The Power of Small Groups in Christian Formation

By Harley T. Atkinson

Small groups continue to be a significant part of church life and Christian formation in the twenty-first century, impacting a church and society characterized by loneliness and fragmentation. As such, Julie Gorman is prompted to declare, "Small groups have come of age! They have found unprecedented acceptance and endorsement." This is a comprehensive book on small groups and Christian formation informed by theology, church history, and the social sciences. It addresses both the foundations and praxis of groups, with a special emphasis on leading dynamic group discussions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Jan 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781532634642

Harley T. Atkinson

Harley Atkinson taught youth ministry, Christian education, and ministry leadership for twenty-six years at Toccoa Falls College. He is the editor of the Handbook of Young Adult Religious Education (1995) and author of Teaching Youth with Confidence (2001) and The Power of Small Groups in Christian Education (2002). His articles have appeared in Christian Education Journal.

Book preview

9781532634635.kindle.jpg

THE POWER OF SMALL GROUPS IN CHRISTIAN FORMATION

Harley T. Atkinson

71845.png

THE POWER OF SMALL GROUPS IN CHRISTIAN FORMATION

Copyright ©

2018

Harley T. Atkinson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-3463-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-3465-9

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-3464-2

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Preface

Part One: Understanding Small Groups

Chapter 1: The Small Group Movement —A Quiet Revolution

Chapter 2: Coming To Terms —What Is A Small Group?

Chapter 3: Types Of Formation Groups —What Are The Possibilities?

Chapter 4: Limitations Of Small Groups —What Are The Pitfalls?

Part Two: The Foundations For Small Groups

Chapter 5: Small Groups —Are They Biblical?

Chapter 6: Small Groups And Christian Formation
—From The Early Church To The Twenty–First Century

Chapter 7: Small Groups—The Building Blocks Of Society

Chapter 8: The Small Group —A Model For Learning

Part Three: Becoming A Group

Chapter 9: From Birth To Death —Phases Of Group Development

Chapter 10: Developing Cohesiveness —Becoming A We Group

Chapter 11: Standards For Group Behavior

Chapter 12: In A Different Voice —Group Diversity

Part Four: Communicating In Christian Formation Groups

Chapter 13: The Dynamics Of Good Listening

Chapter 14: Speaking With The Body —Nonverbal Communication

Part Five: The Dynamics Of Discussion

Chapter 15: Components Of Meaningful Discussion

Chapter 16: Handling Difficult Situations

Chapter 17: Group Participation

Chapter 18: Self-Disclosure—To Know And Be Known

Part Six: Leadership Issues For Small–Group Facilitators

Chapter 19: Leadership In Christian Formation Groups

Chapter 20: Making Group Decisions

Chapter 21: Handling Tension And Conflict

Chapter 22: Implementing Formation Groups

Bibliography

Preface

The growth of small groups as a part of churches and faith-based ministries around the world has been extraordinary and nothing short of phenomenal. The small-group movement as we know it today began to make inroads into the church in the seventies, with Lawrence Richards including this model of making disciples in his highly influential book A Theology of Christian Education (1975). The movement gained momentum throughout the next decades to the point that many churches replaced the Sunday school model of disciple making for adults and youth with the small-group format. Today small groups have continued to proliferate not only in North America, but also throughout the world, in churches of all sizes. The strong interest in small groups that pervades churches and parishes gives indication that they cannot be considered faddish in nature, as some might have suggested earlier in the movement. Biblical, historical, and current research sources offer evidence that small groups are one of the most effective structures for communicating the gospel, fostering spiritual formation in the lives of individuals, and generating renewal in the church. In an age when big is beautiful, there is a corresponding notion that indicates small is indispensible in structuring for community, outreach, and Christian formation.

