A "Suggested ---Meeting Outline Worksheet" and a "Bible Study Format" chart appear at the end of this article. You will also find The Faithful Format - The Four Step Process which appears within the text of the article. The BIBLIOGRAPHY and FOOTNOTES are found at the end of the article.

I have always believed that scripture contains process secrets. That is besides being the Word of God, scripture also models "how" we might carry out the faithful life. For example: 1. Jesus modeled a balanced way of life by starting with an inward journey (Love God/prayer time) followed by the outward journey (Love Neighbors/healing, preaching, teaching). Jesus always seemed to take the time to listen to God's directions before acting in the world. 2. God models the idea of small groups in the life of the Trinity as does Jesus with Peter, James, and John who act as Jesus' personal support group. The book of Acts (2:46) also suggests the idea of small groups when it tells us that the early believers broke bread together from house to house, while still worshipping together in the temple (2:46). Hebrews 10:25 suggests that early on the believers were beginning to fall away from the small group focus as it urged them to continue meeting together to "encourage one another."

When it comes to meeting together today, one of the things that is most lacking is the encouraging of one another. Tasks may be completed, content may get passed along, but when the meetings or the classes are over have we been encouraged spiritually? Are we empowered, transformed, born from above?

I not only believe that it is possible, I have seen it happen in meetings and classes that have intentionally followed the Faithful Format! Acts 2:42 contains the pieces of the model that I use for all classes, committee meetings, training sessions, seminars, Sunday School lessons, etc. By following the chart provided we can see how these four independent actions mentioned in Scripture, can be viewed metaphorically as a process for our life together when we meet in any type of small group.

[This section refers to the "Chart: The Faihful Format"]

The BIBLICAL column lists the four areas from our Acts 2:42 passage. I have changed the order so they start with a focus on God, move to a focus on others, then to our goals, and finally back to God. (Prayer, Fellowship, Teaching, Sharing)
The THEOLOGICAL column picks up Gabe Fackre's insights from his book The Christian Story (Fackre 1978, 151+, esp. p. 160). He suggests that there are four basic Marks or Gifts of the Church. In Greek they are Leitourgia (Celebrating or Worship), Koinonia (Fellowship, Community, or Being), Kerygma (Telling the Story), and Diakonia (Service or Doing). These Gifts or Marks make the church distinctive. When placed in the order suggested above and with the addition of Didachie (Teaching) with the Kerygma mark, a process for experiencing all of the marks and gifts of the church in the course of one class or seminar is made possible.

I develop any class-type experience or committee meeting to intentionally include these four areas in the following order: Worship Time, Community Time, Nurture Time, and Service Time.

The PSYCHOLOGICAL column points out individual personal needs that people experience in groups with the different steps of the group process.

The Worship experience helps to deal with the psychological group need called inclusion or belonging. Those gathering together to worship the Creator automatically find themselves included in the group due to their common allegiance and willingness to worship God.

The Community experience helps to deal with the psychological interpersonal need called affection or the need for close relationships within the group. When community time is successful, people feel connected, included in the group, cared for and accepted.

The Nurture experience helps to deal with the psychological interpersonal need called control or the need for structure and direction in a person's life. When nurturing is successful, through telling the story and through the teaching process, people feel more in control of their lives or at least have been given another purposeful direction to pursue.

Just recently I picked up R.L.Randall's book on What People Expect from Church: Why Meeting the Needs of People Is More Important Than Church Meetings. His four categories of what people expect or need fit just perfectly into our Faithful Format steps. When we worship together we realize that we "Belong;" when we listen to one another in community we feel "Understood; "when we are nurtured by others then we can "Understand;" and when we pray for one another we know there is "Hope!

The SOCIOLOGICAL column notes group needs that need to be considered when planning any meeting. Often there are lots of new faces at our Christian Educator's state association meetings. These meetings always start with worship. After worshipping together I find that my own anxiety of not knowing these new folks subsides because I feel as though I am part of a gathered family. My individual needs have been met and I am more present to the people and the event.

Relational needs, which is a focus on how the participants will work or interact together, also need to be considered. Some roll their eyes at the Fellowship or Community time suggesting we get on task! (It helps these folks if you can help them to understand that part of the task is the community.) Anyway, we have all experienced meetings where 30 to 60 minutes has been spent on the most insignificant of details! When relational needs are not intentionally met during a fellowship time, people will get those needs met (or try to -- unconsciously) during the Nurture time (agenda time in meetings). Extroverts occasionally seem to find ways to get these needs met without being intentional about it. Introverts (speaking for myself) seem to need the encouragement of the process to help this to happen.

