Greetings All:
Great discussion on Wednesday night at the lovely Pinion home about what true community is and how our Community Group can help make it happen. Thanks again Pinions...for opening up your home and the wonderful meal. Thanks also to the group for being flexible to talk with Joe vs. discuss Sunday's message in detail. (We missed you Kristin/Chuck, Tina/Ricky, and Jenn!)
With Wednesday's discussion as a launching pad...think through and potentially "blog" your thoughts on the following questions...or other interesting musings you have on the subject:
1. Why is community important to you (or not)?
2. How do you think God uniquely uses community in our lives...for His purposes?
3. Does our Community Group bring you closer to God through real community? Why or why not?
4. Reading the verse Joe referred to (the one he will base his July 6th message on), Hebrews 10:22-25, how are we doing as a CG? Please explain. (ASIDE: If there are stories/testimonies of how God has used our CG to accomplish these things in your lives, write them down in this blog or jot them down somewhere else...that might help us prep for our time with Joe on the 6th.)
5. How could our CG do things differently (ongoing or just for a season) to be more effective in developing real community...and bringing us closer to God...encouraging us to do/be what is referenced in the Hebrews passage?
6. What could we do as a CG that could help us bring our sense of community (i.e., our deeper, real relationships (my assumption here)) to others outside our CG that would glorify God (at CCC, outside CCC, etc.)?
Just some questions to ponder...let the group know your thoughts on any or all of these...or anything else that comes to mind.
Chow, chow,
Doug-E-Fresh (is that better than "d.scott", Jenn!?!)
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4 comments:
I have been on a worship/mission study period for a few weeks now and have been realizing that community is where the spirtual transformation happens, so these two things can exsist. I love that when we get together we are diving into prayer and the Word so that we may be transformed by it. Our time together is worship for our Lord and then out of that worship overflows the desire for mission.
I also love that our spiritual community is becoming more and more a place of challenge and awakening. Iron sharpens iron and without the spurring on of one another and encouraging each other, we will see only what the world wants us to see. When we gather as a spiritual community, we make huge efforts to see as God wants us to see. Our veils are lifted, our hearts are transformed and together we enter into worship of our Father.
What I would love to see from our specific, Scott CG is now an overflow of our love for each other and God to pour out into mission. Not sure where, how, or who, but I want my kids to serve their God along side of yours and I want all of our children to grow up, loving others as themselves. What better models than for their spiritual familes to do this together.
I heard a sermon last week that said, "if you are transformed by God and in constant worship with Him, you can't separate good deeds from the Good News." I think that is how we take our spiritaul community outside ourselves and let other people look in. They see our worship of God, not being separate from our deeds for Him.
I can tell you many stories of late nights spent in the Scott kitchen after everyone else had left CG and I sat there endlessly receiving cousel by my wise and loving spriitual community peers (Brittsy and Doug E. Fresh)
I could tell you stories of how Kristin's heart for prayer spurs me on to pray for our children whenever I think about our summer of prayer together.
Or just knowing the background stories of how God put us all together in our marriages so perfectly that it is mindbending how he goes before us and makes a way.
If we weren't in spiritual community together, these would be nights of gossip, convictions that go ignored and cute romances...but we intentionally look through a differnet lens...we search for the prompting of the HS.
So, not sure if I answered any of these questions or even if I did the assignment correctly, but I sure had fun ranting on...and on! Can I use this for my Wonatta Times?? :)
Jen
I just finished my two week summer school course called Urban Experience. I shared the details with some of you, but I heard God challenging me in one area: service. We went to places like Good Samaritan, World Relief, Atlanta Women and Children's Shelter, City of Refuge, and My House. While each of these organizations filled a specific niche in the community, they hit me with a common message: "We can always use volunteer help".
The last place we visited was the Women and Children's Shelter (10-15 minutes from church, and they gave us a quick tour. The "donation closet" was one room that stuck out to me. This room was a lesson in chaos. Clothes, boxes of diapers, strollers, bottles, blazers, wedding dresses, you name it were all thrown in there. They try to make this service more encouraging for the women that come in there, so they have a seperate room that looks more like a SMALL retail store. They want these donations presented in a way that provides some sort of "normalcy" to the clients so they take the stuff from the donation room and organize/transfer them to the second room.
Why am I telling you this LONG story. Well, the organizer told me that just last week a young 4 year old boy came through the room lookig for some size 13 shoes. His tennis shoes had holes in them and one shoe was lacking a sole. Unfortunately, they did not have his size (or any Payless coupons), so they could not give him a new pair. That is not the sad part. She told us that she would bet money on the fact that their was a pair of Toddler-13 shoes in the donation room, but they have not been able to sort through the donations. They don't have the manpower.
I loooked at the room and said to myself that our community group could knock that room out in 4-5 hours. Moreover, the experience would provide a huge chunk of fellowship time. Yes Veruca Salt, we could even take our kids with us!
Now this was just one place of 14 I went to during the last 14 weeks. The need in Atlanta seems to be endless, and I would like to serve along side each family in our "community". I think God would open our eyes during these experiences and take our feeling of community to a whole new level.
I will stop now. Later...
Thanks Veruca and Bucknut...for your clearly inspired words. I too would love to see how our group could weave service "into our CG's DNA" (to use a phrase from Alan). Let's talk more about this on Wednesday at your lovely home this week. I'm looking forward to being with y'all and the rest of the group. Thanks again, Doug
PS: Yes, Jen...please, please feel free to use this in your Wonatta Times...perhaps for the week that Joe is teaching on Community (July 6)...I think it would be a great read for those serving in the Kids Ministry, while complementing what Joe will be touching on from up-front.
Who is OBOE? Anne, Brett, Kristin?
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