Community Guides

Kylee Logan 4/11/24 Kylee Logan 4/11/24

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom, Pt. 1: Witness

Take Communion

Leader Note: Begin your time together by taking communion, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read from the book of Acts 1v8 as you welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Read This Overview Aloud Together

In prayer, Jesus often is inviting us to join him in the work he’s already doing and the love he’s already offering to those who we are witnessing too. Our job is to just look for signs of the everpresent God and to join in.

In Acts 1, Jesus gives us an identity as witnesses. It’s something that we are before it’s something that we do. Maybe more simply put, a witness is someone who sees or experiences something important for others to know about. And since we’re witnesses, not salespeople, we don’t need to feel any pressure to “close the deal” with the right technique, but simply to bear witness to our life with Jesus.

So, our practice for tonight is to talk through how this gift of witness from the Holy Spirit gives us the chance to embody Christ’s spoken, supernatural, and sacrificial love.

Do This Practice Tonight

While we’re in this series, The Gifts of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Kingdom, each of our Community Guides will focus on the practice of Prayer. Tonight, we will be diving into witness as a facet of Prayer. First, we need to unpack those 3 ways of love before we dive into what this practically looks like for each of us. A quick word on each:

Spoken love. We get to speak truth in love, and bear witness to what God is doing in our life. As witnesses, we are invited by the Spirit to speak love and life into any conversation we have, out of the overflow of what’s going on internally.

Supernatural love. Whether big or small, God is always supernaturally loving us. Oftentimes, this kind of love enters onto the scene of our lives as prophetic words. As we bear witness to the supernatural love of Jesus, we get to pray and respond to the Spirit…and then we get to humbly offer a word, a phrase, scripture, or picture to others, in love.

Sacrificial love. Sacrificial love is the gift of allowing ourselves to be inconvenienced on behalf of someone else, to show them how much God loves them. And the truth is, that not only does the practice of sacrificial love in our witness have the potential to mend our world, but it has the power to mend us.

For some of us, witness as a facet of Prayer is very familiar and well-practiced, and for others all this may be a brand new idea to consider. We want to create space for all of us to engage and start where we are. So with that, let’s take some time to hear from one another how these 3 ways of the Spirit’s love are showing up in our own lives as witnesses.

Where do you feel resonance or resistance to this gift of Witness?
What choice or change in perspective would you need to make in order to become more available to the Spirit as a witness?
Who in your life do you want to share the good news of Jesus with?

Let’s close this portion of our night by getting in groups of 2-3 to practice bearing witness about God’s love. Once we get into groups, begin by having someone ask: “How is your week going?” and respond by sharing about something good in your day and how that connects with God’s love for you. For example, “This morning I got to make pancakes with my son, and really felt God’s love in that” or “Today I got some tough news but felt God’s love through the way a coworker listened and cared for me”. Once everyone in the group has shared, end by asking Jesus to reveal to each of us opportunities to witness to others in this next week.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week our Community is going to individually practice witness as a facet of Prayer by praying “God, who am I being invited to witness to this week?” and then being open to respond when he shows us. This is going to look different for all of us, but the goal is to talk with and listen to God about ways you could speak in love, supernaturally witness truth, and sacrifice for the sake of others. Together as a Community, let’s commit to setting aside intentional time this week to pray, journal, or have conversations with one another, in order to take action and respond to God. Next week, we will take time to hear from one another about how God led us as witnesses to those around us.

End in Prayer

Leader Note: Close your time in prayer by asking God to come lead and surprise your Community in the coming week so that no one misses an opportunity to witness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Kylee Logan 3/21/24 Kylee Logan 3/21/24

Maundy Thursday Community Guide

Overview

On the night before Jesus was killed, he had one final dinner with his disciples in which he would sum up much of his life’s message and teaching with a symbolic practice. Jesus — ever the master of using parables to illustrate and emphasize various truths about God, humanity, and the evil one — would use these last moments not to tell one final parable, but to enact one. He would model for his disciples, and for us, exactly what God’s posture towards us was like in sending the incarnation and exactly what our posture, then, must be towards those around us. While this practice dealt with power, it didn’t do so in a way anyone expected.

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God…” This was John’s build up to the moment: Jesus knew he had all power and authority, he knew his source and his destiny. At this point, as the reader, we might expect Jesus to stand up and give a rousing speech or lift a sword to the heavens, shout some war cry, or set some covert plan in place to take down Rome — but this isn’t what Jesus does in response to his certainty and strength. Instead, we read that Jesus rose from the meal, only to remove his coat, wrap a towel around his waist, and then kneel before each disciple, washing their feet each in turn.

The Maundy in Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word maundatum, meaning command, and references the statement Jesus makes moments after he washes his disciples’ feet, when he seems to explain what he was doing: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Tonight, we will reenact Jesus’ symbolic gesture together by washing each other’s feet, as a way of remembering God’s love for us and embodying the love he calls us to have for one another.

Communion

Before moving onto foot washing, take a moment to read John’s account of this story and take Communion together (whether the symbolic elements or a full meal). As the elements are passed out or plates are dished up, have someone read John 13v1-17 out loud.

Practice for Tonight

Tonight, we will be symbolically washing each others’ feet to remember God’s love for us and our call to love each other. Below you will find some helpful details to keep in mind.

Supplies: Make sure you have the following items.

Some sort of pitcher or large cup or bowl filled with warm water

Some sort of bucket or bin in which to catch the poured out water
A few towels with which to dry feet (and perhaps one on the ground below the bucket or bin)

Process: The Community Leader will be “washing” the feet of each person in your Community. If your Community has co-Leaders, they can split the washing and then wash each other’s feet. If not, select someone who will wash the Leader’s feet at the end. When you’re ready and everyone understands the order, here’s how it works:

To maintain an atmosphere of worship, invite everyone to remain quietly reflective and play some sort of worship or instrumental music. We made a playlist that you are welcome to use.
Have the person whose feet are being washed sit in a chair with their feet in the bin or bucket.
The Leader will “wash” their feet by simply pouring the warm water from the pitcher over their feet.
The Leader will then take a towel and dry the person’s feet.
Repeat steps 2 – 4 until every person has had their feet washed.

Reflection

John’s telling of this story seems to suggest that Jesus washes the disciples’ feet without saying a word until he gets to Peter, who was likely increasingly uncomfortable and embarrassed as he watched his Rabbi move from person to person, getting closer and closer. You may have experienced some similar level of discomfort or awkwardness as you awaited your turn. What was your experience like as you waited, as it happened, and afterwards? Did you notice anything interesting come up in you? (e.g. feelings of unworthiness, humility, honor, love, etc.)
Why do you think Jesus chose foot washing as his enacted parable to teach us to love each other?
Was it easier for you to wash someone’s feet or to have your own feet washed? Why do you think that was?
Foot washing was Jesus’ symbol for radically loving people. What is some way in which you could radically love a person or people in your life in response to his radical love for you?

Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, spend some intentional time reflecting on God’s love for you and ask the Spirit what you could do to radically love those around you. As you listen, do so ready to respond to what it is you sense him saying. Invite the Spirit to not just speak to you, but to empower you to love the way Jesus did.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, thanking God for his love and asking for his empowering presence to love others in the same way. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Kylee Logan 3/10/24 Kylee Logan 3/10/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 7: Witness

Take Communion

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to correct or advise anyone.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Witness, let’s take a few minutes to share how we chose to stop, rest, delight, and contemplate during Sabbath this past week.

How did your preparation day go?
Which 24-hour period did you choose?
How did your sabbath compare to your expectations?
Did you invite anyone in? Is there anyone you would consider inviting in for this weekend’s sabbath?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

God’s vision for humanity, from beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, was for all people, of every nation and tongue, to enter into his rest and reign over the earth. As sin grew in the hearts of humans, we separated ourselves into categories like race, class, and economic status. This division fostered hostility between these groups, but Jesus “broke down the wall of hostility that separated us…creating in himself one new people…reconciled to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other has been put to death” (Eph 2v14-16). It is because of this, we as a church are committed to becoming a community of hospitality in a culture of hostility through the practice of Witness.

Jesus himself welcomed into his kingdom men, women, children, thieves, murderers, and notorious sinners of all kinds - even you and me! He also sent out his followers to the highways and byways to do as he did, and welcomed in all people. The disciples were sent out to be witnesses of Jesus. The word “witness” in the New Testament is our translation of the Greek term from which we get the English word “martyr.” Jesus’ followers were asked to lay down their lives to tell the story of Jesus. Witnessing and hospitality will always go hand-in-hand. We share the story of Jesus because we love it, and we share the story of Jesus by the way we live it. We share this story in the way that we share our lives with others. This is the witnessing we are called to do today as his followers in Portland.

Tonight, we are going to take some time to talk about what it means for us to be witnesses of the gospel in the way we invite others in and are sent out into our city.

Do This Practice Tonight

Because there room for all around the foot of the cross, there should always be room for everyone around our dinner table.

The practice for tonight has two parts. First, we want to plan how we can welcome in the lost to join us at the table at an upcoming family night. Then, we want to plan how we are going to go out to serve those on the margins, with the goal of kinship, for our mission rhythm this month.

Leader Note: Before the discussion, welcome the Spirit to come guide your time together – inviting God to bless the Community as you become people marked by witness and hospitality, believing in God’s original mission to welcome in all people.

Let’s start with hearing from one another about how we’ve experienced the hospitality of God and/or others.

When was the last time you experienced being welcomed? What made that interaction meaningful?
Can you remember a time when you felt very unwelcomed? What made you feel that way?

Now, let’s take some time to discuss and plan setting aside an upcoming family night to invite those in our lives that have yet to follow Jesus, and discuss ways to make them feel most welcome.

