Small Group Ministry
The Christian life is about faith, hope, and love — faith in Christ, hope in his promises, and love for one another. These are not things we can stir up by sheer willpower; they are gifts of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit strengthens them most of all when believers gather together — in prayer, in worship, and in the ministry of word and sacrament. (With a teaching liturgy like the Prayer Book, the Spirit has lots of material to work with!) As Jesus promised: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” We grow spiritually through the discipline of public worship.
At the same time, the Spirit also works powerfully in the private devotion of the individual Christian — when we read the Bible on our own, study Christian teaching, and spend time in prayer for particular needs. Think of Peter, who “went up on the rooftop about the sixth hour” to pray alone, and there God spoke to him.
Public worship and private devotion are not “either/or” options but “both/and.” Worship gives us the objectivity that religion needs — the witness of the whole Church, the fellowship of believers. Yet, because it is corporate, it cannot always address the personal and particular needs of our own lives. (We don’t need intercessions for Aunt Bessie’s chilblains.) Private devotion allows for that, but it carries its own risks: isolation, misunderstanding, or even drifting into error, untethered to the objective standard of truth maintained in the church’s public worship.
That is why our souls need both public worship and private devotion. For some, that is enough. But for many, there is also a third strand that strengthens faith: fellowship in a small group.
We already know small groups at St. John’s that come together for service — Jane’s Canners, the Elegant Eight, Parish Provisions, Parish Outreach. Even Choir or Vestry has something of this fellowship in their respective tasks. But what is less common among us are small groups that gather for deeper spiritual sharing — groups where parishioners commit to meet together for study of the Bible or Christian teaching, to pray for specific needs, and to offer each other support and encouragement. Such groups open the door to a deeper connection with the faith we share, and a deeper connection with the fellow Christians who share that faith with us.
What makes a small group like this work? Three things:
First, study of the faith. The heart of small group fellowship is reading and discussing Scripture, or a book of sound Christian teaching (e.g. modern authors like Lewis, Keller, Crouse, Pieper, Packer, Williams; or classical authors like Athanasius, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Hooker). This is not a top-down lecture like Sunday School. It’s a conversation. Everyone has a chance to speak; no one dominates. It requires more of you than sitting in a class — but it rewards you more deeply too. Wrestling together with the text helps us understand it in ways that sermons or lectures cannot.
Second, prayer in faith. What we study with our minds we then carry into prayer. We ask God to make it real in our lives, and we lift up the particular needs of one another. Such prayer is not about beautiful words — it is about being simple, direct, and sincere. And it is the means by which the truth we believe becomes actual in our lives.
Third, commitment and confidentiality. For the first two to bear fruit, there must be trust. That means members commit to showing up (on time, every time), to keeping confidences that have been shared, and to supporting each other with empathetic care. That commitment establishes the safe space where genuine sharing becomes possible, to the deepening of faith and the strengthening of charity. It is a great place for parishioners to build deeper relationships with one another — newcomers and oldtimers alike.
Next Sunday, September 14th, at 10 a.m., all parishioners are invited to a Parish Forum on Small Group Ministry. There you’ll learn more about what’s involved, how to start or join a group, and what the benefits can be. We will also be announcing some new small group start-ups. I warmly encourage you to make the most of this opportunity.