Masks have mostly disappeared. People no longer hurriedly assure you that “It’s not COVID” when they cough in public. Rapid tests are easily available because many people are not taking them anymore. Yet despite these obvious reversions to life as it was “before,” beneath the surface significant cultural changes remain that affect our daily lives. The pandemic transformed our world, and we are still coming to grips with what that means for our church and our ministries.
I started seminary in Virginia in fall of 2019, so COVID dominated most of my time preparing for ministry. After my graduation and ordination in 2022, I was called to return to my sending parish in New York City as an associate rector, and I found a very different community. My church had lost roughly half its ASA during the pandemic, mostly because of middle-class flight out of the city. Those parishioners were not watching the livestream at home and waiting for an invite to return in-person; they were living elsewhere. The rebuild had to be fresh.
I oversaw our Devotion Groups, which met in people’s homes throughout the city on a weeknight to discuss Sunday’s gospel reading. When I was a parishioner before COVID, Devotion Groups were the heartbeat of the church. Now three had restarted, but attendance was sporadic. It was hard to build momentum, despite my attempts at promotion for a full year. No group was attracting new parishioners. No one was interested in starting a fourth. I knew something drastic had to change if our new members were to become connected to the parish in a meaningful way.
After a lengthy brainstorming session with two colleagues, I told my rector I wanted to cancel Devotion Groups and start over. This was a drastic move; the church had offered some sort of home-group ministry as long as anyone could remember. My gut told me that cultural norms about entering a stranger’s home had changed, even without COVID being a concern. If we were to reach people, it had to be in a neutral location. We also needed to create a level of energy that was sustainable on any given evening, even if attendance was low for one group. This was impossible if groups were separated in parishioners’ homes.
One of my colleagues, the Rev. Nancy W. Hanna, had extensive experience with Alpha, a course developed in England and devoted to giving seekers a safe space to ask questions about God and faith. Its well-known model involves people eating dinner in small groups to develop friendships, then watching a video and discussing it. A course lasts for 10 weeks and then repeats.
I realized that I could imitate pieces of that model with parishioners who were more mature in faith; we would just need to create a new curriculum for each session (admittedly, not a small task). Nancy was keen to start Alpha, and if I was simultaneously running a separate curriculum, there would be a natural place for people who had completed Alpha to flow into. And so our version of Beta was conceived.
On Thursday evenings, we gather for what we call “TableTalk.” We all eat dinner in our church basement; then we separate for discussion. Alpha participants watch their video. Beta participants read a Scripture passage and a short devotion. All have a period of discussion in small groups over dessert. Beta ends with Compline. We run it three times each program year—fall, winter, and spring. The sessions are anywhere from six to 10 weeks, depending on what makes sense with the liturgical calendar and other programming. We started with two Alpha groups and two Beta groups in fall of 2023. After two sessions we added a third Beta group, and we should have enough for a fourth next fall. Beta’s increase is due both to church growth and to Alpha’s success.
Through this, we have learned some important lessons about adult formation post-pandemic.
1. Multiple Methods, But No Hybrid Option
My church also offers a traditional Rector’s Bible Study, which meets on Zoom on a different weeknight than TableTalk. When we promote adult formation, we present these options as complementary. The Rector’s Bible Study is ideal for those who would rather not go out at night or want something more academic in nature. For those who are looking to connect relationally and to reflect on faith and life, we offer Beta. For those who are seeking, we offer Alpha. We do not offer a hybrid option. We believe it is difficult to do formation well if some are in person and others are online. It is better to acknowledge the pros and cons of each and develop any given program with them in mind.
2. Small Groups Within a Large Group
While we start together for dinner at TableTalk, everyone has the same assigned small group for eating and discussing. Regardless of the size of any individual group, there is a buzz when people enter the room. Alpha groups turn over each session because people only participate once, but we have kept Beta groups as consistent as possible for the past two years. This has allowed people to develop genuine friendships. Yet, because we are all together, if one group is too small one week, it can easily fold into a larger group. Furthermore, participants recognize and get to know people outside their group simply because of proximity. Last Thursday, people were standing and chatting with each other casually during dinner rather than sitting in their assigned groups. Nancy remarked to me, “When your room looks more like a cocktail party than a formal dinner, you know you’ve achieved group cohesion!”
3. Lay Leadership
Both Alpha and Beta rely almost entirely on lay leadership. Nancy and I check people in during dinner and then during discussion rotate through our different groups week by week. This allows us to balance offering a clerical presence with encouraging a home-group atmosphere, in which people hang out and chat without clergy. The Alpha curriculum is designed this way, with theological points being presented by video and group leaders simply guiding discussion. For Beta’s curriculum, I developed a devotional approach. Each session has a theme (e.g., the fruit of the Spirit, the 10 Commandments, the Book of James). Each individual week there is a handout with a Scripture passage, a devotional, and questions. While I create questions, I find relevant devotions from books or websites, rather than writing each from scratch. This makes creating the curriculum each session more manageable (I also rely on interns to help). Regardless of the curriculum, our lay leaders can confidently lead discussion without extensive preparation at home, which is empowering for them and emphasizes the ministry we all have to each other, apart from ordination.
The journey to TableTalk has also taught me about the power of prayer. Obviously, a one-to-one equation of “If you pray they will come” is too simplistic. I did pray for our Devotion Groups and they did not grow for the year I ran them. But something different has happened with TableTalk. We prayed, and God is bringing people to himself through this adult formation. I do not fully understand why now and not before. But I do know that all the good ideas and planning and promotion mean nothing without being utterly dependent on our Father in heaven.
The Rev. Molly Jane (MJ) Layton is priest-in-charge of St. John's Episcopal Church, Lattingtown in Locust Valley, NY. Previous appointments include associate rector at the Parish of Calvary-St. George’s in Manhattan. Prior to ordination she taught classics and history.
