2008 Feb 06, Ash Wednesday
Posted by Bart on January 25, 2008
This morning I read the Upper Room Devotional, “Broken”
Please pray God will use this blog for the sanctification of his people. Also please pray for the Women’s Ammaus Walk starting tomorrow.
AB CD EF GH IJ JA JT BT
Bart said
Please click “how this works” in the upper left corner for instructions.
Kevin Watson said
Bart – Thanks for starting this. I think this is a great start. I am going to write a post about this and direct people to this site if they want to participate. I have a few thoughts:
1) It would be nice if there was a way to sort of introduce ourselves a bit more to one another, so we know who is here and for those of us who have not met we can build a bit deeper sense of community. For ex., I was wondering if we might want to come up with some “rules” (like Wesley…) for what you have to do if you want to participate (like give your first name, age, etc.) enough info that we can feel like we have a sense of who we each are, but maybe figure out a way where folks can have some anonymity as well. What do you think?
2) The other thing that I thought could really make this powerful, beyond just having one blog would be some sort of agreement that once the group gets to a certain number, the group agrees to multiply. For instance, I was thinking what if we agreed that when the group gets to 8 people we split it. I would be willing to start another blog just like this one. We would use the same structure… basically just copy this format and start again. That way we are encouraged to bring others in while staying intimate enough to really keep track of each other. (My thinking is that if there are much more than 8 people it would be hard to build much “virtual” community. What are your thoughts about this?
Ok, now for my “account.” This morning I spent some time in prayer by writing in a prayer journal. And I recited the Jesus Creed which Scot McKnight lifted up as a challenge for lent at <a href=http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=3384Jesus Creed. (Maybe this is something we would want to consider incorporating too…) Please pray for God to show me areas where I need to repent and focus on God’s will for my life during this season of Lent.
(I am not sure who is actually participating at this point, so I am not including initials… mine are kw)
Bart said
Kevin – I am 35 and have a wife and two girls, 3 & 6. I originally was thinking of supplementing an in person small group which would allow people to share in a deeper manner though less frequently. I meet two small, about 12 members, now plus Sunday School each week. I do not know if there are enough people from each group to hold together an accountability blog or not??? Do you have enough people you meet with locally that blog? If we can not support blogs on the local basis I think virtual accountability is much better than no accountability.
I love your idea of splitting or multiplying as the cell churches call it. I agree 8 is a good number trigger a new group. Four people in each group should be enough for critical mass. Right now you are the only other person. I am new to hosting and am still figuring out the technical part. For instance I got an email asking me to approve your post before it would show on the site. I guess there is an auto approve preference, but I am still looking.
If it turns out that the groups are composed of people from all over how would you control entry? Do you think it would be distracting for comments to be added by people who “stumble” onto the blog? How would we advertise and invite people in? There might be a technical or process solution to this that I am not aware. Do you think it would be better to start on deeplycommitted as you already have a reader base??