A New Recipe for Outreach

By Sergio Guerra

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

A couple of years ago, a group of volunteers at the Minneapolis St. Paul Community Teaching Center decided to try a different type of outreach.

Why? You may ask. Well, some of us realized that the outreach events we were delivering presupposed a basic understanding of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters (Teachings). Therefore, the people who attended our workshops, but, did not have a basic understanding of the terms and concepts we discussed, did not make the best out of the information provided and often times left confused never to be seen again.

Thus, a group of volunteers decided to create a program that provided a gentle introduction to the Teachings, something like a foyer to the Teachings. The intention is to provide a better understanding of basic questions such as: Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going? While at the same time introducing the concepts of the Holy Christ Self, the causal body, the three fold flame, etc.

Fortunately, we did not have to reinvent the wheel because the first volume of the Sacred Adventure series explains these very questions through the following 7-lesson plan:
1: Your Divine Origin
2: Your Higher Self
3: Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World
4: Expanding the Flow of Light Within
5: Karma: Good, Bad, and Balanced
6: Beyond the Veil of this Life
7: Your Ultimate Destiny

Therefore, we used these lessons as a starting point to develop a monthly workshop where we had 4 different presenters who rotated in delivering each of the seven workshops. However, Mother has told us that we need to become the Teaching and not only recant it from a book. Therefore, each of the seven lessons were infused with a personal account from each presenter where the aim was to show how the Teachings shape who we are. That way the presenters’ experiences and the material covered complemented each other and made a powerful statement of the truths contained in these 7 lessons.

Also, to create a casual and inviting environment we provided a light meal before the workshop. This proved convenient since people could come after work and not worry about cooking dinner. Additionally, this provided for a nice environment for fellowship where people could get to know each other better while sharing a meal.

The workshops were also very interactive and the participants felt at ease to ask questions that were answered by the presenter and members of the audience. We all learned a lot from each other due to these interactions. Some people even told me that in spite of being many years in the Teachings they had learned much from these basic workshops. The workshops also included meditations, songs, prayers, decrees, and videos of Mother.

Excerpt of the movie “Defending your Life” were also presented to talk about the concept of reincarnation and karma. We also showed videos of cymatics that depict vividly the creative power of sound. The new people that participated in these workshops were very dedicated and shared that their new understanding of things like karma and your divine plan had helped them overcome personal situations occurring in their lives. Some of them have started to come to Sunday Services at our Teaching Center. Some of them have also attended the two workshops about The Archangels and have shared that they understand the information a lot better due to the fact that they learned about basic concepts in the Sacred Adventure workshops.

We advertised the Sacred Adventure workshops through our email list and social media. We found that through our Meetup page (http://www.meetup.com/Minneapolis-St-Paul-Practical-Spirituality-teaching-center/) we were able to reach people that we wouldn’t have contacted otherwise.

Overall, this was a great success since we were able to have a monthly event where we could invite new people. The community also came together to prepare meals, register people, do AV, usher, make soup, and most importantly to open their hearts to many new souls hungry for the truth. We are planning to start this series for the third time this month.

We are planning to start this series for the third time this month.