Thoughts from the weekend

Thoughts from the weekend:

Great weekend.

Saturday morning, we had a life group seminar with Dave Treat. Some of the things that we learned:

The main goal of life groups is discipleship + something. For your group it could be Bible Study. Or Worship. Or prayer. Or service. At any rate, the main goal of our life groups is to see life change as we strengthen our relationships with one another.

How many people should be in a life group? A life group should be no larger than the ability of each person in the group to have a chance to share.

A life group becomes a clique when the focus stops being outward and becomes inward.

In his book "Ministry in the Image of God", Stephen Seamands writes about the relational side of our personhood, which reflects the Trinitarian nature of God.

In fact, Seamands calls this our trinitarian personhood. It means "we will never be able to complete the journey on our own. Since to be a person is to be in relationship with others, involvement in a small group of fellows Christians…is indispensable to our spiritual and emotional growth."

Seamands illustrates this well through the life and ministry of John Wesley. He writes:

"When John Wesley was a young Christian, a "serious man" advised him, "Sir, you wish to serve God and go to heaven? Remember you cannot serve him alone. You must therefore find companions or make them. The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion." In the light of the relational nature of personhood, that is good advice for every Christian, especially those involved in full-time ministry."

Wesley took that advice to heart both for himself and in shepherding the fledgling Methodist movement. Convinced that the pursuit of personal holiness was impossible apart from Christian community, he carefully organized the Methodists into societies (similar to congregations), classes (small groups of eight to twelve), and bands (cell groups of three to five).

Seamands concludes: "Because of the relational nature of human personhood, I believe every person in ministry needs to be in a small Wesleyan-type band group or its equivalent. Solitary religion is unbiblical; so is solitary service for God. We must either find companions or make them."

Dave Treat taught us, "people in the world are not just looking for friendly people, they are looking for friends."

Sunday morning - great time of worship. The worship choir did a phenomenal job as Laura Prospio sang and Hannah Borchers danced to the choir number.

Beautiful. Worshipful. Anointed. Powerful.

Last night at our life group, we planned our three summer activities, which include working in the yard of one of the widows of our church, and helping to clean the new church campus before we move our offices in.

I really am ministered to each time our life group meets. They are wonderful people to be with.