Small Groups

The church and small groups can learn something from a Swedish tradition called Fika. Pronounced “fee-kah,” the Swedish culture of breaking for coffee involves a deliberate pause to provide space and time for people to connect.

In Sweden, work life has long revolved around fika, a once- or twice-a-day ritual in which colleagues put away phones, laptops, and any shoptalk to commune over coffee, pastries, or other snacks.

Swedish employees and their managers say the cultural tradition helps drive employee well-being, productivity, and innovation by clearing the mind and fostering togetherness.

Many Swedish companies build a mandatory fika into the workday, while the Embassy of Sweden in Washington holds one for staff weekly. IKEA extols the virtues of fika: “When we disconnect for a short period, our productivity increases significantly.”

“Fika is where we talk life, we talk everything but work itself,” said Micael Dahlen, professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. The ritual helps drive “trivsel,” he says, a term that means a combination of workplace enjoyment and thriving. The concept is so fundamental to Swedish workplaces that many companies in Sweden have trivsel committees.

Some of the most successful people in history have done their best work in coffee shops. Pablo Picasso, JK Rowling, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Bob Dylan. Whether they’re painters, singer-songwriters, philosophers, or writers, people across nations and centuries have tapped into their creativity working away at a table in a café.

There are many ways coffee shops trigger our creativity in a way offices and homes don’t. Research shows that the stimuli in these places make them effective environments to work; the combination of noise, casual crowds, and visual variety can give us just the right amount of distraction to help us be our sharpest and most creative. (So, no, it’s not just that double espresso.)

Some of us stick in our earbuds as soon as we sit down to work in a public setting. But scientists have known for years that background noise can benefit our creative thinking. Several studies have shown that a low-to-moderate level of ambient noise in a place like a cafeteria can actually boost your creative output. The idea is that if you’re very slightly distracted from the task at hand by ambient stimuli, it boosts your abstract thinking ability, which can lead to more creative idea generation.

And while that “Goldilocks” level of noise is different for everyone, audio stimuli in the background also help us improve decision making. Some have even dubbed it “the coffee shop effect.” So, the jazz music, light conversation, and barista banging coffee grounds out of the grinder aren’t a nuisance, they could help you come up with your next magnum opus.

There’s also the fact that in a coffee shop, we’re surrounded by people who’ve come to do the same thing as us, which acts as a motivator. “It’s analogous to going to the gym for a workout,” says Sunkee Lee, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. “One of the biggest things about coffee shops is the social-facilitation effect: you go there, you see other people working and it puts you in a mood where you just naturally start working as well. Just observing them can motivate you to work harder.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Bible Study; Planning; Small Groups; Togetherness - There several intriguing applications here that range from the benefit of small group Bible studies in contrast to solo devotional times, to the benefit of having board meetings away from the usual setting. We all could benefit from surrounding ourselves with fellow believers who come together to motivate each other just by being in the same room.

Twenty-year-old Henry Earls dresses up to go to the library. He picks out cozy knitted sweaters and accessorizes with well-worn copies of classic books. Earls looks like an adjunct English professor. He said, “I want to cultivate an aesthetic when I go to the library. And, honestly, I dress up to see if someone will come up to me and say hi.”

Gen Z seems to love public libraries. A report from the American Library Association found that Gen Z and Millennials are using public libraries at higher rates than older generations. More than half of the survey’s 2,075 respondents had visited a physical library within the past 12 months. Not all of them were bookworms. Almost half don’t identify as readers, but those non-readers still visited their local library in the past year.

Libraries have never been just about books. These are community hubs, places to connect and discover. For an extremely online generation that’s nearly synonymous with the so-called “loneliness epidemic,” libraries are increasingly social spaces, too.

“Coffee shops get so crowded, and you have to spend money to be there, but libraries are open for everyone,” said Anika Neumeyer, a 19-year-old student. “There’s a lot less pressure to be doing something in the public library. No one’s going to judge you.”

Fifteen-year-old Arlo Platt Zolov says, “A lot of people my age are surrounded by tech and everything’s moving so quickly. Part of me thinks we’re rediscovering libraries not as something new, but for what they’ve always been: a shared space of comfort.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Fellowship; Small groups – This is a golden opportunity for the small groups in the church to provide the fellowship and gathering opportunities that so many are missing. Small groups meeting in homes, perhaps with a meal, can be very attractive to disconnected young people.

