What are Abide Groups?

Abide is a small group that meets for the sake of growing together in love of God and love of others.  We do this by meeting together to learn more about God, to listen to each other’s life stories for how God is speaking and to hold each other accountable to the ways God is inviting us to grow deeper in relationship with him. 

Who can be involved in Abide Groups?

Sophomore through Senior NNU Students

NNU Faculty, Staff, and Friends of NNU

These are groups of 3-4 upper-class students (sophomore-seniors) and are gender specific.  Abide groups are facilitated by a NNU faculty, staff or “friends of NNU” mentors.  The groups meet together bi-weekly throughout the school year.  (September-May)

How much time do I need to commit to?

At least 1 hour to 1 hour ½ bi-weekly.  There would be some type of a weekly time commitment to prayer, scripture reading, etc outside of your meeting time depending on the commitment of the group. 

What might an Abide Group meeting look like?

Abide groups will look differently depending on the group members.  During your first couple of meetings you’ll want to discern together the tenor of this group. You are free to craft this group to fit the group members as long as the group is connected with the overall mission of Abide: to grow together in loving God and loving others. You might want to spend a few weeks looking at John 15 to discern what “Abiding” is going to look like for this particular group of people.

An example of what a meeting could look like:

You would begin the meeting with some time to catch up.  You’d spend a time in silent or spoken prayer.  Depending on the desires of the group you might spend time with a Spiritual practice like: Lectio Dvina, Centering Prayer, Bible Study, Discussion of a book, etc.  You would spend time listening to members of the group share about how life is going with the intent to reflect together for how God is working.   This might lead to a conversation about how one needs to be encouraged or kept accountable.  You’d end your meeting in prayer for each other. 

Where would an Abide Group meet?

This would be entirely up to the group and group mentor.  It could meet on campus or off campus.

 If I am an NNU Sophomore, Junior or Senior, how do I get involved in Abide?

Sign-up online.  You have two options:  1) Sign up to be placed with a group during the first few weeks of school.  We’ll help you get placed in an Abide group.  2) Invite 2-3 others to join you in creating an Abide group.  We’ll do our best to place you with a mentor.  In the event we do not have enough mentors, we’ll help you get started without one.