Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Moving towards the finish line

I spent three hours with my friend Derek yesterday at his house. It looks as if Derek is going to be going down a different path with regards to what he is doing with cell groups and ministry at his home church. Derek asked me to take over leadership of the existing cell group as he goes down this different path and will be making the announcement of his changes on this next Thursday. I told Derek that I would be honored to take over the small mens group on Thursday. We discussed bringing the men to a finish line quickly. Some of the men have been walking with Derek and the sexual purity accountability group since January. Some of the men for only 2 months. Derek and I agreed that while support groups and cell groups are great and a good way to connect to other men and bring healing to the hurting that it also can bring the trap of being an enabler for men to abuse grace. In other words the trap for some folks would be to grow comfortable in the thought that the cell group will always be there and that they can loose sight of the goal. If the cell group just goes on forever and people just cycle in and out of the ever turning washer machine type mentality then there will be some folks who will never reach the finish line.

So, with that said we will be proposing to the men that it is time to put this issue to rest, once and for all in their lives. When we say that we want to bring the men to a finish line it does not mean that we think they will never be tempted with sexual impurity again but it does mean that we will get to a point where we decide that we will put to action those principles that we have learned about sexual purity and then get on with our lives. Yes, some men will stumble and fall and they will need some follow up work from time to time but we also believe that there should be a time of accountability and maturity and responsibility where the men take possesion of the issues and finally make the decision to break free.

When we bring the men to the finish line I will be proposing that we start a series using either the PK workbook we got in Raleigh, Maximized Manhood by Ed Cole or Man in the Mirror.



James Moffitt
http://www.jesus-connect.net/jcmoffitt
jcmoffitt@jesus-connect.net