Should church small groups be filed exclusively under the rubric of “Stuff White People Like”? That’s the provocative question that Leadership Journal‘s Out of Ur blog recently posed. The ensuing conversation raises some interesting questions about faith, race, and the role that culture plays in shaping our ecclesiological practices.
Should church small groups be filed exclusively under the rubric of “Stuff White People Like”? That’s the provocative question that Leadership Journal‘s Out of Ur blog recently posed. Riffing off an interview with leaders from River City Community Church, a multiethnic congregation in Chicago, writer Sam O’Neal wondered aloud if small groups are primarily “a white way to do church.” And the conversation among River City’s leaders does raise some interesting questions about the role that culture plays in shaping our ecclesiological practices.
“The fact is small groups aren’t as important to other ethnicities as they are to white people,” says Arloa Sutter, River City’s pastor of community life.
Adds senior pastor Daniel Hill: “White people rely on small groups to connect. Other ethnicities form community more organically, more relationally.”
But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
This week the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that in 2008, the number of children living in poverty increased by 750,000 to 14.1 million. This is the biggest increase in child poverty since 1992.
When I read this I felt a pit in my stomach. In the wealthiest country that the world has ever seen, over 14 million of its most vulnerable citizens are coming to age in the midst of poverty.