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Part 6:

They are in the moment , listening attentively, focusing on others in ways that invite them to experience something of god’s abiding care for them. ( a good leader)

A small group that operates with spiritual direction as its leadership model will not be a grouip that tells people what clothes they should wear, who they should hang out with, or what they should do with ther lives.

He did not offer then five steps to avoid tempetation or give them a set of rules and principles so they could live this out. They had to figure it out on their own.
Sin is real. It needs to be dealt with. But to point fingers at each other and declare”here is your sin” denies the reality that god has arrived in this person’s heart before you did.

It is not so much a place of accountability- which suggests one party is watching the other-as a place where lives are lived and struggles shared.

Sometimes silence can be a meaningful gift. However it is usually obvious if silence is honoring someone story or if it is there because noone knows what to say.

When Yahweh shows up there arnt many words for it.

We represent jesus

When we gather, we come othergeer as image-bearers, redeemed sinners, abe to experience god’s love and presence through our fellowship.

Jesus was the master storyteller. The bible tells us that god chose to tell the great cosmic story not thru a list of doctrines and rules to follow but through scenes from the livesof god’s people. The parables jesus told were stories that were often subversive, provocative, even ambigious. The stories of faith and life are the substance of our journey toward god.

Part of ourcall as followers of chrsit is to become good storytellers. We are also invited to become good story receivers.

The invitation to love in groups is not s sugar-coated, positive thinking kind of love. It is love that is willing to sit in places of grief and doubt, to wrestle alongside others as they struggle with god, and to celebrate moments of goodness, forgiveness, and joy with another. Love embodied in these ways transforms broken hearts and heals fragmented lives.