BELONG
CONNECTING IN REAL LIFE
Why Small life-sharing Groups?
Love. Purpose. Meaning. Belonging and being deeply connected…we all need these things. With them, our ordinary lives are transformed into extraordinary Christian lives.
Connecting with a small life-sharing group of friends about faith matters is an amazing way to really immerse yourself in your faith with the personal attention, encouragement, prayerful support, and accountability you need for sustained spiritual growth.
Discover the power of real life change.
Discover the life you were made for.
Small life-sharing groups aren't just beneficial, they're biblical. From Moses (Exodus 18:13-26), to the Apostles (Acts 2:42), meeting together in small life-sharing groups encourages us in the faith (Hebrews 10:25).
Hosting a Small Life-Sharing Group of friends is as easy as 1-2-3!
Resources to turn our courses into Small Life-Sharing Groups
When the engaged invite on-the-fence friends and family to make this journey with them, they experience the joy of accompaniment. And that joy is addictive. It’s time to wake the sleeping giant—the millions of engaged Catholics who want to share their faith but need a tool that makes it easy.
REAL LIFE TESTIMONIALS
A WORD ON SMALL life-sharing GROUPS, FROM CHRIS STEFANICK
God wants to break into your life and enter your heart in a new way. Small life-sharing groups are an amazing way for Him to do that.
They’re an opportunity to gather in a smaller setting outside of Mass, and they give us an additional chance to get to know each other better and grow deeper in our faith. And in the end, they have the power to change lives! To change your life. And to change the lives of people you invite who may be on the fence with their faith.
(The Mass wasn’t invented to be an evangelistic tool, or the “front door” to Christianity. But your group of friends IS! Remember, as I often say “friendship is the ordinary forum for evangelization!”) Small life-sharing groups come in all shapes and sizes – men’s groups, women’s groups, married groups, single groups, moms groups, hiking groups, groups by location, or, really, anything else you can dream up.
You don’t have to be a theologian, priest, or even a teacher to create authentic and meaningful community in a small life-sharing group. God uses all of us when we’re willing! I urge you to have the courage and humility to start – or join – your own small life-sharing group.
Some pastors, historically, have tried to build up their parish by instituting all kinds of small life-sharing groups - and the parish is seen as a combination of all these small life-sharing groups - but that generally doesn't work...because the pastor is the one who put those groups together rather than the people creating the groups themselves, out of more natural friendships. They're artificial groups rather than real groups. When small life-sharing groups work in the Church they really are lay-based. And it's not just one person, but many laypeople, who create the same kind of environment for a parish community as among their families and friends.
We should try to imagine our parish not so much as a parish with small life-sharing groups, but as a parish of small life-sharing groups...a parish with a group for everyone, and everyone in a group.
