Small Group...cause i've never talk about them

Over the year and a half of hosting a small group I have come to learn about what makes a small group or a community successful.


Factors that make a small group great:

• GOD first...pray before the meeting.
• open, warm personality
• leaving judgmental attitudes with your old self
• admitting to self that you do not know the bible
• having an interested and excitement in learning about God with a group of people who are just as excited as you
• Be open and share about yourself. If you aren't comfortable sharing then how will your group open up
• BE FLEXIBLE sometimes the passage is not as important as sharing s personal story or praying for individuals going through a hard time!

Here is how leading a Small group has grown me as an individual and spiritually:

• I have had more motivation to learn the word and to make sure I apply it to my life.
• I have faced the facts that i cant be there for everyone and that God will guide me to where I am needed.
• I can not be afraid to ask the deep, pressing, personal questions, and don't be afraid to share your story or your ideas. I am still growing in this area and I am still learning how to have spiritual conversations with someone. Actually I should share a story with you on this...

I love how my blogs are never organized.

So there is a friend of mine who I met through my major and that we both shared a love for GeoCaching. Well I like it a lot and she loves it to the point of obsession! She also has a love of talking...like its rare you will get your two cents worth..maybe not even a penny. To top it off her talks are not very interesting. Her talks are always about her family, work and the adventure center here at school. Which is great to hear about when you first meet someone and you want to get to know them, but after awhile you lose interest right? Well that's kinda what happened to me. I kinda just let her talk. Well, one day at SG we were talking about sharing our testimony and she came to my mind. I had no idea what her thoughts were on God, life after death, sin, ect. So that became my goal for the week: to ask her about her beliefs. 

Because it is personal I cant share what she said but I learned so much about her. I saw a new side to her that formed a connection in me. She still talks in gargantuan amounts but now it does not annoy me. I understand her and want to see her grow closer to God. If you have someone who annoys you, maybe you just don't know them well enough to understand them. Take the time to really get to know them, ask them hard questions, get personal. Its easy these days to not get deep and personal with people. We should not be comfortable with that. We should strive to get to know people beyond facebook messages or the common "Hi how are you? Im good too."

My challenge for me this week: Simply ask personal, thought-provoking questions: How did you come to know the Lord? or What are your views on God?  How have you been challenged this week? What is something you are struggling with? Any other question ideas?