John Eldredge - Captivating Heart to Heart Facilitators Guide: An Invitation Into the Beauty and Depth of the Feminine Soul

Captivating

HEART TO HEART

FACILITATORS GUIDE

OTHER BOOKS BY JOHN AND STASI ELDREDGE

Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Womans Soul
Captivating Study Guide
Captivating: A Guided Journal

Captivating

HEART TO HEART

FACILITATORS GUIDE

STASI ELDREDGE

2007 by Stasi Eldredge

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV. Copyright1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Additional Scripture quotations are taken from the following source:
(NASB) New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation.

Facilitators Guide: Captivating Heart to Heart
ISBN: 1-4185-2755-6
ISBN-13: 978-1-4185-2755-6

Printed in the United States of America
07 08 09 10 11 WOR 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

G od is on the move. The beavers say it in The Chronicles of Narnia as Aslan is on the move, with holy and hushed expectation. We can say it the same way. God loves his church, the Bride of Christ, more than most of us have yet grasped. And He loves each one of us personally, intimately. Always has. Always will. This series embraces that truth and because of His love, invites women to get to know Jesus better; to come closer; to look at their lives through his eyes and to receive the healing, the comfort, the embrace, the encouragement, the dignity and the calling that he longs to bestow upon each one of us.

Powerful things, life-changing things happen to women when they encounter Jesus in a personal way. The unique way that God has been moving in womens lives as told through the messages in Captivating is nothing short of breathtaking and beautiful. Miraculous really.

Now you may not feel up to the task of leading women through this. Thats okay. Neither do I! The good news is, you dont have to have any experience leading women to take a few gals with you on this journey. With Gods help, weve created a tool in this DVD series that God will use to set women free. All you need to do is invite them in, provide a place for this to happen and share your own journey as a fellow pilgrim. Well show you how to use this tool in this Facilitators Guide. All you need to do is take the plunge and God will take care of the rest.

How to Use This Tool

LEADING IN A CHURCH SETTING

F irst off, thank you. Thank you for following Gods call and choosing to do this and for making it available to the women in your church. I have so many, many stories of God coming in new and mighty ways for women through Captivating, and I am excited about what he will be doing in you and in the women of your church. God loves to come for us. He will continue to come!

Have fun with this series! Have an absolute blast! Partnering with God for the purposes of bringing healing and freedom to be His Bride is just the best way to be spending your life.

But I must caution you. This is no ordinary, powerful biblical study. This is big-time serious, front lines stuff. You want to be certain that God has called you to bring this now and when you are, dont do this alone. It is imperative that you have your church leaderships support. It is also essential that you have people praying for you throughout the duration of the study. Ask a handful of friends near and far to intercede for you! If you expect a large number of women to attend, you will want to recruit small group leaders to assist you. (You will be breaking up into small groups of about six to ten women each.) The ladies you gather will be leading the small groups, and you will be leading them. You also can lead a small group yourself. Together, you will work and pray as a team.

Small group leaders need to read (or re-read) the entire book Captivating prior to meeting and go through as much of the study guide as possible before your group begins. About a week before you begin, its a good idea if you can gather the leader- ship team at least once to pray and talk through the flow of the study. Encourage these women to ask friends to pray for them as well! As soon as you have the names of the women coming to the study allocated into small groups, give their names to their group leaders so they can begin to pray for them. A good prayer is a simple one... that God will accomplish all he desires in each woman throughout the study; that Godreign in every aspect and that the women come to know Jesus more truly and deeply. Thats the goal, pure and simple. And you can rest in knowing that God will answer this prayer... and more profoundly than you can imagine!

Logistically, you will need to make arrangements for

a large gathering room

smaller, private rooms for the small groups to meet in

a DVD player and screenlarge enough for all the women to see and hear and of a high quality so it plays well and cleanly (VERY IMPORTANT!)

a CD player

A WORD ABOUT SMALL GROUPS

Lets talk about small group dynamics for a moment. Women will be entering in on any given day with a variety of issues and concerns pulling at their hearts and minds. That is one reason why it is so very important to begin each time with prayer. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide and reign in your time together and allow the women the time to silently lay all their concerns at Jesus feet. Then they are not distracted from receiving what the Lord has for them on that particular day. Begin the formal portion of every small group this way. Dont make it a long prayer. Just short and sweet and there you are.

OK. By the very nature of the material being talked about, it is important that you keep your group size small. Twelve women is too large. Ten is the maximum. Two the minimum. If your group expands to fifteen women or so because you dont want to turn anyone away, the entire group experience will be dramatically compromised. Keep it small. Pray for more group leaders if the need arises, and pray that the women God wants in the group at this particular time are the ones in it. You can trust God to come for those women not able to join the group due to size constraints. He will. He really will.

Women will be coming in nervous, excited, hopeful, and scared when you first begin to gather. Most will not be willing to immediately share from their hearts and lives while others will be ready to dominate the group with their own stories! Navigating the hearts of the women while you guide the direction of the time will require the guidance of the Holy Spirit. As the facilitator of the small group, your personal walk and dependence upon God are of the utmost importance. Leading this will cause you to grow! But you can rest in knowing that God cares beyond measure about each woman, about you, and you can trust Him to help you lead!

Women like to talk. Naturally. We have a lot of important things to say. Gently shutting down a woman when she is taking the group in the wrong direction or overly dominating the groups time can be done graciously. Say something along the lines of, Thats a very important matter, Mary. I wish that we had the time to discuss that at length here but unfortunately, we dont. You can offer to talk privately with her or for her to bring the issue up again at the end of your time and invite those who are able to stay to do so. You probably wont have to. You may want to. Let the Holy Spirit guide you.