Let's do it. Keep talking with each other. Pray pray pray for this. And don't forget, you can post stuff here! This IS your community, this IS your house-- so, own it. To quote Jimmy, this abstract notion of "community" will only be realized when we all decide to do something on an individual level. We can start by first pressing into God and then reaching out to each other. (If you want to know what that means more concretely, let's talk about it).
Also, would you have a meal with me sometime? Just e-mail me when's good for you.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Large Group Recap 10.29.10 - Family Group!
Abstract: We had Family Group yesterday! It was a "temperature check" so that we could gauge the spiritual health of our fellowship as a whole. We had good attendance, over thirty members plus some new faces. Some members of leadership went over SCF's vision statement and gave updates on some of our different ministries (Large Group, Small Group, Prayer Team/Meetings, and Outreach). Then, we went into small groups to discuss some questions about how we felt about the fellowship. Lastly, we had a time of discussing as a whole. The conversation started with the issue of actually being a welcoming, non-cliquey community, and the relationship between "inreach" and "outreach" and what both of those mean.
SCF Vision statement
Through God’s help, we hope to foster a community that:
- Continuously intercedes on behalf of Swarthmore campus through focused, persistent and expectant prayer.
- Fully equips witnesses and sends them out to live missional lives.
- Sustains Christ-centered transformation through mentorship.
Ministry introductions
Large group / Fri. 7pm, Kohl 115 / Jimmy
LG is supposed to fully equip people to grow stronger in Christ and then to spiritually help those around us (i.e. the LG talk on post-modern evangelism, and next week we’ll learn about how to share your faith). Different large group topics were designed to give us space to learn skills/personalities/characteristics that will enable us to love each other inside and outside our group.
Outreach / Wes
Primarily made up of Groups Investigating God (GIGs), when one person who really loves Jesus wants to share it with 1, 2, 3 other friends through the Scripture. The intent is to raise the huge theological questions (i.e. Why is there suffering, Does God actually exist, etc.). GIG members are usually non-Christians who are interested in the Bible. It’s important that we have GIGs because a lot of people only experience the shallow and negative image of Christ and Christianity.
Small Groups / for dates and times, see poster / Sara (Rebekah proxy)
These are dorm-based or community-based groups that study the Scripture, a way for non-Christians and Christians alike to study the word of God together. SGs tend to become a pretty tight group that supports each other throughout the year.
SCF Vision statement
Through God’s help, we hope to foster a community that:
- Continuously intercedes on behalf of Swarthmore campus through focused, persistent and expectant prayer.
- Fully equips witnesses and sends them out to live missional lives.
- Sustains Christ-centered transformation through mentorship.
Ministry introductions
Large group / Fri. 7pm, Kohl 115 / Jimmy
LG is supposed to fully equip people to grow stronger in Christ and then to spiritually help those around us (i.e. the LG talk on post-modern evangelism, and next week we’ll learn about how to share your faith). Different large group topics were designed to give us space to learn skills/personalities/characteristics that will enable us to love each other inside and outside our group.
Outreach / Wes
Primarily made up of Groups Investigating God (GIGs), when one person who really loves Jesus wants to share it with 1, 2, 3 other friends through the Scripture. The intent is to raise the huge theological questions (i.e. Why is there suffering, Does God actually exist, etc.). GIG members are usually non-Christians who are interested in the Bible. It’s important that we have GIGs because a lot of people only experience the shallow and negative image of Christ and Christianity.
Right now there are several GIGs (Wes leads one, Nate leads two, there are a few more), all going pretty well, all studying passages in John 1-4, which are great for Swatties to deconstruct. The conversations that come from this are a good thing. If you're interested in starting one, or are yourself interested in the Big Questions that Small Groups sometimes don’t address, tell Wes.
Small Groups / for dates and times, see poster / Sara (Rebekah proxy)
These are dorm-based or community-based groups that study the Scripture, a way for non-Christians and Christians alike to study the word of God together. SGs tend to become a pretty tight group that supports each other throughout the year.