When is our next open (unplanned) family night?
What meal options and activities would be the most inclusive and welcoming?
How might we exemplify the gospel in our interactions without words?
Who comes to mind that we could invite?

Leader Note: Make sure there is either a clear plan before moving on or that there are clear next steps and people assigned to carry things forward.

The second part of our Practice tonight is to discuss what our mission rhythm will look like this month. Let’s take the next 2-3 minutes to answer these questions:

(If you don’t already have a mission rhythm) How would we like to serve people in our city who don’t know Jesus this month?
(If you don’t already have a Mission Coordinator) Are there one or two people in our Community who would be willing to help plan and coordinate our mission rhythm this month?
How can we intentionally utilize that time and space to grow in kinship with those we are serving? (e.g. get to know someone’s name, communicate when we’ll return, etc.)
Are there other invitations that we can extend to these folks as we seek to serve them without over promising and under-delivering.

Leader Note: Make sure there is either a clear plan before moving on or that there are clear next steps and people assigned to carry things forward. We would suggest closing out this section praying for the opportunities that lie ahead to witness and welcome others in.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, let’s commit to pray (or continue to pray) each day for the lost in our lives as the midday part of our Daily Prayer Rhythm (bridgetown.church/midday-prayer). If anyone hasn’t already, let’s take this moment to set a reminder for 1pm every day with a few names to prompt our time of prayer. Remember, these prayers don’t have to be long, just sincere. After each midday prayer, let’s be sure to take a moment to meditate on the ways God might use us to be the answer to our prayers or to the prayers of others.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice of Witness went for each of us as we pray for the lost each day.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the Practice of Witness.

Kylee Logan 3/3/24 Kylee Logan 3/3/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 6: Sabbath

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to correct or advise anyone.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice of Sabbath, let’s take a few minutes sharing how our practice from last went as we took steps towards Generosity.

What invitations did you sense around the practice of Generosity? Did anything feel new or familiar?
As you look back at this week, or even the last month, where have you experienced God’s generosity?
How might God be enlarging your heart for others through the practice of Generosity?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

In this cultural moment of over-working and under-resting, there is an invitation to us, as Jesus followers, to become awake and fully present to our lives through the practice of Sabbath. In God’s story, we are introduced to the Sabbath day at the very beginning of Genesis: Creation. The Bible opens by describing the state of Creation before God got to work as formless and empty. The first six days — as God filled the earth with plants, animals, and human life — God was forming and filling the void. Then, the seventh day of Creation is given a name: Sabbath, which simply means quit, stop, take a break. The Sabbath day is for remembering what the six working days of the week tend to make us forget: that our lives are playing out in the midst of a much larger story, within which we are not the main character. So, at the very least, Sabbath reminds us that we are not God — we are not the essential character to this story. God loves us that much that he has made a way for us to never have to carry such a burden. Rather, he invites us to be co-laborers as his image bearers. The way we quit, stop, take a break for Sabbath sets aside intentional time for us to attune our whole selves to that which is most eternal and true. Sabbath was never intended to be a day of reward, but of worship. Sabbath creates the sort of freedom that satisfies our deepest desires to be with Jesus and allows him to form a new thing in us.

Tonight, we are going to take some time to talk about how Sabbath teaches us to plan and order our days so that we can notice God in the ordinary and rest in his presence.

Do This Practice Tonight

A well-planned Sabbath is less like grabbing for rest and more like learning to open our hands to receive it from God. When we lean solely on our own understanding, we often confuse rest with comfort, where we escape from exhaustion, sleep-deprivation, hurry, and overstimulation. Rest requires more effort and intention than comfort or other indulgences and it produces a much greater return. God gave us such a gift in Sabbath: one day a week to taste what awaits us forever. As we practice Sabbath, we get to figure out what is necessary for planning and preparing so that these 4 elements can exist: Stop, Rest, Delight, Contemplate.

So, our practice for tonight is to talk through how these 4 essential elements can be included in a weekly 24 hour Sabbath. First, we need to unpack those elements a bit before we discuss what this practically looks like for each person in our Community. A quick word on each:

Stop. Stop working, not when things are necessarily finished, or each email has a response, or when that project is done that’s due tomorrow. We get to stop simply because it’s time to stop.

Rest. Worship by resting, engaging in activities that help make you more present to your life and to those you love.

Delight. We don’t have to enter Sabbath so seriously that we don’t sprinkle in some of our favorite foods, or favorite drink, or favorite hobbies. Be sure to include simple pleasures and things that bring you joy.

Contemplate. We aim our attention, prayers, and desires on what God has already given to us. We contemplate the many ways we see and know God’s presence and power in our ordinary lives.

Let’s start by hearing from one another how these elements could be part of a 24 hour Sabbath practice. For some of us, Sabbath is already a well-practiced discipline and for others, it may be a brand new idea to consider starting in an already full schedule. We want to create space for all of us to engage and start where we are. So with that, let’s take some time to hear from one another in response to these questions:

Leader note: Feel free to just pick a few of these questions below to spend time discussing.

What invitation(s) do you sense Jesus offering you in Sabbath?
What choice or change in perspective would you need to make in order to truly stop working to enter into Sabbath?
Traditionally, the Christian Sabbath is Saturday night – Sunday night. Would that be the best 24 hour time frame for you (and your family)? If not, what days could work?
What do you delight in? And how could you include that in your practice of Sabbath?
What comes to mind when you think about the unique ways you’d need to prepare and plan ahead for Sabbath? Is there a family member or friend you could invite into your practice?
How would contemplating God's presence and power in your ordinary life shape how you rest?

Let’s close this portion of our night by getting in groups of 2-3. Let’s take five or so minutes to pray specifically for one another, that Jesus would give rest for our weary souls and replace burdens with his easy yoke.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week our Community is going to individually practice a weekly 24 hour Sabbath. This will mean different ways of preparing and planning for each of us to take 1 out of the 7 days to stop, rest, delight, and contemplate. It will require a unique sacrifice and creativity based on each life stage, circumstances, and obligations. Consider inviting someone who you find rest or delight in, and invite them to practice Sabbath together. This could perhaps include even others who need any invitation to rest, and you could practice Sabbath rest together. Let’s find creative ways to encourage one another in this practice throughout the week. If you don’t have regular Sabbath practice, consider where you’d like to start and then give it a try. And if you already do, consider what it would look like to invite others into your Sabbath rhythm.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, by praying a simple prayer of gratitude for the gift God has given in Sabbath.

Kylee Logan 2/28/24 Kylee Logan 2/28/24

Family Guide: Sabbath

At Bridgetown, our goal is that every person – adult and child – would be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. But these things don’t just happen overnight; they take time, intention, and repetition. So, with this in mind, we will be releasing a Family Guide during each teaching series to help you engage a particular Practice from the life and teaching of Jesus together. Since these Guides are aimed at kids of multiple ages, please skip or adapt anything that does not feel age appropriate. These Guides are written conversationally, so feel free to read through them. Italicized words are notes to parents and bolded words are questions to take some time with.

Parents: this guide is written to help families create a new Sabbath practice. If your family already observes the Sabbath, this guide can be adapted as needed.

Let’s start our time together by doing something a little funny. Find a comfortable way to sit with your hands in your lap. We’re going to make a drum beat together by gently patting our laps at the same time, on the same beat.

Parents: Start the beat and invite your kids to join in. Once everyone is on the same page, keep reading as the family continues the beat.

As we drum this beat together, we are creating a rhythm. Rhythm is a regular, repeated flow or pattern of something. There is rhythm to music– we can clap along with a song. There is rhythm to a poem—words arranged in a particular way. The beat of our heart is a rhythm. The beep of a microwave is a rhythm.

Let’s stop the drumming and talk a little more about rhythm. The Bible, while it might just look like words on a page, is one big story that has a rhythm. God starts the rhythm on the very first page. It sounds something like this “Work, Work, Work, Work, Work, Work… Rest… Rest… Rest”. This rhythm points us to an incredible gift God has given us called Sabbath. Have you ever heard the word “sabbath” before?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share their answers.

Sabbath is a special day set aside each week where we get to rest and experience God’s love. It’s a gift that God has given us to enjoy with him and with the people we love, like our friends and family. People who follow God have been practicing Sabbath for a very long time—all the way back to the ancient times written about in the Bible! It wasn’t an idea people just made up because they thought it was a good plan to get rest. Sabbath is a gift that God gave us. In fact, do you know who was FIRST to practice Sabbath? God! Let’s read about when God created everything in the world, including Sabbath.

Parents: Pull out a Bible and read Genesis 1v31–2v3

Later on in the story of the Bible, God gives his people some special rules to help them follow God’s ways in God’s world. Let’s read one of those rules that we find in the Ten Commandments.

Parents: Pull out a Bible and read Exodus 20v8–11

Parents: Work through these questions together:

What did God do after he created the world? (He rested from his work, blessing the day of rest and made it holy)
What was the commandment we read? (Remember the Sabbath by working 6 days and then having a day of rest)
Why were God’s people commanded to remember the Sabbath?
Why do you think God gave us the gift of Sabbath?

Jesus grew up practicing the Sabbath every week. He lived in a community of people who would pause from their work for a whole day every week to rest and be with God. However, there were very strict rules that had to be followed on the Sabbath. It probably felt impossible to do it right! The Bible tells us that some people became so focused on the rules and doing Sabbath just right, they forgot Sabbath is a gift. Jesus practiced Sabbath in a way that reminded people it was a gift from God, given for us to enjoy.

If we were to read all of the stories in the Bible about Jesus and his followers practicing Sabbath, we might notice it often includes 4 big ideas: stop, rest, delight, and think. First, Sabbath is a day to STOP by putting down all of our work and schoolwork, chores, and distractions. These things aren’t bad: we just want to press pause on them so we can create space to enjoy God and his world. Second, Sabbath is a day to REST, not just our bodies, but our minds and our hearts too!