The Purpose of The Book

The twenty-first century brings with it tremendous challenges for the church in presenting a two thousand-year-old message to contemporary and diverse cultures. Small groups can provide a fresh yet time-proven strategy to these challenges. However if leaders and strategists are not careful, small groups can capitulate to the subtle pressures of secular culture and degenerate into narcissistic gatherings obsessed with self rather than concern for outreach and others. Furthermore, small-group discussions can be nothing more than a pooling of ignorance or fruitless pursuits of elusive rabbit trails.

The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with strong foundations for Christian formation groups before offering solid and carefully researched principles and strategies for leading effective small-group discussions. My intent is to draw from various disciplines such as theology, history, education, and communication in presenting a book on facilitating small groups and nurturing group discussion in the context of Christian formation. The text is designed for a range of audiences but first and foremost will serve well as a textbook on small groups for college and seminary courses. However, it will be a helpful source for small-group strategists in the local church as well as lay people who are interested in leading groups and are looking for a source that is more than a basic how to book on leading discussion.

Structure of the Book

The Power of Small Groups in Christian Formation is both descriptive and prescriptive in nature and is couched in theological and sociological foundations. It is divided into six parts or sections, each one made up of two to four chapters. Part One, Understanding Groups, introduces the reader to small groups and includes chapters on the reasons for the growth of the small-group movement, what qualifies as a small group, the types and categories of groups, and the limitations or pitfalls of groups. Part Two is titled The Foundations for Small Groups and addresses the biblical, historical, sociological, and educational bases for groups. Part Three, Becoming a Group is comprised of four chapters that describe the phases of group development, group cohesiveness, standards for behavior in a group, and group diversity. While virtually everything addressed about small groups is somehow related to communication, Part Four focuses on two specific categories —the dynamics of listening and nonverbal communication. The heart of the book is Part Five, The Dynamics of Discussion, and examines the components of discussion, the facilitator’s responsibility of handling difficult situations, group participation, and self-disclosure. While leadership responsibilities for facilitators are addressed throughout the book, several major topics are dealt with in the final section—Leadership Issues for Small-Group Facilitators. The four chapters investigate general perspectives on leadership, group decision-making, handling tension and conflict, and implementing formation groups in the church.

The Genesis and Formation of the Book

The Power of Small Groups in Christian Formation has gone through several transformations over the years. A manuscript titled The Power of Small Groups in Religious Education was initially presented to James Michael Lee and Religious Education Press (REP) in the mid 1990’s. The proposed book was just about to be accepted for publication when REP closed operations. The manuscript consequently went through considerable editing and changes, especially with terminology. REP insisted on the use of the term religious education when referring to educational ministries in the local church or parish. Lee wanted all REP books to appeal to a broad range of readers—Catholics, evangelicals, mainline Christians, liberals—virtually anyone interested in Christian or religious small groups. With a new publisher and a change in focus, the phrase religious education was changed to Christian education, terminology familiar to most Christian denominations and movements. Thus the title The Power of Small Groups in Christian Education was chosen for the new manuscript and Evangel Publishing House released the book in 2002.

With the closing of Evangel Publishing House, Wipf and Stock agreed to publish the book, but editing and structural changes were in order. Most significant, once again, was the need for change in terminology. In recent years the term Christian education has been employed less and less when used in the context of local church educational ministries and replaced with names such as disciple-making ministries, spiritual formation, and Christian formation. The term Christian formation seemed most appropriate for this version, and consequently the title of the book became The Power of Small Groups in Christian Formation. Additional significant changes included restructuring. One major concern of the previous version was that some of the chapters were far too long. Thus the new book went from nine chapters to six parts or sections and twenty-two chapters.

Books on small groups and small-group communication abound in both religious and secular circles. I trust this source will provide a unique academic but practical perspective not found in many of the books written for small-group ministries.

Harley T. Atkinson

Part One

Understanding Small Groups

People are communicators. In every moment of conscious existence we are communicating in some manner. Some of this communication is intrapersonal or within the individual; some of it takes place in a two-person dyad, the smallest and simplest of groups. However, a significant amount of our communication exists in the context of small groups: committees, study groups, sports teams, educational groups, religious groups, and informal friendship affiliations. Certainly everyone learns to communicate and interact in the framework of the family, the social unit that provides our initial and primary group affiliation and is basic to all other types of social organizations and groups.