Prayer Ministry / Tue. 9pm SCI 104, and Thur. 6pm Sharples / Theresa & Jenna
Prayer meeting (Tue.), prayer team meeting (Thur.), & prayer at Large Group. Focusing on intercession and that part of the vision statement. Prayer meetings this semester have started with our identities as Christians and how we relate to God, moving from there to praying for all parts of the community and this campus, and parts of the community. They do intercessory prayer walks. Prayer at the end of large group is a time when everyone should feel safe and comfortable with each other; it might sound the opposite, but they want people to be encouraged to pray! Sign up on the sign-up sheet! But tonight, we want to know, what can we do to get everyone praying for our entire campus? Maybe having a prayer room on campus, specified prayer times for short prayers.
Personal Reflection Time
- How have you been encouraged/met/challenged by God this semester through SCF?
- Where are you seeing signs that God is at work in/through SCF?
- Where do you think we are thriving in pursuing our vision and being a community?
- Where do you think we need to work on aspects of community and vision?
- How can we practically implement these thoughts?
Family Discussion Time
Sonja: A lot of people feel isolated within this community. Sophomores esp., because if they all go abroad next year, they’ll feel really separated. Should address this.
Liz: Some parts of the vision statement seem very oriented toward outreach, and there isn’t enough place for fellowship, inreach, etc. Small groups seem like GIGs, large groups seem more about evangelism than personal growth.
Lauren: Remembers that ’10 Seniors talked about how much they prayed for a huge freshman class, and 2013 came! Same thing for the next year, and 2014 happened! God has answered those prayers. Imagine if we continued these prayers, and prayers for other things, too, like inward growth? God is faithful. And for the future, if we want new students to feel welcome, we need to have a strong base to welcome them, a family that’s already strong that they can join.
Cecilia: 2011 was a huge freshman class, but after three years they’re really small…
Nate: Do we want this community-building to be structured? Large Group for community-building instead of having a speaker, or make this entirely individual inreach? Person to person?
Jeewon: Thinks we can do both of those things. Programmed inreach as well as personally finding time to talk with other people. It should be effortless and natural.
Lauren: But it’s hard for introverts to do that personal initiation of relationships. So these relationships can start naturally but they have to be purposely maintained.
Wes: The idea of Vision Team leading things and everyone else following, it’s a kind of weary/wary? structure. But there’s space for anyone to do whatever they want; we are flexible and will support anything you want to do, including Liz’s 3-4 person lunches. It is a good thing that GIGs are more structured now, but if you personally find something that’s really working, spread the word!
Cecilia: Our outreach to freshmen is great, but once you grow up (Juniors/Seniors), it gets harder. You can feel isolated once you don’t have older people constantly pulling you back in. A good thing that after 3 years of rough times with SCF, I’m still here. As for studying abroad, she’s glad that even though when she came back from abroad and found that she didn’t know a lot of the people who were now here, she still knew that SCF was full of welcoming people and that it’d be all right.
Theresa: So what’s Inreach? Any Biblical examples or examples from other places?
Hana: Is inreach just making friends?
Tiffany: No, because that will just form cliques.
Dan: Inreach keeps people involved in SCF, so that they won’t just leave. Help people know they can still be a part of the community even if they don’t come to all the functions.
Allison: It’s encouraging that people were eager to invite her to Large Group, “I felt like these people want to give me a big hug!” It’s a good thing to check in on people, and from the other side it’s good to feel wanted to be back there, even if it takes being dragged back here.
Christina: It’s simple as taking notice of people when they’re gone. Showing that you care if they’re here, notice if they’re not, is a good thing. Pray for those who are studying abroad! Don’t just think: they don’t go to Swarthmore anymore just ‘cause they’re overseas, remember that they’re still a part of our community!
Allison: For people who are studying abroad, it’d be awesome if you could send emails home! Update us on what you’re doing and give your address. Take the initiative, and we’ll respond!
