By Bill, on May 16th, 2010
I bet that you visited this site because you are interested in the idea of belonging to a small discipleship group. You assume that I am something of an “authority” on relational discipleship, and that I have been for years a part of a thriving small group, or perhaps the director of a small group ministry. Wrong on all accounts.
I am by personality a loner, an introvert who has always been inclined to solve my problems before I talk to anyone about them—even my wonderful wife, Joan. I grew up in a religious environment where asking too many questions or airing too much dirty laundry was fraught with the possibility [ More ... ]
By Bill, on March 20th, 2010
Image By: woodleywonderworks
We have had a most unusual weekend. Joan and I attended the General Conference of the Evangelical Methodist Church (you can look up the details at http://emchurch.org if you need them). There were three striking things that happened that brought the world into perspective.
First, at the Communion Service on the first day, there were three presiding general superintendents: one for the US who spoke only English, one from Mexico who spoke no English, and one from Myanmar (Burma) who spoke some English. Each offered prayer in his mother tongue without translation–after all, the audience to our worship was God, for whom languages are no problem!
Second, the Myanmar [ More ... ]
By Bill, on February 13th, 2010
I have spent the last 30 years thinking about, observing, participating in, and developing small groups. I realized very early that relationships are enormously diverse. I have a wide circle of friends on five continents. With many of these friends, we were once in circumstances where we could be very close. One is my college roommate who married by college biology lab partner (who shepherded me through the course!). Another is a Bible college classmate with whom my family and I later had an interesting camping experience. Another is a fellow pastor who has spent years in Africa as a church planter. Another group is a Bible study and prayer [ More ... ]
