About us
- Introduction of Living Waters
- How we work
- For whom is Living Waters?
- What we believe
- Living Waters and the church
1. Introduction of Living Waters
Living Waters provides Christ-centered help for those struggling with a variety of sexual and relational problems, and for those with life-defining illnesses. Our help is founded on the biblical foundation of compassion, integrity, and dependence on God.
We seek to convey Jesus, "full of grace and truth," (John 1:14) to broken ones.
We provide help by:
IMPARTING HEALING to the sexually and relationally broken, and to those with life-defining illnesses. Through biblical wisdom, godly support, and the power of prayer, we help the broken to stand in Jesus Christ as their hope and source of healing. We also help them to find their place in the body of Christ, so that their healing can grow into a blessing for others.
EQUIPPING THE CHURCH to impart healing to the sexually and relationally broken, and to those with life-defining illnesses. Our main mission is to help the church to carry out this ministry of healing. We do so by:
• TRAINING PASTORS AND LEADERS to effectively minister to the broken, especially in the context of small groups.
• DEVELOPING SMALL GROUPS is Living Water’s main offering to the church. We've created a number of small group formats that apply to different needs. We provide training for teams seeking to run these small groups in their churches.
• PROCLAIMING TO THE CHURCH AND TO THE WORLD THE LIFE-TRANSFORMING POWER OF JESUS CHRIST! Because of moral and spiritual confusion throughout the world, we do not assume that people know God's will for their sexuality and relationships. Nor do we assume they know the grace given to those who cry out for His mercy. We want to make Him known through declaring how He has transformed our brokenness into a rich source of healing for others. How will they discover His healing unless we tell them?
2. How we work
The core part of our ministry is based on courses with small group work.
Each of our courses consists of:
- worship
- teaching from a prepared lesson
- personal witness
- ministry being in God’s presence
- sharing how we really are
- prayer in closed same-gender small groups.
- Worship because God’s presence is the healing presence and we need to take our rightful place as creatures and children before Him
- Teaching: because we need correct information and to apply God’s word personally to our own situation
- Personal witness: our team members – “wounded healers” - share from their personal life how God has healed and changed them, and how His work is still continuing
- Ministry: because the ground before the cross is a level playing field and we can each receive from God
- Small groups: because we need to work out our relational issues together not in a vacuum and we need to be known somewhere
- Healing Prayer: because God wants us to share our hearts with Him and not just keep up appearances
Each course will:
- Challenge and deepen your relationship with God
- Provide an opportunity to be open and honest with others
- Help you to understand the roots and healing process of your issue
- Give you words to describe your inner pain and losses
- Open up the power and scope of the Cross in new ways
- Enable you to continue on your healing journey with renewed vigour
3. For whom is Living Waters? relationships
Living Waters is aimed at people who want to grow in their true, God given identity and their ability to have healthy relationships.
A Living Waters group is open to people with various issues:
-
fear of men or women, difficulty in establishing intimate relationships
- having difficulty in saying 'no', keeping healthy boundaries
- emotional dependency, codependency
- victims of abuse (emotional, mental, physical, sexual)
- various forms of addiction
no intimate relationship with God, distorted image of God as Father, no reality of the Cross in everyday life
(sexual) identity
- low self esteem
- feelings of emptiness
- homosexual or lesbian feelings
- pornography, promiscuity
- sexual fantasies and addiction
4. What we believe
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God, the final authority for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in right living.
We believe in one God, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, fully man and fully God, only begotten Son of the Father. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and lived a sinless life. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, buried and rose physically from the dead. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and will come again in power and glory.
We believe that faith alone in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord frees us from the mastery of sin, and its consequences of death and eternal damnation. He assumed the penalty of death Himself, and enables us to live out of His resurrected life unto eternity.
We believe the Holy Spirit carries out this work of renewal in our lives, empowering us to grow in loving union with our Heavenly Father and to walk in obedience to His will.
We believe that the church of Jesus Christ is formed of all those who know Him as their Savior and Lord, regardless of denominational beliefs.
5. Living Waters and the church
Introduction
Living Waters is dedicated to serve the church, the worldwide Body of Christ represented in the local church, to support and strengthen her mission to be a safe place for broken people.
People who struggle with brokenness in the area of their (sexual) identity and relationships need not only to hear the Biblical principles, but also find a place where they can work out their healing journey with others, in a safe atmosphere of love and encouragement, in balance between grace and truth.
We see as essential for the functioning of the group that there is an open and trusting relationship between a local LW group and one or more local/regional churches.
Living Waters works with local groups all over the world, led by teams whose members have completed a LW leadership training, and who are aware that they are in need of working out their own ongoing healing journey – that’s why they are called “wounded healers”.
A local LW group is led by a male and female coordinator; their identity as man and woman in God’s image is modeled in their joint leadership. A team can consist of members from different churches.
The Living Waters group
The contribution of the local LW group to the church is primarily to run LW courses aimed at specific groups. These are discipleship programmes that seek to deepen our relationship with God, bring to light sinful patterns of thoughts and behavior, and find healing for underlying wounds that rob us of our full glory and potential in God.
Our core values are:
- worship, teaching with a personal witness, and healing prayer in small groups
- orthodox interpretation of the Bible as the inspired Word of God
- an acknowledgment of the power and the extent of the Cross
- the forgiveness of our sins, and the blessing of our identity as God’s image bearer
- belief in the healing power of prayer
- belief in healing as a process, with the grace to allow participants to make progress at their own pace, and be responsible for their own choices throughout the process
- the value of the group process, with clear boundaries both for participants and team members
The Church
Living Waters seeks to be a gift to the church, in an open and trusting relationship with the local church leadership and its pastoral care. We believe God raised up this ministry to strengthen the church and its ability to bring healing and restoration to the broken ones. Often local churches are weighed down by an overwhelming amount of needy people, especially in this generation. This is where we can be of help. What we would need from the local church in order to do this is:
- the blessing from the church leadership for a church member who is the local Living Waters coordinator, and possibly for other LW team members from their church
- prayer support for the LW team
- pastoral back-up for the coordinator
- endorsement of the LW group and their programmes to church members who are in need of personal healing in the area of (sexual) identity and relationships. In addition, a local coordinator may be asked in specific cases to advise the pastoral team of the local church in situations with brokenness in the area of (sexual) identity and relationships.
Depending on the specific circumstances and needs, a supporting church may be able to provide facilities for the LW group, such as the use of the church building for groups at limited or no costs.
Living Waters does not ask local churches to pay coordinators or team members for their involvement in the local LW group. However, in some instances churches have facilitated training of coordinators/team members by providing part of the costs.
We see the cooperation with a local church as a long term relationship, where we seek to maintain and strengthen the relationship over the years.