How can I be involved in a Small Group at Doxa when I have young children?

There are several ways we encourage parents to be involved Small Groups.  This document helps explain and clarify how you can either get involved in a Small Group or how you could consider starting a Small Group geared toward involving other parents of young children.

To sign-up to lead a Famiy Oriented Small Group here.

 

Types of Small Groups at Doxa:

#1 No Childcare - Join or start a group that does not have children involved.

Most Doxa Small Groups operate in this way.  For parents who can make this work (family in town, or access to childcare for their kids), this is a great choice.

#2 Alternating Group - Join or start a group that alternates between men’s and women’s meetings.

Some Doxa Small Groups have adopted this model.  This is a rotation of either the men or women meeting each week while the other stays home with the kids. Every so often (every 4-6 weeks) all the families get together for an “organized chaos” night of food and fellowship.

#3 Kids Involved - Join or start a group that involves kids in a portion of the group meeting.

You might desire an environment where kids are included and even involved for the study/discussion portion of the meeting.  Then kids can move to another room for time to play or watch a show during the “breakout” when men and women are separate.

#4 Offer Childcare - Join or start a group that has kids taken care of in a different area of the home.

This is a classic model for groups that want to provide childcare, which may be paid help or it may be a rotation of adults watching the kids each week to share the responsibility together.  

#5 Dinner Meetings - Join or start a group that meets earlier in the day, includes a meal and incorporates kids.

This would likely be a weekend based group (Sat or Sun evenings), for example 4:30 - 6:30pm so kids can get home for bed at a reasonable time.  Dinner would be a standard part of the meeting and arranged among the group. Kids would be part of the food and fellowship time.  There can be variety as to what happens after the meal.  You could rotate between discussion/study, to breakout of men/women, to worship and prayer all together.  Kids could either be involved or spend time in a separate area of the home.  

If I start and lead a Doxa Small Group that has kids in the home (#3-5), what else do I need to know? 

  1. Options 3-5 are not intended to exclusively be for married couples nor only for parents.  Anyone is welcome to join these groups.  But you can set a limit of how many children are allowed to join the group.  Once your max is reached, we would not add parents to your group unless they can get kids watched at their home.

  2. We realize these options may come at a financial cost to you as the leader, whether that be food costs, resources for children, or childcare fees. We will assist you financially if you need help to make this affordable.

  3. We realize it’s tough to gather every week when trying to be creative with kids.  Our goal is to aim for 2 or 3 gatherings per month if you choose between options #3-5 (for other mixed Small Groups we request 3-4 meetings per month).

  4. As a family-oriented Small Group, we understand you may want to vary the focus of what your group studies more than other groups.  We prefer that the steady diet of small group discussion be the small group questions from the previous Sunday’s sermon, however, you may regularly select a wide range of topics and options from our pre-approved teacher list.  If you desire to use a curriculum, book, video series etc. from someone not on this list, please fill out the form at the bottom of the pre-approved teacher page. We will review it and be in touch with you.