The Cellular College?

And by "cellular" I mean "cell groups," not "cellphones." I'm working my way through Gladwell's New Yorker pieces and came across this one regarding the phenomenal growth of Rick Warren's ministry as well as megachurches in general. How do they do it? The short answer is that they combine low barriers to entry via the main services with intense forms of community via cell groups. http://www.gladwell.com/2005/2005_09_12_a_warren.html

My question for higher education is whether there are things that we can learn from this model of ministry. All of the big, successful companies appear to follow similar formats in which they have low entry barriers (easy to get a job at Wal-Mart) with lots of emphasize of building community (the Wal-Mart "Way," to quote Don Soderquist's book).

I look at our degree completion programs with the ubiquitous cohort model, and I see some of that format in place there. I read Richard Light's arguments about the value of theater programs and the like in college settings in that they create close bonds between students and to the community, and I find echoes of this philosophy.

But could we do more? I think so. Why don't we? Well, I for one have resisted this impulse my whole life as something of an "anti" joiner, so in my own experience, it's because the emphasis on groups was always being forced to join with people and in activities that I had no interest in. What Gladwell pointed out, however, is that Warren's approach is to provide groups that appealed to all possible interests while still giving direction and structure.

In the college context, maybe that just means providing resources for groups of students, faculty, staff, or all three who have common interests to get together to do things that interest them. I'm not sure, but it's clear that there's real power in the small group idea that we in higher education, with our individualist research mindset, have largely failed to tap.