Small Groups Will Save the Church

Blog 001

I have always been fascinated with sociology and psychology. I love studying how people interact in their environments and how those environments can shape them. In our modern-day climate, there is such an emphasis on healthy lifestyles and mental health. While post-modern movements aim to remove faith from our lives, we often forget that religion is embedded as a cornerstone of our moral ethics and our familial values.

Following Covid and amidst global unsettledness, the search for peace has never been so important. There is a tangible positive impact of “community.” There are many movements devoted to decluttering one’s mental and physical space. We have guided meditation to quiet the noise. We have KonMari to teach us how to dispose of the “stuff” we carry from home to home. It’s much more accessible than ever before to slip away into reclusiveness. A cleanse of toxic people, behaviors, or environments can leave someone decluttered but empty. Without the proper resources to rebuild, there is an extreme danger that someone will remain in that state. We are created to be social beings. We are meant to be in community with one another.

As uncomfortable as that thought makes me sometimes, I still need to force myself to connect with people. I schedule time to be intentional, and there are moments that it turns my stomach with anxiety.

Connecting with people, however, is a decision I never regret. The therapeutic benefits of sharing life with others are profound. Even the most staunch atheist acknowledges the power of community connection, a comforting truth in our faith journey.

There are many studies about the effects of loneliness on the mind and body. No matter the level of introversion, we desperately don’t want to be entirely alone.

In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is harmful. (1)

We are afraid to be alone, yet we live in an age where social isolation is higher than ever. The residual damage to the community is alarming.

For example, the most recent U.S. census data show that more than a quarter of the population lives alone — the highest rate ever recorded. In addition, more than half of the population is unmarried, and marriage rates and the number of children per household have declined since the previous census. According to research by the University of Maryland’s Do Good Institute, volunteerism rates have also decreased, and an increasing percentage of Americans report no religious affiliation — suggesting declines in the kinds of religious and other institutional connections that can provide the community. (2, 3)

Our Creator is not alone. He is a triune God. The Godhead is community. God the Father, God as the Son, and God as the Holy Spirit. Three separate forms, but all in full communion and one God. This divine community is a model for us, emphasizing the importance of community in our faith and making us feel connected to a larger whole; it is intended to make us feel connected to God.

In creation, we see there is community. It began as two people, and when they were joined, they gave birth to a new life. As we populated the world, the necessity of community continued to grow. Human life began as a family. There was a Father at the head. There was a Mother, one flesh with the Father, a physical nurturer. A child must cleave to its Mother to sustain life. The family must care for the child for that life to survive. Through family nurturing, the child grows into an adult and cleaves to its new partner. They become one, and the cycle continues. Families depend on one another to succeed in the community.

Marriage is the joining of one person to another. Marriage is joining us to our Creator. We began as a small family: a Father, a Mother, and a child. Again, the trinity models this small family form. The holy family imitates this family nucleus. Every small family will grow to foster a small group. We have a large family, a tribe, a village, a community. Jesus was the ultimate group leader. Jesus formed his close circle of disciples. He formed a small group with twelve future group leaders. Jesus had the ultimate enablement course to teach his followers to be likened to God. To be like Jesus, we need to follow Him. We need to listen to everything he instructed and understand His teachings by living them. We need to carry our cross.

The Challenge in the Catholic Church

How can we move from a large body into small groups? The Roman Catholic Church has approximately 1.3 billion baptized members. There are 407,872 priests in the Church. There are almost 50,000 parishes in the world with no resident pastor. There has been a slight decline in priests since the 1970s. In the United States, there is approximately one priest for every 2,000 Catholics. In the context of the Catholic Church, small groups are gatherings of believers who come together for prayer, study, and mutual support for life happenstances. These groups can be formed within parishes or communities, and they play a crucial role in fostering a sense of community and spiritual growth. In Christianity, the Catholic Church is slow-moving to adopting successful small-group models, which the evangelical protestant churches have implemented so well.

It’s a reality that we don’t have enough priests to catechize the entire Church body or serve as small-group leaders. The administering of Sacraments must be the priority for clergy. But we, the laity, have a crucial role to play. We must be responsible for fostering small group growth and catechesis. We must work for sanctification by serving the theologically hungry in our communities, a responsibility that empowers us and makes us integral to the Church’s mission.

What if our laity focused on evangelization and preparing the body to receive the sacraments? What could happen? What if this responsibility could rest with small groups within the Church?

I see large families where the older siblings lead their younger siblings in learning and growth. We know that it is an older brother or sister's responsibility to perform the duties of a Mother and Father because it provides relief and assistance and prepares them to be Mothers and Fathers themselves.

What if we had a blueprint and structure for all small groups? Similar to the training a child receives to prepare them to guide and help with their younger siblings, what if the Church enabled the laity to care for themselves and assist our pastors?

Jesus has a ministry. He has a Church. We have this large body of believers. Sermon on the mount. Large gatherings. He was feeding the multitude. Jesus retreated to pray alone with the Father. Jesus established authority with a priestly line. He sent out 72 disciples with the authority to heal. He turned back to his inner circle. His 12 apostles, Mother, and family followers formed intimate small groups. He had a small group when he needed it, the 12 alone. He had an intimate group and an even smaller group. The transfiguration is given to a specific intimate group. He confided in his Mother. He confided in his family. Jesus modeled different forms of small groups.

We can’t receive intimacy from the diocese or the parish. We are responsible for feeding from the Church and our Mother so we can feed our own family. If we are not feeding independently, we will starve. We cannot count on the Church to deliver our food. This is why I have an understanding of Protestant Churches as fast-food restaurants.

It must be the role of the laity to help feed one another so that we can, in turn, feed our families.

“Who’s going to save our Church? It’s not our bishops, it’s not our priests and it is not the religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes and the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that the priests act like priests, your bishops act like bishops, and the religious act like religious.” — Fulton Sheen (4)

If marriage dies, the family dies, and eventually, the community dies. Satan has constantly attacked the family and marriage. The final battle will be against these two institutions.

The sacrament of reconciliation and the Eucharist are the two bookends of the seven sacraments. They are the physical application of Jesus Christ into our lives. The Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity before us. We can touch, taste, and enter into full communion with it. Reconciliation is speaking to the ears of Christ and hearing a verbal response of absolution. The sacraments are something that all Catholics share and are powerful applicators of grace. We can’t wait for the clergy to teach us the “why” behind the power of the sacraments. We must begin to build our house on a stone foundation. Only our small groups can save the Church.