Let’s pause here for a moment. If we want to have a whole day where we STOP and we REST, that means we might need to do a little bit of planning and preparing. To really enjoy our special day, we should plan ahead to finish up any work we have to do the day before! Maybe for you that’s homework, or a chore you usually do. With a little planning, we can make sure our Sabbath is a day for joy and rest.

Let’s get back to the four big ideas. Sabbath is a day where we STOP, and REST. Third, Sabbath is a day to experience DELIGHT and joy. We get to do things that we love to do most, like go on a bike ride or do a puzzle or listen to music. Maybe we read a story or watch a movie that makes us laugh! Finally, Sabbath is a day to THINK about God and his love. We can have quiet time or go on a prayer walk or read the Bible. We can thank God for his love and presence and kindness to us.

Does Sabbath sound like something you would want to try? How does hearing about Sabbath make you feel? Does it sound hard or easy?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share a few thoughts.

Trying Sabbath might feel like a really big deal because it means giving up a whole day to try something new. If that sounds kind of hard, that’s okay! We don’t want to make Sabbath about rules: we want to remember it as a gift. Practicing Sabbath is like hosting a party or making dinner or building a fort: it takes a little planning and we’ll get better at it every time we do it.

As followers of Jesus, we want to follow his example and learn to practice the Sabbath each week. A great place to start is by picking a day this week where we can try it. If this week is already planned, we can plan for a day later this month and stick with it. Let’s start by spending a few minutes thinking about how we could stop, rest, delight, and think on Sabbath.

Parents: Pause here to fill out the below “Sabbath Worksheet” together but stop before you get to the last question.

Wow, we’ve come up with a lot of good ideas! Remember, we don’t have to do all of these but these are great options to pick from during Sabbath. The last thing we need to plan together is how to start our Sabbath.

Does your school have a bell to mark the beginning or end of the school day, or does your teacher use a special chime? At school, a bell is a signal that says “it’s time for something new!” Many followers of Jesus like to start Sabbath with a special signal or tradition, too. Those traditions remind us that we are starting something new, and remind everyone, “what we’ve been waiting for is finally here!”

Here are two specific traditions we could use to celebrate the start of our Sabbath day together. Let’s discuss them and pick one to try this week!

Idea #1: Sabbath Candles – We could start our Sabbath by lighting a special candle. Before we light the candle, we can sit around it at the table or at the counter or in the living room. We can read a passage from the Bible like Psalm 23 or the Lord’s Prayer or maybe the verses we read earlier. Or, we can sing a worship song that we love singing together in church. After reading or singing together, one person can light the candle and pray for our Sabbath day, asking God to help us stop, rest, delight, and think both together and with him.

Idea #2: Sabbath Meal – Another way we could start Sabbath is by having a special meal. It can be a different special meal each week, but it might be easier to pick one type of meal and stick with it. Some people make pizza for Sabbath dinner. Others have soup and bread or get takeout from their favorite restaurant. If we start Sabbath in the morning, we could make pancakes or waffles with lots of toppings. Let’s pick something that we really enjoy, that feels super special, and isn’t too complicated.

Parents: Circle or write down the Sabbath tradition of your choice on the worksheet and add any details discussed.

Whether on a car ride from church or at dinner later this month or some other time, let’s decide when we want to talk about Sabbath again. And, finally, let’s end by praying together that God would help us to pause each week and enjoy the gift of Sabbath.

Sabbath Resources

Kylee Logan 2/22/24 Kylee Logan 2/22/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 5: Generosity

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to correct or advise anyone.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Generosity, let’s take a few minutes reflecting and sharing what our experiences with fasting (Lenten or otherwise) have looked like over this last week, including what we may have sensed the Spirit inviting us to fast or abstain from.

How are you engaging the Spirit’s invitations to you this Lenten season? (e.g. fasting from a specific food, abstaining from TV or social media, etc.)

Read This Overview Aloud Together

In the Trinity, God exists as a community of self-giving love. Generosity is integral to who God is and how God exists in the world. Since we’ve been made in God’s image, generosity is a way by which we get to mirror God to the world. But it doesn’t start with us: the Apostle John wrote that “we love because he first loved us” (1 John 4v19). Our generosity can only ever be a response to God’s generosity. We do not practice generosity for God’s love, but from it. Generosity is worship by which we return to God what was his in the first place. God doesn’t need our money. God wants our hearts. But, as Jesus teaches, money does too. In the same way the Israelites were enslaved by Egypt, we can become enslaved to our desires.

And as with most things in God’s Kingdom, there is an unbreakable connection between what God is doing in me and what God is doing for the world. So the impact of Generosity is both communal and individual because it is a foretaste of the Kingdom. Generosity enacts a world without need and cultivates joy as we see God meet our needs through each other. The message Jesus modeled and the foundation on which we build a theology of generosity is simple: In God’s kingdom, there is enough.

Tonight, we are going to take some time to talk about how Generosity often points us back to the truth that Jesus taught: it is happier (or better) to give than to receive.

Do This Practice Tonight

Generosity is possibly the most joyful of all the practices. At the heart of the gospel is an outflow of generous, self-giving, forgiving love. God so loved the world he gave his one and only Son, and the Son in turn gave the Spirit. When we give our money, resources, time, and love, we get to participate in that divine outflow of love. This is where we often see that being a blessing to others not only enlarges our hearts, but transforms us to the core.

So, the practice for tonight has two parts. First, we want to talk about how each of us has experienced generosity with God and others. Then, we’ll create space to consider how we do and can practice Generosity personally.

Leader Note: Before the discussion, welcome the Spirit to come guide your time together – inviting God to bless the Community as you become people marked by generosity, believing in God’s abundant goodness and provision.

Let’s start with hearing from one another about how we’ve experienced generosity with God and others.

How have you experienced the true generosity of God? And how has that increased your faith?
How have you experienced the generosity of others?
What does it feel like for you to give to others? (e.g. money, acts of service, encouragement, resources, time, etc.)

Leader Note: It may be helpful to play some soft, instrumental background music for this next part as people will be invited to do some self-reflection. And perhaps consider setting a timer too.

The second part to our Practice tonight is a self-examination of how we are giving away our money, resources, and time. This is important because what we do with our money does something to us. Let’s take the next 2-3 minutes in silence to quietly reflect on (or journal about) these three questions:

Who or what are the regular recipients of your financial generosity?
How do these currently align with your values?
Is there anything that you sense the Spirit inviting you to change, add, or increase?

Leader Note: Close the 2-3 minutes in silence by praying a prayer of gratitude for the ways God has individually met with everyone.

Lastly, let’s close this portion of the night by hearing from a few of us in response to our time in silence – not necessarily sharing the specifics about who or what we’re giving to, but more about any invitation to adjust our perspective towards Generosity to better align with God’s.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week we want to engage the practice of Generosity by taking a step towards one of the invitations we sensed God invite us into. As we set aside intentional time to invite God to speak into how and what we’re giving away, we want to respond to that by giving. If you don’t have a regular practice of Generosity, consider where you’d like to start and then give it a try. And if you already do, consider what it would look like to increase what you give – money, time, or other resources.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice of Generosity went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the Practice of Generosity.

Kylee Logan 2/8/24 Kylee Logan 2/8/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 4: Fasting

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your time together by taking communion, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read from the gospel of Matthew 11v28–30

Review the Last Practice

Leader: As you review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to correct or advise anyone.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice, let’s reflect and talk about how this previous week went with setting aside intentional time daily for Solitude, to pause and be alone with God.

Where did you sense God’s voice, presence, or action in the practice of Solitude?
Where did you experience resonance or resistance?
How did the Silent Prayer (example: In Him, I live; In Him, I rest, In Him, I delight, etc.), play a part in your time alone with God? How did it impact your posture towards the Spirit?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

In the book of Genesis we read that God created man and woman not as floating souls but embodied image bearers. Humans are set apart from every other aspect of creation in that we image God on the earth, and we do that in our bodies. Scripture teaches us a way of relating to God as body and soul. This is where the practice of Fasting comes in. If fasting is going to make any sense and have any formative power in our lives, we have to begin by reconnecting the body and the soul. Most of us have learned to know our souls through the story of God but know our bodies through the story of Western Culture. So, rather than relating to our body as a creature to be conquered, an image to be glorified, or a pleasure tank to be filled, Jesus offers us an invitation to return to our roots: an embodied spirituality.

Practiced consistently over time, Fasting is a way of internally entering into the experience of another until our stomachs start to guide our feet. Externally, things start to broaden because the practice of Fasting can open our eyes and change our hearts as we respond to the world around us. As we enter into the season of Lent, we have the opportunity to participate in this Practice with 40 days of Prayer and Fasting as a church. Our motivation for this season is not coming from a place of duty but desire, as we increasingly become a community of holiness in a culture of indulgence.

Do This Practice Tonight

Leader: While this is true for every Community Guide, it’s especially important for everyone to have listened to the Sunday teaching, so that they can best understand the broader context for and engage in these 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting. Encourage them to do so if they haven’t.

Tonight, we are going to take some time to talk through how we can participate in this churchwide 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting in this Lenten season, which starts on Ash Wednesday leading up to Easter. Lent is observed by the church around the world as 40 days of abstinence identifying in our bodies with Christ’s 40 day fast in the wilderness and his suffering on the cross. Lent is about living in step with our deep desire for resurrection life; it’s about shedding our attachment to the lesser loves that have a hold on us, and it's about compassion—willingly entering into the suffering of another: Jesus.

