Father Dave welcomes Tom Corcoran to discuss how small group interactions can help revitalize parishes. Tom is the president of Rebuilt Parish, as well as lay associate to the pastor at Church of the Nativity in Maryland. He is co-author of the new book, “The Transformative Power of Small Groups: A 7-Step Guide for Building Vibrant Catholic Communities.”
Tom explains how he and his pastor Father Michael White founded Rebuilt, which is an organization designed to rebuild parishes for growth and health. “Father Michael and I came to our parish without much experience,” Tom begins. “We wanted to see the parish grow, but after a few years, nothing, no matter what we were doing. So that started us on a quest to try to learn from growing, healthy churches and see what they were doing.”
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He continues, “We took what they were doing — and some of those were evangelical churches — and we brought it into our context, and we started seeing some growth and health. [We moved to] a culture that was more welcoming to people who hadn’t been to church in a long time, people who had been disconnected from Christ and his Church.” After seeing success at their own parish, they wrote a book together about their journey in 2013, which led to the Rebuilt organization.
Building on that history, Tom discusses why small groups are one effective approach to renewing one’s spiritual life. “We say you need friends and faith. We’re trying to help parishes be intentional. How do you help people form friends and faith? Small groups are that pathway, it’s that environment you can create as a parish that helps people form those connections,” he says.
“It’s about 6 to 12 people getting together on a regular basis and [having] a faith conversation. Our small groups have a pretty simple format: You get together, you check in about your day, get something to eat and drink, and begin with prayer,” Tom continues. “Usually we provide some content for you to watch and discussion questions. You pray and then you’re done. It’s all very simple, and yet we find that God moves in powerful ways when there’s just that life-on-life meeting and people connecting.”
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Tom notes how this approach can help a pastor and staff with pastoral care of a parish. “No matter how big or how small your church is, the pastor and the church staff can’t care for everybody the way a small group can, when you have friends in faith who know what’s going on,” he says. “We just have countless stories of how parishioners have cared for one another in challenging times. …Parishioners caring for one another at the heartbreaking loss of a child, the death of a loved one, or just going through difficulty and challenges that life throws our way.”
“We are helping people go deeper in their faith where the priest or pastor doesn’t have the answer,” Tom continues. “We’re all limited in our experiences, no matter who we are. But as a community, we all have had different experiences of God, and we can help one another grow in faith in a way that can’t always come from the pulpit.”
