assembly (GA). Time has been set aside at GA on Friday evening for networking among affinity groups within Unitarian Universalism, for people to connect around identity, role, interest or any other dimension." In considering preparation of such a proposal, we reflected on the meaning of "Network" in our name and, indeed, the networking that has been occurring since Small Group Ministry emerged as a 'movement' within Unitarian Universalism twenty years ago. Networking in this article includes the GA itself, as well as within congregations, between congregations, with UUA at all levels, and settings in the broader community. The context is past, present, and looking at new ways of networking in the future.

Unitarian Universalist Small Group Ministry is a living example of networking that started within congregations sharing as the concept evolved, adding experience and understanding to the basic model and sharing successes and challenges of Small Group Ministry as integral part of Unitarian Universalist life and practice. The following overview of involvement in Small Group Ministry that can be tracked by the Network is being updated for presentation at GA.

Over three hundred congregations have been involved, as evident in present or previous membership in the Network, submission of session plans and articles for the Network website or publications, namely Covenant Group News and the SGM Journal, and conversations at the Network booths at General Assembly. Electronic media is a major networking tool with 600 subscribers to CGN and 263 Face Book members. The Network website (www.smallgroupministry.org) is a major resource for networking, accomplished by sharing session plans and articles, and listing events.

Over two hundred people have written articles for the UU Small Group Ministry Network publications, namely CGN and the SGM Journal. In addition, a number of writings are included on the UUA website (https://www.uua.org/small-group). Articles appear in congregational newsletters, and there are various books and collections. There have also been workshops, conferences and institutes in congregations; regional conferences; and denomination-wide events.

Several hundred people have been involved in writing session plans. Originally, ministers were frequently the authors of such session plans, writing on their own or with lay congregants. The over 800 session plans on the Network website have been written increasingly by laity. With the availability of session plans, such as on the Network website, there is an opportunity to start with a session plan and develop it more or differently, with attribution to the original writer. It is exciting to see a notation such as "This session is based on that of (original author)." The attention to the gift of the original session plan and the acknowledgment are affirming parts of networking.

Networking challenges: Increased inclusivity and awareness of the range of diversity

1. We frequently measure impact by the number of groups and number of participants in those groups. Counting the number of people who engage with SGM in the small groups would give a broader picture of impact. Everyone who comes in contact with SGM is part of the networking. Using statistics to define or demonstrate effectiveness or impact undermines the impact. What about the spiritual impact and the learning that comes from networking?


2. With the diversity of writing about Small Group Ministry, there are still voices that are not being heard. SGM can increase the diversity within UUs with awareness of who is present and who is missing in a group and in use of a particular session plan. Let's write session plans with the background question in mind: Who is included in the audience for this session? Who is excluded by either the topic or the writing? This includes acknowledging times when a session plan is written for a target audience.


3. The diversity that the broad range of writers presents will naturally bring session plans that differ in focus or perspective. We may tend to dismiss the writings that we do not agree with, rather than consider differing opinions as new awareness or new learnings. This goes for writing style as well as content.

The theme for GA is "All Are Called." The small group ministry networking that has evolved can make the message of Unitarian Universalism alive, accessible and vital to those presently connected and the larger community and world.

Use SGM to prepare for GA-Bring your SGM to GA - Take the GA home through SGM

Registration and housing for General Assembly (GA), the meeting of Unitarian Universalist congregations, opened on March 1! The theme of General Assembly June 20-24, 2018, in Kansas City, MO, is "All Are Called." There are increasingly more ways to participate in General Assembly, from personal presence to off-site participation in the general sessions, from being in the Banner Parade to watching the diversity of congregations via live streaming, to celebrating and worshipping with thousands in the auditorium, to bringing these events into your own sanctuary. Regardless of how you are involved with GA, what happens at GA affects all of us.

The invitation to General Assembly 2018 is this:

Grounded in a deep belief that we are all prophets, Unitarian Universalists ask, "How can we faithfully meet the demands of our time?" The call to witness and act for justice in our society and in the world is clear. So, too, is the call to examine our structures and practices, dismantling and transforming those which fail to recognize the full humanity of all people and to honor the interdependent web of life. Together we dive deeply into questions of mission for our Unitarian Universalist Association, for our congregations and communities, and for each of us as individuals.

Use Small Group Ministry to engage in the call. Small Group Ministry is the overall concept that includes small groups with a focus on ministry, also called Covenant Groups, Chalice Circles and similar designations in local use. Use Small Group Ministry and share your preparation with the UU Small Group Ministry Network. We look forward to hearing from you at office@smallgroupministry.net.

