What are we doing here? What should we do, and why?

The lovely Carol was talking about a small group she's involved with, and some decisions that have to be made--how to handle this and that kind of situation, that sort of thing.

I asked the question, "What is the purpose of the group?"

She told me that it was spiritual transformation. D'oh!

And that made me think about the class I'll be teaching soon. What to include, what to leave out, what sort of ground rules to set up, and so on?

I can easily list three different ways of deciding this sort of thing.

1. Tradition: "We've always done it like that."
   This could be done just through laziness (too lazy to think). But it can also be done based on the idea that "I'm not necessarily smarter than all my predecessors."
2. Reaction: "I always hated it when they did it like X, so I'll do the opposite."
   I can be grouchy, and I can be selfish, so I can sometimes feel like doing this. But it's not necessarily bad -- for example if something really has been done sub-optimally in the past, and it's good to change... this will work.
3. Popularity: "How do you guys want to do this?"
   There are many things about which the leader/teacher doesn't necessarily care, so why not? On the other hand, it might be a sign of insecurities....

The thing I didn't think of (well, one thing I didn't think of) was: "What is the best way to promote spiritual transformation for everyone here?"

That needs to be the principle guiding our thinking about meetings, classes, events, etc. Which was sorta implied by what I wrote before about church programs.

And that should guide the way I choose and present the content for my class as well.