Let me start by saying that I love my small group dearly and I in no way intend this post to be critical of my small group in any way whatsoever. So hopefully this post will not find me in trouble.
I want to share my experience in using a blog to help coordinate and organize activities and events for my small group. Our group was looking for a way to improve communication amongst our small group members. Emails and phone calls were being made, but some people were being missed. Some problems occurred when email addresses were not advertised when they changed. We had to carve time out of our every other week meeting to talk about what we were going to study or when and where we were meeting. My solution was to setup a blog in an attempt to take our community online where it would be accessible to everyone at any time of the day. I envisioned deeper discussions taking off from our regular meetings. I had hoped that it would become a place where we could share our lives with each other and gain more real time interaction with one another.
Unfortunately, the blog did not turn out to be the best solution for the group as a whole. It took off at first and helped us to share ideas on meeting days and times. There was a lot of discussion at first and it was a lot of fun for me. I was able to share prayer requests with them throughout the week and get feedback from everyone well before our actual meetings. It saved us time in our personal meetings because we did not discuss nearly as much in person when it came to group logistics. But after some time the interaction dwindled. I was updating the blog and receiving little or no response. It all came to a head recently and we sat down as a group to discuss it. I had already decided that it would be a good idea to find another option because the blog was not accomplishing anything except for a place for announcements. The rest of the group felt that it was hard to find time to participate in the online community and would rather stick with email and phone calls for communication purposes.
I am sad to see that this did not work as I had hoped. Ultimately, I want to grow deeper in my relationship with my small group and this was an opportunity to do that. Even if the technology works to build community, I still need the community to participate for it to work. And in the case of our small group, participation just was not going to happen as easily as it would for me. I hope that communication will improve without the blog. We have discussed some ideas of helping our group to grow closer, but I feel that it will be harder to organize such events that will work into everyone’s schedules.
I consider this attempt at using new technology for a small group a good learning experience for me. I am going to leave the blog up as is right now in case I come up with another idea to use it for group. I guess we will see what happens. For now it may become my test blog for themes and new plugins.
Chris blog's and emails only contain about 7% of actually communication. They are missing all of the non verbal and audio communication, I can total understand wanting to have more personal interaction. If that is you primary medium of communication, I would be left wanting a whole lot more. Just a thought.
Bailey
Right now our primary means of communication is in person during our small group meetings every other week. The creation of the blog was intended to supplement the small group community by helping us to connect and communicate on the 13 days that we do not meet with each other. All of our small group members are married couples with 2+ kids each with hectic schedules and activities to jump around each week. It made sense to me that we could make a connection online when it was convenient for each individual. I could read other peoples updates at night when I have free time whereas someone else may have free time during the day to read and update. Unfortunately, it did not work very well for my group. I have seen online small groups work, but there is definitely a major element missing without personal interaction. I personally am just a relational junkie and I like to keep people up to speed with my crazy life and keep up with how everyone else is doing. Thanks for the comment Bailey. I like it when conversation gets stirred up around here.
Great comments and post! Love the passion. I tried something very similar, but I used Ning.com. It is a great way to connect with your group if your church doesn't offer this type of service. Check out my small group at http://scc-fight-club.ning.com/. Making one is pretty easy and can be a good way for you to connect with your people outside of meeting together, that is if your Church Software Company doesn't already offer this type of service
Thanks for the comment Chris. I am glad that you enjoyed the post. I will probably be writing a lot more on small group stuff in the future. I hope that you come back for those discussions as well.