Memories of Groups in my Church Experience--by Linden Malki

I grew up in an American Baptist church in Spokane, Washington, and the first group I recall specifically was a 6th grade Sunday School class, taught by my mother. She had been a teacher before she married, and she was really determined that we should memorize basic Scripture passages. I had no choice-and Psalm 23, the nativity passage in Luke 2, the Easter passage in Matthew 28, and the Beatitudes,  are still with me.  The other group experience from that church is high school Baptist Youth Fellowship, which was basically run by us kids; we had adult advisers, but the studies, activities, music, and mission projects were our responsibility. At that time, there was an active local interchurch youth group that did fellowship events and local projects, one of which was a community Easter sunrise service in a large park. This was organized and run by a bunch of us high school kids (we did draft a local pastor as the main speaker) with minimal adult supervision.

When I came to San Bernardino, it was with a brand-new husband who was already attending what was then Calvary Baptist Church, and the associate pastor at that time turned out to be a pastor who had been in Spokane before I was born, and one of my father's best friends. This was when the Sierra Way facility was just being finished, and my older daughter was one of the first babies dedicated here.  This was before the Children's building and Fellowship Hall were built, and the offices and nursery facility was in the quadraplex at the north end of the property. Child care was done by a rotation of moms and volunteer high school girls, and a good way to get to know each other. I also got involved in a women's weekday Bible study group, which lasted several years until one summer when most of the moms moved or had other life changes. 

When my kids were in grade school, I was asked by Betty Jo Graves, then Sunday School Superintendent, to teach a third grade class, which led to becoming involved in children's ministry and youth ministry for some years; teaching, drama, and music, up through the years that my younger son and Chris Reinhard were in our high school group. Pastor Paul Reinhard came back from a sabbatical in 2005 with a vision for small-group ministry, and we developed a program of home-based Life Groups, which have now become the Sandals Community Group ministry. The group that I am currently involved in grew out of the midweek worship service we did before the Sandals merger, and is a valuable resource for keeping on track with God's vision for our church family.