Notes from FBM #1

FBM 1 - Notes on what went well and what didn't go well this year as well as suggestions on how we can do things differently (or keep things the same)

• Club Fair/Frosh
• Flyers are good
• The flyers are updated; Robb will print more
• Give out easter eggs with verse+candy
• Buy a bunch for next year…
• Frosh outreach – have a lunch/dinner to meet frosh at the beginning of the year
• Many frosh come first large group, half come to second, and then third and beyond continue to come
• Visit the frosh who come to the first large group and those who check the CCF box on prefrosh interest sheets at their rooms
• A group of 5, 10 people with doughnuts/chocolate visiting the rooms of these frosh
• Writing to prefrosh postcards before the start of term inviting them to come
• 24 hour prayer vigil
• everyone signs up for a 30 min or 1 hour shift praying for the prefrosh, the harvest, the year
• Turtle Prayer
• Hard to find a time that works for everyone
• David likes afternoons, Daniel likes mornings
• Good time of fellowship
• Can be used for finding discipleships
• Two-tiered form:
• Catch-up / fellowship
• Prayer
• Once a week morning, once a week evening, the rest afternoon
• Sync CCF calendar to phone, keep it up to date
• One week of prayer before classes at 7 am – keep, good for frosh
  
   
• Caroling, singing, etc
• On campus caroling good for outreach
• There have been surprisingly good responses in the past
• No one currently is very interested in leading caroling; will revisit this closer to December
• Bridge Friday noon sing – if do, get people to come
• This term
• Jams willing to lead next year
• For large group, we will try taking several song requests before praise begins, then singing them all – no gaps between the songs that way, but we will still get to request songs
• Jams has been working on the new songbooks – they are up and coming 
• Everyone can edit
• Discipleships
• Good
• Smores and above can start taking responsibility to start discipleships!
• Doesn’t mean you need to have all the answers
• You have more to share than you might think 
• One discipleship with every older and younger member of CCF
• Starting them early
• Speed Dating at first Large Group?
• Link to list of all available people in CCF for discipleships on the website?
• Set something up with Grad Christian Fellowship?
• Peter
• Peter Office Hours –a time where people can come to him with any questions
• Instead of having a tons of discipleships
• Informal time to hang out and be friends is good 
• Prayer meeting
• Good time for catharsis, discussion, spending time with older mentors, more charismatic and gifts-focused
• More invitations to come to prayer meeting
• In person invitations good
• Email invitations are a good reminder to people who do come, but not really for helping people who don’t normally come come
• High activation energy

• if there’s questions you have or particular things (especially on the charismatic, Spiritual gifts side of things), please let Skippy, the Parkers know. They can address these things and explain why they do things the way they do.

  
  
  Prayer meetings can often last a while – waiting on the Spirit. It’s His time, not ours.
  There’s not a better time for Prayer Meetings.
  
  
  Praise and Prayer Night
  Good thing
  Outdoor, public event in Caltech? Prayer and Praise Night BBQ? – good outreach opportunity, joint with all the other groups
  Letting many people play instruments was good
  Joining with LCF was good last term
  Every term? Once a year?  
  --MORE :D
  The prayer part – breaking out into prayer fewer times, a seasoning of prayer within the praise.
  There’s already so many opportunities for prayer, and corporate prayer. Not so many for corporate praise, so an emphasis on the praise makes sense 
  Leader explaining some of the songs before singing good.
  If we were to have a multi-group outdoor praise and prayer night, let’s aim for one in the summer, one in Ramo in the winter… This summer. Let’s get on it! Invite all the Christians here to do SURFs etc to come! Get them plugged in early on 
  
  
  Small Groups
  Send out emails before as a reminder
  Accountability groups?
  Use small groups as springboard for service projects
  -cleaning kitchens in other houses?
  Effort put in by leader often translates into amount others receive
  Small group leaders next year can use Large Group topics and notes from this year
  **Peter would like to lead a small group next year and leave large group and leading to other people. Perhaps 2 small groups a week. Help be a centralizing point for people in north and south houses.
  Historically, house based small groups work well… ministering to people around (in houses); influence the people around you who you live with. Requires several people per house to come to the small group.
  It would be nice to have house based small groups in every house.
  Consider using Bible study workbooks navpress. Saddleback church has free books for Bible study 40 day things
  Small groups set up and scheduled before the term starts.
  Can be hard to prioritize small group with so many other Christian events. Having house based small groups might increase the importance of small group. See above “historically speaking…”
  
  
  Service
  On Campus:
  -be alert to needs of friends ; listen when they need it
  -free guitar lessons with Christian songs?
  -reach out to those who feel lonely
  -clean a kitchen
  Off Campus:
  -Union Station
  -Lake Avenue Church has a Wed night service opportunity (Eliza has the info)
  Joint service trip seems to be good. We’ll start with Union Station and build from there.
  
  
  Retreat
  -entirely detached? No phones? Set aside phone free period of time or in general, just set aside retreat time as retreat time. Retreats held with certain respect.
  -Perhaps different camp site, Camp Oakes requires us to go with another group, financially…
  Two types of retreats – Rag retreat and other retreat based on whatever people decide to plan
  Why Camp Oakes? Based on YMCA rag system. We need a ragger’s points to do the rag ceremonies. Price issues story… Real cost is something like $100-150. We need tables and chairs, lamps, laterns, etc. So money is an issue.
  Large Group
  Invite more people to come
  Breaking up into smaller groups and then coming back together
  Mixing things up a little once in a while (once a term, e.g.) like icebreaker game and skit thing
  Make more announcements
  Organize small groups discipleships at end of large group
  Be on time!!! Also to prayer meeting
  
  
  Dig In
  -give an outline beforehand; ex. What divisions the book will be in so people can prepare
  -what skippy did last dig in (e.g. boasting thing) was good
  -two day overnight thing better
  -one day thing is better
  -Peter and Vivian’s is good 
  -5 chapters (that are a unit)
  
  
  Council Meeting
  • Send survey to people who couldn’t come today
  • - google docs agenda is good
    - Peter’s calendar thing is good
  • - add birthdays and significant events to calendar too
  • - every month, council sends out a flyer and calendar
  • - good that anyone can show up; encourage people to come (to see behind the scenes, see if they want to be on council)
  • - we’ve been getting more efficient 
  FBM
  -outside!
  -scratch paper better than post its
  -three part format is well thought out
  -singing is good
  
  
  General Community
  -general good spirit so far 
  -chat apps etc. to encourage people throughout the week (Youversion, What’s App) or you can visit people in person
  -email about how to use YouVersion/bible app
  -increased hanging out in person
  -something I have heard – new comers may feel out of place b/c people are so close and inside jokes; but once you get past this, community is amazing
  -not being serious enough or outwardly reverent towards God
  -body of Christ – so each of us will relate to God in a slightly different way; some find others too strict, some find others too flippant
  -we should bring it up and understand one another; not necessarily agree but get along and value one another
  -bring up specific concerns
  -practicing hospitality; making newcomers welcome
  - reconciliation is important!
  So remember, don’t harbor bad feelings and keep quiet about them. Read Matthew 5 and Ephesians 4. We should bring up any concerns or problems we have with the person involved (and be specific about it!). Then, examine whether or not the thing in question is biblical or not. Keep in mind that we’re not striving for comfort. God desires obedience.
  • Engage with newcomers more
  • more random acts of kindness