By Steve Graham
Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where the water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
–Maya Angelou
In working to overcome a prevailing sense of loneliness and isolation, a growing number of Fellowship ministers are beginning to understand just how much we really do need each other as sources of strength and encouragement. The “I” flourishes when given the opportunity to become a “WE”!
Peer Learning Groups offer just that: an embodied resource of light and warmth for the journey. PLGs are covenant groups that meet monthly (mostly from September to May coinciding with the school year). Their primary goal is to learn together by investing their best selves in a beloved community.
Let us all pray for these groups as they plan now to begin again in the fall. Pray that these groups will:
- Have the good sense and wisdom to hang together;
- Find the best time and place for their gathering;
- Discover new rhythms and insights for serving and leading;
- Strengthen their confidence in themselves and their trust in each other;
- Share graceful patience with those who have a tendency to use more than their fair share of syllables on any given day and to offer encouragement for those who have a tendency to hold back;
- Communicate the value they find in these fellowship groups with their congregations.
A Peer Learning Group is an experimental laboratory to sustain and enrich ministers. If you are interested in being part of a group this year, see how by clicking here.
Steve Graham is Coordinator of CBF of Oklahoma and a PLG Regional Director for Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