1. Develop or use session plans in your own community to address the theme. Then send the session plans to the Network - new or previously written - for a compilation to be available at GA. This helps with preparation and shares the focus beyond GA itself. For two examples of session plans on "All Are Called," look at Intimacy and Ultimacy in relation to the GA theme. (http://www.smallgroupministry.net/public/sessions/index.html


2. Testify to the place of Small Group Ministry in social justice work, from personal preparation (spiritual, emotional and logistical) to action and reflection. Your words, along with pictures and other descriptions can be used in a display in your own community or the UU Small Group Ministry Network's GA booth


3. See "Call to Participate in SGM , GA 2018" http://www.smallgroupministry.net

Small Group Ministry is a critical vehicle for this preparation:
Communities are the basis of SGM. And within these communities are the small groups with a ministry focus that changes the way we are in the world.
Session Plans used in SGM are the most democratic writing in our history, a vehicle for diverse perspectives and large range of topics.
This approach provides intimacy through the listening, sharing, learning, evolving that comes with the inherent worth each person. Ultimacy comes from defining issues and realities without judgment, and recognizing the needs and feelings that accompany the realities as we search for truth and meaning.

When you have a successful small group ministry program, you will know it and feel it. Our job in the church is to nurture and support the program and help other congregations take it to scale. Let's promote the program in our churches. Every chance we get, we should say, "If you're not in a small group, you may be missing out on a key connecting point in our congregation." When something goes awry in some group dynamic, it usually is not too difficult to troubleshoot the problem. What went wrong? What could we have said or done? Have we honored the spirit of our covenant? Certainly, programs require regular and steadfast attention and guidance. For that reason, we hold leader meetings, scheduled about every six weeks, with the minister attending.

One of the pivotal moments in our program occurred when we began to speak of holding symbolically an empty chair for a new member. Later, groups were able to do so concretely, welcoming new members to their groups, and adjusting group dynamics and content appropriately. The act of welcoming a new person shifts the relational dynamics of a group. To the extent we are able to welcome someone new, we learn and get to practice the art of hospitality, one of the key benefits of our small group ministry with beneficial consequences outside the group.

The benefits are twofold: a new person is welcomed and the group gets to practice a spiritual discipline worth cultivating in our lives, in and outside the church. In family life, a grandparent moves in, a child is born, or family members make new friends when they move into a new neighborhood. In congregational life, almost nothing is static: members are joining, moving, dying. Congregations are living, breathing bodies, always in the mode of change. The practice of hospitality genuinely welcomes new persons and their stories, and integrates change.

The presence of small group ministry in a church encourages right relationship and diminishes acting-out behavior in the larger church community because the modeling of right relationship in small groups extends to right relationship in other arenas of our lives as well. In The Company of Strangers, author Parker Palmer describes community as "that place where the person we least want to live with always lives." Want to end a divorce well? Practice right relationship. Want to learn how best to dismiss an employee if you are the one who must do it? Practice right relationship. Want to work through a child, sibling, or parent problem? Practice right relationship. Want to make this a better world? Practice right relationship as part of a simple discipline where ground rules and a covenant are honored. This is not country club membership. Country club membership is about trying to get the club to meet the pleasures of its constituents. Religious community is about taming the ego and sacrificing personal freedoms. In other words, we learn why not saying and doing everything we want to say and do is part of being in loving relationship with one another. Country club membership does not necessarily concern itself with love. We must be concerned with love and right relationship. Being in right relationship is critical in religious community and in small group work. Each time we meet, we hold out to one another mutual respect, hope, and expectation of a better world.

These are what we may call unintended consequences of small group ministry. And there are more. Mutual listening. Good communication. Mutual well-being. Not all of us have had the experience of speaking about our lives in the presence of peers -genuine, intentional listeners. A successful small group sets norms for the conditions of good communication and mutual well-being. Some members call it healing, especially when someone who has not been heard or has been misunderstood in life is heard and understood. Religious community is the place for finding one's voice - the place for healing the soul.

As members find their voices, church leaders emerge. Here in our church we proudly recognize our group leaders' involvement. Once a year, we ask them to stand for a brief recognition in Sunday morning church services. We remind them, "You leaders are hand-picked for your listening and group skills." We are not reluctant to call them leaders. A leader is a guide, a conductor, who exercises authority responsibly. Leaders most definitely set limits, often reminding the group of its covenant. "Leader" is the precise word here. A weaker noun sends a weaker message and might yield a weaker group.

One evening, several years ago at a leaders' meeting, we discussed a listening model we might apply if and when difficult or emotional material is shared during the check-in portion of a small group meeting. What should a leader do? Scuttle the format for the evening? Engage in cross-talk about the content of what was shared? What emerged was a better alternative: The leader asks the group members to be silent for one minute before proceeding with check-in. Allowing the evening to proceed after a minute of silence provides two benefits: we acknowledge that something significant was shared and we acknowledge we are carriers of trust by virtue of our covenant with one another. Something difficult having been shared does not oblige us to comment. Singer/songwriter Billy Joel has advice, fitting for a common situation in small groups: "Leave a tender moment alone." Later, outside of the group, any individual has the option for follow-up -a phone call or a conversation over coffee, for example. Even in a follow-up setting, deep listening are the watchwords. Attempting to fix someone's existential situation is outside the bounds of small group ministry.

I submit the benefits of small group ministry are both personal and societal, affecting the public and political realm of our existence. In meeting one another face-to-face, we are confronting a social reality of our culture and its loneliness. Remember the prediction decades ago that one day we would all be living in a high-tech, low-touch world? We now live in that world.

