Significant Living Chapters

Premise:
There simply is not enough laughter, joy, and winsomeness in the second half of life and we all crave for a place, to go with friends and/or meet new friends, where there is a consistent display of joy, laughter, joking, acting a little crazy or outrageous from time to time, practical jokes, and just plain old fun.

Mission:
To direct people to Christ and to provide a local gathering place for relationships, fun and resources to foster the celebration of life and faith after 50.

Vision:
To establish local Significant Living Chapters in communities throughout the United States as a place for adults 50+ to gather together with other likeminded individuals so that ongoing relationships can be formed, the chapter members can enjoy fun and fellowship with each other, and information and resources can be made available in a loosely structured gathering for growth and understanding relating to the issues and opportunities in the second half of life.

To solicit facilitators interested in starting SL Chapters in various communities throughout the United States.
To prepare a starter kit for the facilitators including the necessary resources and materials to start an SL Chapter group.
To allow flexibility in the groups to form around interest areas, Sunday School classes, within a church setting, as a community group drawing from numerous churches and the non-churched, or any other basis of gathering a group such as gender, ethnicity, shared heritage, card-playing friends, football fanatics or any other grouping.
To create an environment and character of individual groups that fosters relationships, loyalty to the group, identification with Significant Living as a national movement through encouraging SL membership, and has as an overriding purpose for members to have fun together in a Christian environment.
To inject, from time to time, teaching materials and resources for the group to increase awareness and involvement in giving of themselves and giving back to the community through service projects, outreach, travel, and missions.
To publish a list of chapters on the Internet for others in the community to join, to encourage interaction between various chapters, and to create a national identity with chapter conferences and national conferences where all chapter members would gather.

Distinctives:
A common thread is being with likeminded people who are all trying to figure out what to do for the second half of life. Some groups could be as few as 5 to 9 people, others may be as large as 50 or more. The groups must be independent and self sustaining and will require leadership in order to work – much like the leadership in a Sunday School class. One common denominator for the groups is that they must be a place where members have fun together.

Support:
The chapter will have a charter agreement identifying it as a recognized SL Chapter including a license agreement for the use of the name. A starter kit will be available to anyone desiring to form a new chapter in their community.
Significant Living will support the chapters with regularly produced materials, some for free and some for purchase, an Internet site where information can be shared, travel and missions opportunities, leadership resources with ideas for successful meetings and group dynamics, national conferences, and national leadership for identification and branding purposes.