Hope all is well with you! I'm hearing of great things happening in our
LifeGroups. Stories coming soon! Here are a few important items for
you...
NEW LIFEGROUP STARTING
Beginning this Sunday, Nov 4, Bill and Nancy Smith are hosting a
LifeGroup consisting of new Gateway "graduates". These new Mosaics will
attend this group for 6 meetings over three months, studying an overview
of Mark DeYmaz's newly released book, and then feed out into other
ongoing LifeGroups. Thanks, Bill and Nancy, for your work on this! We
pray you have an awesome start and a good turnout this Sunday night.
NOVEMBER "BASIC TOOLS" MINI-CURRICULUM
As you know, in addition to your group's curriculum on a specialty topic
like marriage, parenting, book study, etc we are asking you LifeGroup
leaders to be coaches for your groups in the fundamentals of the
Christian life. I've struggled with what to call those... fundamentals
of the Christian life, basic tools, Spiritual disciplines. None of
those feel right. Those sound too painful! While things like prayer,
memorizing Scripture, living in the power of the Spirit, and digging
into God's word require work, they are far from painful. They are some
of the most life-giving activities we can do. So... instead of
"fundamentals" or "basics" or "disciplines" I'm going to call them
"Building blocks for a great life with Christ" -- or just "building
blocks" for short.
In a file list on the right, you'll find our "building block" for the first half of November in both Word and pdf. One document is a "leader's guide" and the other
is a handout which you should copy for each participant and hand it out
at the appropriate time in your meeting (see leader's guide for
details). There's even a PRIZE for the group that does the best at this
month's building block. Please read these documents through and make
this part of your next LifeGroup meeting.
CHRISTMAS FOR FOSTER KIDS
You've received information from Donna Head about our LifeGroups giving
Christmas gifts to Pulaski County foster children. Please let Donna
know today or tomorrow if your group can participate in buying gifts for
a child or two. It would make a world of difference to those precious
kids both physically and emotionally.
Leaders, thank you all for your diligent work in LifeGroup leadership.
Keep on going!!!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
BASIC Tools - Prayer (follow up)
Leaders: This mini-curriculum is a follow-up to the recent tool on prayer. Please use this with your groups the second half of October as you coach your groups toward Spiritual transformation.
We talked in BASIC Tools - Prayer about the difference between the “on the go” me-centered praying that we sometimes fall into and the refreshing “in our room” dedicated times with God which are possible and which our Father wants with us.
Last time we met we laid out the challenge of intentionally spending at least one or two times in dedicated prayer with the Father. Would anyone share about how one of your times with God went this week? Some of you who are experienced with this, can you offer any tips for those of us who are not?
Remember that outline of prayer we talked about?
1) Worship Him
2) Say sincerely “your will not mine”
3) Ask for the things on your heart.
Ask for two volunteers to read Mt 6:5-13 and Luke 11:1-4. (Don't put people on the spot to read!)
How do we reconcile the fact that these two versions of the Lord’s prayer are different? These prayers can be different because the prayer is a model outline, not an exact wording to be repeated. Worship him, your will not mine, ask for the things on your heart. It is a pattern for prayer.
Let’s this week carve out at least two times that we can spend in dedicated time with the Father. It doesn’t have to be long, but try to use that outline Jesus gave us as he was teaching his disciples to pray.
We'll talk next time about how it went!
We talked in BASIC Tools - Prayer about the difference between the “on the go” me-centered praying that we sometimes fall into and the refreshing “in our room” dedicated times with God which are possible and which our Father wants with us.
Last time we met we laid out the challenge of intentionally spending at least one or two times in dedicated prayer with the Father. Would anyone share about how one of your times with God went this week? Some of you who are experienced with this, can you offer any tips for those of us who are not?
Remember that outline of prayer we talked about?
1) Worship Him
2) Say sincerely “your will not mine”
3) Ask for the things on your heart.
Ask for two volunteers to read Mt 6:5-13 and Luke 11:1-4. (Don't put people on the spot to read!)
How do we reconcile the fact that these two versions of the Lord’s prayer are different? These prayers can be different because the prayer is a model outline, not an exact wording to be repeated. Worship him, your will not mine, ask for the things on your heart. It is a pattern for prayer.
Let’s this week carve out at least two times that we can spend in dedicated time with the Father. It doesn’t have to be long, but try to use that outline Jesus gave us as he was teaching his disciples to pray.
We'll talk next time about how it went!
Story
In my LifeGroup last week, we talked about a basic tool -- the first
mini-curriculum on prayer that I had used as an example in our training.
We talked about the big difference between "praying on the go" and
praying in our "closets" for dedicated time with the Father. This week
I followed up on that and asked how it went. Because the challenge had
been laid before them, two people in the group are taking intentional
steps to transform their lunch breaks from novel-reading or
business-meeting slots to moments spent with God and in His word.
That's what I'm talkin' about! Take a few minutes in your group to cast
a compelling call to an aspect of deeper discipleship and then coach
your group with gentle but intentional accountability. Lives will be
changed.
By the way: How are YOU guys doing in your prayer life? Do you find
yourself only in a "praying on the go" mode or are you able to make time
to "go into your room and close the door" for moments with the Father?
We can all get too busy at times. Make time for deepening your
relationship with the Father!
Send me your group's stories of life change!!
allen (at) mosaicchurch.net
mini-curriculum on prayer that I had used as an example in our training.
We talked about the big difference between "praying on the go" and
praying in our "closets" for dedicated time with the Father. This week
I followed up on that and asked how it went. Because the challenge had
been laid before them, two people in the group are taking intentional
steps to transform their lunch breaks from novel-reading or
business-meeting slots to moments spent with God and in His word.
That's what I'm talkin' about! Take a few minutes in your group to cast
a compelling call to an aspect of deeper discipleship and then coach
your group with gentle but intentional accountability. Lives will be
changed.
By the way: How are YOU guys doing in your prayer life? Do you find
yourself only in a "praying on the go" mode or are you able to make time
to "go into your room and close the door" for moments with the Father?
We can all get too busy at times. Make time for deepening your
relationship with the Father!
Send me your group's stories of life change!!
allen (at) mosaicchurch.net
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