Area Advisor's Letter to GL

Keeping Perspective – Area Advisor Letter to GL

Dear BSF Group Leader:

I am an area advisor who taught a BSF class for over a decade. Before that I was a GL and before that a class member. Some might look at my years in BSF and say that I have received some “promotions.” But as I look back, I am convinced that from God's perspective, it was my years as a GL that had the most strategic potential.

When I became a Christian, I had many friends. But as far as I know, none was interested in spiritual matters. I asked God for Christian friends and was soon invited to BSF.

Two years later, I was asked to be a GL. God answered my prayer by entrusting me with fifteen people who wanted to talk about God and who wanted to study and apply the Bible. I didn't have to recruit these people – they were “handed to me on a platter”! My job was simply to get to know them, pray for them, encourage them, and as we discussed the lessons, discover together who God is and what He wants us to do.

It was a tremendous opportunity, but I did not really understand or appreciate it at the time. There are so many things I have thought about over the years that I wish I had more fully incorporated into my leadership. Here are a few. I wish I had:

● Kept in mind that my primary goal was to get my group members to come back next week. If they did not come, nothing else mattered.

● Prepared my lessons more thoughtfully in order to generate interesting discussions on the "thinking" questions.

● Spent more time on my homiletics so that the biblical truths and applications of the passage had been more life changing to me personally.

● Eliminated words like “BSF policy,” “Headquarters says,” “not permitted to . . .” and just explained to people why it works so well to do things the way we do them in BSF.

● Been more diligent about eliminating Christianese words and phrases from my vocabulary.

● Picked up the phone to contact someone in my group even if I had only a few minutes.

● Seized every opportunity at class to stand around with, walk with, and sit with the members of my group, rather than other friends.

● Been more creative with the hard to reach. I wish I had gone for more walks, met for more cups of coffee, written more notes, etc. I'm sure some “fell through the cracks."

● Kept fellowships more relaxed, knowing that when people like each other and have fun together, they are more likely to come, to open up, and to learn from each other.

● Prayed more consistently for my group members so that, empowered with God's love for them, I would genuinely want to know them.

● Realized that there probably were people in my group whom no one truly valued or for whom no one in the world had ever prayed.

What a privilege and tremendous opportunity the GL has! May God give each of you a deep appreciation for the precious lives He has entrusted to your care.

And may He give you the strength to persevere, as you understand the eternal impact He has graciously enabled you to have.

Love to you all,

From an older and hopefully wiser BSFer