Thoughts About a Small Group

(I believe I wrote this during the time we were starting up a men's small group and I wondered if it would continue or die)

I sense that God is impressing more and more people with a holy frustration and a deepening desire for a spiritual encounter that can bring meaning, purpose for living and a real change to their lives. I have watched with interest over the past few years and months God's providence and impressions in my own life. I too have a growing frustration with the disconnect between formal religion and the spiritual life I want to experience. The different areas of emphasis that God has led me through over the past few years seem to be coalescing into something much bigger than my own life. God seems to be strategically training and shaping all who are willing to be discipled for something I can't perceive yet and most likely don't want to know ahead of time.

But again, there is a growing intensity in friends I speak with lately for God to reveal Himself to us in a more tangible way. “Religion” just doesn't cut it anymore, though they are not ready to abandon the church. As for myself, I strongly urged Gil to help facilitate this group because of a deep personal need for a spiritual connection point, a time and place to assemble with other hungry and hurting people experiencing a growing desperation for God. I believe there are advantages to collective hunger. I have learned from recent reading that God is waiting for us to be hungry enough before He can reveal Himself. After all, He can't feed the full very easily.

Another reason I have hopes for this group is a very personal, vulnerable and somewhat terrifying one. I have been challenged by God to an impossible assignment, at least on my own. He has made it quite clear to me starting several months ago that I have to learn to understand my wife, be completely vulnerable to her and learn to be totally Christ-like starting in my home which seems to be the hardest place. The rewards are going to include unthinkable growth and a new intensity of worship and joy that I have never imagined before. But I don't seem to make any headway alone accept to become more familiar with some of the concepts and principles by reading and tapes.