Story Group is a nine-week, Christ-centered community group designed to create intentional space for people to share, listen, reflect, and grow in relationship with one another.

Because trust and consistency are important to the group, participants are asked to commit to the full nine weeks.

Our lives are shaped by the stories we have lived: stories of joy and disappointment, family and friendship, loss and growth, faith and doubt, suffering and hope. Within the church, we have a unique opportunity to

create communities where people are not only present with one another, but genuinely known and heard.

Dan Allender’s To Be Told provides a framework for understanding the power of story in this group. The purpose of Story Group is to cultivate this kind of authentic community through intentional storytelling and

attentive listening. Participants will be invited to reflect on significant aspects of their lives, consider how their experiences have shaped them, and explore where they see God's presence and faithfulness within their

stories.

The group will be facilitated by Rev. Jordin Camacho-Greer, a counseling intern with training in group facilitation and relational counseling. While the group will draw upon counseling-informed practices to create an emotionally safe and thoughtfully facilitated environment, Story Group is not individual counseling. Its primary purpose is Christian community, authentic connection, and mutual encouragement. Participants are invited to explore their stories in the place God has designed us to be known and loved – the Church.

As an ordained pastor in ECO, her pastoral vocation also shapes how she holds this space. Her Christian understanding of people as created in God’s image and worthy of dignity and compassionate care provides an important

foundation, while the group remains distinct from a Bible study, support group, or discipleship group.

Storytelling and remembrance are deeply woven throughout Scripture. God's people are repeatedly called to remember His faithfulness and to tell of His works to others.

Psalm 78:4 says:

"We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done."

Scripture also presents the Christian life as one that is lived in relationship with others. We are called to rejoice and weep together (Romans 12:15), bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2), encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11), confess and pray for one another (James 5:16), and extend compassion and care to one another.

The Christian life is therefore not meant to be lived in isolation. The church is a community in which people are invited to bring their whole selves before God and one another.

Story Group seeks to embody this vision by creating space for participants to practice:

• Remembering God's faithfulness in their lives
• Listening attentively to the stories of others
• Bearing burdens through compassionate presence
• Encouraging one another
• Lamenting honestly in the presence of God and community
• Recognizing the ways our experiences have shaped us
• Growing in empathy and understanding
• Celebrating God's work in one another's lives

Ultimately, the goal is not simply for participants to know more about one another, but to experience the kind of Christ-centered community in which people can increasingly know that they are seen, heard, loved, and welcomed as they are and where they are in their journey.

Because meaningful stories sometimes involve grief, trauma, conflict, anxiety, or other difficult experiences, emotionally significant material may naturally arise. When this occurs, the group will respond with appropriate compassion and care while maintaining the boundaries of a church community group.

If a participant identifies a need for professional mental health support beyond the scope of the group, the facilitator will encourage the participant to pursue appropriate individual counseling or other professional resources.

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up,

just as you are doing."

- 1 Thessalonians 5:11