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Be Relational
Buddy Bell
January 26, 2014
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A Fresh Start With A Small Group
I met AJ a few months ago. He is like any man you might meet "out there" as you go along. I don't know about you, but I don't just automatically invite everyone I bump into "to church", or to "share how they are doing spiritually". Instead, I try to be open to a friendship. I try to love them, listen to them, share my life, and allow the forging of a friendship, should that be what God is doing.
I knew this was happening with AJ when he voluntarily started sharing his story with me, but I really knew when he gave me a call after I ran a challenging race, he knew I was nervous about, to check on me and see how it went.
It was natural at this point for both of us to invite each other a bit more into our respective lives, and since my life involves Christ and other Christians, that naturally involved inviting him to meet my friends. So I invited him both to church and to my small group.
He accepted the invitation to small group, voluntarily explaining how he wanted to be involved, and needed personal fellowship, to know and be known. He was not averse to coming to church at all (nor should you be), but he saw the small group as a more direct way of getting what he would be coming to church services for - spiritual friendships.
Every person on the planet needs spiritual friendships, and every Christian on the planet is called to spiritually care for a few others.
Our guest, Buddy Bell, believes that finding a small group is an ideal and powerful way of doing both.