Large Group #4: The Law

On April 22nd, Tim tried to address the question(s): how should we, as New Testament believers, interpret all of the laws in the Old Testament? What do they teach us about God? And how do we know which ones to follow and which ones we are free to ignore?

They're tough questions to answer, and whether we can truly know the answer...who knows. But at the very least we can study God's word diligently and seek wisdom from Him :)

So here are some notes about the law (written by Tim):

Family Business Meeting #1 Minutes (2013-05-04)

CCF Family Business Meeting #1 2013-05-04

Present: Tim, Madeleine, Andy B., Vivian, Eric Z., Eliza, Lisa, Jessica, Grace, Jonathan, Robb, Becca, Alex Hsu

Worship, pizza eating, talking with each other privately – and it was good.

Impressions of CCF activities

• Small groups
• Positives
• People like house-based small groups
• Prepared leaders, multiple leaders
• Dried mangoes
• Praying for other small group members at the end of the meeting and throughout the week
• Consistent attendance across weeks and terms – good foundation
• Also important to not exclude people who want to join the group late in the term.
• Actively inviting people to come (in person if possible) helps a lot. People are more likely to come if they have a friend who comes.
• “Small group rotation”
• People rotate into small groups. :P
• Small groups are really important, but there are other things going on that are more important for specific weeks. Important for the small group/group leaders to be in tune with conflicting events that are going on.
• Having the leaders prepare makes a big difference.
• House-based vs. non-house-based
• Nothing wrong with either, but higher activation energy for non-house-based
• House-based works well for Avery and Blacker, but perhaps not so well for some other houses.
• Probably a combination of the two. A North House small group, or make it clear that everyone is welcome to come to any small group
• “Booty House Small Group”
• The small groups now are relatively brief – Avery sticks to 1 hour, etc. Some people would rather have longer meetings. Don’t want people to not come at all if it seems like too much of a time commitment though.
• Negatives
• High activation energy for small groups in general.
• Some people have tried to start small groups in Ruddock and Lloyd without success.
• Avery small group is frosh heavy – the frosh would like more upperclassmen to have a more varied perspective.
• Avery has tons of Christians, and not many of them come to Avery small groups. How do we get more Avery Christians to participate?
• Be aware that some people won’t come ever. Others might come if asked, especially if targeted.
• Asking and being rejected can take an emotional toll on someone, so make sure not to wear yourself out (You’re not Sam Elder :P).
• Having small group only once a week, and having people in your house who don’t go to small group, makes it hard to know what’s going on in their lives so you can pray for them and ask them about it during the week.
• Encouraging quiet people to talk is important, as well as listening carefully when they do talk. Make sure to give everyone a chance.
• Worship in small groups is nice.
• Small groups help to keep people in the house accountable.
• Frameworks small group started winter term 2013 should be finished!
• Organizational meeting before small group to pick time and such is helpful.
• Discussion better than lecture style.
• Staying focused is important, but sometimes hard with friends.
• Don’t look down on people just because they don’t come to small group or participate in other events. You don’t know their whole lives.
• Would be nice if a handbook were made for small group leaders with tips on how to lead and how to keep it going. Possibly separate from the CCF handbook.
• Large group
• Comments
• TIM
• Community/time for all fellowship to be together is important (e.g. holding hands when we pray, greeting people as they come in, group hugs at the end, etc.)
• Some say LG is better when it is more prepared and sticks to schedule
• More people would come if more people came. Positive feedback. <sadface>
• Makes it hard to invite people to it when you’re not excited about it and expect it to be small.
• For busy people, this is an easy thing to cut when you’re short on time. No grades, doesn’t show up on your transcript, etc.
• Some people like topic based, others want a more consistent theme
• Could make the theme really broad and do topics consistent with that theme.
• Having a theme helps bring structure if others in the fellowship want to lead once or twice.
• Outside speakers
• Less work for large group coordinator
• They bring a more ‘polished’ message, maybe with more research done
• Can easily not know enough about our fellowship and what we need.
• Future large group structure
• Change location to Thomas?
• Was there in the past.
• More central
• Need a MechE to get in.
• Change day/time?
• People sometimes have conflicts with Monday nights because of classes
• A part (possibly large part) of large group could be people sharing what they learned related to the chosen theme
• People like having LG topics that are Clatech-life-focused
• Have small groups talk at large group to share what they learned
• Small group can have it’s own focus, but be given a topic for large group: “we would like your group’s input on ___.”
• 2 or 3 times a term have small groups talk
• If no interest in a leader and/or attendance
• Tim’s idea: actual meeting time is just worship and prayer
• Could add sharing to it.
• Fishline is revived for the teaching part
• Fishline would be just as much work as large group as it is now, but perhaps spread amongst different people.
• Rotating schedules are nice.
• Leading large group
• Andy Bartlett lead large group?
• He’s willing and probably able, but it might be too much of a burden for him.
• Large group is a lot of work; if you’re leading it yourself every week it’s basically another class.
• Large group team?
• Has been done before, not just for this role.
• Peter Buhler is excited about doing lots of large group stuff! Yay!
• Peter can also help bring in more grad students.
• What is the purpose of large group?
• Unite fellowship.
• Some like the emphasis on fellowship vs. lecture/message.
• Convey doctrines, ideas about faith to the fellowship as a whole.
• Blog
• Put more stuff
• People like it
• Dig-ins
• Balanced participation would be nice
• Bold people encourage timid
• One person says sleepover is the best part, but many people aren’t interested.
• A great way to get to know people.
• Prep team does a good job. Prep with Skippy is helpful.
• One person wishes there was more room for divergent interpretations
• Still rather low attendance.
• Small groups can be bible study oriented, so perhaps not such a great need for dig-ins.
• They don’t have to be though, and many haven’t been.
• The Bible has a lot of books in it
• However, if someone is really excited about organizing them, they should happen. Eliza is thinking of doing it next year.
• People find dig-ins valuable though. They are helpful for community as well as bible study.
• Robb can start up bridgefridaynoonsing if people are interested and would attend.
• Blue Slip Milkshakes
• Was started at a different time (when there were blue slips…).
• Has felt like a burden. Our fellowship is different now, and this event doesn’t work as an outreach event the way it used to.
• Some other outreach event would be better. More often than once a term.
• Making milkshakes for people doesn’t have as lasting an effect as some other activities we invested our time in.
• Could have gotten more time out of more praise and worship nights (2 times a term instead of once a term)
• “Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with CCF”
• “Blue slip communion”
• “Blue slip puppies”
• Retreat
• Away from Tech, not structured time.
• Also, meaningful Christ-centered activity.
• More worship, discussion about Christ would be nice.
• Grow closer to the people there and to God.
• Time to spend thinking about my relationship to God. Other committed Christians are there to talk to about it.
• People can seek each other out, and structure may inhibit this.
• Assign people to check up with people. (This is what rags are for though.) (Beyond rags.)
• Rags have helped guide people’s spiritual lives the whole year.
• We could all get together to talk about Christian life at Tech.
• Think of them as “advances” not “retreats”
• VERY difficult to schedule without conflicting with something; especially the spring term one.
• One frosh says preterm retreat was amazing and destroyed a lot of her worries about coming to Caltech.
• Prayer meeting
• One person says they would go more often if it didn’t run so late, though it’s also important to not be too rigid in ending things that are going well
• Frosh prayer
• Is awesome!
• Would be cool if upperclassmen came. 3 out of 5 days other people come. Tuesdays and Wednesdays not many people come.
• It’s still fulfilling even with just two people, though.
• Holding hands and having group hugs are really great, but it seems like some people that go now don’t seem as comfortable with it?
• General comments
• Many of the activities we currently have are left over in a sense from a time when CCF was bigger and this much activity could be sustained. It’s ok to cut some things if it’s too much of a burden on the existing fellowship.
• Can we eat together more?
• Outdoor worship/jam session?
• Emphasis should be on meeting together, sharing life together
• “<3 I love you all.” That was on one of the post it notes, but I love you all too! - Becca

