listening circles

2010 Academy

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Listening Circles meet each evening during the Five Day Academy.  Every Academy participant is assigned to a circle, each of which has an assigned convener.  Assignments are made by the leadership team of the Academy.

Each person will have unique experiences of how God is calling, healing, loving, nudging, empowering, and leading him/her in the journey toward wholeness. These experiences occur before, during, and after this week. The Listening Circle is an intentional time each day to reflect on those encounters and to share them. The group is contemplative in nature; encouraging each to live fully in the experience of the day and then to reflect upon it with the goal of increased awareness of the question, “What is God saying to me?”

The Listening Circle is an arena for deepening relationships and provides an opportunity to experience mutual spiritual guidance. Through listening and interaction, we can discover, uncover, affirm and encourage the diversity of gifts within the group. The circle ideally offers a climate for being: being present to oneself, to God and to one another. Participants can help each other become aware of their own journeys and nurture and challenge each other to remain true to that journey, as God’s will is discerned.

The Listening Circle can be a safe place to share thoughts, feelings, questions and insights; yet it is more. Each group will have the opportunity to develop its own covenant of personal and/or group disciplines, which can help the participants focus more clearly on God, as they continue their journey with one another.

A Listening Circle is not a task group, an encounter group or a therapy group. Nor is it a group for spiritual direction per se, nor for church politicking, proof-texting or navel-gazing. Rather it is a group for being and becoming - for sharing together in a ministry of presence.

The Nebraska Five Day Academy for Spiritual Formation is sponsored by the Board of Laity and Discipleship of the Nebraska United Methodist Annual Conference under the authority of The Upper Room.

Last modified: 09/23/09