Small groups are all around us. In fact, social groups constitute the basic fabric of our familial, social, and work life. Centuries ago the poet John Donne penned the well-known phrase No man is an island. In this simple expression he draws our attention to one of the most distinctive characteristics of humanity—we are social creatures whose lives are inextricably intertwined with the lives of others. Most of our daily activities are performed in the presence or context of people—we are small group beings.

And groups are playing an increasingly integral role in the spiritual lives of Christians in North America and around the world. Small groups have proliferated as pastors and other church leaders have intentionally developed varieties of small-group ministries as the core of their church life and Christian formation programs. Research done by Robert Wuthnow at the end of the twentieth century indicated that four out of every ten Americans belonged to a small group that met regularly and provided some kind of care and support for its members. That meant about eighty million adults were participating in some kind of a small group. And sixty percent of those members belonged to groups formally affiliated with a synagogue or church—support groups, twelve-step recovery groups, Sunday school classes, Bible study groups, singles’ groups, book discussion groups, and political or civic groups.¹ There is no reason to believe groups are any less pervasive in the new millennium. According to George Barna small groups continue to be a significant part of church life in the twenty-first century as participation has increased from 20 to 25 percent of all adults.² In light of such research, Julie Gorman is prompted to declare, Small groups have come of age! They have found unprecedented acceptance and endorsement.³

1. Wuthnow. Sharing,

4

,

6

and Wuthnow, I Come Away,

369

.

2. Barna, Futurecast,

164

.

3. Gorman, Community,

11

.

1

The Small Group Movement —A Quiet Revolution

Why are small groups so prevalent in contemporary America that almost half the adults in the country are involved in some sort of group? More specifically, why are they often seen as the basic unit of church community and a popular option for Christian formation ministries? They are so widespread that sociologist Robert Wuthnow is able to confidently pronounce that the small-group movement is effecting a quiet revolution in American society.⁴ Similarly Jeffrey Arnold proposes that the small-group movement is a catalyst for a quiet revolution that has slowly built from the ground up into a crescendo that is more and more difficult to ignore. It has influenced every church’s ministry in one way or another, and affected many people’s lives.⁵

Clearly, the indications are that small groups are a powerful and significant force in the North American church. And the impact of small groups is not limited to North America. There is an explosion of house church and small group ministries that is altering the structure and impact of the Church worldwide. Why has the dramatic growth of small groups in recent decades been so pronounced? What benefits do they hold for church ministries and strategies for spiritual formation of believers? A careful scrutiny of biblical passages as well as a review of contemporary sources offers the following reasons as to why small groups are beneficial to churches and their spiritual formation ministries:

• they provide for individuals a sense of community;

• they assist people in their quest for spirituality;

• they are an ideal point of entry into the church;

• they provide a safe environment for learning;

• they are an ideal way to study and apply Scripture and church doctrine;

• they are an effective way of mobilizing the laity to ministry.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

Wuthnow proposes that an understanding of the dynamic growth and popularity of small groups since the 1960’s can be explained only by understanding the social context from which it has risen. Contemporary American society, he argues, is the victim of the breakdown of traditional support structures such as the neighborhood and extended family that once offered us a sense of security and belongingness. Many people today live anonymous lives, no longer remain in the same neighborhoods most of their lives, and often do not retain close ties with their families. Wuthnow describes many people today as psychologically and emotionally stranded and alone. Families are breaking down and neighbors have become churlish or indifferent.⁶ David Kinnaman, who has done much research on the Mosaics (twenty-somethings), argues that young people in this age group feel isolated from their parents and other adults in the domains of faith and spirituality.⁷ The advance of the small-group movement is decidedly rooted in the disintegration of these long-lasting support structures and our innate desire for community, what sociologist Robert Nisbet describes as relationships characterized by a high degree of personal intimacy, emotional depth, moral commitment, social cohesion, and continuity in time.⁸