How many people do you know? You’ve probably never counted. Well, now you don’t have to. Tyler McCormick has worked it out: around 600.

Or more precisely 611, according to estimates by McCormick, a professor in the statistics and sociology departments at the University of Washington. That’s a national average, but McCormick can actually compute an estimate for you, or anyone.

Asked how many close friends they have, about half of Americans say three or fewer, according to a 2021 survey. The British anthropologist Robin Dunbar, drawing on studies of the brain sizes of humans and other primates, estimates a person can only maintain about 150 relationships. The so-called “Dunbar number,” he has said, “applies to quality relationships, not to acquaintances.” A Pew Research study found adults on Facebook had an average of 338 friends on the site.

The number of people you know, without considering them friends, is probably much larger. McCormick’s definition: “that you know them and they know you by sight or by name, that you could contact them, that they live within the United States, and that there has been some contact” in the past two years.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) As a negative illustration, this could show our need to develop deeper, more intimate friendships in the body of Christ. (2) As a positive illustration, this could reveal that our support system may be stronger and broader than we realize, especially in the church.

The unheralded Florida Atlantic University men’s basketball team made it all the way to the 2023 NCAA Final Four. How did they make it that far, especially considering they had no superstars? They relied on teamwork. Nine players on this Owls team averaged 15-plus minutes during the season, and the starting rotation has changed several times.

"We really don't care who starts as long as you just impact the game," said sophomore guard Alijah Martin, who started 20 games that season. Another starter said, "It's probably the first team I've been on where really nobody cares about their stats. I feel like across the board, any game it's just a whole bunch of selfless guys just trying to get a win."

"If you feel like it could do better for the team, why not serve and make that happen?" another player said. "There's been many opportunities and many times when guys offered up their spot for somebody else. I feel like that just reflects on the type of people we are as humans, and it shows on the court."

This selfless team spirit was exemplified early in the season between a fifth-year senior named Boyd and Michael Forrest, who lost his starting job to Boyd because of an injury. When Forrest returned, Boyd offered to give up his starting role. May declined to make the change. Where that might have affected the dynamics of some teams, FAU continued to win. Forrest said, "It doesn't really matter who starts, who finishes, it just matters about what you do on the court. Everyone's just playing to win. Everyone's playing for each other. So that's really what the difference is."

Training for a marathon is one of the most physically demanding activities you can willingly put yourself through. And when race day finally comes—after months of training and hours spent pounding the pavement—you want to finish the race strong. But sometimes, that just doesn’t happen.

A runner at the 2023 London Marathon experienced this as he worked his way towards the end of the race. In a short video shared on Reddit, a man in a black cap begins to double over and is on the verge of collapsing as other participants whizz by. But before he falls to the ground, another runner comes from behind him and grabs his arm. He’s able to hold the runner steady enough to keep going. Shortly after, another person appears on the man’s other side. Together, the three runners make their way to the finish line.

It’s unclear if the men knew each prior to the race. But when it comes to marathons, finishing with a fast time is only one component. The camaraderie—knowing thousands of other people are doing the same thing as you—is part of what makes the experience so special. And helping someone in need? Even better. Though the three guys didn’t finish first, they won that day.

You can watch the 16-second video here.

Possible Preaching Angles:

(1) Community, Encouragement, Body of Christ—With our weaknesses and frailties, we all need the support of an encouraging community that will run beside us during the long journey of life. (2) Holy Spirit—This story also beautifully illustrates the presence of the Holy Spirit, the One called to be beside us, our Paraclete.

In William Shatner’s new book, Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, the Star Trek actor reflects on his voyage into space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle on Oct. 13, 2021. Then 90 years old, Shatner became the oldest living person to travel into space, but as the actor and author details below, he was surprised by his own reaction to the experience. He wrote:

My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral. It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.

Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong. I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn't out there, it's down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.

Thousands of workers now identify as their company’s “Chief Happiness Officer” or CHO. What does a CHO do every day? For Erika Conklin, CHO of a digital marketing startup, this month’s duties, included procuring beer and Jet Skis for a company retreat to Sarasota, Florida. She still deals with employee benefits and payroll. But she also works late signing contracts for company events or listening when co-workers need to vent about whatever makes them unhappy.

