Trying something new...small groups at church, first meeting.
My church started a new series called r12: true spirituality, which is a six-week series of sermon that focuses on how you can be a better, "r12 Christian". That is to say, how to be a Christian as described in Romans 12, rather than, say, a crazy fundamentalist have no basis in Scripture and the teachings of Christ. Part of the program involves joining a small group for weekly discussion and prayer...like a Bible support group, I guess. Seanie and I joined one because we want to be more involved in the church, and frankly would like to meet more Christians in our age range. It met for the first time tonight.
The people in our group were quite friendly. The group is big - about 14, maybe 15 people? - but there were few groups that we could sign up for that specifically targeted people in the 20-30 age range. I know I'm not going to remember anyones' names next week.
What did we do? First we introduced ourselves. Name, what we did, etc. There were only one or two other college students; most of the group trended toward late twenties and were out of school. We watched a video with our church's pastor Chip, which introduced the mission and purpose of the r12 series. Filled out a workbook and shared answers with the group. Then the men and women split into two groups, with the guys staying downstairs and us girls tromping to an upper room to pray and get to know each other a little better. That was a little awkward because one of the things we did in the womens' group was go around the circle and find out what prayer requests each person might have for the upcoming week. Good so far. Then we had to each pray for the person sitting to our right, which mean that:
A/ You had to remember that person's name (strike one for me)
B/ You had to remember that person's prayer request (luckily, the girl next to me didn't have any)
C/ You had to pray out loud for the whole group to hear, which was awkward I'm not a poetic speaker at my best, and on the spot I'm even less ebullient and creative. My prayers are usually along the lines of "Dear God. Thanks for the food. Please bless us during this upcoming week. Amen." So while the other women spoke for several minutes about how grateful they were and what a special day it was etc. etc. etc. I was wracking my brains for something to say other than "Uh...Meeting new people is swell, thanks God for this opportunity?" I hope we don't do this individual-praying thing every week....although I suppose that if we did, I'd get over this hangup really quick and that would be a good thing.
Aside from that small thing, this group-thing is nice. Seanie embarrassed me a little bit by claiming I was oh-so-smart and knew TONS about the Bible (TONS!!) but when we were asked to give examples of Jesus being especially kind, my mind blanked and everyone looked at me expectantly. Oh well. It was very sweet of Seanie to mention that, at least.
The people in our group were quite friendly. The group is big - about 14, maybe 15 people? - but there were few groups that we could sign up for that specifically targeted people in the 20-30 age range. I know I'm not going to remember anyones' names next week.
What did we do? First we introduced ourselves. Name, what we did, etc. There were only one or two other college students; most of the group trended toward late twenties and were out of school. We watched a video with our church's pastor Chip, which introduced the mission and purpose of the r12 series. Filled out a workbook and shared answers with the group. Then the men and women split into two groups, with the guys staying downstairs and us girls tromping to an upper room to pray and get to know each other a little better. That was a little awkward because one of the things we did in the womens' group was go around the circle and find out what prayer requests each person might have for the upcoming week. Good so far. Then we had to each pray for the person sitting to our right, which mean that:
A/ You had to remember that person's name (strike one for me)
B/ You had to remember that person's prayer request (luckily, the girl next to me didn't have any)
C/ You had to pray out loud for the whole group to hear, which was awkward I'm not a poetic speaker at my best, and on the spot I'm even less ebullient and creative. My prayers are usually along the lines of "Dear God. Thanks for the food. Please bless us during this upcoming week. Amen." So while the other women spoke for several minutes about how grateful they were and what a special day it was etc. etc. etc. I was wracking my brains for something to say other than "Uh...Meeting new people is swell, thanks God for this opportunity?" I hope we don't do this individual-praying thing every week....although I suppose that if we did, I'd get over this hangup really quick and that would be a good thing.
Aside from that small thing, this group-thing is nice. Seanie embarrassed me a little bit by claiming I was oh-so-smart and knew TONS about the Bible (TONS!!) but when we were asked to give examples of Jesus being especially kind, my mind blanked and everyone looked at me expectantly. Oh well. It was very sweet of Seanie to mention that, at least.