Glenda Thomas, the pastor at Almaden Hills United Methodist Church, makes it a point to try to create small groups within the church. A few years ago, there were a small handful of couples that were looking for a study and fellowship group at that church. Glenda invited these couples to a "kickoff" dinner at the church. After an enjoyable evening of getting to know each other, she declared that the couples were a group and encouraged them to create a date for their next get together.
The couples were all young, or young at heart. All were childless. All were looking for something that combined fellowship, prayer, study and food. Especially food.
No group is really a group until it has a name, so our band of four couples started grappling with that very issue. It took several excellent group dinners before a decision was made. "YUMMIES" won out over all of the other suggestions because it seemed to fit the dinner motif in a fun and humorous way. And, it had "UM" in it, so the bright and creative United Methodist people in that early group were sure they could eventually find words to fit the acronym.
"Young United Methodist MarrIEdS" was the final selection. Recognising a good thing when they saw it, those initial couples set about formalizing the meeting structure and making rules. The rules were:
A typical meeting started at 7:00 pm on a Friday at one of the couples' home. The hosting couple would create a menu and give the other couples assignments for what food to bring. The food was always outstanding and people had a wonderful time talking about the things that had happened since they had seen each other last. After desert, if it was before 10 pm, we would usually break out the study materials and give it a go.
After a year or so, one of the couples decided to return to Good Samaritan UMC after 18 months at Almaden Hills. They asked the other couples if they could continue to attend YUMMIES even if they were no longer attending Almaden Hills. The couples had really become an extended family to each other, and they all graciously agreed that the YUMMIES could be a group that included couples from both churches.
The Good Sam couple made a valiant effort to balance the group by inviting three other couples from Good Sam. With the addition of those new couples, and with the loss of two of the original couples due to moving out of state, the YUMMIES stabalized at eight couples. The larger size started to have a noticeable effect on the character of a typical YUMMIES evening. Not all of us are set up to entertain 16 people for a large meal.
Sometime later another couple announced that they were, in fact, going to pop a toddler and asked the group whether we would modify the rules and allow them to stay. "Of course! As long has you haven't broken the other two rules!"
Seeing how well that worked for the first couple, three other couples got pregnant in short order. All of a suddent the group had a very different character. Study time became more rare, and hosting the YUMMIES became more of a burden.
The YUMMIES have never had a "leader". We have always made decisions by consensus and we have always rotated responsibilities for hosting meals, leading the study, planning a trip, etc. This has worked very well for us for the most part, but it makes it a little harder to address concerns with how the group itself is developing.
After one couple knocked out a wall between their living room and family room to accomodate the group, we met in their home and had a heart-felt talk about the future of the YUMMIES.
We decided to make several changes. The hardest was to close the group to new couples. We had just dropped from nine to eight, and no one wanted to go up to nine again. A second decision was to split our fellowship and study time into separate events. We created a schedule of studies on two Friday evenings per week, and some food and fellowship oriented event on one Saturday per month. We also formalized planning for some of our favorite field trips.
Our special trips have included: A weekend retreat in Aptos, a camping trip in the wine country, a tahoe snow trip, a yosemite trip, day trips to Fioli Gardens, Golden Gate park, an apple orchard, etc.
We still have two special food-related events each year. In the summer we spend a day making dozens of jars of jams and preserves. In December we spend a day making hundreds of Christmas cookies and candies. These two events were instant traditions. I expect them to continue for a very long time.
As 1999 begins, we have eight couples and six children (with two more on the way) representing three churches (we added a catholic to give us some perspective.)
We offer this brief history as a way to encourage you to become involved in a small Christian group. If you are looking around for a group to join, you might find a perfect fit by creating the kind of group you are looking for. Invite some people over for dinner. Talk about what you are hoping to find in a small group. If you find someone who shares your desires for fellowship or study or prayer (or food) then you've found your group. It is really just that easy to get started.
If the Spirit touches your efforts, then you'll find that the group becomes a very important part of your life. And you will become important in the lives of others.
We pray that God blesses you.
The YUMMIES.
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Folks have looked at this page since February 9, 1999.
It was last updated February 04, 2007.