McDonald’s started the trend by “promoting” Ronald McDonald to chief happiness officer in 2003 as a joke. Then tech companies like Google joined the CHO bandwagon. The late Zappos Chief Executive Tony Hsieh was famously committed to a fun working environment. His book, Delivering Happiness, prompted other business leaders to give priority to workers’ emotional well-being.

But being responsible for others’ high spirits comes with a lot of pressure. There’s the expectation to always appear cheerful. And if morale sinks or the retention rate slips, the person with “happiness” in their title is likely to get some of the blame. CHOs often stress about their colleagues’ levels of happiness.

One CHO said, “Generally, I am very positive—my husband and my immediate family are the only ones who see the not-so-great side.” Another CHO polls her roughly 100 co-workers weekly so that she always knows the collective mood. “If there’s a dip, we ask, ‘Why?’” she says. “If it soars, we’re like, ‘What are we doing? How can we keep repeating this?’”

Non-violent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts. Those engaging a threshold of 3.5 percent of the population have never failed to bring about change.

The Singing Revolution in Estonia and the Rose Revolution in Georgia along with others are given as examples of successful protests that resulted in serious change. Not only are peaceful protests more ethical than violent protests, but they also are more likely to gain the popular support needed.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The disciples and the early church, though small in numbers, changed the entire world through a peaceful preaching of the gospel. So too believers today, though in the minority, can change a home, a neighborhood, and beyond.

There is no evidence that poet and philosopher David Whyte is in any way a Christian, nor does he claim his thoughts are inspired from the Bible. But his insights on the theme of friendship makes him seem like he is cozy with godly values and biblical truths. Whyte emphasizes mercy and forgiveness in authentic friendships:

Friendship not only helps us see ourselves through another’s eyes. (It) can be sustained over the years only with someone who has repeatedly forgiven us for our trespasses, as we must find it in ourselves to forgive them in turn. A friend knows our difficulties and shadows and remains in sight, a companion to our vulnerabilities. ... Real friendship is a blessing because it is rediscovered again and again through understanding and mercy. All friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy all friendships die.

Just being with someone and having truly known them is a blessing and privilege. ... The importance of friendship is underestimated by most, and a diminishing circle of friends is the first terrible diagnostic of a life in deep trouble.

In times of trial and trouble, many Americans turn to the Bible for encouragement. And with good reason, according to a new study. In the middle of a global pandemic, a contentious election, and social unrest, the American Bible Society, with assistance from Harvard University’s Human Flourishing Program, found a strong correlation between Scripture reading and hope.

Frequent Bible readers rated themselves 33 points more hopeful than irregular Scripture readers did in two surveys of more than 1,000 people done six months apart. The study also found that people are more hopeful when they read Scripture more frequently.

On a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the most hopeful, Americans who report reading the Bible three or four times per year scored 42; people who read monthly scored 59; weekly, 66; and multiple times per week, 75.

Bible reading—along with other forms of community and discipleship, such as going to church or participating in a small group—appear to contribute to people’s sense of well-being and happiness, said Tyler VanderWeele, director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. “The churches have an important and profound role in contributing to people’s well-being in general—and especially so during this time,” he said.

Over the course of several months, Peter Skillman conducted a study pitting the skill of elite university students against that of the average kindergartner. Groups of four built structures using 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string, and 1 marshmallow. The only rule, the marshmallow had to end up on top.

Business students began by diagnosing the task, formulating a solution, and assigning roles. The kindergarteners, by contrast, got right to work, trying, failing, and trying again. Author Daniel Coyle explains the outcome, “We presume skilled individuals will combine to produce skilled performance.” But this assumption is wrong. In dozens of trials, the kindergartners built structures that averaged 26 inches tall, while the business school students built structures that averaged less than 10 inches.

We see smart, experienced business school students, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a poor performance. We see unsophisticated, inexperienced kindergartners, and we find it difficult to imagine that they would combine to produce a successful performance . . . individual skills are not what matters. What matters is the interaction.

The kindergartners succeed not because they are smarter but because they work together in a smarter way. They are tapping into a simple and powerful method in which a group of ordinary people can create a performance far beyond the sum of their parts.

