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.”