Living Waters | Sexual and Relational Wholeness

Now accepting applications for the 2011-2012 session
beginning Tuesday, September 6, 2011
DOWNLOAD APPLICATION

What is Living Waters?
Living Waters is an in-depth, Christ-centered program for people seeking healing in areas of sexual and relational brokenness. A healing, teaching and discipleship series, Living Waters addresses the reality that we are all broken in our ability to love others well. The goal of Living Waters is to lay a foundation for sexual and relational wholeness in our lives. With groups all over the world, and with over twenty years of ministering God's healing love, the Living Waters program is a proven path of healing.

Who is Living Waters for?
Living Waters applies to everyone, and is particularly relevant to those struggling with or whose lives are impacted by sexual promiscuity or addiction, the effects of sexual abuse, co-dependency, homosexuality, self-hatred, or the inability to love others well. Thankfully, Christ's capacity to touch and restore us at deep levels of shame and brokenness extends to all of us, regardless of the specifics of our issue.

How is Living Waters presented?
Living Waters is a 20-lesson program taught in a closed-group format. The leaders have been trained and a confidentiality policy is in place to help ensure trust and safety in the group. Each meeting includes:

WORSHIP - We focus our attention and praise on God rather than our problems.
THE WORD - Living Waters' teachings combine psychological insights and biblical truths that help us to know God and ourselves better.
THE WORKS OF JESUS - Through healing prayer in large and small group settings, we invite the Holy Spirit to heal our various wounds. We bring our sins, and those committed against us, to the Lord who is faithful to set us free.

Foundational to Living Waters is the reality that God created us in His image as male and female. Therefore we value man and women working out their healing together. Great healing comes as men and women minister and receive alongside one another, thereby reflecting God's intention and character. (Although small groups are single sex, both genders participate together in worship, teaching, and prayer in the large group.)

What will I learn?
Through the worship, teaching, prayer and small groups of Living Waters we learn about:

• God's powerful love for us and how Jesus is central to our hope for wholeness
• The depth of our brokenness and our profound need for Him.
• The power of the cross to restore our souls, sexuality and relationships
• The process of walking out our healing
• Our place in the church and loving others honorably

Living Waters uses a detailed guidebook that includes teachings, questions and additional readings that help us move from brokenness to maturity. Some topics addressed include:

• Acknowledging our need for God
• How "the fall" affects our sexuality and relationships
• Receiving the Father's love
• Who we are as men and women
• The power of the cross and confession
• Renouncing our idols
• Reconciliation between men and women
• Roots of gender brokenness
• Healing from sexual abuse
• Restoring the true self through the cross
• Understanding and overcoming temptation
• Overcoming sexual addiction
• Embracing the church as our healing community
• Building healthy relationships
• Walking as mature Christians

Where and when does Living Waters meet?
Meetings are at the Mosaic Campus in Newport News on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. The 2011-2012 session will begin September 6, 2011. The retreat, which is mandatory, will be a Friday night-Sunday morning a couple weeks into the program (dates to be announced).

How do I participate?
The program requires an application process. The cost is $250. This includes the manual and a mandatory 2-night retreat 2 weeks into the classes. Payment plans are available. For more information on Living Waters from the program developers visit www.desertstream.org.

Safety Within
One of the most important aspects of Living Waters has to do with the provision of a safe environment within which a participant may reveal and deal with their brokenness. For many people who come to Living Waters, there has never been a place or context of safety for them to deal with homosexuality, sexual abuse or sexual addiction. But in Living Waters, that safe place can exist, and there are boundaries put in place to preserve that safety. The confidentiality policy further attempts to ensure an environment of trust and acceptability in order to facilitate the unburdening of the soul.

Is Living Waters for me?
If the following statements describe your heart for hope and healing, you may want to consider participating in Living Waters:

• A desire to deepen your relationship with Christ
• A desire to grow in your identity as a man or woman of God, allowing Him to reveal the good of your sexuality
• A willingness to face the sinfulness of your present state and the painful realities that led you there. This involves exploring hurts from your past specifically related to key people in your life, such as your parents
• A willingness to be open and honest with others about your brokenness, including sexual feelings and practices, as well as issues of identity and emotional immaturity
• A willingness to receive the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit in these deep areas
• A desire and willingness to walk free from sinful patterns
• A desire to grow in your relationship in the body of Christ

For more information, email us.