[Gospelchristianity] Small Group

[Robinson B. Heath]

Hullo all.  I really enjoyed our discussion tonight even if you all  
were keeping me from a date with my wife of 10 years. :-)

Here is a recap for those who were not able to come.  We looked back  
at a flyer that I handed out before the first meeting.  I have  
attached it in its original form for your reference.  We touched on a  
few areas that we thought we might change to better fulfill our vision.

Service
We talked about how we had served each other well, and had also worked  
in service inside the church.  We also talked about how we wanted a  
way to serve in the broader community.  Elizabeth talked about  
opportunities with Churches Touching Lives for Christ.  Russell  
mentioned opportunities in the bulletin each week.  I know this has  
been on Jessica's heart since the beginning, and the Cleavers voiced a  
desire to be involved.

Sharing
We talked some about how we wanted to intentionally share what God is  
doing in our lives.  There are certainly some barriers to this.  We  
talked about the difficulty with being intimate and our superficial  
culture.  The guys (hmmmhmmm) have done this some in our meetings.  A  
recent change for which I am thankful.  Sue mentioned that sharing  
over dinner would really make sense, and Russell has been pushing me  
to initiate this more during our times together.  I think the major  
barrier is our resistance to believe in he Gospel.  Paul did not  
hesitate to write to strangers that he was the chief of sinners.  We  
should be so confident of God's grace that we can air our dirty  
laundry with anyone.  However, our fellowship should smack so of God's  
perfect grace that it gives people the courage to talk about these  
things.

Prayer
This is an area we have been sporadic in.  We and the Skaggs had a  
routine of praying every Thursday for the group.  Somewhere along the  
line (was it Pax or Samantha) it was interrupted and never restarted.   
Looking back, I hate that my own passion for this practice waned.  We  
talked about some practices to guide us to a more regular routine of  
prayer.

Prayer Journal
Sue (thank you) volunteered to keep a prayer journal for the group.  I  
may try to organize an online application for this, or Sue may just  
send out an email.  Somehow, she is going to keep track of what we are  
praying for as a group and help us remember what to pray for and how  
God has answered our prayers.

Missionary
As I talked about trying to get us to pray about for God's glory to be  
seen in the world at large, Betsy brought up the idea of adopting a  
missionary.  I thought this was a great idea.

Day sign-up
We talked about having signing up for a day of the week to devote to  
prayer for the small group.  This would entail praying for each  
person, praying for our fellowship, our service opportunities, our  
missionary, our deepening oneness and fellowship in the Trinity.

Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed - Robinsons
Thu
Fri
Sat

In addition, I may put together a prayer guide with a sample prayer  
for the group with some suggestions.  I will probably use it in my own  
prayer life to help me get out of ruts.

Twice-a-week format
Mostly because we miss the Harveys, we talked about switching to a  
twice-a-week format.  We will spit the fellowship meal from the  
study.  This has several advantages:
Gives us two times a week to see each other.
Gives us a great place to invite a guest at church or friend
Gives us a way to see each other if we have to miss one or the other  
nights
Allows us to fellowship without shortchanging prayer or study or sleep  
(that was for you, Madrids)

Teaching
Several people requested that we do the Galatians study again.  I  
think this is a good plan, so I will have books printed.  They will be  
around $10.  Aarron also mentioned that it might be good to give some  
of the other men an opportunity to teach the group.  I think that is a  
great idea.  My ultimate goal was to have our group reproduce.  Why?   
Because the love of God is so glorious that more and more people are  
coming to hear the Good News.  Perhaps this might lead to one of you  
starting your own group or taking the reins of this one.  It sounds  
painful, but we have already done this to some degree when we sent out  
the McMurrys.

As you can see, it was a fruitful discussion.  I will be praying that  
God will put it on the hearts of you to take ownership of some of  
these areas.  If you don't, frankly, some of them will not happen.   
Let's push one another to love and good deeds.

Go and serve the risen Lord Jesus Christ.  (I am waiting for your "We  
will.")
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.midnighthour.org/pipermail/gospelchristianity_midnighthour.org/attachments/20080627/18df34a7/attachment-0002.html>