Even though we did not meet as a group, there had been a lot of communication and life sharing conversations on the phone. We did not meet, but we had stayed connected. Accountability often sounds like a scary supervisory word. What I experienced was more like phone calls among friends.
Becoming friends is something that happens in small groups. When people increase friendships in church, they feel more connected and the church gets stronger. The following quote comes from Rick Warren's writings.
"Lyle Schaller has done extensive research that shows the more friendships a person has in a congregation, the less likely he is to become inactive or leave. In contrast, I once read about a survey of four hundred church drop-outs who were asked why they left their churches. Over 75% of the respondents said, "I didn't feel anyone cared whether I was there or not."
It is a myth that you must know everyone in the church in order to feel like a part of a church. The average church member knows 67 people in the congregation, whether the church has 200 or 2,000 attending. A member does not have to know everyone in the church in order to feel like it's "my church" but he does have to know some people!
While some relationships will spontaneously develop by chance, the friendship factor in assimilation is too crucial to leave to chance. You can't just hope members will make friends in the church. You must encourage it, plan for it, structure for it, and facilitate it."
So, our group did not meet. But the fact that we have the group and are getting to know each other, some of whom are new to High Street, is doing something very good.
6 comments:
This is the very reason we are doing the Truth Project so we can really connect with each other and become friends and not just people that say hello to each other when our paths cross at church. Gary
It's funny you mention this... The same thing is happened at our TP (except for the canceling part... we love truth in the Marsh group). We have been noticing friendships forming between all the members. In fact, several attenders were genuinely concerned about where the non-attenders were at. A unity is clearly forming. We even had a group of 7 go out to eat afterwards! I think the people in Acts new what they were doing!
Our group was so disappointed to hear that there was no Truth Project for Easter Sunday Night...that they all want to come to our house anyway.
OK...whatever...were down with it...
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Truth Project Groups":
Out of the Family Matters class we have 6 groups meeting. This has been a great opportunity for people to lead with purpose.
So many great stories! People love to share. They love to feel apart of something significant. They enjoy being challenged!
I have attended 5 of our groups and have been encouraged by each.
Eddie - What you shared in your blog on March 14th should be a Sunday morning lesson. We are at the half way point in this series but more important this paradigm shift in our church. Therefore, you should remind and recast the vision. You know - the Nehemiah Principle.
Have a great week!
Joe Reynolds
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Truth Project Groups":
We always have interesting, challenging discussions in our Truth Project group! This weeks, Science Part 2, was particularly interesting, especially towards the end where the atheist was quoted saying basically that if we destroy Adam and Eve and original sin then there is no need for Jesus Christ to come and redeem His people. They know right where the Christian's foundation is to attack! (Thankfully, God is not sitting up in heaven wringing his hands over evolution!)
We talked about if it was in our Articles of Faith of what we believe pertaining to creation, like a literal 6 day creation. So this morning I looked it up and was happy to see that it goes way beyond with explaining that we in no way believe in evolution of any sort.
But now I think we are going to have to add a line that we don't believe that alien's started it all either!!!! :)
Psalm 2:4
Cindy Holcomb
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