My Small Group Story

Dear Abbey Family, 

My first small group meeting was in July 2017. I was still fairly new to the congregation, having been hired that April, and so I was excited to get to know the other women in my group better. But, to be honest, I was also kind of terrified.

I didn't grow up in the church. I wasn't familiar with all the stories that we heard about on Sunday. I regularly had to Google terms I wasn't familiar with, like Pentecost or Epiphany. I quickly filled up a shelf with books about God, Jesus, and the Bible to read and reference and help me learn. When I accepted my position at Urban Abbey, I was excited for the opportunity to learn more about Christianity from within, but during my first few months I was so worried I would be "found out" by others... labeled, or treated with skepticism and concern... Nothing like that ever happened, of course, but when I sat down for my first small group meeting I was certain that this would be the space in which people would discover I was a "fake Christian," someone who didn't know enough, someone who shouldn't be working for a church.

I could not have been more wrong.

I was so pleasantly surprised at how warm and open everyone in my group was, how willing we all were from the start to be vulnerable and support one another on our journeys. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been all that surprised, because this is exactly how I know everyone at Urban Abbey to be. But that meeting was the first time I felt comfortable saying out loud that I had grown up with a really negative idea of what Christianity is. I knew Christians to be the ones who called in threats to Planned Parenthood, who fought against marriage equality and talked about wives submitting to their husbands. My first small group meeting was the first space in which I felt comfortable saying out loud, "I really love the Abbey. I feel inspired every single week by Debra's sermons, and I really like the social justice principles of the United Methodist Church... but I'm just not too sure about carrying this label of 'Christian.' There's a lot of baggage, and I am still trying to figure it all out. I almost feel more willing to call myself 'Methodist' than 'Christian.'"

That statement was met with nods of understanding and agreement. I learned that I wasn't the only person at the Abbey who struggles with the label "Christian," and that I wasn't the only person still trying to figure things out spiritually. I also learned that embracing a faith tradition does not mean just checking boxes, but that it requires deep self-reflection and exploration... something that I've always tended to shy away from. My small group met me where I was and embraced me as exactly who I am. More than a year and a half later, our group is still going strong-- often meeting outside of "official" small group sessions. These women have become my close friends, confidants, people with whom I am still able to say, "I'm not sure about this," or "What did you think about the message on Sunday?" They are the people I know I can reach out to when I'm feeling overwhelmed or unsure. We have grown and expanded as a group, with new members joining us at different points, and others sometimes needing to take a break from meeting due to hardships or other obligations. But we are still always in connection, always caring and watching out for one another.

Every Sunday at the Abbey is life-giving for me, but it is within my small group that I have grown and formed the most spiritually. I am so excited for our upcoming Lent session, and I invite you to consider taking part in a small group alongside us. If you have any questions about small groups, please reach out to me anytime. My hope is that you will find the small group experience as grounding, as comforting, and as challenging as I have.

If you want to take part in a small group during our Lent session, small groups will meet once weekly during the week of March 10 through the week of April 7, 2019. To learn more about how our small groups work and to sign up to take part this spring, please take a few minutes fill out our Small Group Interest Survey at https://goo.gl/forms/v9Q67MfNdPqv5Tv43. All information is confidential and will used to help us find or build the right small group for you.

Thank you all for being a part of this journey with me.

Sierra