Sonja: I remember when Mi went abroad, and she sent emails and pictures and things all the time, and I appreciated that you were so invested in us. Also, going back to Tiffany and Spencer’s point about cliques: SCF can be cliquey, even for Swat standards, and that was one of the barriers for her getting involved her freshman year. You need to be open in your group and notice if you’re being cliquey and figure out how to avoid that.
Wes: This confounds inreach a little bit…
Liz: My vision of inreach: the Senior class of 2010 loving each other in a real way. The early church in Acts- they spent time with each other all the time, and loved each other. Start by praying for each other.
Spencer: I agree, and something special about the Senior class was that they were committed to each other. Say that you’ll be there for each other and that you’ll take care of each other. Swat is a hard place to be a Christian, but it’s also just a hard place to be. Even sophomores are still looking for people who will be there for us (platonically!) when we need it. College is a time of extreme highs and extreme lows, and so this community is needed for a lot of people.
Kai: I think when it comes to inreach, it takes making people who are on the outside on the inside, even without their permission. Someone you meet, say hi to them forever now just because.
Theresa: Seems like inreach is an expanded form of outreach. Reads: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14
Dan Pak: Cliques occur in youth groups at home, too. But accountability is a very important thing, too. Need people to keep each other in check in the faith.
Wes: Proxe station. The experience of preparing it and going through it together was a good thing. But it was also an outreach to the entire outreach. Have the perspective where everything you do, you do together. So even our outreach things can involve inreach. The point is, this is everyone’s prerogative.
Kathryn: The Proxe station was a really good thing, but it does attract a certain group of people to participate, usually the core group of SCF. A lot of people who aren’t as comfortable with the entire group might not step up to do things. I feel like just talking about more love and care and stuff is great, but unless there’s a little structure, we’ll just forget about it. How about a little icebreaker/mixer at each large group that gets us to actually know about each other? That way we’ll want to get to know each other outside of SCF. But on that note, I think SCF does a good job of being welcoming, but it could do better.
Lauren: We came to college to study. But, “seek ye first the kingdom of God”? Academic life comes first, but it shouldn’t be like that. So, we should envelop our Christian relationships into our daily life, like studying together, hanging out together, having meals together.
Nate: “I only see you during SCF!” “We only hang out at SCF events!” Feels weird about that. Should consider any time we see each other and interact as an SCF event. Maybe a personal opposition to internal structure, but we’re not going to just say hi to each other, the random passings-by should become our time to check up on each other. This can happen every single day!
Tiffany: Maybe it would help to have some activities that are more social, not exactly connected to Christian stuff. How about a study break? Something fun?
Christina: One of the best things so far was that baking thing in Parrish! It was only a few people, but it was really fun.
Sonja: Plug for studying together! It can be a real bonding experience.
Tiffany: 90% random stuff and 10% stat, but it’s fun.
Michio: Thinking about inreach and outreach, and wondering if they’re really such a dichotomy. We like to structure and label things, but what it means to be a community is Christ-centered. If the center of a circle is Christ, and all of us are some distance away from it (some de-localized gradient, random nerdy stuff), we are a continuous space. Pull people towards the center of the circle can be inreach and outreach at the same time. It will allow Christians to bond and also allow non-Christians to seek Christ at the same time.
Lauren: Good analogy. So what is the responsibility of someone near the center of the podium? Do they stay where they are or do we keep moving in and out of this circle?
Liz: We’ve gone way overtime. Let’s have follow-up discussions, but we’re going to pray and close.
- - -
Feel free to continue the thoughts via comments on this post.
Prayer meeting (Tue.), prayer team meeting (Thur.), & prayer at Large Group. Focusing on intercession and that part of the vision statement. Prayer meetings this semester have started with our identities as Christians and how we relate to God, moving from there to praying for all parts of the community and this campus, and parts of the community. They do intercessory prayer walks. Prayer at the end of large group is a time when everyone should feel safe and comfortable with each other; it might sound the opposite, but they want people to be encouraged to pray! Sign up on the sign-up sheet! But tonight, we want to know, what can we do to get everyone praying for our entire campus? Maybe having a prayer room on campus, specified prayer times for short prayers.
