SHAPE Wrap Up

WHEW! Last night was the last night of SHAPE teaching, and I think, overall, it went very well. The women were so fabulous to work with. I love the openness of the women and their desire for discovery was awesome. People make the class, and this was a great group to go through the process with. I loved the streamlining of the Spiritual gifts part that I did, and it made me wish that I had done that for the women in Women Becoming, but I "lived and learned" through that experience. I also think doing this right off the bat with the Women Becoming women probably wasn't the best thing to do. It would have been better to start off with Inner Life Growth and "telling our stories" and done the other things along the way.

The only thing about this SHAPE class that I am still unsure about is the whole "Experiences/Abilities" time with them. I just didn't know how to have the "warm up" teaching. I think the one for Spiritual Gifts/Personality Type/Heart Passion "warm ups" went really well (about 25 minutes for each), but how do you teach on life experiences? I think maybe I should have just talked through my own time line and how I came to some conclusions based on this one. So, I am going to get some feedback on how to make that time better. I do think that it allowed for more time in the small groups, and once the things got going it was really good to hear the stories, but I feel because people weren't "warmed up" that it was sort of clunky in the small groups until people started warming up. Then, it was phenomenal. So, praying for wisdom about all of that. It also made it more difficult because I was trying to do two letters in one night.

Also, I need to work on the "wrap up" part and still need to talk to Claudia and Carol about what that would look like and how it might help them in the whole process of moving women toward transformation. I do think that Claudia has such the "transformation" philosophy that I have. The whole concept of "life training" is so great too.

What I do like is that this was done in the context of people being in relationship before we launched into this. With Women Becoming, we used it as a "tool" for getting to know one another, but it may have caused us to "pidgeon-hole" one another and also not be able to affirm each other in our gifts after a year of being together. It would have been better to do it toward the end and to go right into the Life Mission Statements for follow up.

Another reflection is that I love being part of a team of people in Claudia, Carol, Mary (and Lynne, who became a new small group leader naturally). Now, Claudia will carry on with having a follow-up discussion on accountability/mentoring next week, and this is also a perfect follow-up to this, but she is so much better at doing this because she is a more global thinker than I am. Give me the little specialized details, and I am good to go, but let me team with some global thinkers and I am more than good! YIPPEE to a great team of mature and godly women. I was so alone, especially last year. One exception in my previous church experience was when I worked with Terri on Watchwomen. That was a good team effort (because she is mature and godly!), but it didn't encompass all my gift-mix, and I was not fulfilled in that there was no relationship with the women out of that two hour block of time on Tuesday afternoons every other week. It was really just about prayer (which is important), but it didn't encompass other aspects of discipling and accountability. The accountability with Terri and I was great, but I needed more "life-to-life" contact with the women, but they were all women going their separate ways. After two years, I needed to get back to my "roots" of accountable relationship in a small group setting.

I also think that women in some of the Bible studies I led were good teams too. The Kim, Lisa, Cheryl, Mary Ann, Mary, Sharon group was fabulous. Those women are just dream women.

Well, that is my pondering for a Thursday. So glad I did not go to the Swiss Family Robinson play today. It is great to just "be."

My right leg is in pain today, and I am waiting on the doctor for what to do about that right now.