There are many students at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM) -- about 1,200 in the first year class of 2013. That's a larger group than nearly all US churches. The problem in any regular gathering of Christians this size is pastoral care. BSSM has a novel solution to this: revival groups.
Linda and I attended our first revival group gathering yesterday at a Redding yogurt shop. I'm sure the shop owners were delighted with our "flash mob" -- there must have been 30 of us. The excitement of young people from all over America and as far away as England and Switzerland meeting for the first time was palpable!
Revival groups at BSSM consist of around sixty students, a pastor and a third-year student intern. Surprise: one of our interns is Mariah, the daughter of former Anchorage City Churchers Steve and Kelly! (Ask me privately if you want to know the family name). Our group pastor is Abi, another focused young woman..
Our next meeting will be....at the lake. Sometimes the best thing we can do is develop relationships with other believers. Thanks, Abi.
I like the name: revival groups. It gives an instant and important focus to these groups.
I love small groups and understand at a personal level the significance of them in the lives of individual Christ followers and churches of which they are a part. There are also small groups at BSSM and the local church here at Bethel/Redding. I'll cover this more in the days and weeks ahead. But perhaps something like revival groups could play a role in larger churches. I'm going to give that more thought.
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