Personal Reflection Time
- How have you been encouraged/met/challenged by God this semester through SCF?
- Where are you seeing signs that God is at work in/through SCF?
- Where do you think we are thriving in pursuing our vision and being a community?
- Where do you think we need to work on aspects of community and vision?
- How can we practically implement these thoughts?
Family Discussion Time
Sonja: A lot of people feel isolated within this community. Sophomores esp., because if they all go abroad next year, they’ll feel really separated. Should address this.
Liz: Some parts of the vision statement seem very oriented toward outreach, and there isn’t enough place for fellowship, inreach, etc. Small groups seem like GIGs, large groups seem more about evangelism than personal growth.
Lauren: Remembers that ’10 Seniors talked about how much they prayed for a huge freshman class, and 2013 came! Same thing for the next year, and 2014 happened! God has answered those prayers. Imagine if we continued these prayers, and prayers for other things, too, like inward growth? God is faithful. And for the future, if we want new students to feel welcome, we need to have a strong base to welcome them, a family that’s already strong that they can join.
Cecilia: 2011 was a huge freshman class, but after three years they’re really small…
Nate: Do we want this community-building to be structured? Large Group for community-building instead of having a speaker, or make this entirely individual inreach? Person to person?
Jeewon: Thinks we can do both of those things. Programmed inreach as well as personally finding time to talk with other people. It should be effortless and natural.
Lauren: But it’s hard for introverts to do that personal initiation of relationships. So these relationships can start naturally but they have to be purposely maintained.
Wes: The idea of Vision Team leading things and everyone else following, it’s a kind of weary/wary? structure. But there’s space for anyone to do whatever they want; we are flexible and will support anything you want to do, including Liz’s 3-4 person lunches. It is a good thing that GIGs are more structured now, but if you personally find something that’s really working, spread the word!
Cecilia: Our outreach to freshmen is great, but once you grow up (Juniors/Seniors), it gets harder. You can feel isolated once you don’t have older people constantly pulling you back in. A good thing that after 3 years of rough times with SCF, I’m still here. As for studying abroad, she’s glad that even though when she came back from abroad and found that she didn’t know a lot of the people who were now here, she still knew that SCF was full of welcoming people and that it’d be all right.
Theresa: So what’s Inreach? Any Biblical examples or examples from other places?
Hana: Is inreach just making friends?
Tiffany: No, because that will just form cliques.
Dan: Inreach keeps people involved in SCF, so that they won’t just leave. Help people know they can still be a part of the community even if they don’t come to all the functions.
Allison: It’s encouraging that people were eager to invite her to Large Group, “I felt like these people want to give me a big hug!” It’s a good thing to check in on people, and from the other side it’s good to feel wanted to be back there, even if it takes being dragged back here.
Christina: It’s simple as taking notice of people when they’re gone. Showing that you care if they’re here, notice if they’re not, is a good thing. Pray for those who are studying abroad! Don’t just think: they don’t go to Swarthmore anymore just ‘cause they’re overseas, remember that they’re still a part of our community!
Allison: For people who are studying abroad, it’d be awesome if you could send emails home! Update us on what you’re doing and give your address. Take the initiative, and we’ll respond!
Sonja: I remember when Mi went abroad, and she sent emails and pictures and things all the time, and I appreciated that you were so invested in us. Also, going back to Tiffany and Spencer’s point about cliques: SCF can be cliquey, even for Swat standards, and that was one of the barriers for her getting involved her freshman year. You need to be open in your group and notice if you’re being cliquey and figure out how to avoid that.
Wes: This confounds inreach a little bit…
Liz: My vision of inreach: the Senior class of 2010 loving each other in a real way. The early church in Acts- they spent time with each other all the time, and loved each other. Start by praying for each other.
