April 2007 | Posted in • Life | (0) Comments |
On Monday, March 12th at 7:00pm we will begin two Small Groups at Victory Fellowship. Search For Significance will meet every Monday evening for eight weeks. Even if you’ve been walking with the Lord for a short time or long time, if you get your worth from what you do or don’t do, if you say “YES” when you really want to say “NO” because you need approval from other people, or if you want to see yourself changing for the better, but just can’t seem to change, then Search For Significance group can help you. This is the first class in the series and must be completed before Breaking the Cycle class. The cost is $13 for the workbook.
Breaking the Cycle of Hurtful Family Experiences will meet every Monday evening for 10 weeks. Hurtful struggles in your closest relationships, repetitive conflicts, and the inability to resolve issues peacefully are telling symptoms that reveal past hurtful family experiences that cause you to function in cycles of pain. Get to the root of the matter. Breaking the Cycle group can help set you free to experience relationships healthily. The workbook for this class is $15.50. Adults age 19 and up may sign up for these classes by calling Frann Sarpolus at 779-5180 ext. 102 by March 8th.
What are Small Groups?
Small Groups have been a part of the discipleship ministry at Victory Fellowship since the early part of 1997. Pastor Mitch continues to make these groups an integral part of the ministry here because they have helped many individuals grow, make life changes, and become more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
In some ways, the small group setting is like attending a specialized conference workshop because the participant has a workbook to read and lessons to complete. In some ways, it’s like a support system because the setting initiates personal involvement and participants can become a close knit group sharing life’s happenings. The group experience itself can help a person reach out to others while at the same time develop such interpersonal skills as listening to others and sharing from the heart. However, no participant is ever forced to talk or share. The group is typically ten or fewer participants, usually mixed gender, led by a facilitator who is experienced in helping the members comfortably share their honest feelings with one another in a non-threatening environment. Great care is taken that all members are assured of the group’s confidentiality commitment.
Why Search?
Many times our thoughts about ourselves are based on what others have said to us or about us all of our lives. Thoughts or insecurity, a sense of not measuring up, feelings of rejection, a sense of failure, guilt, shame, just not good enough, wishing you could be more like “so & so” because they seem to have everything “together” in life; all of these reveal that your self worth is based on something other than God’s love, forgiveness, and acceptance of you. Yes, we all have not-so-grand moments in life, but if your overall opinion of yourself is based on feelings of inadequacy, feelings of isolation, being misunderstood, anger, loneliness, sadness, or just a gnawing sense of longing to be but just can’t be, all of these can render your Christian walk ineffective and zap your zeal for life.
A Search for Significance group can help you change the way you view yourself and others because it is designed to help you know that the source of your self worth is God. And because of His measure of your worth, not the world’s standards, you can know you are accepted, loved, and forgiven. I’ve known many people who learned who they really are in Search for Significance, and they could actually say in a healthy way that they like themselves.
Why Break the Cycle?
I’ve come to realize that nearly all of us have some level of dysfunction in our families. This only proves that we all need Jesus. If we had perfect families, we wouldn’t need Him, would we? Because our family experiences have left us with hurts, either real or perceived, we all can greatly benefit from taking the Breaking the Cycle of Hurtful Family Experiences class. The purpose of this work is to help us realize that we view life through the levels of deception and pain that have built thick walls around our lives, holding us captive to continued hurt and to hurting others. When the truth is known (light is shown) about our broken families and how we can be changed by God’s Word, many experience freedom from chains of behaviors that have plagued them for years.
Because our lives (who we are, how we respond, what we believe) touch so many other people in the world, it is crucial that we all know the truth about ourselves as God sees us, so that we can lead others into the truth of His love, forgiveness, and acceptance. Let’s get started. Be a part of a group March 12th.
John 8:32, “You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”
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