Spiritual Support Groups

This past week our monthly support group met. 2015-2016 has been our first year facilitating a group, although it’s always been one of our goals.

Joni and Friends helped with planning the format and recommending reading materials. Exceptional Moms (another support group that meets the first Friday of the month in the mornings at Christ Covenant church in Matthews) helped with the wording of our statement of purpose. This has allowed the meetings to be organized, yet they still have an informal feel.

The Monroe group is being considered our “pilot group.” We hope to learn from the experience, so we can continue to offer support groups, while increasing the quality of the meetings.

If you asked us to project a vision for the future regarding support groups, there are the things we would contemplate:

1. Adding new groups, in other locations, that follow the SpM protocol for meetings. These groups would follow along with the same discussion materials, and keep the same meeting format. SpM would provide materials to the groups at no cost to the members.
2. Establishing active facebook groups for each physical group. This will allow members to share prayer requests and updates between meetings, and will allow parents who find it difficult to leave the house (whether due to a sick child, scheduling conflicts, etc) an opportunity to still participate in the conversations.
3. Creating new groups for dads and siblings. I’ve had several people ask if we plan to hold groups for caregivers other than women. That is not something we are able to do right now, but it’s certainly something we would like to see happen in the future, based on a need we are perceiving in the community.
4. We would eventually like to have our own space in which to meet. It’s good for SpM to be able to minister to families in all parts of the Charlotte area. This is best done by allowing small groups in other locations to follow our format. However, we would also like to see a main location in which SpM exists, that can also provide meeting space for groups.

These are a few of the goals that we have for the future of the support groups. If you have any question or suggestions regarding future planning for these groups, please leave a comment below.