Mail me comments, suggestions, warnings, flames, whatever Despite their diversity in outward form, all the missions were ways of casting nets. Ministers struggling with renewal in their own congregations often asked Gordon Cosby, "If you were in a conventional church situation, what would you do to structure the congregation for renewal?"
He answered then as he still does, "What I am doing I would preach Sunday after Sunday on my g of the nature of the church. I would to the limit of my vision-put into words what it I see. I would state the disciplines that are if one is to have a relationship with the Holy One --God's anointed One, and have one's life changed then I would sound a call for the mission own heart. I would urge others to do the same. After that I would spend the major part of my time just sitting around talking with those who made response to see what would emerge. This sometimes means we let a lot of worthy things go undone." put a similar question to the wife of the janitor of the building that we were restoring, "How do you think we can engage the people in this building in the movement to restore the city?" Her response was like Gordon's," I think we should call them all together and sit around and talk." Now it was our turn to wonder whether we could take the time, for there were no locks , mailboxes were pried open as soon as soon as they were fixed, the neighborhood received its heroin shots in the basement,, and leaking pipes, garbage and were everywhere.
The woman said in her way what the educator Paulo said in his way: "Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the Oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation. Attempting to liberate the oppressed without reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects which must be saved from a burning building; it is to lead them into the populist pitfall and transform them into masses which can be manipulated."*
*Pedagogy of the oppressed, (The Continuum Publishing Corporation, New York,
N.Y., 1986) p. 52.
Gordon tells ministers that their major difficulty in implementing the small group concept will be in trying to justify the time they give to the encouragement of one little group when there is so much work that could be done. "For most of us," he says, "it seems an unconscionable amount of time. We cannot get hold of the fact that the process is sometimes as slow as it is, and we become discouraged even when real growth is taking place. We have no perspective when we try to envision what it means for a community to come into existence. We live under the tension of our own expectations and the expectations of those who are sometimes outright hostile because we are spending our time with a group of unlikely souls when we ought to be taking care of the shut-ins, or the youth, or the elderly. Our congregations are not going to take seriously their responsibility if we ourselves do not take with full seriousness the ministry of the laity."
Another area that Gordon emphasizes in talking with ministers is the need to relinquish control. A staff that feels it necessary to be in control cannot allow things to just happen. "No matter how large a congregation-four or five thousand members-if kept under central authority, it will always be a very limited operation."
The small group structure is threatening because it generates work for which we have no clear guidelines but, when you think about it, it is not nearly as threatening as a congregation with no shared responsibility and no shared life.
The small group is not the discovery of Gordon Cosby, or of anyone else. Christ gave us this model. It was he who had the first mission group. He chose twelve. He sent them out by twos. He stayed with them for three years when he must surely have been tempted to add to the little band, to sub-divide, and thus to increase the scope of his ministry. Intuitively rather than consciously :, Gordon has followed this model. A mission group is not brought into existence without a spiritual director and a moderator. We often feel more comfortable with team More of us are also coming to believe that any that stays together for less than a three-year period ,.,tan make neither marked progress in its inward journey significant strides toward fulfillment of its mission in the world.
There was a time when, asked to comment on the success of the groups, Gordon Cosby was quick to say he had the distinction of having presided at the burial ,,of more small groups than had any other minister in the ,'country. Today he would have less reason to make such a for the death of a group is a less frequent occurrence. Groups still go out of existence for varied reasons: "en the work is accomplished; when a new form or Organization is needed- when leadership does not emerge in sufficient strength; or when the Spirit with its unifying force is absent. Over the years, however, a structure for Corporate mission has been evolved that nurtures the Inwardness of the group members and, at the same time, enables each one in the group to exercise his or her gift of leadership. The result is a deepening and expanding of ministry of the group.
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