Templates

For Small Group Explorations

 

On alternating weeks, Fetzer staff can choose to direct their own spiritual formation through small group or individual exploration. Engaging with each other in small groups is a core spiritual practice at Fetzer. Small groups are a shared container for going deeper on what matters most to community members: supporting their social, spiritual, and emotional development, and helping them connect, at once, to themselves and to each other. In fact, small groups organized around a shared inquiry are an evidence-based method for adults to learn and grow (Smith and Nicolaides, 2018). 

Small groups are self-directed and, as such, they do not follow a singular format. To provide a view into how small groups at Fetzer are created and the range of forms they can take, we have compiled overviews of how small groups are formed, designed, and facilitated at Fetzer, as well as a library of small groups that offers a view into the myriad ways staff are choosing to learn and grow alongside their colleagues and making the COFG their own.

 

How Small Groups are Formed at Fetzer

• Small groups are catalyzed by community member interest. Most are wholly self-organized based on people’s interests and needs. One to two people identify an area for shared exploration and initiate the group by inviting interested parties or the whole community. Occasionally COFG staff will observe a shared need among community members and/or support a community member in catalyzing a group.
• Participation and access to small groups varies.
  • Many small groups are open to participation by all community members. However, affinity groups are not open to everyone. They offer a safe space for people with shared identities. For example, it was decided to restrict participation in a domestic violence survivor group to survivors of domestic violence and close relations of survivors.
  • Some small groups exist entirely under the radar. There is no requirement to make them known to COFG staff or the rest of the organization.
• Small group duration also varies. Most small groups have an end point, after meeting about four times. However, several small groups have stayed together for multiple years, in response to continued interest.

How Small Groups are Typically Designed and Facilitated at Fetzer

Small groups are typically designed and facilitated with the following components:

• A clear and intentional shared focus guides most small groups.
• Most meet for 60-90 minutes of the three hours held for COFG on Tuesday mornings. Participants can use the remaining time for their individual spiritual exploration.
• When a small group is getting established, participants often find it helpful to align on how the group wants to spend its time, where it wants to gather (e.g., in the dining room, outside, online), and group norms for how members want to be in relationship and dialogue with one another.
• Most groups are self-facilitated. Occasionally groups engage the support of outside facilitators. Some best practices structuring and facilitating small group time include:
  • Be intentional about the configuration of your meeting space (e.g. sit in a circle).
  • Rotate responsibilities for managing and facilitating the group.
  • Start with an opening practice to help people ground and connect.
  • Ensure everyone in the group has time to share.
  • Incorporate a shared learning or experience (e.g., a text/reading, a dance piece to work on, a facilitated process)
  • ‘Break bread’ together. Some groups strengthen bonds by bringing snacks to share.
• Small groups ideally meet regularly (as opposed to one-offs) over a period of time.
• Small groups are invited to share their learning with the wider community. At Fetzer, this sharing back is often experiential, such as leading a related practice in a full community session.

 

Library of Small Groups

The following descriptions offer a view into the variety of experiences Fetzer staff are crafting during their dedicated time for spiritual exploration in small groups. It is noteworthy that many of these small groups were sparked by an experience in a full community session, which is part of the hope — that participants will deepen into topics and practices introduced to the full community on their own.

Grief 

• Why: To explore the many forms of loss — from death to life transitions — through reflection, community, and creative expression.
• How: The Grief group was catalyzed by the Director of Spiritual Care in response to observing many staff grappling with loss. The group gathered for a three-part series facilitated by a grief and change coach. The series resulted in a compassionate, low-pressure community space for staff to explore their loss. 

Ethnoautobiography 

• Why: An affinity group for white-identifying staff members to understand and unlearn whiteness using their own stories and Indigenous approaches. By understanding and integrating their own stories, members of the Ethnoautobiography group are able to further their inner growth and development.
• How: The Ethnoautobiagraphy group has been gathering for a year and a half. The five members meet about once a month. They use a book on ethnoautobiagraphy to guide their meetings. They rotate facilitation responsibilities for each meeting; the person on point for facilitation decides how to frame and hold the session. The group’s work led one of the members to use her remaining spiritual exploration time to delve into her family’s genealogy.

Music Improv

• Why: To engage in spontaneous and collective Spirit-led creation of music. The Music Improv group understands their creations not as performance, but rather as pathways for deep listening, growth, creativity and connection with Spirit. 
• What: About seven staff members have been gathering for over a year, They meet at least once a month. At the start of each meeting, they set a shared intention; one member starts making music, others listen and join in when moved to do so. The musical creation ends when it organically comes to an end. Afterwards, group members reflect on the experience. Their musical creations are never repeated, reflecting a shared belief in the power of impermanence.

Prayer Group

• Why: To offer prayer in the Christian tradition for the joys, concerns, and needs of Fetzer staff.
• How: The Prayer group meets when there is need for prayer in the Fetzer community. Sparked by requests from community members to pray for them or their loved ones, the group has been ongoing for several years. While the group prays in the Christian tradition, it is all open to anyone regardless of one’s personal faith tradition or spiritual path. 

Spiritual Parenting

• Why: To support one another in spiritually-rooted parenting — exploring how our children stretch, challenge, and shape us into more patient, loving, and understanding human beings.
• How: Inspired by Dr. Lisa Miller’s research and book, The Spiritual Child, the group initially read the book together, reflecting on how the research and stories mirrored their own experiences as parents. From there, the group evolved naturally. Some sessions centered on universal themes like love, compassion, patience, and forgiveness. Others explored different faiths and spiritual traditions, exploring what each one teaches about raising children and what we might carry into our own parenting.

Lego Therapy

• Why: To engage in an accessible and collective contemplative practice that supports emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. Participants report that the disciplined focus of Lego building encourages a sense of calm, opening them to deeper spiritual connection and reflection and helping them reconnect with God, love, and inner peace.
• How: Based on the practice of Lego mindfulness, the Lego Therapy group sits together as each member works on their own Lego set. Participation is very diverse, connecting together members of teams who, otherwise, are unlikely to connect.

Liturgical and Sacred Dance

• Why: To explore how liturgical dance and spiritual movement can serve as powerful mediums to perceive and honor the Sacred in one another, elevating how the arts connect to what it means to be human.
• How: The liturgical and sacred dance group connected together four former professional dancers all on staff at Fetzer to explore the transformative power of sacred dance. They met for about 18 months, during which they taught each other dance, worked with a somatic coach and former dancer on mind-body-spirit connection, and reflected together on the connection between dance and the Sacred. Their engagement as a small group culminated in performing a liturgical dance during a service at one of the group members’ houses of worship, Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan, a congregation long known for its liturgical arts programs, including dance.