Robert Bellah, in his compelling study on American life, argues that ours is a society in which the individual can only rarely and with difficulty understand himself and his activities as interrelated in morally meaningful ways with those of other, different Americans.⁹ But the dearth of genuine community prevails not only in society at large; it exists in the church as well. In his travels across the United States, M. Scott Peck observed that there is both a deep lack of community and a genuine thirst for community. But most disturbing to him was the lack of community in those places wewould most expect to find it—in the churches.¹⁰ In their study of whom they call church refugees, dechurched people of all ages, Josh Packard and Ashleigh Hope discovered three things related to church and community:¹¹

1. More than anything else perhaps, what people want out of church is a community of people experiencing God together.

2. People left the church when that community was lost.

3. These dechurched people continued to search for community after they left the church.

Why is genuine community, even Christian community, so difficult to find and maintain? Why, as Thomas Kirkpatrick queries, are there so few churches that evidence a contagious, alive, and attractive fellowship?¹² Bellah cites the words of the early Puritan leader John Winthrop as archetypal of an understanding of what life in America was meant to be: We must delight in each other, make others conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body.¹³ However, while not entirely lost to American culture Winthrop’s idealistic notion of Christian community has, to a large degree, been given over to a disconnected, hyper-individualism. Nisbet, who called the problem of lack of community the single most impressive fact of the twentieth-century Western society (and I would add twenty-first century), suggests it is a relatively modern issue. For most of history group life was a given, whereas today there is less reason to spend time together and there are fewer ways of knowing each other. Yet our need for close, interpersonal relationships remains constant.¹⁴

Indeed sociologists are in agreement in describing members of contemporary society as individualistic, rootless, alienated, fragmented, lonely, and lacking a sense of belonging.¹⁵ But Alvin Toffler insists that any decent society must generate a sense of community. Among other things, community offsets loneliness and offers individuals a sense of belonging.¹⁶ The solution to this fragmentation and individualism has been to start intentional groups of like-minded persons who can regain a sense of community.¹⁷ Jim and Carol Plueddemann remind us that as human beings, we are born with a need for belonging and find ourselves drawn to groups where we can establish relationships and work on common tasks.¹⁸

In his insightful book on loneliness and spiritual growth, Samuel Natale argues that in the United States at least, loneliness exists as a serious and growing problem.¹⁹ In an increasingly mobile and hostile world, where loneliness and alienation are universal sources of human suffering, settings where individuals can experience a sense of belonging and neededness are more important than ever. The group experience, emphasizes Natale, is a powerful tool for intervening in both chronic (inability to relate to others) and situational (disruption of social interrelationships) aspects of loneliness.²⁰

Not only can the church provide solutions to the problems of alienation and fragmentation, it has an unparalleled opportunity and responsibility to respond to the pressing relational problems that a harried generation possesses. The church has the potential to be an alternative community that models God’s intentions for relationship and fellowship. Indeed a unifying theme of the Old and New Testaments is God calling His people into a community of faith. At the very core of human nature as created by God, argues Ray Anderson, is community. Existence in co-humanity is logically prior to any occurrence as discrete individuals.²¹ T. S. Eliot writes, There is no life that is not in community. And no community not lived in praise of God.²² Adds Gareth Icenogle, Scripture begins and ends with God calling humanity into relationship with the divine community and with one another.²³

However, while humankind was created for community, it suffered serious interpersonal consequences with the Fall (Gen 3:1-24). The onset of sin brought with it adverse effects in virtually all relationships—estrangement from God (Rom 5:10a) and alienation in our interpersonal connectedness with fellow human beings (Gal 5:20).²⁴ Our failure takes from us the pleasures of community that God intended for us and leaves us alienated, isolated, lonely, and disconnected.

