Written in Heaven

Due to the Party in the Park, there are no facilitation questions this week. However, if you have not done this yet, you will need to decide on what Get off the Couch Week (GOTCW) activity you will do.

At this point, hopefully your GOTCW Coordinator has seen these options below and you have discussed them at least a little bit. Here they are if you haven’t seen them:
These are the options that we’ve provided through the church office, from Matt’s blog:

Hey all Get off the Couch Week coordinators, here are some options of what to do that week:

• I referenced this in an earlier post, but there are some needs of a family within the church that could use some support.
  
• 'We Care' is an organization that we have used before during "IMPACT!" this past June. They have some opportunities available to help out folks in the community that may not be able to help themselves. These are typically things like yard work, manual labor around the house, cleaning, etc.
  
• South Side Mission has an opportunity on Saturday morning Oct. 11 for any group that would like to help at the Benevolence Center. This would be helping sort through donations, as Saturday is their busiest donation day.
  
• Peoria Rescue Mission has an opportunity to serve the evening meal to the folks there on Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday that week from 5:30-6:30.
  
• This is the option that if it is feasible, we'd love to see you do this. Find your own project to help someone in need. One group is helping a family that had significant flood damage. Another group is helping a lady who's given up on church finish her basement. You may be aware of needs within your group or of people around you that need help and need Jesus. These are great opportunities as well.
  

At your group this week, have your GOTCW Coordinator facilitate this discussion to figure out what to do:
How to decide which option will work:
1. Discuss with your group what they feel they’d like to do. Your group may be very gifted in skilled trades or repairs, etc. making some options more feasible. Your group may completely be unfit to do any kind of actual repairs or that type of labor, and be better suited to help at a Mission or a place like that.
2. Discuss what night of the week would work best for your group. Do you want to try to do this the same night as the group normally meets or a different time of the week?
3. At this point, you will have narrowed down the list quite a bit, you may be ready to decide which option will work.
4. Once this happens, you will need to discuss how to do childcare for that timeframe.
5. After this is ironed out, (the GOTCW coordinator) contact Matt and let him know what your group is doing, so he can work on your behalf if you’re working through an organization.

This may take the entire discussion period, if not and you’d like to have some formalized discussion, here are some ideas:
· Take some time to reflect on Sunday’s Party in the Park and tell stories about your own testimonies or baptism experiences.
· Talk about areas of the church that you serve in and what you like best about that area. Encourage those in the group to get involved in serving somewhere if they currently are not.
· Enjoy one another’s company, talk about whatever and pray for one another.
· As a leader, share from your own devotional life from the week. Maybe even craft a couple of your own questions that you feel like God has laid on your heart.