Hi friends! I apologize for my lack of updates in a few months… I have been putting all my time, thought and energy into what I am about to share with you, and I hope you would agree that it should be well worth it!
While I am hashing out some more details, I thought I would update you really fast about something the Lord has led me and a couple of girls to start for this Spring. Beginning this Friday night (at our Sleepover), we will be kicking off a new discipleship and accountability group for any girl who is willing to commit to taking big steps towards their growth in Christ! It will involve an intense time commitment and they will have to sign a covenant before we begin. Many of our Sr. High girls have expressed a desire to go beyond Wednesday and Sunday nights and so this is what the Lord has laid on my heart, along with the help of my dear administrative assistant for the youth, Melissa Miller, and a girl I am mentoring, Olivia Laster! They have been awesome in this process of organizing a full out program to lead girls into a deeper relationship with their God.
Here is a look at some of the elements that this group will focus on (these are definitely things that we will need prayer for the Lord to work in!):
Time Alone with God
We are going to be focusing largely on developing solid spiritual habits, which will hopefully help to lay a foundation for the eventuality that you leave high school and go out on your own! Making time alone with God must become your priority if you truly want to walk in relationship with Him and experience His truth at work in your life. This group will both show you how to have a quiet time as well as hold you accountable to doing it!
Each week you will have five days of in-depth Bible Study to do on your own time. We will be discussing this material for a portion of our weekly meetings so it will be important that everyone brings something to the table and comes ready to engage!
Weekly meetings
This will be the core element to our time together this semester. During our weekly meetings, we will study the Word together and spend a large amount of time discussing what the Bible has to say in answer to difficult questions about the faith and life.
Each week we will make time to share our lives with one another and hold each other accountable to becoming women of Truth… over food and yummy drinks of course!Prayer Partners
Each month you will be broken up into a new small group of two to four girls to spend some time with outside of our weekly meetings. The heart behind this is to allow everyone to bond together in a deeper way and have somebody to share in depth prayer requests with. Every two weeks (or more often if you want!) you will be getting together with them, whenever & wherever to hang out, pray & have fun!
Girl Night!
One night a month we will do something fun together! Be it game or movie nights, out to eat, sleepovers, dance parties, etc… it will be a blast!
Red River Trip
Those who came last year would attest that this was one of the deepest times of our whole year. The Brewer family has a small cabin in the mountains of Red River, New Mexico where we will hang out, play games, cook meals together, explore Taos, and best of all, spend A LOT of time in the Word and in deep discussions about our faith. This will be the culmination and last chapter of our group’s time together! Start saving $150 (it could be less, we will see!)… not too bad for a trip to the mountains!
(Note: This trip is not mandatory to be in this group, but you won’t want to miss it!)
A few more details…
- This is a big, but hopefully doable commitment, both with your time as well as your heart. Please seriously pray and talk to your parents about whether is something you can realistically take on this semester. As we are aiming towards close accountability with one another, this will only work if it is a priority for everyone.
- We will be making some covenants with the Lord and each other to last until the end of our time with the intent of holding one another accountable to living above reproach and putting ourselves in a position of loving God with all that we are. Some of these will be for the whole group (i.e.- We go to church & youth group unless we are sick or out of town…), some for individuals to decide on & stick to. Note: This is not meant to become in any way legalistic, but to press and challenge us towards a deeper faith in Christ! We will strive for a balance of Grace & Truth!
- We will be memorizing Scripture together, something like one to two verses a week, which means that by the end we will have a whole passage that is written on our hearts for life!
