I just got an email today from Dave Treat over at the Willow Creek Association. They are allowing our readers to register for the Group Life Conference at a DISCOUNTED RATE!!!
Regular price is $365 for WCA members and $385 for non-members. However if you call in or register online and use this priority code - GLC8BLG - you will get in into the conference for $245! That even beats the super early bird member rate by $40!
Call to register at 800-570-9812 and use the priority code GLC8BLG for your discount.
Or click here to register on line and don't forget to type in your code!
Chris Salzman at Think Christian recently wrote about a small group experience he had at his group prayer time:
I attended a small group session in high school. It was about twenty teenage boys and a leader. During prayer time we went around and offered our requests,which the leader concisely wrote down. He then assigned each person a prayer request and literally told us to keep it short and to the point.
He, after all, had an agenda to get to.
And to turn it around on myself: I often pray in quick lists. It's a great way to order my thoughts. I also recognize how stifling it is to spiritual growth, but seriously, it's a lot easier coming to God with a list of "fix this, fix that" things than to sit and listen.
And to play dissenting voice for a bit: is praying in such a way necessarily a bad thing?
How does your small handle prayer. What do you do to change it up at times?
My friend Janine and I were recently talking about the topic of community in a healthy church. There is something about a healthy and growing community of faith that encourages deep relationships. It doesn't matter if you are a new attendee or a long standing member, relationships begin to develop.
She introduced me to a quote from Thomas Kelly in his book A Testament of Devotion:
When we are drowned in the overwhelming seas of the love of God, we find ourselves in a new and particular relation to a few of our fellows. The relationship is so surprising and rich that we despair of finding a word glorious enough and weighty enough to name it. The word Fellowship is discovered, but the word is pale in comparison with the rich volume and luminous bulk and warmth of the experience which it would designate. For a new kind of life-sharing and love has arisen of which we had only dim hints before. Are these the bonds of love which knit together the early Christians, the very warp and woof of the Kingdom of God? In glad amazement and wonder we enter upon a relationship which we had not known the world could contain for the sons of men. Why should such bounty be given to unworthy men like ourselves?
I just got an email today from Dave Treat over at the Willow Creek Association. They are allowing our readers to register for the Group Life Conference at a DISCOUNTED RATE!!!