Months ago I invited some friends to do a seven week focus group to read through and complete exercises in Tony Stoltzfus's "Leader's Life Purpose: Workbook", or to use "Christian Life Coaching Handbook" which contains the same materials and exercises with some tips for coaching others.
Today we began: Jeff, John, Jim and Rob. We read the first three chapters of the Handbook, and discussed things that leapt out to us from the reading. Before we began review of the reading we took turns introducing ourselves with particular emphasis on why we committed to these meetings.
The sharing that took place about the context and history of our lives was probably the highlight that leapt out the most to most of us. We learned things about each other that we'd never known, and we marveled at how God has orchestrated each of our lives to develop us for specific 'being' and 'doing' as part of The Great Commission.
We also had a robust discussion on the role of suffering in the development of character and how to engage God in the midst of trials. That's a tough one, but it appears by history that it is how God moves people to the opportunity to depend on Him, to become whole with allegiance to the Lordship of Christ, and to define our identity as His children and servants for Kingdom purposes, and not our own.
Gentlemen: What are some of your takeaways? Feel free to ask to post an entire blog, or to interact through the comments section.
Gratified to get to do this w/ you!
Jeff