My experience has been that when we take the time to intentionally deal with the relational needs, the tasks section runs smoother and quicker. Those who want to move on to the tasks so we can "get this meeting over with" will be well advised that the meeting will actually be shorter when you take time to build community /fellowship.

The GROUP PROCESS column summarizes the steps we have been using. These steps also correlate to JESUS' summary of the Commandments to Love God with soul, heart, mind, and strength. (The way to love God with one's strength is to love one's neighbor.) I also see this same metaphor played out in the story of the Wizard of OZ. (See footnote # 2)

Interestingly enough, from a psychological perspective, when our basic needs of Inclusion, Affection, and Control are satisfied (or Individual, Relational, and Task needs for those into group process), we are more likely to be ready to take care of the needs of others. With our own needs met, we can move out (in service) to respond to the needs of others.

This process alone has a tremendous value in introducing spiritual direction into the lives of people who desire to be God's disciples. It is a wonderful model to teach to others involved in running committee meetings, teaching Bible classes, or leading a small group. By including the four marks/gifts of the church (the Faithful Format) spiritual direction is automatically modeled and becomes an integral part of the discipleship process.

Symbol	Activity	Greek	"Acts"	"Ships"
	WORSHIP TIME Meditation, scripture, celebration, song, praise	Leitourgia	Adoration	Worship
	COMMUNITY TIME Sharing with one another in 2's or 3's; Total group sharing when appropriate	Koinonia	Community	Fellowship
	NURTURE TIME Vision sharing --Telling the story; Teaching, training, agenda	Kerygma/Didachie	Tasks	Discipleship
	SERVICE TIME Journal reflection on learnings Sharing prayer requests with one another in 2's or 3's Closing prayer time -- total group Going out to serve God and others	Diakonia	Service	Stewardship

Over and over again, this format has proven to be invaluable in helping others move into forms of spiritual direction, that then moves them out into discipleship.

Worship Time is first and central to any setting. By starting with worship in any of our classes or meetings, we are being intentional about answering the questions of "Whose am I?" and "Who am I?" God is our beginning and our ending. God is the source of our power and empowerment. Why do we continue to act as though what happens depends entirely upon us? (This writer is amazed that the committees or groups that need to depend the most upon the blessings of the Spirit, are generally those that do not even bother to start their meetings with prayer - like finance and business committees!)

This mark of the church allows the leader to use any number of activities to model what it takes to listen to God. Many report back that they continue to use the skills learned in class in the context of their own life (quiet meditation, centering, breathing focused centering, etc.).

Next the Community Time (fellowship) allows individuals to feel heard and to practice listening to one another. This not only builds community in the group it is also a metaphorical model of our relationship with God, i.e. one of sharing and of focused listening. This is a time free of evaluation and/or judgment and is designed to allow the participant to experience someone truly listening to them!

When we get to the Nurture Time, people generally feel centered (from the Worship section) and cared for (from the Community section) and are therefore ready to focus on whatever the nature of the class, group, or meeting might be. If it is a class, this is the place for the lesson. If it is training, this is the place to model and let participants experience what was modeled. If this is a committee meeting, this is the time for the agenda.

The Service Time section provides a time of reflection and a time for community and spirituality to come together. By taking time to reflect on our learnings, individuals once again have a chance to relate the learnings to their spiritual journey. For example, one way I suggest they go about their journal time is to ask them to complete this sentence: "Dear God, the thing I have learned or re-learned about my relationship with you today (during this class/meeting) is...."

Jesus said we do not live by bread alone. Instead of sharing bread (Acts 2:42) this is a time to share a part of ourselves. The "doing" of this service time is that we make a commitment to remember each other's needs in prayer during the week, and maybe even check in with our prayer partner to see how she/he is doing. As participants share their prayer requests with one another they are beginning to connect community with spirituality.

I give them one minute to share with each other. This accomplishes a number of things: first it keeps the "long-winded" types from taking too much time; second, it suggests that this is not "therapy" time but time to hear another's prayer concerns for the following week.

After individuals have had time to share prayer requests, we gather together in a prayer huddle to see if there are any community concerns or joys for which we should all be praying. If anyone wants to, they can mention needs or joys of loved ones or themselves. Their partner's requests are considered confidential and are not shared in the context of the whole group, unless it is okayed by the person who shared that request initially. After a closing prayer or the Lord's Prayer we are ready to go out and serve God and others in our daily lives.