But even the Fall was not to leave us eternally doomed to lives without relationship with either God or fellow human beings. Though seriously disrupted, the capacity for community with God was not totally destroyed. Eve praised God at the birth of Cain (Gen 4:1) and Cain and Abel both offered sacrifices unto God (4:3-4). Similarly human relationships are depicted in the Genesis account. Adam and Eve continued to exist as husband and wife and Cain eventually took unto him a wife (Gen 4:17). Nonetheless, insists Hal Miller, the smug and arrogant protest by Cain that he is not his brother’s keeper (4:9), reflects an attitude of indifference toward his brother rather than a spirit of intimacy.²⁵ The truth of the matter is, however, that Cain surely is his brother’s keeper because both he and his brother Abel bear the imago Dei.²⁶

God’s provision for severed relationships and alienation from others is through the person of Jesus Christ. Though we became God’s enemies, Jesus became our reconciliation. The apostle Paul writes, For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Rom 5:10).

The reconciling work of Jesus was extended to human relationships as well: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 4:26). In Christ all relational barriers were brought crashing down as Jesus came preaching a Gospel that has at its essence relationships: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matt 5:44); Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:39); All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another (John 13:35). Christ’s teaching, then, places community at the very heart and center of the Christian experience. Paul Hanson rightly insists that from a biblical perspective, the notion and experience of being in the world begins with supportive community, where the faithful can gather to celebrate all that is good and worthy in life as a gift of divine grace, and can commemorate the central events of their common spiritual history together, like the event of deliverance from slavery in the Jewish Passover, or the events of rebirth and atonement in Christian baptism and the Eucharist.²⁷ It is the context for the individual’s growth into full personhood and spiritual maturity.

The challenge for churches and their ministry programs is to offer lonely and disconnected people a solution to alienation by providing opportunities for relationship building through small-group communities. The notion of community is not difficult to understand. It is the relationship of people to one another and the sense of belonging and of obligation to the group.²⁸ It is the New Testament idea of koinonia (having that which is in common), the very heartbeat and core of the early church (Acts 2:42-47).

While it is easy to understand, however, community is much more difficult to experience. Paradoxically, while people desire community, they run from it. While they seek it, they are afraid of it and fear getting too close to others.²⁹ Nonetheless, community can be achieved through the intentional efforts of small groups. Unfortunately, relatively few churches do much to equip small groups to become a community. As a result, small groups often operate in the deficit of relationships.³⁰ The awesome task of the church is to provide a context whereby lonely and disconnected individuals can hope to regain a lost sense of community.

THE QUEST FOR SPIRITUALITY

A second major objective that has accelerated much of the small-group movement is the quest for spirituality. From his study of small groups, Wuthnow observed that a majority of all small-group adherents joined groups because they wanted to deepen their faith.³¹ This pursuit for spirituality identified with the small-group movement parallels or is no doubt connected to a religious intensity that exists on a much grander scale. In 1990 John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene identified a worldwide multidenominational religious revival leading into the next millennium, a trend characterized by intense interest in traditional and non-traditional religions alike.³² Christian counselor Gary Collins, also writing at the very end of the twentieth century, said something very similar, contending there is a new interest in spirituality that is invading our lives and engulfing the whole world at lightening speed. It is attracting teenagers, business executives, physicians, psychologists, academics, and homemakers. It is impacting worshipers in traditional churches as well as people seeking out alternative and New Age forms of spirituality.³³

It is questionable that the heightened interest in spirituality that Naisbitt and Aburdene as well as Collins, predicted has come to pass. Clearly the New Age movement that was to enter us into a heightened awareness of alternative spirituality has not come to fruition. Regarding the Christian church itself, much has been made of the disinterest of young adults in the organized church and their exodus from organized religion. Drew Dyck argues, There’s a major shift taking place—away from Christianity.³⁴ Kinnaman adds, The ages eighteen to twenty-nine are the black hole of church attendance; this age segment is ‘missing in action’ from most congregations.³⁵ Research conducted by Barna Group confirms these observations. In a 2011 study of the spirituality of young adults, 59 percent of the respondents with a Christian background reported that they had dropped out of attending church, after going regularly.³⁶ Wuthnow concludes that while interest in spirituality may be widespread. . . serious engagement in spiritual practices, like regular participation in congregations, may be something young adults do not make time for until they are older.³⁷