The city of Detroit was in a campaign to reforest its streets after decades of neglecting its depleted tree canopy. However, the tree-planters met stiff resistance: Roughly a quarter of the 7,500 residents declined offers to have new trees planted in front of their homes.

Researcher Christine Carmichael found that the rejections had more to do with how the tree-planters presented themselves than it did with how residents felt about trees. The residents understood the benefits of having trees in urban environments—they provide shade, absorb air pollution, increase property values, and improve health. But the reasons Detroit folks refused was not that they didn’t trust the trees; they didn’t trust the city.

A couple of African-American women Carmichael talked to linked the tree-planting program to a painful racist moment in Detroit’s history, when the city suddenly began cutting down elm trees in bulk in their neighborhoods. As the women understood it, the city did this so that law enforcement could have better surveilance on their neighborhoods from helicopters after an urban uprising.

However, the government’s reason was that the trees were dying off from the Dutch elm disease. But it was the women’s version that led to their decision to reject the trees. It’s not that they didn’t trust the trees; they didn’t trust the city.

The women felt that the city just came in and cut down their trees, and now they want to just come in planting trees. But they felt they should have a choice in this since they’ll be the ones raking up the leaves when the planters leave. They felt that the decisions were being made by someone else, and they were going to have to deal with the consequences.

Failing to meaningfully involve the residents in the decision-making is a classic mistake. After all, who would turn down a free tree? Perhaps these people just don’t get it.

One Detroit resident whom Carmichael interviewed told her: “You know, I really appreciate you today because that shows that someone is listening. Someone is trying to find out what’s really going on in our thoughts. And maybe next time they can do a survey and ask us, if they would like to have us have the trees.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Churches and small groups can learn from Detroit’s mistake. It is best to ask for members’ participation in planning and decision-making rather than making authoritative decisions without explanation or discussion.

Laura Mazur and Jessica Robertson had never met before they reached the mile 14 marker at the Pittsburgh Marathon. Mazur was running her 12th marathon overall, while Robertson was running her first marathon.

Mazur told reporters she was feeling paranoid because she didn’t want to finish last. She turned around and noticed another runner, Robertson, was there as well. Robertson said that she was feeling defeated and upset with her performance when she noticed Mazur beside her. The two began chatting and decided to buddy up and run the rest of the race together. Mazur later wrote in a Facebook post, “I told her I’d stay with her if she stayed with me.”

The two clicked instantly and encouraged each other along the way. Robertson, who was nervous about the possibility of not completing her first marathon said that Mazur’s words of encouragement kept her motivated and confident. Mazur said she told Robertson, “You’re fine! I know you’re OK! You can do this.”

Mazur said that despite holding up the rear of the race, they were cheered along by spectators along the way, including a large cheering section at mile 25 of the 26.2 mile race. “There was great crowd support,” Mazur said. "You feel like royalty. You feel like a real athlete. It's super awesome to have people cheer you on.”

It was this encouragement that propelled them forward to finish the race. Robertson said, “We made it 26. I can do 0.2 [more].” Mazur said, “I just took her hand and said ‘Let’s go!’ It was so great that we got everything done and we were still together. We finished what we started.”

Possible Preaching Angles: Encouragement; Body of Christ; Running the Race – It doesn’t matter if you finish first in the race of life. What does matter is faithfully doing your best to finish the course and encouraging others along the way.

Hungry patrons at a local buffet in Alabama took “hangry” (hunger combined with anger) to a new level when a fight broke out allegedly over crab legs. The unexpected brawl went down at Meteor Buffet in Huntsville as diners were waiting to feast on a freshly boiled batch of crab legs.

Among the restaurant goers was police officer Gerald Johnson, who recalled hearing yelling and tongs clashing. “Literally, as I sat down and maybe took two bites out of my plate,” Johnson said. “There’s a woman who’s beating a man. People are moving around, plates are shattering everywhere.”

“It’s not something you typically hear, if you can imagine a fencing match,” Johnson said of the guests allegedly using tongs as weapons. As for why the altercation took place, “Everyone was saying, ‘She cut me in line. He cut me in line. I was here first.' They’d been waiting there for the crab legs for a good 10, 20 minutes. When they finally came out, it’s very heated. Especially if someone is taking more than their fair share,” Johnson said.

