The Thursday night small group is going along astoundingly. God is moving. No one can deny that. Last week we had a peek eighteen people. We may have under that number this next one, but it doesn't matter. God's hand is resting on this small group. Yet that is not why I am posting on the small group. I am posting on the small group because I plan on going off in a new direction.
Teenagers can get spiritual feed Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and from countless other small groups or get-togethers throughout the week. On average, the everyday church-going teen receives three to five lessons a week! That's a lot to stomach. It almost makes it feel as if Christianity has gone from being an experience, an encounter, a walk, to a consumer-style dinner buffet. Add to that the fact that most teens don't only want to learn about God, they want to encounter God.
That is where I am going this Thursday. The Spirit has been prodding me to go New Testament church-style. Early-church style. I don't know why. I want to bring the Ancient, the Mystical, the Power and Presence of God into the small group. I don't want us merely to learn, but my desire is that we all will experience God in an encounter.
God told me to start this small group, and I did. He blessed it and drew droves of people through the doors. I always expected to have only three to five people, but we've hit eighteen, and more and more are wanting to check it out. But we want to go somewhere new, in a fresh and revealing and untried direction for a Southwest Church small group. This direction is to not only give those who come a taste of the facts about God, but a taste of God himself.
To give details on what I am planning to do would take up too much space. And I'm not entirely sure yet. But I know that if God calls, and I answer, God will move. God will work.
Thursday night we won't just talk about God. We won't just learn about God. It is my desire that we experience and encounter God; my desire that the Spirit move through the hearts and minds and souls of all those present. My desire is that God will fall upon us like never before in an amazing holy event of genuine and sacred worship.
1 comment:
interesting dude. i would like to hear more about this....sounds a lot like a season i went through...where i transitioned from a pragmatic modern church community to a more organic, new testament post modern church community.
keep seeking.
Post a Comment