introducing "Life Together Conversations"

Did you know that Pastor Steve and I sit down each week and produce a 25-40 minute audio training resource for our Growth Group leaders? We talk about the text, the message and quickly walk through all the Growth Group questions. Each week that resource is posted on a certain place on our website (Can you find it?) and a weekly email is sent to the leaders introducing the message text and letting them know that the training audio is available.

I started doing this before P. Steve was even called to Grace, so when he got here and started overseeing our Growth Group ministry, it was natural for him to jump in. Hopefully it's useful for our leaders. But even if its not, it's been a bunch of fun for us.

So. . . .

With Growth Groups on break for the summer, we've decided to take this whole idea of an audio training resource, put a twist on it and make it available to the congregation and to the world. For now we're going to call this new resource "Life Together Conversations."

Like this life together blog, the purpose of "Conversations" is to enable us to deal with a variety of relevant topics that relate to our life together in a casual and informal manner.

Here at Grace, we believe strongly in the special place of preaching in the church, but we also believe that there is much that needs to be and should be discussed and communicated that cannot be effectively communicated in a sermon. "Life Together Conversations" is for some of that other stuff.

We'll talk about the way we do ministry here at Grace and why, things we're thinking about, books and articles and blogs we're reading, values and ideas we're passionate about, stuff going on in the church family and our families. Our plan is to involve others on our staff and perhaps some outside guests.

Beginning next week, we'll post our newest "Life Together Conversation" both on our website and on a new Life Together Conversations podcast that will be available through iTunes. We hope you'll enjoy listening on your drive to work, or while you're exercising or while you're sitting around the house. And we hope you'll tell us what you think.

Our first Life Together Conversation will focus on Family Ministry: why we're committed to it, what we believe about it and what we're doing about it. We want to tell you all about our upcoming Grace Summer Nights and why we're so excited about these evenings of fun, food, family and fellowship.

We've got lots of other topics in the pipeline, but we'd love to hear your ideas. Anything you'd like us to cover?

Do you think this might be a helpful and valuable resource for you and others at Grace?