Missional Small Groups (& why Scott Boren is my hero!)

First, let me say Scott Boren is the hero of the day for me today! Below, I list the reasons why:

1. With a name like Scott, he's gotta be good (shamelessly stole this slogan from Smucker's...fyi)
2. He has a forthcoming book titled Missional Small Groups (see link on Amazon).
3. He serves at a church in Minnesota, trying to create missional communities.
4. His article in "Missional Small Groups," a training manual published by small groups.com helped me put the frustration of the past few years into words more clearly than ever before.  I used his words as part of my introduction to the literature review I am working on for a research project (see below)

Here is the first paragraph of my lit review: (It might sound boring, but it is worth the read to understand my perspective on small groups.  Also, it is a rough and unedited free-write.)

Small groups, as an expression of Christian community, have gone through multiple major shifts in the last century.  As Donahue (2007, p. 17) summarizes, the major emphasis on community in recent history began in the parachurch groups of the 1950s through the 1970s, took hold in the church in the 80s and 90s through movements such as the meta-church model and cell churches, and is now evidence in the form of the increasing movement of many churches to combine emphases on community with emphases on mission.  Scott Boren (2007) identifies the root problem causing churches to shift from the small group programs of the 80s and 90s to the missional focus growing in popularity today.  He writes, “In short, good old American pragmatism [has] turned small groups into a modernistic program that leaders could control and produce growth” (p. 10).  Many bought into the “set of small-group myths” to find the programs built “resulted in growth but little radical transformation [sic] (p. 10).  Hirsch (2007, p. 04) calls the small groups in the modernistic programs identified by Boren, “prop-ups to the ‘real-deal,’ weekend-based church.”  Instead of using small groups as a program to cause church growth, Bible knowledge, and connection, these authors, among many others, argue the small group ought to be seen as the church itself, the community of God called to participate in the mission dei.