Listening Groups

What is a Listening Group?

Listening Groups are a unique small group experience that uses an Order of Meeting (liturgy) and very specific guidelines for listening and sharing that help facilitate and create a safe space for listening to God, to others, and to our own hearts. They set the table for honest sharing and deep, prayerful listening.

Drawing inspiration from 12-Step meetings, Quaker discernment, and Renovaré Spiritual Formation groups, the 2-hour meeting structure eliminates advice-giving and fixing,  creating  generous space to value God's voice over our own.

How is a Listening Group distinct from other small groups?

The Order of Meeting and Core Values make these Listening Groups different from other formats of Christian small groups. The liturgy is read at every meeting and makes space to:

• hold prayerful silence with one another
• forgo fear of judgment, impression management, and advice giving
• listen without fixing one another
• grow in the capacity to discern the voice of God
• be intentional about spiritual growth with others on a similar journey

What are the Listening Group Core Values?

1. We value a high Christology regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.
2. We value Scripture as a sure guide for growth into Christlikeness.
3. We value worship and prayer as central in our lives.
4. We value people as God’s image bearers. In our interactions we resist the temptation to manage impressions, leverage relationships, and fix one another.
5. We value community as vital to our transformation into Christlikeness. We offer availability and vulnerability as we honor each person’s unique journey with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
6. We value listening. As a community we seek to be attentive to the Holy Spirit and one another. This facilitates a welcoming and confidential culture where it is safe to know and be known.
7. We value honesty and openness, seeking to love with wise boundaries and discern without judgement.
8. We value humility and the freedom it brings, drawing us into a life of gratitude, joy, laughter, creativity, and lightheartedness.
9. We value loving respect. We are for one another. 
   We give encouragement as often as possible.
   We share advice once in a great while.
   We bring correction only when absolutely necessary.
   We condemn never.
10. We value hospitality of heart, seeking to learn from our differences.
11. We value stability, anchoring ourselves in these Core Values and the practices, places, and people through which God is forming us, remembering that discipleship is a long obedience.
12. We value various local expressions of spiritual formation efforts—relationships, families, small groups, and churches. Spiritual formation always has a local address.

What if I have another question?

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