Spencer: I agree, and something special about the Senior class was that they were committed to each other. Say that you’ll be there for each other and that you’ll take care of each other. Swat is a hard place to be a Christian, but it’s also just a hard place to be. Even sophomores are still looking for people who will be there for us (platonically!) when we need it. College is a time of extreme highs and extreme lows, and so this community is needed for a lot of people.
Kai: I think when it comes to inreach, it takes making people who are on the outside on the inside, even without their permission. Someone you meet, say hi to them forever now just because.
Theresa: Seems like inreach is an expanded form of outreach. Reads: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:12-14
Dan Pak: Cliques occur in youth groups at home, too. But accountability is a very important thing, too. Need people to keep each other in check in the faith.
Wes: Proxe station. The experience of preparing it and going through it together was a good thing. But it was also an outreach to the entire outreach. Have the perspective where everything you do, you do together. So even our outreach things can involve inreach. The point is, this is everyone’s prerogative.
Kathryn: The Proxe station was a really good thing, but it does attract a certain group of people to participate, usually the core group of SCF. A lot of people who aren’t as comfortable with the entire group might not step up to do things. I feel like just talking about more love and care and stuff is great, but unless there’s a little structure, we’ll just forget about it. How about a little icebreaker/mixer at each large group that gets us to actually know about each other? That way we’ll want to get to know each other outside of SCF. But on that note, I think SCF does a good job of being welcoming, but it could do better.
Lauren: We came to college to study. But, “seek ye first the kingdom of God”? Academic life comes first, but it shouldn’t be like that. So, we should envelop our Christian relationships into our daily life, like studying together, hanging out together, having meals together.
Nate: “I only see you during SCF!” “We only hang out at SCF events!” Feels weird about that. Should consider any time we see each other and interact as an SCF event. Maybe a personal opposition to internal structure, but we’re not going to just say hi to each other, the random passings-by should become our time to check up on each other. This can happen every single day!
Tiffany: Maybe it would help to have some activities that are more social, not exactly connected to Christian stuff. How about a study break? Something fun?
Christina: One of the best things so far was that baking thing in Parrish! It was only a few people, but it was really fun.
Sonja: Plug for studying together! It can be a real bonding experience.
Tiffany: 90% random stuff and 10% stat, but it’s fun.
Michio: Thinking about inreach and outreach, and wondering if they’re really such a dichotomy. We like to structure and label things, but what it means to be a community is Christ-centered. If the center of a circle is Christ, and all of us are some distance away from it (some de-localized gradient, random nerdy stuff), we are a continuous space. Pull people towards the center of the circle can be inreach and outreach at the same time. It will allow Christians to bond and also allow non-Christians to seek Christ at the same time.
Lauren: Good analogy. So what is the responsibility of someone near the center of the podium? Do they stay where they are or do we keep moving in and out of this circle?
Liz: We’ve gone way overtime. Let’s have follow-up discussions, but we’re going to pray and close.
- - -
Feel free to continue the thoughts via comments on this post.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Perfectionism
As Christians all of us feel so much pressure to be perfect. We feel the need to be perfect in our love for others so that everyone can feel the love of Christ, we feel the need to act perfectly because other Christians seem too and because if we aren't perfect why would anyone ever feel the need to be Christian, we feel the need to make every decision the right decision because what if we do something that so wrong we can fix it or be fixed? If you do not fall into this train of thought, I apologize for over generalizing. But, I see Christians around me everyday worrying and struggling with this, and I struggle with this myself.
Add this pressure to the pressure we feel everyday as Swatties to do our work right and to be active in extra-curricular activities, this pressure can be over whelming.
What I need a reminder of often, sometimes on a daily basis, which I am now going to remind all of you, is that God doesn't care if we are perfect. God does not care if we make mistakes. God doesn't care if we slip up. God doesn't care if don't understand him sometimes. God doesn't care about any of those things. God just loves us. He loves us no matter how many times we screw up. In God's eyes there is NOTHING that can make us more or less worthy of his love. Do not let this world tell you differently.
So relax and just rest in God's arms.
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