I just finished The Search to Belong by Joseph Myers. It isn’t so much a book specifically on small groups (although its implications for small groups is fascinating) as much as it is a book on community and belonging. Myers uses the work of Edward T. Hall (four spaces: public, social, personal, and intimate) to discuss the concept of community and belonging with specific attention to its impact on the church.

I found his critique of the modern small group movement thought provoking and insightful with potentially radical implications for the church. I also found Myers’ use of Emergence theory (his slime mold analogy) within small group structures to be intriguing. It isn’t that I agree with everything that Myers proposes or that I will fundamentally change the ministry to which I give oversight and direction but it has impacted the way I look at community and belonging. It may not lead to radical change but I won’t look at my role in the same way again or have the same concept of what community and belonging is and isn’t.

This is one of those books that needs to percolate in my thoughts and it will no doubt ultimately lead to some interesting conversations in the future.

My next book: Liquid Church by Pete Ward.