a coherent collection of random statements regarding God, words and tunes

A simple request....

Haven't checked in, in a while. I could ramble on gleefully about The Scattered Pages' Lazy Are the Skeletons (yet another belated candidate for Best Album of 2006 -- and I'd KILL to see a Scattered Pages/Kamikaze Hearts show, or vice versa) and Andy Partridge's 8-volume Fuzzy Warbles series from the earlier part of this century (and may do so yet), but this one's gonna be fairly short, sweet, and personal.

Awhile back (and on a couple occasions), I'd mentioned and/or solicited feedback on an idea for a discipleship curriculum that's been germinating in my head for awhile, and which God won't let me let go of. (And believe me, I tried dropping it a few times, too.) Anyway, Quarter 1 of a proposed 6 is written (not accepted yet, mind you, just written), and starting tomorrow night, a gang of family and friends from various points of my sojourn here thus far are gonna start having at it.

Thus, the rubber hits the road in a number of ways. Am I really on to something here? Does this test-run help sell this to the internal forces-that-be (actually, the answer to the literal question is "yes," and thus the real question is, "Will it be enough?")? And, not least of all, does said group become more than something that meets for three months, then goes its separate ways? I really, really hope not. To quote from the open letter mailed to said gang:

"I’d really like to see this develop into a real group. It’s fair to say that some personnel will change after Quarter 1 (at least one of you has indicated that this is probably a short-term commitment), but again (and because of that), let’s keep an outward focus... [I]t’s my hope that whatever it is, we KEEP doing it. And let’s see who we can bring along for the journey while we’re at it.

"Y’r getting this because I consider you friends – not only because I just plain LIKE you, but because I value yr opinions and how you’ve brought Jesus into MY life. And, of course, because you’ve bought into what I’m throwing out there, or at least are willing to entertain it.

"That said, a natural attraction is no guarantee that this becomes a community (thank you, Dietrich Bonhoeffer**, for THAT whack upside the head). But that’s my hope. Plain and simple. Pretty much all of us are acutely aware that we’re already in some form of significant transition. God willing, I’d like to start building something that lasts out here."

So, short version: Prayers will be appreciated, if not ravenously coveted. Thanks.

** -- Read Life Together. And as always, tell me I'm wrong.   

Posted by: burninglight at 20:42 | link | comments (5)

Comments:

#1  06 February 2008 - 20:19

 

All hopes and prayers for a good discipleship group for you.

If its going to interfere with your and other peoples' family times, it'll never work.

Why not invite families over, and not just adults?

The best thing to do is to fit it in early in the morning.

Then again, your kids are older, if the nests are starting to get empty, maybe it'll work better.

Then there's always the single guys who show up, who can't conceive of the fact that you'd like to choke the living daylights out of them for still blabbing away at 11:00 PM like there is no tomorrow.

How's that for a bunch of aimless rambling?

Jim

Anonymous

#2  06 February 2008 - 20:54

 

Yo Jim:

(Yes, go ahead... suck in the moment... :))

FWIW, in its current incarnation the group's kind of is intergenerational. No small children, but a small contingent of youth in addition to the adults who are either parents of older children, empty-nesters or childless.

And part of the "sales pitch" here may well be "does this work on a youth level, too"? Two weeks in: So far, it is.

Also, this is "officially" being designed as a Sunday School class. It's just also being sufficiently tweaked so it works at a small-group level as well. (Which most Sunday School classes kind of are, in principle -- only a shorter-term commitment, as it were. It's not exactly the same, but there's plenty of room for crossover.)

Family stuff: Yeah, we've got THAT covered. :) Check out FaithWeaver sometime. The actual Adult level is kind of weak, but in terms of everyone learning everything at the same time and thus giving parents opportunity to discuss their faith their kids, it works VERY well.

And there has been talk about a developing a separate "family discipleship" curriculum, which I think would be a very cool idea.

(Thankfully, we can count the regular readers of this blog on probably two hands, so I'm probably not in danger of truly divulging anything akin to a trade secret... plus, we tend to do things, um, differently anyway, and I'm nowhere NEAR describing any of THAT.... :))

burninglight

#3  11 February 2008 - 20:03

 

Hi Carl, that sounds great that its a Sunday school thing.

Hmm, I wonder what this "differently" approach to having the class is. If its a truly useful technique, drop me a hint at least. Maybe it will be a good technique for teaching my kids.

Any thoughts/direction on The Moody Blues, as they are currently working their way towards the top of my list of favorites?

Jim

Anonymous

#4  11 February 2008 - 21:02

 

Sorry about that. To employ a byrnesism, I'd figured I'd sufficiently bloviated about the kind of stuff we do here. :)

The short philosophical version is here: http://www.group.com/about/groupdifference.asp. The shorter version is: The more senses you engage in the learning process, the more likely that everyone learns, and more importantly that they retain. Thus, we're all about applying active-learning strategies to Christian education, whether that's Sunday School, small group, or even worship service (although again, I understand that we won't be rewriting the Mass anytime soon :)). Poke around the Group site awhile; that'll probably give you a better idea.

Re: The Moody Blues: Beats me. I only liked one song per any given album of theirs. :D I'm a sucker for "Question" in particular, FWIW.

burninglight

#5  12 February 2008 - 01:35

 

Ah, I see, the idea is to do an activity so that the lesson will stick with them. I can see where I can make some things more interseting for the kids with that strategy.

Regarding the Moodies, I bought thie "Best of" collection for pretty much just one of the songs ("The Voice"), and ended up lovin' a bunch of them. I've bought their first three, and am particularly impressed with the 1968 album called "In Search of The Lost Chord" where rock meets Eastern music for some pretty cool results.

"Question" is a great one; "The Voice " is the one that I was always a sucker for.

Jim

Anonymous

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