The engagement may look different for each of us, whether we decide to fast from food or abstain from something else. And, as a brief reminder, when we fast (from food) or abstain (from other things), we only do so from neutral appetites, never from sin. With sin, we confess it, renounce it, and run from it. By neutral appetites, we mean good things that God has made that delight us when held in their proper place but can imprison us when they become ultimate things.

So, for our Practice tonight, we are going to engage in a conversation about 1) the practice of Fasting and 2) how God might be prompting a specific, personal response in us for this upcoming 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting.

Let’s begin by reflecting on Fasting with these questions:

What has the practice of Fasting been like for you? If it’s a new practice, where do you feel resonance or resistance to it? And where might you feel invited to rhythmically incorporate it in your life?
When you feel empty or restless, what do you normally do to try to fill the emptiness? What might your body and soul be saying to you in this?
When has the self-denial of fasting and abstinence cultivated something good in you? How has it impacted your relationship with the Father?

Next, let’s talk about our Lenten 40 Days of Prayer & Fasting.

These 40 Days are designed to help each of us listen prophetically, pray, and fast for God to increase our faith. As we do this, we sense that there are 4 expressions of faith, or 4 deep desires, that God could be stirring in us: Dreams, Power, Family, & Direction. A quick refresher on each:

Dreams: Those of us who have followed Jesus for a long time and may find ourselves dreaming less and less are invited to make space for the Spirit to teach them to dream Kingdom dreams again.
Power: Those of us longing for the Spirit to write adventure stories in the ordinary environments of our lives that discomfort us, thrill us, and raise our faith in the end.
Family: Some among us, particularly parents, who have hopes that have never become prayers for a family member(s) are invited to turn hopes prayers over these 40 days.
Direction: Some are living at a decisive moment, and this is a time for seeking God’s direction, moving forward not only with wisdom but conviction.

Do any of these resonate with any of us? How do you feel invited to participate in this Lenten season of prayer and fasting? What might we abstain from in order to cultivate that faith in this season?

Leader: Close by praying for the person or people who resonate with any of the 4. Ask God to do immeasurably more than any of them could imagine, as a pathway to even greater healing, wholeness, joy, and faith.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to begin our practice of fasting or abstinence to kick off the Lenten season.

For those who want to practice fasting from food, consider starting by fasting one meal and spend that meal time in prayer. If fasting is more of a regular rhythm for you, consider fasting for 24 hours or more per week. When you feel hungry, welcome Jesus’s presence and consider what his self denial means for you.
For those who are practicing abstaining (e.g. TV, social media, shopping, sugar, alcohol, sports, sleeping in, coffee, etc.), dedicate that time you now have to God. Start by abstaining from one of these neutral appetites for one week. What feelings arise in you? What thoughts interrupt your prayers? What do you want God to transform, renew, heal in you to bring about even greater faith?

One last thing to keep in mind for Lent is that Bridgetown will be releasing a morning and evening prayer podcast designed to guide you through these 40 days of prayer according to the Psalms. Both morning and evening episodes will be released daily on the podcast feed. Each episode will be relatively short (6-10 minutes), and you’ll be guided into prayer as you begin and end your day. Episodes will be available starting Monday, Feb 19.

Next week, we’ll begin our time by hearing from one another how the practice of fasting or abstinence went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the practice of Fasting.

Kylee Logan 1/28/24 Kylee Logan 1/28/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 3: Solitude

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

Leader: As you review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to correct or advise anyone.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice, let’s reflect and talk about how this previous week went with setting aside intentional time to read the Scriptures daily.

Whether you used BREAD or some other reading plan, what was your daily rhythm of engaging the Practice of Scripture? How has God met you in that daily rhythm?
How do you think this daily Practice impacted your week as a whole?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

There are more ways than ever for us to be well connected and informed in the world: networking, social media, cell phones, etc.. We can be tempted to think that all these ways have led us to where we are – a hyper-distracted, attention-deficit world. But the primary offender seems to be the amount of information we take in. We are being fire-hosed with far more content than we can actually process. Our inner lives, then, often become reflections of our outer lives – noisy and busy. The real issue, though, is that we import the culture of our pace into our spiritual formation, assuming we know where the story is going, often getting ahead of Jesus or just kicking and screaming, demanding that God moves faster. We tend to think peace is what we’re wanting from God because life is so busy, and waiting is uncomfortable. Instead, God teaches us that it’s actually hope we’re needing in our waiting. It’s hope that redeems our way of seeing God’s presence at work within us, even amidst a noisy and anxious world.

Solitude is the spiritual practice of allowing Jesus to form our inner lives according to his pace, growing us up in the process.

If our aim is to become people of peace in a culture of noise, God invites us to be like a weaned child who finds peace by God’s presence, not by his provisions. Growing up in the way of Jesus is uncomfortable and will, at times, feel like chaos that God isn’t doing anything about. That means that the only way we can grow up in the way of Jesus is by the uncomfortable imperative of waiting. The spiritual practice of waiting with hope is Solitude. While Solitude can outwardly look like a practice of retreating from the world, the truth is, Solitude is a way of being with God that we might live hope-fully for the sake of others.

Do This Practice Tonight

Leader: For tonight, you will need a way to keep track of time as you’ll enter 5 minutes of silence as a Community. If there are kids present, share with the parents that the first part of the Practice tonight will include silence and stillness so they can best support their kids. If it’s helpful, consider playing light instrumental music in the background so that distractions are minimal.

Solitude can be practiced in several ways: annually, quarterly, monthly through a retreat. Solitude can also be practiced weekly by spending an hour in quiet, prayerful silence. For tonight, the best place for us to start is with Silent Prayer, also known as Contemplative Prayer or Beholding Prayer. It’s exactly what it sounds like – a prayer either without words or with very few words, with the focus on watching and waiting with hope. Silent prayer is directing our full attention on God, beholding him, beholding me.

Get comfortable. As we begin, let’s take a moment to get comfortable. This can involve putting our phones aside, making sure the kids are doing ok in the other room, and getting into a posture that helps us feel open to the Spirit.

Spend 5 minutes in Silent Prayer. Next, let’s pray and invite the Spirit to come guide our time. We will then enter into 5 minutes of Silent Prayer. Remember, our minds tend to seize the moment in silence and multiple thoughts tend to surface. Picture each thought in your mind's eye, simply as a cloud: notice the thought and let it float on by. Each time you catch your distracted mind, you can return to a simple breath prayer, “In you, I live” or “In you, I rest” or “In you, I delight”, to anchor you back in Silent Prayer. You can open your hands in a posture of prayer that helps redirect your attention on God. When we come to the end of our 5 minutes, I will break our silence by saying “Thank you God for being with us tonight.”

Leader: Pray “Come, Holy Spirit” and then sit in silence.

Read Psalm 131. Let’s have someone read Psalm 131. Afterwards, we’ll take time to talk through a few or all of these questions:

As a baby is weaned by learning to trust, how might God be inviting you to greater levels of trust in him? What challenges or uncomfortability do you face in this?
How and when do you resist or avoid being alone? When have you felt the most present being alone with God?
Have you ever considered Solitude the spiritual practice of learning to wait on God, so that he can grow you up in trust? How does this understanding change your desire to practice Solitude or perspective of the practice?
What commitment, if any, do you feel the Spirit inviting you to regarding the practice of Solitude?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week we want to engage the Practice of Solitude by setting aside intentional time for Silent Prayer.

First, identify a time and place that works well for you. For most people, the first thing in the morning works best. You’re rested, fresh, and the day is young. For others, a more optimal time slot is when kids are napping in the late morning, or on a lunch break, after work, or before you go to bed. Feel free to experiment until you find the right fit.

Next, set a goal for how you’d like to practice Solitude through Silent Prayer this week. It could be helpful to start at 2 minutes per day if this is an entirely new practice. As you build stamina in Solitude, add time, moving to 5, then 7, then 10 minutes. When beginning any new practice, it's important to start slow and start where you are. Consistency is far more important than duration. If you already have a daily practice of Solitude, consider incorporating a weekly ritual of extended quiet reflection or perhaps a monthly, quarterly, or annual rhythm of retreat.

Then, for the Practice itself: (similar to how we did it tonight)

Put away your phone or any other distractions, settle in, and get comfortable.

Begin with a breath prayer. Close your eyes and release the constant chatter in your mind. Let each thought come and go, releasing it back to the Lord. When you notice your mind start to wander, just recenter with a quick prayer, like, “Jesus” and come back to your breathing.
Spend a few minutes noticing God’s presence. Set a timer on your phone (2-10 minutes), open your hands in a posture of prayer, and pray aloud, “Come, Holy Spirit,” and then sit in silence.
Close in a prayer of gratitude and commit the rest of your day to the Father.

Finally, with the goal of helping families at Bridgetown engage these core Practices in their homes, similar to how we do in Community, we have also released a Family Guide for Solitude. These Guides are written to be conversational and to include all members of the family. That Guide can be found by clicking the button below or on the teaching page for this series.

Family guide: SOlitude

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice of Silent Prayer and Solitude went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the Practice of Solitude.

Kylee Logan 1/24/24 Kylee Logan 1/24/24

Family Guide: Solitude

Take a moment to imagine the loudest place you’ve ever been. Maybe a concert or a Portland Trail Blazers game, or a big city like New York, London, or Seattle. Perhaps you’ve heard an airplane take off or a loud car drove by when you weren’t expecting it. What are some of the LOUDEST places you’ve ever been?

The world around us is often very loud and busy. We can feel overwhelmed by all the things going on around us. Sometimes, it feels loud and busy inside of us too. When we’re anxious, our thoughts might feel like a race car zooming around in our heads. When we’re excited, we might feel like there’s ping pong balls bouncing around in our bodies. Have you ever experienced these feelings before? What was it like?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share their answers.