"Loneliness," says Parker Palmer "is not just a personal problem, it has political causes and consequences. We are lonely because a mass society keeps us from engaging one another on matters of common destiny. And loneliness makes us prey to a thousand varieties of political manipulations." (Parker Palmer, A Place Called Community.)

Under the power of strong consumerist influences, our culture appears to be run by the marketplace. But marketplace values must be held in check. The marketplace does not trump spiritual values. Desire fulfillment does not equate with a meaningful life. It is said that our culture is coarsening and we are all suffering from its incivility. Electronic communication has gone viral -insulting at times, promoting pseudo human connection all of the time. And in our era, except for those who serve in the military, American citizens are rarely asked to sacrifice freedoms for the sake of others. Consumerism, incivility, and virtual connection are features abundant in our culture, while meaning goes begging in the streets.

Welcome to the church and its small group ministry where, without a doubt, good leaders set norms. They gently, sometimes assertively, reset a conversation and get people back on track with the ground rules, the covenant. I know of leaders who courageously (after an evening session) spoke to an offending group member's comment about another person - all in a spirit of restoring a sense of the beloved community. Learning to live in right relationship is a spiritual disciple.

We are told Isaiah predicted, and Jesus reiterated, "... the rough ways shall be made smooth." How many rough edged people have we known who were transformed into more comfortable people to be around? Have they not also become more comfortable in their own skins because they have, in fact, changed? From the beginning, to change might have been their unintended consequence!

Adults, to be sure, look to us in a time of trouble. Those who lead successful programs believe adults are looking for maturational and spiritual growth though such needs may not be explicitly stated. We speak of the intimacy involved in meeting face-to-face; listening heart-to-heart. We speak of ultimacy and depth. Leaders, as your group members become more comfortable and trusting of one another, do not be afraid on some evening to say, "I hope we can plumb our souls a bit tonight. Let us risk together the seriousness of the material at hand." Ultimacy and depth suggest spiritual content. Spirituality suggests breath, holiness, ruach*, even the breath of God.

Actively engaged, deep listening and sharing are attributes for a community of care. Often in small groups we are counter-poised to mass culture. We speak and listen to the countervailing small voices inside one another. By extension, our practice of right relationship cares for the body politic. The larger world is thus meaningfully touched, moved, and transformed by our work. How could it not be so?

*editor's note for this reprinting : Hebrew for "breath or spirit or wind or God."

SESSION PLANS ONLINE

The SGM Network invites session plans from individuals and congregations for listing in the Session Plan Directory http://www.smallgroupministry.net/public/sessions/index.html or the new section on Celebrations http://smallgroupministry.net/public/sessions/celebrations.html. Please include a suggested topic and key words with session plan submissions.

Send sessions to office@smallgroupministry.net

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WEBSITE RESOURCES
Complete archives of Covenant Group News and the SGM Journal
Online Resource Directory
Over 750 session plans for download
Network member list. See "Who We Are: Our Members"
Event Announcements
Resources for Sale
Example SGM Brochures
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UU SGM NETWORK PUBLICATIONS - Order online or by mail
See http://www.smallgroupministry.net/forsale.html for pricing & ordering information

Implementing Unitarian Universalist Small Group Ministry - A resource for creating Small Group Ministry for your congregation or other setting. Sections include Overview, Life Cycle, Oversight/Direction and Coordination, Leadership, Group Formation and Process, Sessions, Service, Visibility, and Expanding Small Group Ministry.

Social Justice Work Through Small Group Ministry - Thirty-four sessions for preparation, action and reflection on topics of multiculturalism, radical hospitality, immigration, racism, marriage equality, and earth justice.

Small Group Ministry with All Ages - Implementation strategies, leader training, session development, and session plans for children through elders.

Facilitator Training and Development Manual - A guide for training and support plus a handbook on CD to customize for group leaders and facilitators.

Spiritual Journeys: 101 Session Plans for Small Group Ministry Programs - Sessions on Spiritual Journeying, Personal Beliefs and Values, Spiritual Challenges, Just for Fun, Being Human, Holidays, and Special Use subjects for life events.

Small Group Ministry for Youth - Twenty-five sessions for middle and high school youth.

The UU Small Group Ministry Network is a grassroots organization of Unitarian Universalist congregations, ministers, small group ministry/covenant group leaders and participants.

Our mission is to help create healthy Unitarian Universalist congregations and a vital Unitarian Universalist movement by promoting and supporting Small Group Ministry.

The purpose of the Network is "to support small group ministry and related shared ministry models in Unitarian Universalist congregations through developing new resources, networking, and training opportunities."

In addition to the SGM Journal for members and the free, online Covenant Group News, we publish new resources for program coordinators and facilitators, sponsor a consultation booth and SGM workshops at General Assembly, offer a week-long SGM Summer Institute, help local leaders plan regional SGM conferences, and give workshops in congregations and districts across the nation.

The UU SGM Network is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization supported solely by congregational and individual memberships, donations and publication sales revenue. Network Board members donate their time and personal resources to spread the good news of small group ministry.