Small Groups at PBC
"Building spaces where nobody stands alone."

Small groups were first introduced to Peoples Baptist Church in 1996 by Pastor Roberts. The 12 groups that were started at that time lasted for about two years. The small groups ministry was revived during the 40 Days of Purpose Campaign in the fall of 2003, under the leadership of Deaconess Doris Jones. Since that time the small groups program has evolved into a viable ministry that has continued to grow. A viable small groups ministry is an essential component of our transition to a "Purpose Driven" church.

The purpose of the small groups ministry is to connect members of our congregation to a small group in which they can more fully experience the five purposes. In essence, small groups are small spaces where members can share together in Christian fellowship, grow together in faith, increase their sense of belonging and "connection", and learn to share their faith with others.

The overall structure of the ministry continues to be modeled on the Lifetogether and Purpose Driven small groups programs. In terms of the overall structure of the team, we have continued with what worked well for us last year. An essential component of this structure continues to be the way in which we have included a system of support and encouragement for small group hosts; particularly for persons who are hosting a group for the first time. One important goal of the small groups team has been to develop a system of operating and to develop materials that would allow the ministry to remain viable amidst changes in ministry personnel and small group leaders. To this end, we have spent a great deal of time this year in developing training materials and fine-tuning procedures for all aspects of launching a small groups series. We have also decided that the focus of this ministry will be on enriching the small group experiences of members who are open to participation, and not on recruiting people to join a small group who are simply not interested in this type of experience.

The highlight of the year for the small groups ministry has been the launch of our new "affinity" groups. With affinity groups, the congregation will have greater flexibility to select a group based on a topic of interest, or based on their own unique spiritual growth and affiliation needs.

There are essentially two types of "affinity" groups. The first type of affinity group is a group in which the people who participate because they share something in common. (For instance, a group of women or a group of men in the church may decide to get together to study a particular book of the bible, or they may decide to participate in a small group study for women, men, people who have experienced a recent loss, or for people who are single.) Some of you may have had the opportunity to participate in the Men of Faith, Forever Touched, or Single and Spiritual affinity groups offered during the most recent small groups session.

A second type of affinity group is when a group of people join the same small group because they are interested in studying the same topic. For instance, a group of people who are not similar in any other way or who do not know each other, may join a small group because they want to learn to manage their finances more efficiently, or because they want to learn a spiritual approach to leadership. Some of you may have participated in one of the following topic-based affinity groups during the most recent small groups study: Managing Our Finances God's Way, 40 Days of Purpose, Thessalonians: A Spiritual Roadmap in a Mixed Up World, Mission Possible: Lessons from Nehemiah, or If You want to Walk on Water you've Got to Get out of the Boat.

The small groups team determined that we would like to schedule four small group sessions per calendar year. However, after actually reconciling these intentions with a very busy church calendar, we determined that this was not a realistic goal. In addition, with the exception of a few members who have been in an ongoing small group, we are aware many members of our congregation do not have schedules that would allow participation in closely scheduled small group sessions. We are also aware that some members of our congregation prefer to participate in a shorter study (4 sessions) and enjoy a different type of group experience such as the seminar-style group studies recently offered by Pastor Roberts. Recent 4-seesion seminars have included The Passion of Christ, The DaVinci Code, and the current series, Just Walk Across the Room. The Discipleship team led by Juliette Johnson is currently exploring more of these seminar offerings.