Jesus shows us that there are good habits we can have to help give us a break from this type of noise and hustle-and-bustle. One of these good habits is called Solitude. Have you ever heard the word “solitude” before?

Parents: Pause here for your child(ren) to share their answers.

The word “solitude” is kind of like the word “solo,” which we use when someone does something by themselves like singing a song or playing an instrument or doing a dance. “Solitude” is kind of similar and is used to describe when we spend quiet time by ourselves. It’s like pressing pause on the world around us in order to calm our bodies and minds. When we take this type of quiet time, we might feel stillness or freedom or peace.

The Bible describes many times where Jesus had some quiet time by himself. But during these times of solitude, Jesus wasn’t actually alone. The Bible tells us that Jesus was spending this quiet time with his Father, God. He stepped away from all the noise and activity so that he could be with God. During this time he prayed - he listened to God, talked to God, or even just sat in silence in God’s presence. Just like us, Jesus needed time away from noisy busy spaces to be able to hear what God his Father was saying to him. Have you ever had quiet time with God? What was it like?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share their answers.

Let’s read through a Bible story about a time someone practiced Solitude. Elijah was a prophet who loved and served God even when the people around him didn’t. There was a bad king who wanted to kill Elijah—he didn’t like that Elijah encouraged people to worship God. Elijah was afraid and ran away to escape this bad king, hiding in a cave. He didn’t know what to do. Now, let’s read what happens next.

Parents: Pull out a Bible and read 1 Kings 19v9–13.

The story continues on with Elijah telling God everything that was going on and how it made him feel. In response, God spoke to Elijah and told him what he needed to do next.

Parents: Work through these questions together:

How did Elijah feel at the beginning of the story? (Afraid and not sure what to do next)
What happened when Elijah was alone? (God spoke to him)
God’s presence came near to Elijah when he passed by the cave Elijah was in. Was God’s presence in the wind, earthquake, fire, or whisper? (The whisper!)
How do you think Elijah felt after talking with God? How would you have felt?

In order to hear someone whisper, things have to be pretty quiet, right? You wouldn’t be able to hear a whisper while standing by a train! God had something he wanted to say to Elijah. To be able to hear it, Elijah needed a quiet alone space, and he also needed a "quiet mind." When Elijah was alone in the silence, God spoke to him and helped him. God’s presence was in the whisper. And just like Elijah, when we’re overwhelmed, we need to take some quiet space to hear the whisper of God’s voice—not just in a place that isn’t noisy, but also in a place where our bodies and minds can calm down a little. We can spend quiet time with God before we start our days or before bedtime. Even right in the middle of a busy day, we can step away to take some deep breaths and ask God to help us.

For some of us, it can be hard to sit still or be quiet for very long. Do you find it hard to sit still and be quiet sometimes?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

It’s okay if Solitude or spending quiet time with God sounds a little new or scary. It’s also okay if you don’t enjoy sitting still. There are lots of ways we can engage our bodies and minds during solitude to make it a little easier. Practicing Solitude is like practicing dribbling a soccer ball or riding a skateboard or playing the violin—we learn best when we are patient and keep trying.

As followers of Jesus, we want to follow his example and learn to spend time in Solitude with God everyday. Here’s two specific ideas that might make learning easier. Let’s discuss each and pick one to try this week– I wonder what God wants to say to us when we do!

Idea #1: Make settling jars. Settling jars are a great tool to help us calm our minds and bodies as we listen for God’s voice. Settling jars are like a visual timer. We can shake them and watch the glittery, sparkly swirls while we sit quietly or pray. Once we’ve made our jars, we can either have quiet time together around the table or spread out on our own. We’ll begin by shaking our jars gently so the sparkles twirl around in the water. As we do, we can invite God to meet us with a simple prayer like “Come Holy Spirit” or “God, help us to hear your voice”. Then, we’ll sit quietly watching the colorful swirls until they all settle on the bottom of the jar. We can keep our hearts and minds open to God and listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit while we wait.

Parents: There are a few ways to make settling jars, which are also called “calm down jars”. We recommend water and mica powder in a small mason jar. But you can also use clear craft glue and glitter. Do some quick research to decide what supplies will work best for your family.

Idea #2: Use a finger maze. Another idea to help us practice Solitude is by using a tool called a finger maze. Kind of like the settling jar, a finger maze helps us calm our minds and bodies as we wait to hear God’s voice. We can print out a finger maze and sit somewhere quiet. As we slowly trace our finger through the maze, working our way towards the heart in the center, we can talk to God and share anything we might be feeling or needing. Once we get to the middle, we can pause, take a deep breath, and invite God to meet us with a simple prayer like “Come Holy Spirit” or “God, help us to hear your voice”. Then, we’ll trace our way back through the maze to where we started, and as we do, we can listen for the whisper of the Holy Spirit.

Parents: You can print out the Finger Maze sheet below.

Which of these two do we want to commit to? Let’s plan a few days and times this week to practice Solitude using the idea we’ve chosen.

Parents: Write down the idea your family chooses and any specifics you decide on and put it up where the whole family can see it!

Whether on a car ride from church or at dinner later this month or some other time, let’s decide when we want to talk about Solitude again. And, finally, let’s end by praying together that God would help us to create space in our busy and noisy world to hear his voice and be in his presence.

Solitude resources

Kylee Logan 1/17/24 Kylee Logan 1/17/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 2: Scripture

Leader: Tonight’s Practice will include an invitation for everyone in your Community to reflect and respond by writing a few things down. People are welcome to use their phones to jot down notes, but having devices out might be a distraction, so consider having some pens and paper available.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your time together by taking communion together, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone read from the gospel of Matthew 11v28-30

Review the Last Practice

Leader: As you and your Community begin to review last week’s Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is not a place to be hyper critical or judgemental of what was necessarily accomplished. This is to simply notice how it went, what felt hard, and be encouraged hearing from one another.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice, let’s collectively reflect and talk about how this previous week went practicing the Daily Prayer Rhythm.

Which part of the Daily Prayer Rhythm came the most natural to you? (the Lord’s Prayer in the Morning, praying for the lost at Midday, or gratitude in the Evening)
Where did you sense God’s voice, his presence, and action through it?
What was hard about it? What might you want to do differently in the future?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Since our collective aim is to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did, it is key to not only remember the life of Jesus but to take on the lifestyle of Jesus. To Jesus, the Scriptures were a tool, an instrument that shaped how he viewed and interacted with God and the world. And even more than that, Jesus is the singular person in all of biblical history to claim that the Scriptures were not only forming him, they were about him. The story of the Bible culminates in the person of Jesus. The Scriptures bring to life freedom, healing, redemption, justice, mercy, and transforming love.

Before bookstores or phone apps, the people of God would gather together in a room with a single copy or parts of the Scriptures, and listen as large sections of it would be read out loud. This practice of gathering together for the purpose of encountering God in the Scriptures was part of their weekly lives. Anything that we practice regularly shapes and forms the way we view ourselves, others, and God. It’s been said that whatever we behold, we often become. So, as followers of Jesus we sit under the Scriptures’ authority and allow it to re-form our hearts and worldviews. Through the Practice of Scripture, Jesus’ reality becomes our reality—ultimately shaping how we live.

Do This Practice Tonight

Leader: If you want to follow along in your BREAD book, we’ll be using the prompts on page 6. It could be helpful to ask someone else in your Community to read Psalm 126, so that you and/or your Co-Leader can guide everyone through the prompts below.

As we build a habit of reading the Scriptures, we learn to find ourselves in God’s story. The Scriptures begin to help us see the world the way God does and be formed into his image. There are many ways to engage Scripture—like reading, studying, memorizing, and praying it—but tonight we are going to use the process of BREAD to encounter the Spirit through Psalm 126, from Sunday’s scheduled reading.

BREAD is a modern take on lectio divina, which is a time-tested way of meeting with God in the pages of Scripture. So, as we do this, simply notice where you sense the Spirit speaking to you through the text. Pay attention to how your heart is postured, doing your best to open yourself to God’s voice and let the words you hear challenge, shape, and bless you. We will follow these five prompts to guide our time: Be Still, Read, Encounter, Apply, and Devote.

Leader: Be sure not to rush each prompt. So pay attention to how people are doing in the room, and pause for 1-2 minutes between each.

Be still: To begin, let’s put away our devices or any distractions and get into a comfortable but alert position. Let’s take a few moments to breathe in and out deeply, centering ourselves before God.

Read: Now, let’s read Psalm 126. After a minute or two, we will reread the passage again slowly. As we read, take notice of what stands out and perhaps even write it down.

Encounter: Now, we’re going to meditate on what God highlighted to each of us by reflecting silently on the question: What might God be saying to me?

Apply: Next, we are going to name and write down what God might be inviting us into. How might we practically engage this invitation tonight, tomorrow, and in the week to come?

Devote: Finally, we’ll take a moment to write or silently pray a prayer, committing ourselves to what God has been revealing to us and how we want to be transformed by him and his truth. Through this, we get to surrender and entrust our deepest formation to the Spirit of God.

Leader: Be sure to close in a prayer of gratitude for how God met us before moving on.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to continue this Practice by setting aside intentional time to read the Scriptures daily. Keep in mind, the Practice of reading Scripture is aimed more at growing a relationship with God than gathering information about God. If you don’t have a regular Practice of reading the Bible, consider picking up a copy of BREAD in the Bridgetown Bookstore. (And there’s a BREAD for Kids version available for Families!) If you want to read BREAD’s readings for this week (January 21 – 27, 2024), they are:

Sunday: Psalm 126
Monday: John 3v1-8
Tuesday: Galatians 3v23-4v7
Wednesday: Ephesians 4v17-32
Thursday: 2 Corinthians 5v16-21
Friday: Isaiah 43v1-13
Saturday: Revelation 21v1-7

If you already have a daily rhythm of reading Scripture, consider adding something like memorization to your Scripture Practice. Simply put, memorization is the process of continually remembering the words, truths, and images God uses to shape us. Memorization can provide us with a whole new pathway of learning, which can be accessed anywhere and anytime.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice of daily reading the Scripture went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the Practice of Scripture.

