Growing Together


by Chris Lang

First Gathering: Wisdom Beyond Personal Understanding
Second Gathering: Breaking Invisible Shackles
Third Gathering: Personal Relationship
Fourth Gathering: Peace on Earth
Fifth Gathering: Prayer Beyond Words
Sixth Gathering: Feeling Purpose

Printable versions: pdf, doc
Powerpoint: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Collaborative learning is how we might learn what no individual can teach, what cannot be conveyed through lectures or books. I suspect there are many important insights that can only be learned this way. I’ll refer to such learning experiences as a kind of “gathering”.

Growing Together contains plans for six such gatherings. The six questions they address are, respectively:

  1. How can we become wise?
  2. How can we become truly free?
  3. How can we have the deepest love?
  4. How can we harmonize with others?
  5. How can we gain spiritual experience? and
  6. How can we discover purpose in life?

I doubt an entire lifetime would be long enough for any of us to gather the resources required to find good answers to these questions on our own. But countless generations have faced these questions before us and gathered resources already. Let's try to tap those resources. I’ll be praying for you.

The six gatherings have gone through many revisions, and each time I thank God for pealing away yet another layer of my arrogance and blindness. I have already seen so many layers that I am convinced I will never see the end; I’ll just keep revising and posting updates to a website. Please pray for me and/or send me feedback to help me come closer to what I should be writing. What can be changed to honor a wider diversity of participants? How can I make it easier for diverse people to collaborate on this? Where is my own arrogance/blindness currently creating the most difficulty? What is missing?

Each gathering highlights challenging ideas from both scripture and science. I would feel hypocritical to present them in articles (rather than gatherings), since each leads us to conclude that group interaction produces better learning than articles can. However, I welcome all kinds of feedback. Please email me at langchri @ google.com

Printable versions: pdf, doc