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October 24, 2009
From Group Life: Talking about Courage
I haven't thought of this before...
I just listened to the first session here at the Willow Creek Small Groups conference, which featured Dave Johnston. He's the pastor at Church of the Open Door in Minneapolis, MN.
He was talking about spiritual formation, which is a pretty common topic. And he gave three non-negotiable elements of change. The first and third were authenticity and grace. And those are also pretty common—good stuff, but common.
But sandwiched in the middle was the idea of courage. It takes courage to be authentic. And I think that is huge. I have not heard that word connected to community and small groups before, but I sure think it should be. What better word for the emotional strength it takes to remove all the masks in front of other people? What better word for what it takes to confess sin?
Let's talk about this a little more: how does Courage fit in with your experience of small groups?
posted by Sam O'Neal on October 24, 2009 9:01 AM
Comments
Courage is huge. It is the key thing that differentiates leaders today. It takes courage to speak in front of groups. It takes courage to take a stand for what is right. It takes courage to stand up for God.
Courage takes a conviction in knowing who you are and the basis for your conviction. Today, we are taught by society that everyone has their own beliefs and that there is no one truth. God says there is one truth. Courage is a conviction to stand up for what God says and not society-think.
As leaders, we need to love people, meet them where they are at, and bring them into the community of God. While doing so, remember who you are and take the courage to stand firm in God's truth.
Posted By: Jim Morton | October 24, 2009 9:44 AM
In my experience as a small group leader, I have had to summon alot of courage. Courage to open myself up to a bunch of strangers, courage to open my home up week after week, courage to instigate prayer times when it seems that no one else is interested, courage to ask the questions that people don't want to answer..... the list goes on. Close relationship with people takes a great deal of courage, even more so when those relationships are designed to help people grow in their relationship with God.
Posted By: Lisa Moore | October 28, 2009 7:15 AM
In a small group context, I think courage means to share whatever is true in the present tense. Cowardice would have us hide in the safety of past tense and thereby limit our risk of rejection. Courage would have us speak truthfully in the present tense and trust Christ with the response.
Posted By: Bill Barnett | October 28, 2009 3:30 PM
My church was one of the satellite sits for the GLC this weekend and what Dave Johnson shared has really stuck with me this week. His three thoughts on how change happens are very simple, but are tough for me to be mindful of practicing and encouraging in my group.
One thing that was echoed throughout the whole day of the conference was if we don't go to the deep places, neither will the people of our groups. What a good reminder! We need to be courageous leaders not only in how we respond to those in our groups (as I've seen mentioned), but in how we are vulnerable with them--how we trust them with our struggles and with our joys.
One of the process questions that was in the listening guide that I liked and has challenged me to think in terms of where I am and where I want to be in leading is: How would you rate your current ability to be authentic with your small group (or with significant relationships) on a scale of "fully known--glory, warts and all" to "Keeping up an image"?
Posted By: Jessica Holmes | October 28, 2009 4:48 PM