Bridgetown Church 1/10/24 Bridgetown Church 1/10/24

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 1: Prayer

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Prayer is the center-point of life with God. It’s woven into the fabric of our morning routines, midday breaks, our weekly schedule. We want to make time for prayer every day, because it’s here where we get to enjoy the Lord’s presence and the Spirit’s companionship. Prayer is our opportunity to interact with the Creator God and participate in his work of bringing redemption to earth.

And yet, most of us don’t really enjoy prayer. We tend to feel bad or guilty about how little we pray. And when we finally make time to pray, we either don’t know what to say or are too distracted to focus. Many of us have the desire to grow closer to God in prayer, in hopes to become more like him, but it can seem difficult to know where to start.

As Jesus’ disciples noticed how close he was to the Father, they asked him to teach them how to pray. And how did Jesus respond? Rather than giving them a sermon on prayer or a theology about God, he prayed. Right then and there, Jesus prayed with them. And as he did, the disciples learned that Jesus’ praying started with the assumption that God loved him. Prayer, we discover, is about bringing to God what is in us, not what we think should be in us. The invitation for each of us is to commit to praying as you can, rather than as you think you should.

There are several ways to practice prayer, but tonight we are going to pray prayers of gratitude.

Do This Practice Tonight

As we heard on Sunday, we are engaging the Practice of Prayer through Bridgetown’s Daily Prayer Rhythm. We’ll talk about the Morning and Midday rhythms later, but for tonight we are going to practice praying the Evening rhythm of gratitude together.

Leader: If you’re not already in a room where people can get settled in, consider moving into a place where everyone can position themselves comfortably. Once you’re there (if you’re not already), invite people to get comfortable and then pray to invite the Spirit to guide your time.

The evening is generally a time for resting and presence. We are tired from the events of our day, and yet we also often litter our homes, dinner tables, and relationships with the clutter we carry home from the day. So the greatest gift we can give one another right now is our collective, undivided presence to God.

To begin, let’s spend some time silently reviewing the events of our last 24 hours with the Spirit, as we listen through a few prompts to remember how and where God met us. As we go, it may be helpful to close our eyes to set our full attention on God. Let’s do our best to allow God to help us remember all of it.

Leader: Be sure not to rush through these questions. Allow space and time — like 10 or 20 seconds — between each prompt, so that everyone has the chance to reflect.

Who did you see?
What did you work on today?
What meals did you eat?
Was there anything surprising about today?

Leader: Pause here and wait for a moment in silence before moving onto the next part.

Now, as we stay in a posture of reflection with God, let’s bring our attention back to the room. We are going to offer prayers of gratitude as we remember God’s presence all across the hours of the day. As we pray, we want to thank God for overdoing it.

There are so many ways we could pray and our hope is to hear from everyone, and so here are some ideas of what these prayers could sound like:

“God, it would have been enough to have a job today, but you gave me a team I love to work alongside.”

“I feel like you overdid it with Portland’s beauty today, God. Thank you that I get to be surrounded by such beautiful nature.”

“A delicious dinner would’ve been good, but I get to share it with a Community. Thank you, God.”

It keeps going like that, but you get the point. “Thank you God for overdoing it.” Let’s take some time now to pray together. As in all conversations, periods of silence are ok. Same when we talk to God. These prayers are short and simple offerings of gratitude — we can each do more than one, if we want. I’ll start and we’ll keep going until I close.

Leader: Let these prayers go on as long as you think is helpful (5 or 10 minutes), then close in a quick prayer before moving onto the Practice for the Week Ahead.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week we want to continue with the Practice of Prayer by setting aside intentional time to engage the Daily Prayer Rhythm.

In this Daily Prayer Rhythm, we will pause and pray – morning, midday, and evening. Each morning we will begin the day with the Lord's Prayer. At midday, we will create time to pray for the lost. Then, each evening we want to end our day in gratitude to God, as we did in our Practice all together tonight. You can learn more about the Daily Prayer Rhythm at bridgetown.church/dpr

If you already are praying Bridgetown’s Daily Prayer Rhythm, consider adding something like the Examen to your Prayer Practice. You can learn more about that in this Guide from our Hearing God series.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how this Practice of the Daily Prayer Rhythm went for each of us.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that his yoke is easy and his burden is light through the Practice of Prayer.

Kylee Logan 12/10/23 Kylee Logan 12/10/23

Advent 2023, Pt. 2: Rejoicing & Celebrating

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering together by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take a moment to be still and then read Isaiah’s prophecy about the coming of Jesus:

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

Read This Overview Aloud Together

In the Psalms, David writes How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? For many of us, there are things we’ve been waiting for and praying about, even with a certainty that God has offered an invitation to pray about it and he may have indicated that it’s going to be fulfilled.

But you’re still waiting, and you’re still praying.

Anna was also praying. Her story pops up on the pages of Scripture in Luke 2, and could be shared in three parts: tragedy, temple, and testimony. She was the only named woman prophet, even though there are many accounts of several other women prophesying all throughout the Bible. Being a named prophet was not the only notable descriptor for who she was. She came from a godly family (tribe of Asher) with incredible wealth, property, and social influence. From the outside, Anna’s life was projected to flourish and be filled with blessing. However, tragedy struck way too early. She became a widow, most likely in her 20s, after being married for only 7 years. She chose to dwell in the temple day after day, night after night, in prayer and fasting, well into her 80s. Can you imagine how she might have felt? Or what her prayers must have sounded like? Or what the impact was from her ministry at the temple as she offered a message of dependant love and worship of God?

Surely there were days where she felt David’s How long, O Lord? kind of prayers, and yet we also learn that God gifted her with a testimony of witnessing the Prince of Peace enter the world. Even in her waiting, she used her gift of prophecy with the power of the Holy Spirit, to notice, rejoice and celebrate the wonder and miraculous works of God in the lives of others. She was full of joy! Not bitter or empty, as a childless widow, but full of hope and life! The reward, the purpose in Anna’s life, came through living close to God, everyday.

There are many ways to rejoice and celebrate, and tonight we want to focus on the response of gratitude towards God.

Do This Practice Tonight

God invented delight, joy, and celebration. Tonight, we get to delight in God through gratitude. Even in prison Paul and Silas found something to rejoice about (Act 16)! When we offer thanks to God in the company of others, it has the power to bring strength to fear, gladness for mourning, and peace for despair. Gratitude does not depend on everything going perfectly but highlights the reality that God is ever present. It is a learned practice to choose to sew our days together with the thread of gratitude. To choose this means to grow even closer to God. It may also mean for some of us, freedom from the very common addiction to criticism or negativity towards ourselves or others.

As our Community practices gratitude tonight, let’s keep this at the forefront of our minds: Adele Calhoun describes gratitude as receiving everything you have as a gift rather than as an entitlement.

Tonight, we are going to read through Psalm 16 together. As we do, find a comfortable but alert position.

Leader: You or someone else can read Psalm 16.

Now that we’ve read it, let’s pause in silence for a minute or so, and ask the Spirit a few questions. First, ask him to bring something to your mind that you are thankful for, specifically from this last year (e.g. a warm bed to sleep in, a small gesture of kindness from a friend, gifts from God, a breakthrough, family, etc.). Then, remembering the year or the week that has passed, where have you experienced God’s love? And what are you celebrating?

Leader: Pause in silence for a few minutes before going on.

Now, we’re going to pray out loud together. Here’s what that will look like. Each of us can quickly share (one at a time) what we’re grateful for. To do this, let’s simply say, “Thank you Lord for ________ this year.” And then, after each person shares, we will respond by collectively saying out loud “Jesus, we love you.”

Leader: After everyone shares who wants to, close this time with a brief prayer of gratitude for God’s loving and faithful presence to those in your Community.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

Before we leave, our practice for the week ahead is gratitude through the disciplines of Prayer & Scripture. Gratitude is something we learn by repetition, so set aside intentional time this week, where you are not easily distracted by what’s going on around you, in hopes to be present to God as he is present to you. Here are some ways we can do this:

Option 1: If you’re reading BREAD, after you finish the day’s reading, flip to pg. 388 and do the Evening Gratitude prayer, allowing yourself to pause, wait in silence, and ask the Spirit to bring to mind specific things you are grateful for over this last year.

Option 2: Close your day with the daily Examen:

Review the day with God.
Where did I feel furthest from God?
Where did I feel nearest to God?
In light of all that, pray one prayer for tomorrow.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, thanking God for continually coming and doing only what he can do.

Kylee Logan 12/3/23 Kylee Logan 12/3/23

Advent 2023, Pt. 1: Waiting

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud Together

We live in an unfinished story. Christ has come, and he will come again. And yet in the tension in between, there is a world that feels full of absence and ache, with things like unmet desires, sickness, pain, and unanswered prayers. Advent is a season of waiting that invites us to hold both these tensions, acknowledging Christ’s coming in three parts. First, Christ came to be with us, to seek and save the lost. Second, Christ comes into our present, sending his Holy Spirit to be with us as a comforter and an advocate. Lastly, Jesus will come again to make all things new.

In Advent, these three comings of Christ point us to the reality that there are seasons of celebration that often are preceded by seasons of preparation. As we wait and prepare for when Christ will make all things right, all of us have areas where we are waiting for God’s redemption or intervention—for healing, direction, or encouragement. There is an invitation to us in the waiting to know God more deeply and be transformed. Or as Dr. Esau McCaulley writes, “By entering into the larger story of redemptive history, we begin to feel our need for a deliverer again.”

