In this situation, Glad You Asked ran on a weekly basis among a group of friends. There were four in the group, two Christians and two seekers. The group ran over six months. This study is from the perspective of one of the group leaders.

1. Why did you decide to get a group started?

The reason I wanted to get involved in a group was because I wanted to do evangelism and share faith but none of the other formulaic ways seemed to work and I didn’t feel comfortable in those contexts. I was fascinated by the idea of people discovering things for themselves in a group rather than me having to give answers. That was motivating to me.

2. What do you think is the potential of using Glad You Asked with a group of friends?

If you are already friends, there are barriers of trust that have already been crossed. There’s not a sense of having to stick to an agenda. You are free to have conversation and ask questions and raise doubts that aren’t possible in another setting. In more formalised settings, there’s a sense of a final authority. With friends, there’s no ‘final say’ so it’s more interactive and authentic.

3. When you first considered how to get started, what were your biggest questions?

Will we actually achieve something? Is this just going to be a circular process? Will we (as the Christians) lose track of our goal when others set the agenda of the group?

4. Was there anything you tried that didn’t work? If so, what?

A few weeks into our group, a new person joined the group. She was spiritually seeking and hungry for a group like this. As group leaders, we were happy to befriend the new person but it did mean the group members didn’t know each other as well. It was a challenge to reform a group and build community without losing momentum, especially as the seekers were at very different places on their spiritual search.

5. What were the challenges to getting started in your particular situation?

Starting a ‘group’ like this with friends is a paradox. Friendships are organic – things are organised and you can opt in and opt out, depending on what you want to do. Rarely is there a ‘weekly commitment’ required to friendship. And when there is, something is lost in the authenticity of that friendship. So the challenge is (and still remains so for me): How do you initiate a group without it feeling programmatic, thus becoming unnatural?

6. In the end, how did your group get started?

We just did it. We found someone who was genuinely interested and invited her to come. Eventually, someone else came along. For the second invitation, it was an easier invite because the group was already going and we knew what to expect.

Our first group meeting required that we, as group leaders, make the effort to make it feel natural. We asked everyone to input on how the group should be run, what topics to start with, and asked everyone to consider hosting the group. At our first discussion meeting, we did the session on hypocrisy – this aired a lot of issues and broke the ice, making subsequent meetings something that we all looked forward to. After about 3-4 weeks in, we were in a good flow and very comfortable with the format and each other. However, for the first few meetings, we, as group leaders, needed to bear the ‘awkwardness’ burden.

7. What was successful about your group?

It met both of the seekers where they were, even though they were at different places. They both had a chance to explore their spiritual questions further and engage with the Christian faith. For one, it meant that she came back to God. For the other, she was able to ask some very significant questions, engage with them, and truly consider whether the Christian faith was a viable option for her. She was able to air things that she hadn’t had a chance to say before. For her, the friendship within the group was just as important as the discussion – the connection and commitment she experienced made the group for her.

8. If doing it again, what would you do differently?

We would think more strategically about the timing of when to start. We started after Easter and ran through the summer. As a result, we had some significant seasonal distractions. Continuity is important for the group – it bonds you together and allows discussion to be built week after week. For us, the interruptions were distracting. Next time, we’d take into account the season and what is happening in the subsequent weeks after the start of the group.

9. What would you carry on from this experience that you’d do again?

Have lots of good meals together. About once a month, we’d have a break from the material and have a meal together. We wouldn’t necessarily talk about the session material (although spiritual matters invariably came up) but focussed instead on talking about us – how we were doing, what was going on, friendship stuff. This was important for our friendships and allowed us to be natural and genuine in the midst of a ‘structured’ environment.

10. For someone just starting to think about running Glad You Asked, what advice would you give them?

• Remember that this group is part of a bigger picture of that person’s journey to faith. As a result, you can relax and allow that person to be on that journey.
• Do it. Don’t get bogged down in all the challenges. At the end of the day, you just have to set the time aside and make the invitation.
• Find someone to lead it with whom you work well with and is a mutual friend. It was much easier to share the responsibility and helped to diffuse the intensity.