What is a Community of Practice, and How Can You Find One?

Once we’ve been trained to be facilitators, we’re eager to lead groups of our own—only to find that starting and sustaining a trauma healing ministry can be challenging and lonely. Maghan Perez, THI’s U.S. program manager, explains how communities of practice (official and unofficial, global and local) can help.

From zeal to rejection

As a facilitator, you might be able to relate to Sherri Chrisman’s story. A few years ago, she saw an email from an organization connected to her church’s evangelism team, that offered training in a small-group ministry called Healing the Wounds of Trauma. Eager to learn more about helping others heal, Sherri signed up right away. 

In the very first week of her equipping session, her life changed. “God revealed to me that I still had heart wounds of rejection, and loss of my voice, that I needed additional healing with,” she told me. “As I continued my own healing journey, I completed the initial equipping. I was armed with all of this wonderful information and excitement on how I was going to help others begin to soar and find their voices—just as I was doing.” 

Joyfully, she approached her pastor with Healing the Wounds of Trauma in her hands. To Sherri’s dismay, the pastor wasn’t interested in the idea of starting a healing group at their church. Instead, he directed her to go talk to someone else.

“His matter-of-fact answer let me know there was nothing further to say,” she said. “The feelings of rejection began to show again, and I felt my voice leaving.”

The challenges of ministry in the real world

Sherri’s story is like many I’ve heard from facilitators. The experience of finding healing in a small group, in community with other people and with God, transforms our lives and our faith. That transformation, empowered by all we learn in our training, leads us to a powerful zeal for trauma healing ministry. 

That’s just when God challenges us. Pastors and church leaders aren’t interested in launching a new small-group ministry. We struggle to recruit co-facilitators and group participants. And once we do get healing groups up and running, the emotional and logistical demands of facilitation can quickly leave us feeling overwhelmed, burned out, and isolated. 

When her pastor overlooked Sherri’s inquiry, she said, “I recognized in that moment that I had two choices. Was I going to allow those feelings of rejection and the loss of my voice to stifle me? Or was I going to allow God to complete the work he himself had begun in me?” He led her to an answer in his Word: “I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished” (Philippians 1:6 GNT).

And so she did—but not alone.

Carrying on God’s work in fellowship

For Sherri, just as for Paul, carrying on God’s work is a community effort. 

Soon after disappointing conversation with her pastor, Don and Doreen Gordon invited Sherri to join the Midwest community of practice (COP) for THI facilitators. There she found a group of like-minded people, who cared about seeing healing brought to their communities. COP members knew the challenges she was facing at her own church, and they offered her mentorship and support. 

After completing advanced facilitator training and facilitating many healing groups through the COP, a door finally opened at Sherri’s own church. With the support of her COP mentor, she created a six-week healing group program. Since then, she’s led ten healing groups at her church, plus seminars on trauma healing and more. 

Sherri credits her thriving ministry, as Paul did, to the community. The training, mentorship,  and support she found among fellow facilitators in the COP was the key. 

How to join a COP—or start your own

When people gather who are doing the same hard work, who have the same challenges and barriers, it’s really powerful. There’s a synergy of shared learning. There’s a catalyzing of ministry and momentum. There’s a deep connection and mutual soul-care that happens as well. The more facilitators connect in communities of practice, the more healing can happen for God’s people. 

In the THI context, communities of practice exist in many ways, at many scales—and you can benefit from all of them.

• Global THI Community of Practice: For many years, THI convened an annual meeting of the global community of healing group facilitators in Philadelphia, to talk about news and best practices. After holding virtual gatherings for five years, this year’s global COP was in person again, October 21–23 in Nairobi, and livestreamed worldwide. Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest updates and get connected.

• Regional and affinity COPs: During the pandemic, when travel was limited, THI facilitators saw the need for more local fellowship and support. Communities of practice started forming to bring facilitators together online. Today, there are COPs for geographic areas, organizations, affinity groups, and particular ministries, with more getting started all the time. You can find some upcoming regional COP meetings on the THI event page for facilitators, but many more use their own networks to communicate.

• Local COPs: If you are feeling isolated in your trauma healing work, you can set up a community of practice right where you are. Our handbook offers some great suggestions, but there are no specific requirements that you have to check off: anywhere two or more people are involved in trauma healing ministry, a community of practice can flourish. So set up a group text, a Zoom, or a coffeeshop meeting.

As you consider how to find community, remember Paul’s words to the community at Philippi: “I thank my God for you every time I think of you; and every time I pray for you all, I pray with joy because of the way in which you have helped me in the work of the gospel.” Your community of practice is here to help you, too.