Where are we yearning for Christ to come? Where do we need hope, encouragement, or help? Tonight we want to invite the Spirit to show us where he might be bringing light for our darkness, peace for our turmoil, and hope for our despair.

Do This Practice Tonight

No one likes waiting. Waiting often stirs an anxiety in us that leads us to try and ease the discomfort it brings. Instead of looking for God to move and to make a way, we try to fix or force something ourselves. For our Practice tonight, we are going to explore our own experiences of and postures towards waiting, and then take some time to pray for each other. Waiting offers us a variety of opportunities, like discovering new ways of communicating with God, building trust in God’s provision, and making room for the transformational work of the Spirit in our lives.

Let’s begin by reflecting together on a couple of questions, and then we’ll spend some time in smaller groups praying for each other.

Leader: Speaking of waiting… don’t feel like you need to rush through these questions. Waiting isn’t something we think about a lot, so people might need some time in silence to think about the questions. It may even be helpful to open this time in prayer, asking God to guide our thoughts.

What do you feel like you are waiting for in this season? (Note: This could be something tangible like a job or a pregnancy, or something thematic like rest or hope.)
What are some of the helpful and unhelpful ways you tend to respond to seasons of waiting in your life? (e.g. coping to numb the pain, trying to force an answer, prayer, leaning on Community, etc.)
Think back on times when you have had to wait on God for something. How do you feel like God met you or even changed you in that process?

Leader: After you’ve discussed the questions together, invite everyone to break into smaller groups for prayer by reading the following section together.

Let’s use the next chunk of time to break up into smaller groups of 3 or 4. In these groups, we’ll begin by sharing what we feel like we might be waiting for in this Advent season, and then spend the rest of the time praying together, asking God to meet each person in this place of waiting.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

Our Practice for the week ahead is to set aside intentional time to process and engage God in our waiting. God wants to be with us in our everyday life, so take some time this week to think through how you are being invited to share more honestly with God about your desires and pain in waiting. Spend time reflecting on some of the following questions, and perhaps even consider finding someone who really knows you to process through what the Spirit brought up in you.

If you are in a season of waiting, where might God be showing up?
Has anything surprised you about what it means to wait?
As you journey through Advent, you may want to pay attention to the gifts that have come to you through the waiting. What is true for you now that wouldn’t have been true if you hadn’t had to wait?
In this Advent season, what is one way you create more space for God to meet you? (e.g. carving out to time to read the Scriptures, being still before God before the day begins, slowing down, etc.)
- It may be helpful to engage with an Advent devotional book or online resource during this season. Follow this link for recommended reading including short weekly Advent meditations from our friends at Practicing the Way.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to bring light to our darkness, courage for our fear, hope for our despair, strength for our weakness, and presence in the waiting. Invite the Lord in so that he can come and do only what he can do.

Kylee Logan 12/3/23 Kylee Logan 12/3/23

Family Guide: Generosity

Have you ever heard the word “generosity”? What do you think it means to be “generous” or show “generosity” to someone?

Parents: Pause here for your child(ren) to share their answers.

“Generosity” is when we share the things that God has given us with others. And God has given us so much! We can be generous by sharing our money or other resources with someone in need, but we can also be generous by sharing our time, energy, and attention with others as an act of love. We can be generous to people we love—like our classmates and our neighbors—and to strangers. Have you ever had the chance to be generous? Have you ever received someone else’s generosity?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share their answers.

Imagine you are at school. You reach inside your backpack and you realize, oh no: you’ve forgotten your lunch. You don’t have any money with you to buy lunch, either. Your classmate sits down next to you and asks what’s wrong. When you explain that you don’t have any lunch to eat, they open up their bag and say, “Here! Eat half of my sandwich! And I brought extra carrots today. Would you like some?”. Imagine how this would make you feel. Your friend showed you love and took care of you by being generous.

All through the Bible, Jesus teaches and shows his followers about how important it is to love others. Jesus set an example of the many ways we can love others, including by being generous. One day, someone asked Jesus about what the Bible really means when it commands us to love our neighbors. Jesus, as he often did, replied not with rules but with a story. Let’s explore that story together now to see how it can teach us about generosity.

Parents: Pull out a Bible and read Luke 10v30-37. After reading the story, work through these questions together:

What did the hurt man in this story need? (He needed help! He needed medical care and a safe place to stay while his body healed.)
Who showed him generosity? (The Samaritan)
In what ways was the Samaritan generous to the hurt man?
How do you think the hurt man felt when the Samaritan helped him? How would you have felt?
When he finished the story, Jesus told his friends to go and show others love, just like the Samaritan did. Whether we’re helping someone in an emergency situation or bringing joy to a friend through a surprise, there are all kinds of ways we can be generous. What are some ways we can show generosity to others?

Just like the Samaritan in Jesus’ story, we get to show love to others through generosity. Being generous tells someone: “You are important and worthy of love”. There are so many ways we can do this—we can let other kids play with our toys or books, we can give money to people in need, we can cook food for people, we can help a neighbor with yard work, and so much more!

There are times generosity feels really easy, but other times it can be really hard. Sometimes it means we choose to share things that we might not want to share. When each of us thinks about being generous to others, how does that make us feel? What might be something easy for us to share? What might be something hard for us to share?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

It’s ok if generosity feels a little hard or scary. Jesus knows that sometimes we get worried that we might not have enough, which can make it hard to share. When his friends were anxious about not having enough, Jesus told them to look at the birds. That sounds kind of silly, huh? But Jesus pointed out that God always provides food for them. And God loves US even more than the birds, so we never need to worry about having enough. (Matthew 6v26-27) In fact, because God first loved us generously, we get to love others generously too. When we are generous, we are loving others and we are loving God.

Let’s end by talking about specific ways we can show God’s love to others through generosity. Remember that there are so many ways to be generous. Some require sharing money or resources, but Jesus shows us that sharing our time, energy, and attention is just as important.

Practicing Generosity is like practicing riding a bike or playing piano or dribbling a basketball or speaking a new language – we learn it best when we start slow and simple. So rather than doing something really big to start, it can be helpful to pick something simple that we can accomplish in the next week.

Here is a list of three ideas for us to explore that are simple. Let’s discuss them and pick one to try this week!

Idea #1: Give something we have to someone who needs it. – One of the ways we could practice Generosity is by sharing with someone in need. We could donate warm winter clothes to people who don’t have a place to live. We could give a gift to someone who is feeling down or share a meal with someone. We could ask an organization that serves others in our city how we can support the work they are doing. After we give this thing away, we can spend time praying together and thanking God that He always gives us what we need.

Idea #2: Share our time with others. – Another idea is to be generous with our time by hosting or serving someone. We could invite someone from church or school or work over for dinner. We could visit an elderly neighbor and talk with them. We could sign up to help serve dinner at a local shelter. We feel the most loved when we feel the most known, so our goal is to show love by seeing others, listening to them, and learning about them.

Idea #3: Make something for someone. – Have you ever received a homemade gift from someone? Sometimes a homemade gift is even more special than an expensive gift, because we made it with our own hands, time, and creativity. We could draw pictures or write kind words to someone. We could make a painted rock for our neighbor’s garden or a Christmas ornament for a family member.

Which of these three do we want to commit to?

Parents: Write down the idea your family chooses and any specifics you decide on and put it up where the whole family can see it!

Whether on a car ride from church or at dinner later this month or some other time, let’s decide when we want to bring this up again and think about how we can continue to grow in generosity. And, finally, let’s end by praying together that God would help us to be generous and love others like Jesus does.

Kylee Logan 11/20/23 Kylee Logan 11/20/23

Community, Pt. 5: Humility & Wonder

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after dinner. If you don’t already have a Communion plan, have someone read these words from David in Psalm 133:

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.
It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

Review the Last Practice

During the last Community Guide, we talked about the Practice of intentional friendship. Before we talk about tonight’s Practice, let’s take a moment to talk about how this went. As a reminder, some suggestions included telling a friend what they mean to you, and being intentional to bless people around you.

How is your Practice of intentionally engaging and participating in friendship going? Any stories or updates?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Relationships can be complex. Spending time with the same people week after week means discovering—if you haven’t already—that you each see the world differently, go about life and relationships differently, and communicate differently. Those differences make us who we are, and yet they can lead to relational rough spots that are uncomfortable or downright painful. And depending on our background or personality, we all engage conflict differently. We may be met with the desire to confront aggressively, to ignore it, or perhaps just to leave the Community altogether in search of one where things like this don’t happen. In reality, though, wherever there are people, there will be conflict. But while many of us worry that the mere presence of conflict means something is fundamentally wrong, conflict is normal and facing it well together makes relationships stronger, not weaker.

As the people of God, we are on a journey to become a healthy family. Not one that never disagrees, but one that can deal with differences, confront one another in love when needed, and grow together in the process. In other words, we are called to be a people who practice reconciliation. Is it easy? No—it requires the humility to search yourself for where you might be wrong, the empathy to imagine the life of another, and the vulnerability to do this alongside others. But even though it takes time and intentionality, it is worth the hard. On the other side of conflict, if we approach it with curiosity, compassion, and genuine love, we find a deeper, richer, more beautiful family of God.

This week, we want to practice humility and wonder, as we ask God to search us and help us to take steps toward being a people of reconciliation who live at peace with one another.

Do This Practice Tonight

Tonight, we’re going to spend some time together in a guided prayer asking the Spirit to search us, bringing to our awareness any relational wounds he wants to speak with us about (whether ours or ones we’ve caused). Don’t worry though—we’re not going to spend the second half forcing anyone to say who in the room we are having conflict with. Instead, after a time of guided silent prayer, we’re going to split into smaller groups to talk through some discussion questions, pray for one another, and go over our Practice for the coming week.