Studies of church dropouts are not limited to young adults. George Barna and David Kinnaman in their 2014 book Churchless note that 33 percent of the American population is dechurched (once but no longer in church). Furthermore they indicate that this is the fastest growing segment of American population.³⁸ However, Packard and Hope, who call these dechurched church refugees, argue that not all of them are rejecting Christianity or abandoning their spiritual journey. In fact they’re still very much engaged in the work of seeking the divine and living out what they believe to be God’s will for their lives. In many cases, in fact, they’re even more involved in these activities after being freed from traditional organizational barriers.³⁹ Furthermore and worth noting as relevant to this book, they determined that many of the dechurched continued their spiritual quests through small groups, house churches, and other informal though spiritually meaningful gatherings.⁴⁰

It is part of being human, of course, to be on a spiritual journey or on a quest to satisfy a deep inner hunger. Centuries ago the great church father Augustine wrote, You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts can never rest until they rest in you. Twentieth century existential writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus wrote poignantly concerning the anxiety, anguish, alienation, emptiness, and loneliness that characterize lives lived without God. Indeed, for many Americans, their faith has become a significant part of their lives, and they have sought out others with whom they can pray and share common spiritual interests. Wuthnow observes that the contemporary small-group movement presupposes that individuals are concerned about developing their spirituality, but that spiritual development is not easy and requires encouragement and support. He likens developing one’s spirituality to learning to play a musical instrument. Hard work, practice, and a commitment to follow certain techniques are required, and the company of others may be required to sustain that discipline. Furthermore, that instrument may be played alone, but its value will be magnified if it is performed in harmony with others. And so it is with spirituality, it can be played or practiced in private, but its worth will be multiplied if performed in the company of others.⁴¹

Spiritual growth, like emotional and intellectual growth, does not take place in a vacuum. Rather, it is fostered and nurtured by interaction. God has given each of us gifts and abilities so that we can contribute to the growth of others. Unfortunately, these gifts and abilities often lie dormant. In small groups, however, Christians can help each other fan into flame the gifts God has given them.⁴²

A POINT OF ENTRY INTO THE CHURCH

Successful churches have discovered that small groups serve as an ideal point of entry into the church for the previously unchurched or dechurched. Groups are particularly well suited to draw into the church those who are on the outside of a church or on the periphery. While primary points of entry into the church in the past have been, at different times, the Sunday evening service, Sunday school, or the morning worship service, people today seem to be entering the church through mid-week activities. Leith Anderson says people born after 1950 are much more likely to enter a new church through something other than the Sunday morning worship service—perhaps a church-sponsored Bible-study class, a sports team, a divorce recovery workshop, or a young adult group.⁴³ Aubrey Malphurs observes, Small group ministries are beginning to replace the large-group worship-preaching session as the primary way younger people assimilate into today’s churches.⁴⁴

Wade Clark Roof observes that members of the baby boomer generation are often attracted to large churches because of the diversity of programs and the variety of ministries they offer. Much of the attraction, he proposes, has to do with the range of small groups, dealing with everything from Bible study and prayer, to eating disorders, family life, singles’ activities, exercise, and weight lifting.⁴⁵ People who have reservations or fears of entering a church sanctuary may be willing to join a small group in a home or participate in a lay-led support group. The small group, often serving as a kind of half way house, provides a nonthreatening opportunity to become part of the church.

From the perspective of evangelism, small groups provide a soft-sell approach to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with nonbelievers or the unchurched. The most effective witness, suggests Richard Peace, often springs from the community of believers. Significant sharing of the Christian faith often occurs when a small group of Christians and non-Christians gather together to discuss issues related to Christianity.⁴⁶ The power of community in impacting unbelievers was clearly evidenced in the initial stages of the church. As the early believers met together in homes and temple courts for teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer, sharing of goods, and meeting everyone’s needs, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:47). The first fruit of rapid church growth was indeed a testimony to the compelling power of Holy Spirit invigorated koinonia.

