[Uucf-bible] UUCF Small Group Resource Sharing: One Model

[RevRonRobinson at aol.com]

Hi all. Below is a small  group format that is used in the UUCF group at 
Horizon Church in the Dallas  area. First is the purpose of the group, second is 
the covenant they agree  to, and then the format is given. Below the format I 
have added a few of  the other conversation sharing topics they have used 
within that  framework.  I don't have the specific readings that were used but 
there are  references to them. While some of the structure may vary depending on 
whether  your group is two (which it can be) or twenty, I hope you find this 
helpful. We  will be posting these and other small group links and resources up 
on our  website soon. Thanks to the Horizon group for sharing. If you have 
material you  could share from your gatherings, please send it to me. Thanks in 
advance,  blessings, Ron
 
Small Group  Resource:
 
The purpose of this UUChristian Chalice  Circle is to provide a forum for 
enriching our  spiritual lives through personal discovery of the heart, meaning 
and tradition  of Christianity.  We gather in  fellowship to support one 
another in our personal pursuit of a deeper Christian  experience. 

In order to create this space of  encouragement, support and exploration, 
members of this UUChristian Chalice  Circle covenant with one another to  honor:
1)      Each member’s turn to speak  by limiting interruptions and cross talk 
2)      The diversity and  significance of every member’s experiences and 
beliefs - this is a forum for  sharing and dialogue, not a forum for debate.  
3)      The confidentiality of the  personal stories and experiences shared 
here. 
UUChristian Chalice  Circle 
Agenda 
May 1, 2005 
1:00     Greeting 
Chalice lighting 
Purpose and Covenant 
Opening Prayer or Reading 
1:10     Moment of Silence to  Center ourselves and be Present 
·         “In Centering Prayer, we go beyond thought and image,  beyond the 
senses and the rational mind, to that center of our being where God  is working 
a wonderful work.”  ~Basil Pennington 
·         “Silence is God’s first language.  All else is poor translation.”  
~Thomas  Keating 
1:15     Personal check-in and  Introductions 
1:25     Questions for  consideration and response drawn from Simply Pray by 
Erik Walker  Wikstrom 
Wikstrom suggests there are four types of prayer practice  in one form or 
another in every religious  tradition: 
·         Naming (Christian term: Praise  & Thanksgiving) – naming the many 
ways that the holy and the sacred move in  our lives and in the wider world 
o       Currently, where and how is the sacred present in your  life?  What 
name or expression of  gratitude would describe this sacred part of your life?  
·         Knowing  (Christian term: Confession) – knowing ourselves fully, in 
both our strengths  and weaknesses 
o       What challenges are you  facing today in being or fully accepting who 
you are? 
·         Listening (Christian  term: Meditation or Contemplation) – 
listening to that “voice of quiet  stillness” that resides in each of us 
o       How do you find that quiet place in your soul?  Do you “check in” 
with it  daily? 
·         Loving  (Christian term: Petition or Intercession) – reaching out 
in loving concern to  the world around us 
o       Do you ever feel a strong  impulse to “call out” to the divine or 
the All on behalf of others?  How do you honor to this  impulse? 
2:15     Announcements or  Business 
§         Next series of meetings – God’s  Politics? 
2:25     Brief check-out.  How are you now, after the  meeting? 
Closing thought 
Chalice extinguishing 
Other Readings and Questions for  Consideration and Response: 
For Isaiah, John  and Jesus, the beginning of the GOOD NEWS takes place in 
the wilderness.  What is  wilderness? 
·         Name some of the wilderness  places that you observe 
o        in the world around you (environment,  politics btwn nations, global 
economy, wars and hopes for peace…)   
o       closer to home (your  community, workplace, schools your children or 
grandchildren attend, home, in  the eyes of others…) 
o       in your own life (btwn you  and someone you love, around your church 
or workplace, your inner “sanctuary”… )   
·         In exploring this passage  metaphorically, consider these 
questions: 
o       Why do you suppose the GOOD  NEWS begins in the wilderness?  Why  
might the cry be heard there rather than other parts of  life? 
o       What are some ways people  avoid the wilderness.  In what sense  does 
our avoidance of the wilderness rob us of GOOD NEWS? 
·         Name a wilderness that is  part of your life today 
o       How might your inner voice  (your inner John the Baptist) be calling 
you to separate from old worn out  patterns and move toward the possibility of 
the new?  
o       Were you to listen to that  voice, what would you do in the next 24 
hours? 
o       By not doing so, how will  you prevent the GOOD NEWS that wants to 
happen in you from being  heard. 
·         What is your Christian  heritage?  What turned you away from  that 
heritage? How do you feel about  the current “public face” of Christianity?  
·         Would you prefer to call  yourself a Christian or a follower of the 
teachings of Jesus?  What is the difference?  Have you or can you define 
Christianity  according to your own conscience?   
Questions for consideration and response  
(drawn from The Heart of Christianity by Marcus  Borg, Chapter 4 “God: The 
Heart of Reality”) 
1.      Was there ever a time in  your life when your view of God made a 
dramatic shift, or when “God” was  difficult word or concept for you?  How do you 
define God now and how does that shape your sense of what a  Christian life 
is about? 
2.      Frederick Buechner wrote  “Listen to your life.  Listen to  what 
happens to you because it is through what happens to you that God speaks….  It’s 
in language that’s not always easy to decipher, but it’s there powerfully,  
memorably, unforgettably.”  Does God  ‘speak’ to you?  If so, how and  when? 
Readings  from Theodore Parker / Questions for consideration and  response 
Parker speaks both disapprovingly and encouragingly of the forms and  
doctrines – the “transient” - of Christianity.  He refers to them as “mire and dirt”
 in  one paragraph and, in a later paragraph, blessings which are sent down “
to  moisten the fainting violet and form streams which  gladden”. 
·         What is your experience, both positive and negative, of  that which 
may be considered the “transient” in  Christianity? 
·         How has your life been blessed by these aspects of  Christianity 
and how can you reclaim (or have you reclaimed) that which perhaps  feels as if 
it had been taken from you? 
Readings and Questions for  Consideration and Response 
“And now let us look down into ourselves to  discover there the struggle 
between separation and reunion, between sin and  grace, in our relation to others, 
in our relation to ourselves, and in our  relation to the Ground and aim of 
our being.” 
·        What do you think of Tillich’s view of “sin” as  “separation” from 
others; from ourselves; from our Ground of Being (God)?  Do you have a 
different  experience/definition of sin? 
·        Have you experienced moments of “grace” described by  Tillich as “
reunion” and complete acceptance?  Again, do you have a different  
experience/definition of grace?