Retired speech and language therapist Lynn Goslin (pictured) is a bell-ringer and home group leader at All Saints’ Church, Kirkbymoorside. Her retirement coincided with vicar Mark Brosnan ‘nudging’ his churches into setting up home groups.
‘When we first started the home groups Mark provided some study material. We used that for the first two terms, but it didn’t entirely suit the needs of our three groups… we wanted something that was a bit more relevant to our lives, which would help to develop our own thoughts.
‘Of course I chatted to a few friends, including [Holy Habits contributor] Sr Helen Julian, and she said, ‘Well I’ve just written some reflections for this – would you like to have a look at it?’ And ‘it’ was one of the HOLY HABITS Group Studies booklets. So I took it to the home groups leaders’ meeting and we decided we’d give it a try.’
The groups meet weekly, either afternoon or evening, and work in blocks of five. They began working with the Fellowship group studies and will move on to Prayer.
‘It’s interesting that in this particular set of five sessions I really felt that we gelled as a group in a way that we hadn’t before. People were beginning to share personal information and also to discuss how we might develop things in the church … relationships have definitely grown and deepened.’
Members of Lynn’s group particularly enjoyed the questions in the study notes and found them ‘very relevant and thought-provoking.’
‘They’ve helped people develop their thinking and they feel they’re much more able to apply the Bible teaching to their own lives.