A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR LEARNING

It is not uncommon for adults to harbor negative perceptions about their ability to learn and their capabilities for learning are often underestimated and underused. Older adults are especially prone to this source of anxiety and for these adults any type of in-depth learning venture is a move into foreign and unknown territory.⁴⁷ For adults, emotional or psychological safety in the learning environment is one of the salient principles for effective learning. Jane Vella argues that adults are ready and willing to learn only when they sense the learning environment provides for them a sense of emotional safety.⁴⁸

Renowned adult education expert Malcolm Knowles insists that adult learners actively seek psychological security, a protection against threat to their self-respect and self-image. It is this need that causes them to be cautious and reserved in a setting that is unfamiliar to them. He goes on to suggest, When the need for security is not satisfied or is violated, various behavioral symptoms are likely to result. In certain situations some adult learners will respond to feelings of insecurity by pulling into their shell—withdrawing from participation, playing it safe until they get their bearings. Others respond to the same feelings in exactly the opposite way: they seek to protect themselves by taking over, controlling, dominating.⁴⁹ Individuals who do not feel secure in a small-group learning setting will either refrain from participating or will experience such anxiety and reduced self-esteem that learning and performance will be severely hampered.⁵⁰

There are ways, however, to alleviate fear of the learning experience and to nurture an environment that offers a sense of psychological and emotional security. Vella proposes that a sense of safety can be achieved when the following characteristics are made present in a small-group learning experience:⁵¹

1. when group members trust in the group leader or facilitator;

2. when group members trust in the feasibility and relevance of the objectives of the small group;

3. when group facilitators allow group members to voice their own expectations, hopes, and fears about the small-group learning experience;

4. when participants trust the sequence of activities (i.e. facilitators begin with simple, less-threatening activities before moving to more advanced, difficult, or complex learning activities);

5. when there is a realization by participants that the environment is non-judgmental.

Small groups should provide a safe environment where learners can feel free to ask questions, raise doubts, and explore possibilities without fear of ridicule, embarrassment, or competitiveness. Large-group formats are not designed for such interaction, and most people are uncomfortable in raising questions or expressing doubts in front of too many people. But in a small circle of amiable peers where a sense of confidentiality, understanding, and support has been established, individuals will often feel freer to open up. Jesus modeled this type of small-group interaction with his disciples, as they were encouraged and offered the freedom to ask tough questions of Him and dialogue over issues that perplexed them.⁵²

A WAY TO STUDY AND APPLY SCRIPTURE

The problem of biblical illiteracy among Americans has been well documented. In 1991 the George H. Gallup International Institute of research noted that only 12 percent of teen-agers read the Bible daily, a number that drops to 9 percent in the college years.⁵³ In the same year George Barna determined that among those who consider themselves to be Christian, 58 percent said they read the Bible at least one time during the week. Of these adults, however, only 12 percent read it daily.⁵⁴

The trend of biblical illiteracy has only increased since these studies of the early 1990’s. In one of the more recent studies of the general population in the United States, The Barna Group found that One fourth of adults (26%) say they never read the Bible, 12% read it less than once a year, and 10% read it only once or twice a year, not including times when they are at a church service or church event. These segments combined represent non-Bible readers. Thirteen percent say they read the Bible daily. Another 13% spend time in scripture several times per week, 8% read it once a week, 7% read the Bible once a month, and 9% read it three to four times a year. Therefore, the total proportion of Bible readers (read the Bible at least three to four times a year) is 50% of adults.⁵⁵

Consequently many American Christians lack an understanding of the basic fundamentals and teachings of the church. Barna cites the following empirical research findings as a confirmation of this conclusion:⁵⁶

• 40 percent believe Jesus made mistakes;

• two out of three respondents do not hold to the notion of absolute truth;

• three of five adults do not believe in Satan;

• Bible knowledge is frightfully weak. Many cannot name half of