3rd Annual Small Groups Olympiad

I belong to a church that plays well together.

We work really well together too, but for some reason, games, and competition always brings out the best in everyone.

Tonight was our church's third annual Small Group Olympics. In a previous posting, I talked a little about the small groups at our church, their function, and how they generally operate. Well, the Olympics is more or less a celebration to mark the end of our annual fall series where there has been a large emphasis on folks joining small groups and new groups starting up.

There are actually two parts to the Olympics event. The first is the chili cook-off and the second is a series of games and there is a winner from each part.

The chili cook-off was pretty amazing. Each group brings a crock pot of chili and everyone votes on a favorite. In addition to the chili, my friend Cathy cooked enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed an army, and the small groups brought desserts and lots of cornbread. I am telling you that the people I go to church with can cook! As I am sitting at home writing this, I am asking myself if I really needed to sample all of that chili and cornbread. At the time, I really felt it was my duty to be as objective as I could in my voting and give as many chilli's a chance as I could. (There was a particular chicken/white bean one that was unbelievably good..) However, I am just hoping now that the Tums will work quickly and I think I can feel my double-chin has grown.

Naturally, after everyone was nice and full on chili, cornbread, and desserts, it was time to gird ourselves for pain and athleticism.... Well, not exactly, but there was some fierce competition in the games. Some of the "sports" included a relay race that involved carrying a clothespin between the knees and dropping it into a cup, charades, a word association game, and hula-hooping. Yeah ok, so it's not like we're doing the decathlon, but you would be surprised at the competitiveness our small groups displayed. On the word association and charades games, some people were shouting out answers as loud as they could and our group huddled and strategized about how we could effectively carry clothespins between our knees. Just like the regular Olympics.... we had the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Our group didn't win the chili cook-off. And we didn't win the games either (although we did win three out of the five events we competed in). But we really had a good time tonight with a lot of laughs and I can tell we made a quantum leap forward in our relationships with one another and with other small groups in our church. We are much tighter as a group, more like a family now, than we have ever been, which is really what this entire event is about.

So while we didn't actually win the games tonight, our time together as a small group was a win, the new level of our relationships is a win, and the competition tonight made all that possible. We are true champions in that respect.

Now we just need to spend the next twelve months working on our game so next year we can take home some medals......