My favorite meetings

Of all the things in a typical week, my favorite meetings are hands down the times I have with my co-leaders. They are typically referred to as planning meetings in our church, but I'd rather avoid that term because that phrase is sometimes associated with :( emoticons or dreadful looks. After all, every lifegroup and leadership team (LT) handles planning meetings differently :P

My first LT experience was with Eric and KT during Walk It Out--I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty upset when I found out they were the two I was stuck with for the entire year. I had contexts with both of them before I started serving with them and thought I knew them pretty well. Eric was the guy in my class who endlessly shared for 30 minutes whenever I asked a simple "How are you?", and KT was the ministry team leader that I had a distant relationship with, despite the fact that I had been a part of her team for 2+ years. I didn't see much hope for the future of our relationship, but God definitely blew me out of the waters by blessing me with this friendship and partnership within our leadership team.

Our LT was infamous for having 4 hour "planning meetings", which really ended up being 3 hours of getting to know each other, and less than an hour of actually planning. Our times together were honest and real, and always left me refreshed to serve God and love Him with all my heart, mind, and soul (at least for the upcoming week). Those meetings benefited us as the leaders more than the members, and I really treasured them. Of course that meant much of the "logistics" of leading a LG had to be communicated via email, but for three folks who were very responsive to their inboxes throughout the day, it wasn't so bad :P

Last year's LT was a little different since I barely knew my co-leader prior to serving together, but this summer's LT mimics my first experience in many ways. All three of my co-leaders had graciously invited me into their lives before, and they knew me and my weaknesses more intimately than many of my own roommates and peers. I'm so thankful for God's TRULY sovereign arrangement of our leadership team this summer because more than the friendships, I am learning so much about God through them--what it means to live with JOY, know that God loves ME, show COMPASSION, discern the SPIRIT, serve HUMBLY, have a heart for the NATIONS, and so much more.

God has been too good to us, and I am treasuring every moment we have together. My hope is that God would use every hour we have this summer as a LT to grow us and prepare us for what's to come in the school year--for us to become more passionate disciples of Christ and more effective disciple-makers. May we never stop spurring one another to love and good deeds, and encouraging one another to serve our great God (Hebrews 10:24)!

How our relationships began..