As my lovely wife mentioned in her previous post, yes I don't like to take pictures. It's actually not out of a dislike of picture as much as it is not liking to stop and actually deal with taking them. So, there aren't picture of my growth teams soul to soul. 
It's funny to me to see the differences of how mens and womens ministry works. I think each of Autumns girls was given around an hour to share thier sould to souls and then ask questions. A soul to soul is when you share your story with someone else, I don't mean testimony necessarily, I mean story, everything significant between "i was born" to "thats how i got here today". The girls love all that talking stuff, and really thrive and bond through sharing those stories. As for me and my group, we looked a little different. Most guys arent' exactly the chatty types so we capped each individual soul to soul share time at 25 minutes each, and then opened the door for the other guys to ask ANY questions they want to. We were done right around 3ish and girls went til 9ish
The share times, while shorter than womens share times, were amazing. My growth team shared things about thier life that they've only told one or two people before, and alot of things came out for the first time, as would be a trend for many students this summer. The main thing that I love about the soul to soul time, is that in a manner of less than a day, us 5 guys went from being new acquaintances, to being like a trusted brother. I think it works that way because God created us to live in community, and having 5 people sharing thier entire stories in one day just brings out how God intended us to live together.
That day of soul to souls set a standard of authenticity that we lived out each week in our growth team. We had growth team meeting every Tuesday night for a couple hours. It was my favorite time of the week. I took our group to a small park down by the Taneycomo River, and we'd sit on a picnic table, and talk about what God was teaching us, while the cold air blowing off the river cooled us off.
Each week would sould spent some time just sharing about what God is doing. Whether that be in each others life, through the students at work, or anything. Then we discuss the weekly topic out of our bible study called "Banners of Bonding". This was a study of how we relate to God in a relational way. We looked at things that needed more than a week to ponder; love, respect, holiness, unity, authority, and grace. We had such deep conversations, and I wish you could have been me for just one night to see these young men wrestle with these deep topics as thier hearts were molded to look more like Christs.
A typical night after growth teams usually involved either, wrestling another growth team in the swimming pool, ice cream from mcdonalds, or my guys plotting how they could get a girl to go out with them. My guys made this whole summer special for me, and as a result I feel like we've formed a deep lasting relationship.
It's funny to me to see the differences of how mens and womens ministry works. I think each of Autumns girls was given around an hour to share thier sould to souls and then ask questions. A soul to soul is when you share your story with someone else, I don't mean testimony necessarily, I mean story, everything significant between "i was born" to "thats how i got here today". The girls love all that talking stuff, and really thrive and bond through sharing those stories. As for me and my group, we looked a little different. Most guys arent' exactly the chatty types so we capped each individual soul to soul share time at 25 minutes each, and then opened the door for the other guys to ask ANY questions they want to. We were done right around 3ish and girls went til 9ishThe share times, while shorter than womens share times, were amazing. My growth team shared things about thier life that they've only told one or two people before, and alot of things came out for the first time, as would be a trend for many students this summer. The main thing that I love about the soul to soul time, is that in a manner of less than a day, us 5 guys went from being new acquaintances, to being like a trusted brother. I think it works that way because God created us to live in community, and having 5 people sharing thier entire stories in one day just brings out how God intended us to live together.
That day of soul to souls set a standard of authenticity that we lived out each week in our growth team. We had growth team meeting every Tuesday night for a couple hours. It was my favorite time of the week. I took our group to a small park down by the Taneycomo River, and we'd sit on a picnic table, and talk about what God was teaching us, while the cold air blowing off the river cooled us off.
Each week would sould spent some time just sharing about what God is doing. Whether that be in each others life, through the students at work, or anything. Then we discuss the weekly topic out of our bible study called "Banners of Bonding". This was a study of how we relate to God in a relational way. We looked at things that needed more than a week to ponder; love, respect, holiness, unity, authority, and grace. We had such deep conversations, and I wish you could have been me for just one night to see these young men wrestle with these deep topics as thier hearts were molded to look more like Christs.
A typical night after growth teams usually involved either, wrestling another growth team in the swimming pool, ice cream from mcdonalds, or my guys plotting how they could get a girl to go out with them. My guys made this whole summer special for me, and as a result I feel like we've formed a deep lasting relationship.
I love reading about these great moments of making a difference in young peoples lives, that you are fullfilling the Great Commission. Keep it up! To God be the glory!
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