{"id":497,"date":"2017-12-28T21:25:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T03:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/?p=497"},"modified":"2017-12-28T21:39:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T03:39:28","slug":"chicago-chapter-20171228","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/28\/chicago-chapter-20171228\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Chapter 20171228"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Chicago Men’s Group Update<\/strong><\/div>\n
We started our study back in October of 2016, and it\u2019s hard to believe we have been meeting for over a year!\u00a0 The group has been meeting pretty consistently for the last year.\u00a0 Our number has held fairly steady with about 8 people coming each week.\u00a0 Due to the holidays this year our attendance has been more sporadic.\u00a0 In addition, with Melody and I finalizing our adoption of Joshua, we ended up not meeting with our respective groups in December, with the exception of a Christmas party for Melody\u2019s group in late December.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We are still in the book of John, and as of the writing of this report, we anticipate finishing around the end of Q1\/2018.\u00a0 My co-leader and I have different styles of leading, but both help bring out the vibrancy of the text to the group.\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful for his knowledge and in-depth understanding of various aspects of the Scripture as it has helped me personally as well as the group.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Going into this year, I would like to have the group focus more on the seriousness and priority of their faith and how it touches every aspect of their lives – from their work, their decisions, their families, and their relationships – it is all grounded in their beliefs and understanding of the Lord.\u00a0 I plan to meet with my co-leader to discuss this further.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019m encouraged by the response to the group so far.\u00a0 They seem to be learning but I think it will be helpful to get more specific and purposeful in what we do.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad to have the opportunity to help them grow and it\u2019s always encouraging when we see the \u201caha\u201d moments for them in study or in discussion.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"Chicago Women’s Group Update<\/strong><\/div>\n
This past month, we had Keith Eng come to our parenting group to talk about Biblical manhood.\u00a0 Many of the moms in the group struggle with physically or emotionally absent fathers; the moms had many questions on how to get their husbands to be more involved.\u00a0 They were very thankful that they had a chance to ask another man about another perspective.<\/div>\n
\n

Our parenting group has begun its 3rd year of meeting.\u00a0 We started out with 6 moms from various walks of life (Christians and non-Christians, divorced and married), meeting to discuss a better way to parent- a heart-based, Christian approach.<\/p>\n

This past year, we have come to the realization as a group that any type of discipline that merely changes the behavior doesn\u2019t have true lasting change.\u00a0 It is only when God penetrates the hearts and minds of both the parents and children in a home that we see lasting change.<\/p>\n

With that perspective realized, we have decided to transition to studying the Word of God instead of focusing the discussion on parenting methods. This is really an answered prayer and praise!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a group of 10 moms presently, we have committed to reading and studying the word of God together.\u00a0 Our resource is based on \u201cAnswers Bible Curriculum\u201d.\u00a0 Three leaders rotate to lead, with the other 7 members each having a role in the group, so as to have ownership in the group.\u00a0 All but 9 are now Christians.\u00a0 One of the moms is more open and has been going to church on a regular basis.\u00a0 We know it has been a spiritual struggle for this one mom to believe.\u00a0 Prayer is needed and we realize that we need to devote more time to that as leaders in the group.\u00a0 We look forward to see the wonderful things that God will do in the group in the new year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Men’s Group Update We started our study back in October of 2016, and it\u2019s hard to believe we have been meeting for over a year!\u00a0 The group has been meeting pretty consistently for the last year.\u00a0 Our number has held fairly steady with about 8 people coming each week.\u00a0 Due to the holidays this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kHU7-81","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thelight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/chicago-690364_640.jpg?fit=640%2C426","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}