As I mentioned when I rolled out my proposed six-year focus for the parish, over the next year we are really going to try to turn our parish focus towards (1) personal prayer and (2) faith-sharing groups. These will be the foundation and strength for everything else we do together going forward and it is important that we lay that foundation well.
In light of that, one of the first thing we need to do on the small group front is determine how many small groups are currently meeting in our parish. I am well aware that I am not the first pastor to try to develop small groups at the parish – we have had Lenten Small Groups for a while, and I believe we did RENEW groups even before that – and I know some of these groups have persisted and grown through the years. Other parishioners have organically started their own Bible studies or prayer groups and we do not want to leave them out, either.
To that end, if you are part of something you would consider a faith-based small group, would you consider filling out this survey for us? [Survey now closed.]
The first thing we are going to do with this list is invite everyone currently in small groups – both leaders and attendees – to our first annual “Small Group Large Group” gathering this June 29th at 7:00 p.m. in the gym. We will talk briefly about our plan for small groups in the parish going forward, but the majority of the event will be a video presentation with small group discussion. Our hope is that small groups will sit together, so that we can all discuss the same theme, but in the groups we have already come to rely on. More information will be in the invitation. If you are not yet in a small group, not to worry! We will have more information in the coming months about intensive small group leader trainings (I prefer to think of them as missionary trainings) which will be offered in the Fall. If you would like to start a group, think about making time for this from September to December this year.
Fr. Moore 