Part of that service can include inviting others to take part in the Bible Study, Prayer time, or Worship experience. Another part of that service means being more open to one's own call and gifts so one is open to the movement of the spirit in one's daily life of ministry.

The Process Summary
The combination of the inward and outward journeys in respect to our marks of the church or what I am calling the Faithful Format, might look like this in chart form:

Here we have a process that one could apply to any small (or large) group in the faith community. The beauty of this process is that it affirms a theology that suggests we start by affirming our relationship with God (Love God) and move toward affirming our relationship with others (Love Neighbor). Our format models the process Jesus used to gain insight and wisdom for his daily schedule (moving from centering to action). In between we realize that we are affirmed through the community and nurture parts of the process. With opening and closing prayers it is as though whatever happens in between is embraced by God's loving arms. This process affirms the presence of the Spirit within us all, empowering us to minister to one another.

The book of Acts holds the key to how we are to live together in the community of faith. When we take seriously the inner journey of Worship (listening to God), Community, and Nurture, so people can really experience Christian community, their needs will be met so they are ready to take the journey outward of Service using their gifts and skills for ministry to one another and the world. When this happens, a beautiful tapestry of spirituality and discipleship is created when we listen to God in Worship, listen to others in Community, focus on the tasks or goal of our time together during Nurture, and then move out in prayer to love and serve God. Our meetings and our classes can be a metaphor for our life together, when we use the Faithful Format model.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benson, Peter and Eklin, Carolyn. 1990a. Effective Christian Education: A National Study of Protestant Congregations - A Summary Report on Faith, Loyalty, and Congregational Life. Minn.: Search Institute. Coleman, Lyman. 1976. Encyclopedia of Serendipity. Scottsdale, AZ: Serendipity House.
Coleman, Lyman. ed. 1990. Serendipity New Testament for Groups- NIV. Littleton, CO: Serendipity House. 1-800-525-9563
Davies, James A. 1984. Small Groups: Are They Really So New? Christian Education Journal V, n.s. 2:43+.
Fackre, Gabriel. 1978. The Christian Story. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
George, Carl. 1991a. Prepare Your Church for the Future. NY: Fleming Revell.
Hestenes, Roberta. 1986. "Class notes from Fuller Theological Seminary on Small Groups"
Johnson D. and Johnson F. 1982. Joining Together: Group Theory and Group Skills. NJ.: Prentice-Hall.
Mails, Thomas E. 1991. Fools Crow: Wisdom and Power. Oklahoma: Council Oak Books.

ATTACHED
A. The Faithful Format Chart (see separate page) B. Meeting Outline Worksheet (follows) C. Bible Study Format (follows)

FOOTNOTES:

1 Roberta Hestenes has suggested a similar outline in her "Committee to Community" cassette tape and class notes.
This format is similar to Carl George's format suggested in his new book Prepare Your Church for the Future, p.89: "loving" = Community, "learning" = Nurture, "doing" = Service. He includes the area of "deciding" as an internal administration function.

Lyman Colman also picks up these basic areas of ministry in his concept of a 3-legged stool. In the introduction to the 1990 edition of the Serendipity New Testament he notes these three legs as essential to a group process: "Bible/Content" = Nurture, "Group Building/Support" = Community, "Mission/Task" = Service. He even adds the area of Worship to his format: "If you need a 'fourth leg' to stand on, try worship." (Coleman 1990,16)

2 Mails records the process for receiving and sharing "power" in Fools Crow's Native American tradition in Fools Crow Wisdom and Power. (Mails 1991) It is interesting how the four steps that Mails outlines, seem to parallel our four steps above: 1. Calling on God -- Purification = Worship, 2. Cleansing [sharing struggles, failures] -- Becoming a clean tube = Community, 3. Experiencing the power -- focusing to find guidance, goals = Nurture, and 4. Giving the power away -- dispensing power to others = Service. The cleansing second step is similar to Wesley's process of having group members share their shortcomings from the previous week. James Davies calls this "corporate accountability" in his article "Small Groups: Are They Really So New." (Davies 1984, 44)

The main characters in the Wizard of Oz also relate to our four steps. Using the column to the right of the JESUS column, we note that Dorothy relates to the Soul or to our Identity. She is the self, the focus of the story. The Tin Man relates to the Heart or our Beliefs and Values. The Scarecrow relates to the Mind or our Capabilities, and the Lion relates to our Strength or our actions or Behaviors (This note refers to the Chart of the Faithful Format).