Roles

• President
• Not a clearly defined role
• Look out for the fellowship
• Help other council members and members of the fellowship where needed
• Retreat coordinator
• Coordinates retreats – reserve camp site/Oakes (very far in advance, i.e. 6 months +)
• Scheduling them
• Ensure preparations made (you don’t have to do it all, but just make sure it happens)
• Think about what will happen on retreat
• Send out emails, organize rides
• Large group coordinator
• May change for next year…
• Coordinate large groups
• Can use it to talk about whatever is important for the fellowship to hear
• Use your own experience as a guidance for what this is.
• A big time commitment, though getting other people to speak can alleviate this somewhat, as long as you’re willing to contact people.
• Secretary
• Make sure CCF doesn’t run out of money
• Maintain website
• Reimburse people
• Fill out some forms
• Help everyone else
• Dig-in dude
• Organize dig-ins
• Once a term prepare for dig-in and make it happen
• Choose if you want a sleepover
• 24-hr bible study (including sleeping and eating and bonding with people and tangents)
• Get’s buried in sand up to the neck at preterm retreat ‘traditionally’
• Event Coordinator (except dig-ins this year)
• Bridgefridaynoonsing or similar variations
• Blue Slip Milkshakes
• Caroling
• P&P night
• Eliza is thinking in the future: someone who does random cool CCF things
• Small group coordinator
• Doesn’t exist this year, but Eliza is de facto doing the job.
• Facilitate formation, get people together.
• Discipleship coordinator
• Also doesn’t exist
• Make a spreadsheet of people to pair up
• Pair people up
• Bug people to keep it up
• Council can check to see that everyone is connected to someone via this relationship.
• Frosh Prayer Coordinator
• Not very guided. Make sure people (esp. frosh) know it exists.