Vision and Purpose of Small Groups  

Why do we even have small groups? Are they really that important? Small groups are not just a nice thing, they are vital. Think of the Church as a bus. The engine of the bus is the weekend worship at Mass, it drives the whole bus. Small groups are like the tires, which ground the bus in reality, that really bring home the experience of the weekend. The weekend often doesn’t feel part of our normal routine, it’s a break from our routine to refresh us and our weekend worship is to help in that rejuvenation. However, usually by midweek, we need to reorient and check our progress in our spiritual life. Small groups help us to evaluate how well we are living out the message of the Gospel.  

More importantly small groups help people live purpose driven lives. The Purpose Driven Life is really a kind of spirituality. Throughout the ages, saints have adopted spiritual practices in their time and context. For Francis Assisi, he embraced poverty and simplicity. Ignatius Loyola developed the spiritual exercises as a way to know God’s will and do it. St. Francis de Sales wrote about serving God in our daily life. What Rick Warren did in The Purpose Driven Life was offer an understandable way for people in the 21st century to know, love and serve God in our time.  

The first purpose small groups help us live is fellowship. Fellowship means some fellows on the same ship, going in the same direction. Fellowship is for people to help others go in the same direction towards Jesus Christ. We are influenced by the people we spend time with, we pick up their words and sayings and mannerisms. Our relationships define us and so if we want to be defined by our faith, find our identity in Christ, we must have friendships and relationships that are based or flow from our relationship with Christ.  

Fellowship happens when we can connect with one another. Small groups are where our big Church gets smaller and people make connections. In connecting with one another in a small group, you can be known, loved and cared for by the Church and can know love and care for members of my Church family. In a crowd of people and in corporate worship like we have at Mass on the weekends, it is very difficult to be known and it’s really impossible to have everyone in the crowd understand or care about your struggles. Small groups help us make connections in the Church, which is especially important in a Catholic Church, where we are so accustomed to running out after Mass. In a crowd it’s very easy to not be responsible either because of ignorance or a sense of distance, but in a small group we feel more accountable for the people around us.  

So fellowship is about direction and connection: connect with other members of the Church so we can go in the same direction towards Jesus Christ.  

The second purpose of small groups is discipleship, being in a small group should be a place that helps us to reflect on our lives and develop a Christ-like character. Small groups help us to take the word of God and apply it to our lives so that we are living it out. It’s not enough to simply hear the Word of God, we need to do what it says. This is the importance of having small groups meet during the week and why we have designed the curriculum to match and be complementary to the weekend. We can hear the homily and be resolved to put it into action in our lives, but it is real easy to forget what we heard. Midweek small groups refresh us on the message from the weekend and help us to evaluate how well we have applied it to our lives.  

Discipleship is also about renewing our minds. To become like Christ, we need to think like Christ which means coming to know his word better, getting God’s perspective on our situations in life. In small groups we get an additional teaching, additional food for thought.  

The third purpose small groups help us live is worship. Worship happens when we pray, sacrifice and please God. It is vital for our groups to fulfill their purposes to begin and end in prayer.  

The fourth purpose small groups should help us live out is evangelization and go on mission. This is where Nativity goes out to help others. Small groups are going to be the vehicle through which we reach out to the community. If each small group begins a little ripple into the community, we are going to make an amazing impact.  

Last, small groups help in ministry to support people in doing a ministry at the parish.

If we find support and friendship from others in our faith, we will go closer to Christ and that will make us better servants of the Lord.