One Thing Groups
Mike Lueken
July 1, 2007
When piles of clutter are slowly eating my garage, I often try not to notice. But after weeks of mess fatigue, I'll decide it's time to clean. When I survey the magnitude of the job, however, I am often overwhelmed and don't know where to start. So I don't. I pour a cold drink and disappear into a televised golf tournament.
The same thing happens in spiritual formation. With so many areas where we are categorically unlike Jesus, it's easy to become overwhelmed and not do anything.
So we developed One Thing groups. The purpose is to experience transformation in one messy corner of life, attend to it in community with a few others, and cooperate with God's Spirit to become more like Jesus in that area. These groups help people move beyond wishing for transformation to actually experiencing it. The key phases:
Identification
A group of three to six comes together, seeking to identify one area God wants to change. Each person will likely have a different "one thing." This is better than forming a group where everyone's is the same.
This phase involves conversing with the group to identify where transformation is desired. The Sermon on the Mount is a good guide for identifying a "one thing." Anger, lust, control, prayerlessness, judgmentalism, and worry are some of the typical starting points.
Attention
In this phase, each person pays daily attention to their one thing. For example, if the issue is anger, they reflect—in detail—upon the circumstances surrounding the emergence of their anger. Where were they? What was said? Were they tired at the time? Journaling is helpful here.
It is crucial to note when the one thing arises internally, even if the actual behavior is absent. For example, when a person feels anger rising, they ...
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