Following the fight, police arrested John Chapman and Chequita Jenkins. Chapman sustained a cut on his head while Jenkins was uninjured. Both Chapman and Jenkins allegedly admitted to letting their temper cloud their judgment.

The New York Times ran an article about Chinese immigrants in the United States who meet by phone at night for worship and fellowship. More than one hundred people call each night to the Church of Grace in Manhattan's Chinatown, where the pastor leads them in hymn singing and Bible study.

The immigrants are spread out around the United States, working "bone-wearying 12-hour shifts as stir-fry cooks, dishwashers, deliverymen and waiters at Chinese restaurants, buffets, and takeout places." Not speaking English, they are isolated and lonely.

Using their cell phones they "sing praises to God over the phone and study … the Bible together." The far-flung restaurant workers "have come to form a virtual church on Monday through Thursday nights, deriving spiritual sustenance and companionship."

"It's like there's a giant net, connecting people from all different places together,” said Mr. Chen, speaking in Mandarin. He said that the "Bible study offered him a lifeline, a rare chance to escape. For us brothers and sisters who are out of state,” he said, “the Bible study over the phone is central to our lives." Sometimes Bible study participants ask questions. Sometimes they share news about their lives and pray for each other. Though unable to see each other, they form a community as they listen and are heard.

The teacher, speaking about the disciples going from village to village with Jesus, tells the restaurant workers that they "could go from buffet house to buffet house, planting seeds of faith wherever they went." Grace flows to them and through them to the world.

Dr. Jeffrey Hall, a communications professor at the University of Kansas, published research about the relationship between time invested in a friendship and friendship closeness. In general, Hall found that it took 40-60 hours to form a casual friendship. Moving from casual friend to friend required between 80-100 hours, and moving from friend to good/best friend took between 160-200 hours. Time spent together was a key predictor of friendship closeness, but the type of activity mattered as well. For example, more time spent at work or in class together actually predicted lower closeness, but more time spent hanging out without an agenda predicted higher closeness.

The kind of talk friends engaged was also important. Small talk (about things like pets, sports, current events, TV/music/movies) predicted lower closeness over time. But striving talk (which Hall defined as “catching up by talking about events that have occurred since you last saw each other,” “Talking about what’s up/what happened to you during the day,” “Serious conversation where both of you are involved in the conversation,” “Playful talk to have fun or release tension,” or “Talking in ways that express love and give attention and affection”) predicted greater closeness.

Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Assimilation; Church; Small groups – Time and energy spent in meaningful conversation will help people become connected and have a sense of belonging in the group; 2) Prayer; Fellowship with God – Since closeness in a relationship requires time and deep conversation, then the same is true in our relationship with God.

Frome in Somerset, England has seen a dramatic fall in emergency hospital admissions since it began a new collective project. The source for this medical breakthrough was surprising. It's called community.

After a trial study, the data showed that when isolated people who have health problems are supported by community groups and volunteers, the number of emergency admissions to hospital falls spectacularly. One doctor remarked, "No other interventions on record have reduced emergency admissions across a population."

The Compassionate Frome project was launched in 2013 by Helen Kingston, a GP there. She kept seeing patients who seemed defeated by the medicalization of their lives: treated as if they were a cluster of symptoms rather than a human being who happened to have health problems.

So she helped set up a directory of agencies and community groups. They employed "health connectors" and trained voluntary "community connectors" to help their patients find the support they needed. The goal was to break an unhealthy cycle: illness leads to isolation and loneliness, which then exacerbates illness.

Dozens of other studies have reinforced these conclusions. For example, HIV patients with strong social support have lower levels of the virus than those without. Women have better chances of surviving colorectal cancer if they have strong connections. Most remarkably, older patients with either one or two chronic diseases do not have higher death rates than those who are not suffering from chronic disease—as long as they have high levels of social support.

Possible Preaching Angle: Caring; Church, community; Fellowship; Support – Research again verifies God's design for the church; that fellowship and caring are literally good for physical (and spiritual) health.

It's no news flash that friends make us happy, but Meliksah Demir, Ph.D., a professor at Northern Arizona University, has drilled down to reveal exactly what about friendship warms our hearts. It turns out that companionship—simply doing things together—is the component of friendship that most makes us happy. And the reason friends make us happy, Demir has concluded, is that they make us feel that we matter.