A life transforming group to strengthen the entire body

http://jeremy-airforcelife.blogspot.com/

The link above is to the actual blog I've been writing in. However, I will still include it in the notes here so more people can/will read it. The information written below is from some guys at church, but it's been on my mind a lot, so I thought I would write about it. Please let me know if there's something to add, or if I have misrepresented any ideas along the way.

Some time ago, I shared with my gospel community the desire and need for us all to become closer to each other. The idea of knowing each other's hearts was real and present. I wondered why it was so hard, while also knowing that I wasn't 100% willing to share a lot of things myself. Talking with some other guys, we discovered that people are so afraid of what other people might think about them. So, we don't share. However, we don't seem to be afraid of what God thinks. Why?

What do other's thoughts of us matter when compared to those of God? Why are we so eager to please others or change ourselves so they will like us? Why do we not always care about disappointing God? God wants a real relationship with us. We screwed it up, and we continue to do so through our sin. If we read through the Bible, Jesus gave us the example and the answer to fix these problems.

At the same time, I was wondering why the accountability in the high school boys' group I work with wasn't working well. In life, we try to hold ourselves accountable to each other. People will always fail one another. However, God will never let us down. God is always there, people will put us on hold for other things. We need to be accountable to God, and we need to encourage others to do just that.

Back to the example of Jesus. Jesus had different levels of relationships. He had a relationship with those he taught, His disciples, and a closer and much smaller group of those that were even closer. Jesus gave us the example. We have our corporate gathering on Sundays, our gospel communities of yet smaller numbers, and we should have yet smaller groups of just a few.

These small groups have the opportunity to really get to know one another's hearts. Instead of what we know as accountability groups, they could be called encouragement groups, or any other thing you want to call it. The purpose is multi-fold. You encourage each other to stay in the word. You discuss what you have learned and applications. You pray for one another, pray for the lost, share your hearts and pray for healing and relationships. You encourage each other to be accountable to God. You probe your hearts together with hard questions to offer up your true heart to God.

Some of these questions could be: Have you been living the Gospel through your words and/or actions? Have you been prideful about money, possessions, etc.? Have you been intentional with your time with your family? Have you damaged someone with your words or actions? Has someone damaged you? Have you talked to your mentor? Do you have a mentor or prayed for one? Have you allowed something to control you and who you are (fear, anger, drugs, pornography)? Have you been honest with me and more over God in answering these questions?

This is NOT accountability with each other, but accountability to God. We are just encouraging each other with this. Through this we build a stronger relationship with God, which will reflect in our lives, strengthening our relationships with each other. As the small group grows in relationship, the gospel community will grow in relationship, and the corporate church will grow in relationship.

This is what I have gathered from the guys that I talked with about this initially. This is what has grown in my heart. I know that there is more to it, and I encourage you to add to this post with it. Once again, if I have misrepresented anything, please tell me, but it was on my heart so I thought I would share. I pray that this can change your life as I know it has changed others'. It is yet another way to help display and declare Christ to the community and world around us.