Multiplication & Transition

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Seeker small groups are meant to be a portal into the faith of the Church, community life, and lifelong discipleship.

When is it time to move on?

Anyone is welcome to join the seeker small group at any time during any point in their walk with God. After 16 weeks of small group meetings, an initial one on one meeting, and several invitations to other events and socials, it is time to invite participants to take the next step. For some this will mean returning to the practice of their Catholic faith through Confession and possibly the Sacrament of Confirmation. For others it will mean joining a RCIA program. Everyone should be invited to make a commitment to become a disciple in the Catholic Church.
Your team will need to pray and decide when to invite a person to accept the Gospel and move forward to the next step. This should normally happen no later than 12 weeks. It may be that after 16 weeks a person is still searching but unwilling to make a decision. The normal course is to invite them to a point of deeper entry such as RCIA where they can continue to discern with the RCIA team and the pastor.

Those who are Catholic should be invited back into the practice of their faith through the sacraments, especially Confession, and encouraged to continue developing the interior life of prayer. They should also be invited to join other Bible studies or communities in the parish. It is also possible that the members of a Seeker Small Group might roll over into a discipleship group, moving on from the basic 12 weeks of catechesis, so that the friendships formed there can continue to flourish. This of course would be separate from the original group and would need a new leader, along with permission from the parish to meet with the new direction. This would be a good solution to continue to serve non-Catholics who might need to wait to join RCIA, or who just need more time to come to a decision. However, you do not want to force this decision on anyone. It should be a conversation in which the person decides on their next step, as they feel ready.

Remember that you are making an investment in other people. There is an urgency to respond to the Gospel, but some people may take years of loving care and friendship before they respond to the Gospel. Others may never accept the Gospel.

Making an invitation to become a disciple.

When dealing with real people, the timeline for these interviews and the process of discipleship will become messy. Some people may be ready to become a disciple before they arrive at the first small group. Others will take longer than 16 weeks. The process presented here needs to be used as a guideline for your team to discern.
Your second one-on-one interview with a participant is the time to invite them to become a disciple for the rest of their lives, or to take the next step if they are already a disciple. This meeting can take place any time outside of a small group. You can invite them out to eat again, or invite them to come early or stay late at a small group. You might meet them some other time as well. It is up to you and your participants.

This is another casual conversation, but with more purpose. You might say something like “Martin, I’m hoping to meet with you again. Our small group meets for 16 weeks, and then we invite people to move into a discipleship group with their friends, or another parish group. Can we talk for 20 minutes after our small group this week about what might be next for you?”

Questions for your meeting

Casual catching up.
What have you enjoyed the most about the small group?
Has anything challenged you?
Has your life changed at all since you have started attending?
How would you describe your relationship with God? (Or: Have you made a decision about whether or not you believe in God?)
What do you think about Jesus and the Christian message?
Do you have a desire to have a relationship with God?

At this point, explain the Gospel in one minute. Use the guide in appendix ( ) for help.

Would you be interested in becoming a disciple?

If yes:

That’s so awesome. An important part of starting your life as a disciple is to pray and surrender your heart and mind to God. Would it be okay if we did
that now?

(Suggested) Prayer for discipleship

God, you know all things, you know that I love you. I want to become your disciple and am making that choice today. I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend you, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of your grace, [to be baptized,] to confess my sins and to change my life. Give me the grace and courage to live as a missionary disciple for the rest of my days. Amen.

If no:

What is keeping you from becoming a disciple at this point?

Listen carefully. Do your best to find common ground, to empathize, and to help them overcome their objections. If you are not making headway, tell them that they are welcome to attend the small group as long as they would like. There are also other programs they can attend to help them continue to discern their relationship with God.

Points of deeper entry

Make sure before your meetings that you are up to date on the groups and meeting times at your parish,
or even other area parishes.

RCIA – for those who are not baptized, are not Catholic, who formally left their faith (such as through rebaptism), or in some areas those who need the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Bible Studies – Visit those that are available and decide which groups are most ready to receive new people and what type of people to guide to them (men, women, younger, older, married, single, well catechized, etc.)
Encounter Groups – Other programs that are set up to evangelize similar to seeker small groups.
Life & Worship of the Church – Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, or other regular times of devotion.
Discipleship Groups and Home Meetings – Those focused primarily on growing as a disciple through a particular process.
Prayer Groups – Those focused primarily on praying together.
Discipleship & Catechetical Series – Such as those published by Ignatius Press, Word on Fire, Ascension Press, or the Augustine Institute. Many parishes have groups that meet to view and discuss these series together as videos.

Navigating dysfunction in the parish: What is and is not your job

Many people leave the Catholic faith because of experiences they had at the parish. Small group teams can approach the idea of inviting people to join the parish with a bit of trepidation. We can tell you from our own experiences that people still become faithful disciples of Jesus Christ in the Church He founded despite the foolishness of her laity, the stupidity of her priests, and the cowardice of her bishops.

Even if the homilies are awful, the music makes your ears bleed, the pastor is mean, and the people are gossips, Jesus is still present in the Holy Eucharist. Yes, there are plenty of hypocrites in the Catholic Church, after all, they took you.

You can help simply by praying, discovering your charisms, and volunteering. Yet, you will not fix the dysfunction in your parish on your own, whatever that might be. The people you invite to become disciples will be smart enough to see that the Church is filled with sinners trying to live for Christ and returning to the source of grace over and over again.

The first concern of each person on your team is to get themselves and their families to heaven. Next, it is to respond to the Holy Spirit and use their gifts to respond to His promptings. G.K. Chesterton, when asked what was wrong with the world, said “I am.” The only way we are going to fix the Church is to fix ourselves. The only way we are going to do that is by focusing on becoming holy and responding to our duty before God.

Starting a Discipleship Group

“But I want to stay in this small group.”

It is only natural that this new group of friends will want to stick together as they drink deeply from the wellspring of worship in the Catholic Church. You can help identify a new leader and keep the group together as a discipleship or prayer group. We identify a simple format for a discipleship group in Appendix 1.

“I’m not ready to commit, can I keep coming?”

We are glad that they are coming. Try to identify why they are not ready to commit or what questions they have that are not being answered. See if the Holy Spirit leads your team to overcoming these concerns. If they are still not ready to become a disciple of Jesus, they should be invited to attend another small group. We don’t want to keep them at the “portal” forever, but we want to invite them into a deeper relationship with people at the Church. This is a good opportunity to get them involved in the inquiry process at RCIA. Even so, yes, of course you can keep coming.