Four Essentials of Church

(therefore of Small Christian Communities)

Community & Life  Word  Worship  Service

Community & Life

SHARING

Sharing means communicating freely about God and about life experiences and reflecting on these in the light of scripture and tradition.  An attitude of trust must be developed in order to enable sharing.

Read more about Faith Sharing here.

MUTUAL SUPPORT

In a society in which Gospel values are all to frequently ridiculed and rejected, the believer needs a community which is supportive of these values.  The Small Christian Community encourages fidelity to the Gospel and also challenges itself and its members to a more profound and authentic commitment to Christian living.

 

CONNECTION

Worldwide the Catholic Church celebrates its faith in unison.  This is the result of the direct connection from the Pope to the bishops and to the pastors.  Small Christian Communities in the Catholic Church are directly connected to the Church through the pastoral facilitators to their pastors.

 

Word (Learning)

Because Small Christian Communities are part of the wider Church, they are called to an ever fuller knowledge and understanding of the Gospel, of the Catholic Church and its teaching on faith and morals, and of the relationship off the teaching to the circumstances and issues of there lives.  Commitment to leaning acknowledges that the Christian is a seeker after truth and awakens the learner to the reality that one can never exhaust all there is to discover of the wonders of God, life and the universe.

Worship (Prayer)

The element of prayer emphasized the centrality of God’s presence in each Small Christian Community member’s life and in the life of the community itself.  As people open their hearts in prayer, they seek deeper relationships with God and others.

Service (Mission, Outreach)

Authentic Christian communities are, like Jesus, committed to a life of loving mission or service.  As a group and through its individual members, the community will work for compassion, justice, reconciliation and peace within the group, in the family, in the workplace, in the neighborhood and in the wider society.

The purpose of forming a Small Christian Community is to help people live more like Christ.  Mission provides a way for people to respond to their desire to make the world a better place.

 

Credit:  The first five elements appear as handout #2 in "Resources for a Small Christian Communitiy" by Thomas A Kleissler, Margo A. LeBert, Mary C. McGinness.  Paulist Press NY/Mahwah NJ, 1991.  Permission to reproduce was granted in the publication.

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St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church
1502 East Wallen Road
Fort Wayne, IN  46825
(260) 489-3537