Community Learning Framework
Have you been attending talks and seminars, reading books and signing up for courses, but realized that none of them has had much impact on your life? One of the most prevalent assumptions today is that information transmitted leads to life transformation. Many education programs consist of little more than conferences, seminars and series of training sessions where information is being transmitted to the learners. In this information age where we are often overloaded by all kinds of information, we are used to giving our mental assent to information before it is lost shortly after our next meal.

Learning that is transformational has to be active, deep and often collaborative for it to be well assimilated. This is why authentic group discussions with reference to what is learned through Community Learning is so important. Community Learning has the potential to be transformational because it encompasses peer teaching, peer mentoring and peer coaching. These processes engage the heads, hearts and hands of the learners in a holistic manner that encourages them to learn, grow and serve together. The concept of relating to one another as peers within the community is important as it underscores the fact that everyone can share and learn from each other. With such an openness to learn from each other, learners are free to share and indirectly coach, teach and mentor one another in the process. However, the nature of Community Learning is such it works best in a true community where members connect with one another with authenticity and grace in a safe environment. Members who find themselves learning, growing and serving with 3 different groups of people under 3 different programs will find it difficult to foster a true community and experience Community Learning on a regular basis.

This is true even in the context of the church where community life should be its very essence. Not only do members find themselves learning in an adult class, growing in a cell fellowship and serving through another ministry; even cell group meetings which are supposed to help people connect with one another often resemble mini-church services. Hence many people are not particularly drawn join a cell group. Another reason why people do not interact at a deeper level in a cell group even when they have the opportunity is because people are so accustomed to the extreme individualism in our society that we tend to play safe and usually choose to stay relatively superficial. Many people simply do not know how to engage one another constructively. Disagreement tends to be quickly swept under the carpet, debates between members are often viewed as un-Christian, Bible study is often treated like comprehension exercise, petting each others’ back and making one another feel good are equivalent to brotherly love. All these hinder people within the community from growing in spiritual maturity and genuine Christ-likeness.

Relational Pragmatics
There is a critical need to inculcate Community Learning into the culture of our existing communities and to develop healthy relational pragmatics to support Community Learning. Some existing materials to cultivate good relational pragmatics include ReGroup: Training Groups to Be Groups and The Emotionally Healthy Church: A Strategy for Discipleship that actually Changes Lives. The former centers on how Small Groups can become more effective by getting connected, setting ground rules, listening, conflict resolution, confrontation, helping people in crisis and establishes a whole new training paradigm that equips leaders and groups simultaneously to help them start and sustain a life-changing group. The latter provides knowledge and tools to help learners to journey towards wholeness and maturity through looking beneath the surface of problems; breaking the power of past wounds, failures, sins, and circumstances; living a life of brokenness and vulnerability; recognizing and honoring personal limitations and boundaries; embracing grief and loss; and making incarnation their model to love others.

Best Practices
Other best practices that are very helpful for implementing Small Groups that is conducive for Community Learning can be found in another book by Pastor Larry Osborne entitled the Sticky Church. Some these practices include writing great questions for discussion, having the right size of 8-12 singles or 6-7 couples and the right people that is not grouped by neighborhood, and many other great recommendations. The singular focus to help people grow through Small Groups is particular refreshing though may be challenging to implement for some churches. This is where an online Community Platform for Small Groups can be helpful in keeping people connected. According to a research done by Pastor Larry for his doctoral dissertation, the amount of time a group spends together correlates directly to the level of personal appreciation for one another and overall sense of group cohesiveness. We found this to be true online too; members who have been connecting and sharing with each other online naturally connects like old friends when they see each other face to face. And if you also do not wish to overload members with more than 2 face to face meetings per week, there is a lot of extra training and collaboration that can be done online for the Small Group leaders as well as within the Small Groups through the Community Platform.

To find more about our Community Platform and how it can enable your Small Group to engage in Community Learning, please refer to the section on Enabling Community Discipleship.