Covenant Groups

Covenant Groups

A covenant group consists of 5 to 12 people who meet monthly to support one another in topics and activities of mutual interest. They meet in a home or in the church in a welcoming environment that respects diverse opinions. Led by a facilitator, the group makes and agrees to a covenant defining the group's mission, its relationship to the church, and how the members treat each other.

What Are Covenant Groups Why We Have Covenant Groups BAUUC Covenant Group Histoy

List of Active Covenant Groups

A covenant group consists of 5 to 12 people who meet monthly to support one another in topics and activities of mutual interest. They meet in a home or in the church in a welcoming environment that respects diverse opinions. Led by a facilitator, the group makes and agrees to a covenant, which defines the group’s mission and its relationship to the church, and also defines how the members treat each other. Different groups have different formats, but some elements are common:

• We open with a reading from a UU source.
• There is a check-in, allowing each member to share about how life is going for them, and what their concerns, joys and struggles are.
• The group does its major activity. For most groups, that is a period of facilitated discussion. But it may also be a time of meditation, or performing a service, or doing crafts, or studying texts, or exercise, or many other things.
• Each group has a covenant, describing how the members agree to treat each other, and describing how the group ties back to the church.
• There is always an empty chair, welcoming the people who have not yet joined the group.
• The group agrees to do some service for the church or the larger community annually.

Why We Have Covenant Groups

Small-group organization works magic because carefully-led small groups meet two fundamental human needs.

• People come to our churches to be lifted out of the ordinary, to be drawn up from the mundane, and to be seek relief (preferably in an interactive way) from the omnipresent materialism of our culture.
• People, living in our society of frequent re-locations and diminished family support, come to our churches to find friends, community, "a place where everybody knows your name."

Covenant Groups provide for both those needs in ways that our Sunday services, coffee hours, committee meetings, Dinners for Eight, and other gatherings cannot. Proof that the organizational model most of us are currently using does not meet these needs well is in our statistics.

History of Covenant Groups at BAUUC

In 2000, Rev Bob Hill was the district executive of theSouth West Unitarian Universalist Conference, of which BAUUC is a member. He preached a guest sermon at our church in January '00, and gave a small workshop on CGs that spring. Five BAUUC members attended a longer workshop at SWUUSI.

At BAUUC in Fall '00, Rev Hill had a daylong workshop on Covenant Groups. About 50 UUs from the Houston area attended. In Nov '00, Rev Tom Burdett asked David Throop and Tom Price to form a group with him to lead CGs at BAUUC. The first groups were launched in January '01. The BAUUC board set "Having 5 Covenant Groups Running by June '01" as a goal at it's Feb '01 retreat. We met that goal.