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The Wednesday Believers of Thunder is a group of men and women who meet on Wednesday evenings to spend time reading the Bible and praying. These are the guidelines we like to follow. These guidelines were compiled and agreed upon by the group. These are not “written in stone” but serve as the general structure for our time together, and our common goals. These guidelines can also “guide” us back to our common goals, should the group format or content get into the weeds.
Meeting Format:
1. Our meetings are scheduled for 2 hours: 1 hour in the Bible, 1 hour in prayer
2. We try our best to start and end on time.
3. We are a “leaderless” group. By this we mean that we want everyone to feel they can contribute equally.
4. Our Bible study time is generally expository. We pick a book of the Bible and read through it chapter by chapter discussing and praying along the way.
5. We like to cover at least a chapter’s worth of material each week, and sometimes more. We like covering chapters over small passages so we can follow the continuity of the book.
6. We’ve allow the study leader to rotate weekly, so everyone that want to teach can have an opportunity. We’ve found it helpful to experience different teaching styles and approaches.
7. Everyone is expected to arrive having reviewed the passage(s) of the week and ready for discussion.
8. When disagreements arise we try to focus on the main issues and keep the minor things minor. We realize we may not always agree on all issues.
9. It is entirely possible that the Bible study time gets postponed if the group feels the Lord is leading us in a different direction for the evening.
Prayer and Sharing:
1. We encourage sharing personal concerns and prayer requests at whatever level is comfortable. You are also free to not share at all.
2. To keep this time as safe as possible, so we avoid “cross-talk” like the following:
1. Commenting on how one feels about another’s sharing.
2. Engaging in conversations that excludes the group
3. Interrupting others to interject a personal opinion
4. Giving advice or “fixing”.
3. We agree to use active listening skills to the best of our abilities.
4. What is shared during this time is considered confidential, and is not shared outside of the group.
Meeting Facilitator
Our group designates an overall Facilitator who has special “powers” to help the group stay focused. First, the Facilitator keeps an eye on the time. We want to honor that week’s teacher by getting through what they prepared, but we also don’t want to cut into the prayer time. This takes some balance and gentile nudging from the Facilitator. As an example, our Facilitator will suggest moving on when discussion of a particular part of a passage, even if helpful and exciting, appears to be encroaching on the time needed to complete the chapter.
Additionally the facilitator helps keep the sharing and prayer time as safe as possible. It is understood that the Facilitator is allowed to remind the group or individual, “in real time” if/when the prayer or sharing guidelines are being broken. The Facilitator is trusted to ask more probing or clarifying questions of the person sharing, in an effort to make sure they are heard, that the group understands what they need, or to draw out the core issue. |
