Why Small Groups?

We say it almost every week: if you want to get connected to the community at All Souls--if you want to get to know and become known by others at this church--the best way to do it is to join a Small Group.

It's the only thing we do that gets that much airtime, so why do we push it so hard? What makes Small Group participation so important to us?

There are a lot of things we could say, but I'll mention three here. Why Small Groups?

1. They connect Sunday to the rest of the week (and indeed, the rest of our lives)

   One of the curiosities of our time is the ease with which we all can isolate our "faith" from "the rest of our life." It is very easy to do--in fact, it is likely the norm in our time and place. If you don't work against this kind of isolation, this is what will happen.

   
   

   There are many reasons for how and why this became the norm (and as many books), but the important thing to note here is that this kind of isolation, where our "religion" is a purely person and private thing, is not what the Scriptures and the Christian tradition have to say about the meaning of the faith. It has to do with everything, and meeting together to share time, a meal, and prayer together helps us to begin to see how integrated "faith" and "life" actually are.

   
   

2. They make space for relationships we need

   Ours is a lonely age, and building relationships is hard. This can be especially true at church, when the only time you might spend with others in our parish all week are two hours on a Sunday morning. But God made us to be with others. It's not good for us to be alone.

   
   

   This is the case generally: we need friends, family, etc. But it is even more the case for anyone striving (or considering beginning) to follow Jesus. Over and again in the New Testament, the call comes to share the burdens of life and the struggles (and joys) of faith.

   
   

   There's no better way to get to know someone than to share a meal with them, and there's no better way to bear one another's burdens than by listening to and praying for them.

   
   

3. They make space to practice prayer

   Praying is one of the basic building blocks of faith. It's simple, necessary, and obvious. But can be so hard to do, especially with any sort of consistency.

   
   

   To be a disciple of Jesus is (among other things) to commit to learning to pray from him and from our Mothers and Fathers in the faith. Small groups, built as they are around a meal and prayer, are spaces for all of us to learn how to pray, and to do so with one another.

   
   

   A praying life--which is another way of saying a life ordered around communion with God--is something we learn, and it is something that takes practice. In our Small Goups we do that together, so that we can move "further up and further in" to our life in God with one another.

The last (and maybe most important!) thing to say about Small Groups is that they're not magic.

They don't make building community automatic OR learning to pray easy. You can count on some awkward moments and strained conversations.

But they are worth the struggle of getting there, even if getting there is all you've got to give. Getting to know and becoming known is good, hard, life-giving work. So is learning to pray. This is why we put so much effort into these groups. I hope you'll join us!

If you haven't signed up already, click here.

Cheers,

Fr. Danny