Let me start off by saying that I am thankful to have a group of pastor/preacher friends that met together on a regular basis. Such a group is the exception, not the norm, but there are benefits of gathering with like-minded individuals and sharing. Every Monday morning in our case, a group of 8 or 10 Baptist preachers, the vast majority of whom pastor small churches in rural northwest Georgia, meet to talk about things going on at church, share prayer requests and then hear a sermon. The speaker will be someone from our group or a guest we have brought in, sometimes a missionary or someone from the state office. After the meeting, which starts at 11:30 and lasts about an hour, most of us will go somewhere and eat together. We pitch in and buy the speaker’s lunch. Sometimes the conversation continues at lunch and sometimes it’s kind of loud and you can only speak to one or two people that are closest to you.