I’m off again today on the Proclamation Trust’s wonderful Minister’s Wives’ Conference. I’m looking forward to being refreshed by teaching from Lizzie Smallwood and Vaughan Roberts, chatting to friends from dawn until dusk and being encouraged by hearing what God is doing in many different places.
It’s hard to believe that it’s a year since I was last at Hothorpe Hall. We have been living in our Vicarage for two years now. We moved in during February half term and the Vicar was inducted on 10th March.
There seems to be a pattern in moving to a new parish: a while ago I blogged about the ‘I hate foreign’ part that happens early on. But a lot of clergy say that the second and third years can be tough – when you start changing things more and your weaknesses become more exposed. It’s when you begin to really know your congregation and your parish and they you. I think we’ve found that true – last summer felt like quite hard going. But now we are very encouraged by signs of growth.
And only yesterday the Vicar launched a big new initiative: we are aiming to increase the number of small groups. We’ve even had fabulous banners printed up. Designed by a Vicar’s wife, natch.
Does your church have small groups? How are they getting on? Any wisdom could come in very handy…
The Vicar's Wife 
A discovery I’ve made regarding small groups while doing some research on the ‘missing generation’ (20s & 30s) was a church who suspended all their small groups in order to re-vitalise them.
Last lent they decided they’d follow a lent course as a congregation, meeting in small groups mid-week and following the theme in the Sunday service. The small number of existing house groups stopped running and members of the congregation could sign up to a small group running at a time and place that suited them best. As a result, the majority of the congregation took part in the course.
Once lent finished, many people realised the value of mid-week fellowship and new house groups were set up in addition to the ones that had existed before. Others who felt that they couldn’t commit to something every week found it easier committing to a 5 week block. Now the church runs something similar three times a year, with additional small groups and house groups covering the same material. They also said that using the material on Sundays helped create discussion points – over coffee after church people knew that everyone else had looked at the same material, so there was lots of conversation about it.
That’s just one church’s way of doing it, but I was really impressed with the impact it had. Good luck!
I’ve been leading our small group for 8 years now, and I’m as dry as a bone! But no-one else will take it on. So I’ve told the Vicar (ie my husband!) that I want to stop in the summer although I’d like to stay part of a small group … so it’s watch this space to see what happens!
It’s only one of three small groups among the two churches, but they are all very different. They are united by the ‘GIFT Group’ tag … Growing in Faith Together … which is supposed to shape and define what we do as small groups. I hope that after 8 years there might be others out there who’ve caught that vision …
Our small groups at church are Community Groups. Their aim is to build community in the areas where people gather and live. We eat a shared supper every week (rota for whether you bring meat, pudding, bread, veg, drinks, pasta/pots) and at the end of the meal we share communion (a different member of the group leads this each week based on the previous sunday’s sermon).
After tea and coffee we then have a bible study – we are going through Acts at the moment using a study book which has been great. Again a different member of the group will lead this – often it is our host/leader if others cannot do it but we do get different people doing it fairly regularly.
We then share prayer requests and pray some of these through.
We arrive at 7.30 and finish at 9.30pm although if you are on washing up then you stay a bit longer or if we are particularly into the study we will stay chatting longer too.
We find this is where “church” really is and for me being on welcome team and kids work nearly 2 out of 4 sundays it’s where I can not only encourage others but be encouraged myself.