The Most Exciting Small Group…
Isn’t a small group.
About 20 college students from all different spiritual backgrounds in Malibu, California collided one night in a crowded dorm room for a little experiment.
“For the next 4 weeks,” I said, “Everyone in this room will risk once a week.”
The rules are simple:
1. It has to be proactive. It can’t be something you won’t do [this isn’t an accountability group].
2. The group only meets for 30 minutes [but people can hang afterward for as long as they like].
3. Everyone shares the risk they’re going to take and how the risk went the week before.
4. Don’t be late.
We had people write songs for the first time [and perform them for their lady-friends]. We had men ask girls on dates, and girls finally tell some guys that it just wasn’t going to happen. We had brothers call up brothers they hadn’t talked to in decades. We had daughters and sons call up their parents and show gratitude for the first time in years. We had friends initiate terrifying conversations– hard conversations. We had acts of philanthropy, hundreds of dollars given away and one young woman secure an internship with the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, just because she took the risk.
We laughed a lot. We cried some. We prayed for each other when we were hurting.
It was beautiful.
And we’re all itching to do it again.
Like I said, this was an experiment. I tried this at another University we work with and it totally flopped. My mind is buzzing already with how we could improve our experience.
And so I’ll try it again.
What’s your risk?
P.S. My next risk is writing and directing my first short film. I met the most amazing producer recently and he’s graciously helping me out. We shoot mid-February.
