Nicole's Women's Group and the Importance of Vision

This morning Nicole hosted the initial meeting of the "mother's and grandmother's" small group that she and Antoinette had the vision to create. Only one other woman (Martine) attended this meeting. However, Beatrice, who had planned to come, but couldn't because of the absence of 2 of her son's teachers from school. (This is France, the land where going on strike is the national sport). Dominique wanted to come, but thought that the meeting was in the afternoon. Micheline started driving here, but got stuck in traffic and returned home after 1 1/2 hours. But Nicole seemed happy with the start.

Unfortunately, there already has been some criticism that this group is exclusive because of the suggestion that it was for mothers and grandmothers. This is ironic because I don't see mothers and grandmothers being critical of having several groups for "singles." I haven't heard any claims of discrimination of Francis' "Elle et Lui" course for couples that have been married at least 2 years.

The danger is that Nicole and Antoinette will give up their vision for a group for mothers and succumb to the criticism of a few and make it just a general group for women.

This whole thing gets back to another topic of discussion concerning how small groups should be run. In the past, it was suggested that all the Belleville small groups meet on either a Tuesday or Wednesday night and all do the same topic.

Fortunately, this foolishness has ended and there is more freedom for variety in the groups. Rather than homogeneity, there needs to be much room for diversity in terms of which day of the week, what time of day, and the nature of the group. Groups need to be specific to the call that God has given them. The group leaders need to stick with this.