Hi! There are many things I have learned and I want to share them with you now that I have completed an 8 week CL group in a satellite city. I can report that the participants loved it and my friend that taught the eight lesson plans often carried the topics much, much, further than I even knew was possible when I wrote the curriculum! It was great to see the outcome of her immersion in a topic and then her self motivated search for more materials to add to the base of my Lesson Plan. That wasn’t happening every week but it happened often in the eight week period.
So…. It was an amazing time last fall in Charlottesville, VA with Susan Cunningham leading eight folks in Creative Lectio.
From that time I have some observations:
These are the questions that surfaced as we introduced the CL endeavor to a new community:
Does everyone have to “get” poetry?
Does the leader need to love poetry?
Does the leader need to be a writer?
Do the weeks build on one another or can they stand up as individual weeks?
I would love to address these questions.
First- I Have One Hundred Topics for you to select from
That might be why there are 100 different topics that I call “Lesson Plans”. This large number insures that you could have longevity if you choose to host a Creative Lectio class. It also offers such a wide variety of topical directions that your participants can anticipate that your class is a weekly opportunity to be surprised and thrown off the “course”. It is great to stretch the expectations that most women bring to a traditional Bible study. It is not essential that a person leading love or “get” poetry. It only means that, as T. Hall said in Too Deep for Words—, “the person is comfortable with an encounter with beauty.”
Every topic that I have designed has a handout that is full of poems, activities for writing and reflection. Often I send art prints to you that you can pass around the class for observation . Any poems that I use will be accessible to any person that enjoys reading fiction. They aren’t riddles or confusing puzzles to sort out.
For example, let me describe two that are wonderful for breaking down fears of being in a CL group.
The experiences of the lesson plan on Boats (#93) and the Lesson plan titled, Possibilities (68) are wonderful to present during the first several weeks of group. These two allow members to learn about one another and set a stage for further trust in sharing and reading creative work by the third week. I also wanted you to know I will be scheduling any time needed for you and your co-leader to get comfortable with each topic as the classes start going forward. I have found that in our Nashville culture it works best to have great content that people don’t want to miss.. but if they have a sick child or conflict they will not have a setback in knowing the content if they do need to miss. Each week is unique and is taught as a single lesson plan.
Second : Poetry is a muse but it is not used as a way to analyze life or get published in a CL group.
Poetry is often the muse for our spiritual awakening because it is portable. Also, in a rather short length of time it can give us back our interior world. Many women report to me that they feel may “covered over” with layers of “dead cells” brought on by overexposure to the many forms of virtual reality. That glazing over comes from too many virtual encounters AND something we all face: the mundane parts of family life. The right poem can be a lightning bolt to show us our hearts and re-locate us. It is frightening when we have lost track of where God is in our story.
So, these are the logistics. I will generate a custom website for your city and then you will pick the calendar and the number of weeks you would like to meet. From there we will meet on the phone or Skype and choose the topics that suit your group the best. After that I put the content up week to week about four days before your group meets. I also will send the tangible items, cards, paintings, DVDs and audio files to you in one shipment two weeks before your first meeting as a group. I have found it works best if you select a co-leader.
It is fun to dream of your small group at church or your neighborhood Bunco players coming together as a group to try out Creative Lectio! I would love to touch base with you to make a custom list of topics that match what your group would want to study. I have many compelling audio podcasts that work well with a group that is in the starting stages. Don’t hesitate to let me know and questions you may have.
Bottom line.. summary?
“NO” You don’t have to “get” poetry like an Ace detective in order to love the work you will do with Creative Lectio. It is an amazing tool you can use to bring about a deeper understanding of our creative God and His investment in drawing out your creative soul. Nita
