| Unfolding Word is an organization that connects women with real relationships and offers biblical wisdom for practical living today.
We accomplish this by God's strength through starting and encouraging Community Soul Groups (CSGs) and Discipleship Soul Groups (DSGs); through seminars, speaking, and teaching in local churches; and through leading groups of women in prayer.
Unfolding Word is based in Newberg, Oregon, but seeks to minister to all in need.
Our vision is that every believing woman in the Pacific Northwest will enter into relationship with God and others based on the accuracy of understanding God’s will for their lives.
Our History
The first Soul Group was started by six women, all new to our university community, who wanted a place where our spiritual and intellectual sides could be known by a few other women; we wanted a place where we could express our affection for Christ and each other with both our heads and hearts. We didn’t want just a head group, or just a heart group: what we wanted was a Soul Group!
When the six of us came together for the first time, we collectively acknowledged our basic need and desire to know a few other Christian women at a deeper level as we ourselves sought a more Christ-centered life. By our second meeting we decided to give each woman one entire meeting to share her story - her spiritual, physical, emotional, intellectual journey. Although these were stories of education, professional involvement and service, the primary focus was how we found ourselves at the crossroads of choosing to follow Christ with both our head and our heart.
It was during those first several months that we learned to share discriminately learning the difference between speaking too personally and trying to impress the other women. We wanted to know about each other but kept in mind the important things we wanted to say: speaking openly and honestly without pride or self-degradation is still a strong practice in our fellowship. It became obvious after we "introduced" ourselves that being real is a godly trait and can seek the good of others.
Within a year, other Soul Groups were birthed as women within the university wanted spiritual accountability and friendship without the pressure to prepare an actual Bible study. None of this involved students yet. By the third year, however, a handful of college women approached one other woman and me pleading with us to disciple them. Surely, this was not a need on a Christian college campus? We were aware of mentoring programs in place and small groups within the dorms. Not entirely sure what we were doing, we pooled our resources from our Soul Groups and gathered as many college women who were interested and formed what we now call Discipleship Soul Groups.
The beauty lies in the differences of what was originally in place: All women coming together from various generations, occupations, ages, and personalities. At first, we had a large group time twice a month where someone taught from the Bible and then the smaller Soul Groups of 4-6 women would meet on the opposite weeks. Students, however, quickly let us know that they wanted an “older” woman leading their Soul Group and this has worked well. Hence, the name Discipleship Soul Group.
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