|
Foreword
FAITH-SHARING
Telling Your Story
Faith-sharing is central to the
meetings you are about to begin. It reveals the action of God in
your lives and the quality of your response. The sharings are
about how you have encountered God in your everyday lives since
the last meeting. This can include how the theme in the previous
exercise was, or was not, a part of your experience. Faith-sharing
is only authentic when it comes out of prayer.
The fundamental rule is that each
person’s sharing be received without comment or critique.
Faith-sharing is the experience of being invited into another’s
sanctuary where “God is”. If someone asks for questions or
comments on their sharing, then a response is appropriate.
The following are obstacles which
interfere with sharing:
-
Sharing slipping
into dialogue
-
Head-tripping into
abstract thoughts and treatises
-
Forcing people to
speak
-
Rushing the meeting,
not allowing time for things to penetrate
-
Non-acceptance of
what a person is saying
-
Talking too long,
not allowing time for others to speak
ABOVE ALL, CONFIDENTIALITY IS TO
BE RESPECTED
FACILITATING THE MEETINGS
Members of your group will take
turns facilitating the meetings. None should be forced to if
he/she is not yet ready to do so. The meeting format is given in
each exercise.
Facilitating the meetings is
really very simple. The primary task is to see that the meeting
moves along and that each person has an opportunity to speak. The
facilitator is not one who is expected to know answers to
questions that members may raise. His/her role is to see that
everyone has the chance to ask a question or make a point. It is
up to the whole group to deal with what is raised. In all cases,
the community may contact the CLC Assistant or someone else who
may be of assistance.
Some tasks of the facilitator are
seeing:
-
that the
meeting begins and ends on time. If a meeting is going longer than
planned, the facilitator may ask if the community wants (a) to
keep going, and (b) for how much longer.
-
that the
meeting format generally is followed. There can be exceptions to
this as when someone comes into the meeting with a particular
concern or need.
-
that everyone
has a chance to participate. If a person consistently talks too
much, the facilitator may say during the Review of the Meeting
time that some didn’t have a chance to share because others were
talking too long. If that situation persists, the group may ask
for assistance in how to deal with this situation.
If one is in attendance, it is
recommended that a CLC representative facilitate the first six
meetings to help model the style of the meetings.
• • •
|