But first, before we get started, take a moment to find a position you’ll be comfortable praying in for a few minutes. I am going to slowly read through Psalm 139 and then offer a questions for us to each silently talk with God about.

(Leader: Read Psalm 139. When you’re done, read the following questions aloud, leaving a minute or so pause after each question.)

God, where do you want to show me that you are with me?
Where do I wish the darkness would hide me?
Search me, God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. God, is there any relational wounding or conflict in my life that you want to speak to me about right now? What do you want to say about it?

(Leader: After a minute or so more in silence, close the time in prayer by thanking God for how he was present to us in these moments.)

Next, we are going to split into smaller groups (men and women, triads, etc.) and process through a few questions:

What was that experience like for you? Do you find exercises like this difficult or easy? If so, what contributes to that for you?
Did the Spirit bring anything or anyone to your mind? Did he invite you to take any step towards reconciliation? (Keep in mind that we want to honor people, so, where it’s appropriate, try to not use names or too many details.)
How do you typically react to conflict? (e.g. fear, defensiveness, avoidance, etc.)

Close your smaller group time praying for one another, that each person would feel God’s love even in the midst of him “revealing any offensive way in [us],” and asking that God would lead each person in “the way everlasting.”

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

In Romans 12, Paul says that as far as it depends on us, we are to live at peace with everyone. This means that we should be going the extra mile to ensure that we are engaging in reconciliation. In our culture, one of the bravest things a person can do is to confront someone. And while it does take courage (and is very important at times), the way of Jesus seems to suggest that equally courageous is to humble ourselves, going to a brother or sister and asking them for forgiveness. Perhaps one of the most difficult parts of life together is this kind of confession, as it requires humility, vulnerability, and trust.

The practice for the week ahead is to continue this exercise of humility in a few different ways.

First, take time to ask God to search you and reveal if there is conflict that needs resolving or sin in your own life that needs to be owned. Practice confession and repentance.

Next, in an intentional practice of empathy towards our brothers and sisters, if there is a situation in which you have been wronged, consider asking the Lord to show you something about the person who has wronged you. As to know his deep love for that person, or perhaps how the scenario felt from their perspective. Practice curiosity, compassion, and empathy.

Finally, ask God to teach you his “way everlasting” as the psalmist writes. If there seems to be a pattern of relational brokenness in your life, engage the Practices of slowing down and meditation. Cultivate the margin in your life required to become contemplative about your actions, God’s presence, and other people’s belovedness.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close in prayer, asking God to help you to be good friends to the people around you.

Kylee Logan 10/30/23 Kylee Logan 10/30/23

Community, Pt. 4: Friendship

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

During the last Community Guide, we talked about engaging and participating more intentionally in Bridgetown’s Sunday gathering. Before we talk about tonight’s Practice, let’s take a moment to talk about how this went.

How is your Practice of engaging and participating more intentionally in the Sunday gathering going? Any stories or updates?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

We are relational beings. Relationships form and shape us, they help define or reveal who we are, and they are core to what it means to be human. And, yet, not all relationships are the same — each necessarily holds different amounts of intention, depth, and commitment. We relate differently to our barista than to our kid’s teacher, to our boss than to our coworker, to our sister than to our husband. In the pages of Scriptures we learn that one of the most important types of relationships is friendship, the very relationship into which God is consistently inviting us all.

Whether we intend for them to or not, our friendships will inform who we are becoming. We become like those we spend time with. And if we’re wanting to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did, we must be intentional to have other people who want that too, and who will help you get there as you help them.

So tonight we will spend time doing two things. First, we will explore the friendships within our Community as we talk about our current rhythm of Family by planning our next Family night together. And, second, we will talk about taking time this week to intentionally celebrate and thank a friend in our lives or to intentionally take a step towards developing one.

Do This Practice Tonight

So far during this series, we’ve explored our Community’s rhythms of Discipleship and Mission, so up for tonight is our third rhythm: Family. By Family we mean cultivating a relational environment of trust, vulnerability, and safety by having fun together, celebrating together, and playing together.

Some of us tend to think that Community should be serious, that’s it’s somehow more “spiritual” that way. But seriousness is not a fruit of the Spirit, joy is. When a Family night comes up, we need to have a good time! Play and fun help us build a culture of vulnerability and safety that will facilitate deeper discipleship together. This Guide is really simple, but our goal is to plan a bigger-than-normal Family night together – to take our current rhythm of Family and turn it up – as a way of celebrating the friendship of our Community.

To begin our conversation, let’s discuss our Community’s current rhythm of Family.

How do we feel like our monthly rhythm of Family is going? What is going well and what could use some tinkering?

Leader: Pause for people to explore your Community’s current rhythm.

Whether or not we have a regular rhythm of Family – let’s take time to plan our next Family night together. As we go about this, let’s keep three values in mind: Fun, Celebration, & Gratitude.

Fun: Our Family night should involve something fun! Whether this is board games, ice cream sundaes, a group outing to the arcade, pumpkin carving, karaoke, a themed party, or something else, let’s do something out of the ordinary that feels playful and engaging.

Celebration: It could be really helpful during our Family time together to celebrate something. Whether something specific like a birthday or anniversary or something more general like a general sense of gratitude for each other, let’s shape our time together around celebrating something.

Gratitude: The best kind of gathering is one rooted in gratitude. Whether in a prayer at the beginning or end, or toasts around the table, or just in conversation throughout the night, let’s make sure to plan on reflecting about what and who we find ourselves grateful for.

With that all in mind, let’s plan our next Family night! As we do, while our goal is to plan one night, let’s be sure that someone is taking notes on all the ideas that come up because they can be used in future Family nights.

Leader: If your Community has a Family Night Coordinator, you may consider asking them to lead the following planning conversation – but make sure you aren’t springing it on them in the moment.

What should we do? What sounds fun? What do we have to celebrate? How can we express gratitude?

Leader: Take the time to plan out your next Family night as much as you can together, making sure that someone(s) has the task of running point.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

Before we leave, the Practice for the week ahead is to celebrate friendship!

Oftentimes we go through life forgetting the power of telling someone how much they mean to us. Take time this week to intentionally get together with a good friend with the purpose of letting them know what their friendship means to you and thanking them for being a good friend to you. Whether you buy them coffee or go on a walk or do something fun, be intentional with your words and bless them for the way they have supported and loved you well.

That said, some of us are still finding these kinds of friends. If that’s the case, think about who could become this kind of person in your life and invite them to hang out with you. Get together with them and be intentional to bless what you see in them. You don’t have to force something or decide then-and-there that you’re best friends; simply engage the slow work of building trust and vulnerability with another person who you think could bless you as equally as you could bless them.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close in prayer, asking God to help you to be good friends to the people around you.

Kylee Logan 10/19/23 Kylee Logan 10/19/23

Community, Pt. 3: Church

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup before or after dinner. If you don’t already have a Communion plan, have someone read these words from David in Psalm 133:

Review the Last Practice

During the last Community Guide, we talked about setting aside intentional time to pray for our city, asking God to move us closer to our neighbors and open up opportunities for us to engage in witness. Before we talk about tonight’s Practice, let’s take a moment to talk about how this went.

If you spent time praying for our city, did you sense God say something to you or move you in any way towards your neighbors? If not, what would you want to ask God for?
Did anyone work through the Family Guide? If so, how did it go?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Throughout Scripture, we find story after story of God’s people gathering together — around tables, in gardens, at prayer meetings, in tabernacles, in churches, and more.

The authors of Scripture exhort us time and time again to make a regular habit of gathering. In Hebrews, the author calls the church to persevere by not giving up on gathering together as a way of encouraging each other to remember that Jesus is going to return (Heb 10v25). Or take Paul, for example, who exhorts us not just to attend church, but to participate in it (1 Cor 12-14). Even Jesus himself regularly gathered with his community in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

Made in the image of the trinitarian God, we are built for relationship; our need for others is core to our humanity, and that doesn’t change as we follow after Jesus. There is something sacred and good about the church gathering.

Today, God’s people meet all over the globe to worship together in churches, whether they be in middle school gyms, big buildings, or secret locations to guard from persecution. At Bridgetown, we encourage all to participate in the rhythms of attending both a Bridgetown Community and a Sunday gathering. Together, these two practices represent something of a tide of God’s presence: coming in together every Sunday at church, and scattering out to cover Portland’s neighborhoods around dining room tables throughout the week.

Alongside our recent conversations about life together within this Bridgetown Community, we also want to direct focus toward life together as Bridgetown Church, by talking about the Sunday Gathering.

Do This Practice Tonight

Making time to prioritize a weekly Sunday gathering can be challenging for all kinds of reasons. Some of us may simply be out of the habit post-pandemic. Others of us attend a Sunday gathering regularly, but are trying to find a way to participate more intentionally. Wherever we find ourselves, let’s take some time to explore what invitations are on the table for us to engage in the life of Bridgetown.

Attending Sundays: For those who haven’t yet rebuilt the rhythm of attending the Sunday gathering, perhaps we would like to commit to doing so. If we only attend once per month, maybe we could try for twice or three times.
Hosting: A gathering can be a pretty intimidating place to be, if we don’t really know anyone on a Sunday. For those of us in Communities, Bridgetown is our home, which means that we get to welcome new people at the Sunday gathering. This could look like intentionally meeting and engaging with the folks around us and hosting the space with prophetic hospitality. Think about the way we do or don’t interact with people at a Sunday gathering, and consider committing to being more present to the people around us.
Embodied Worship: Another way to participate in the Sunday gathering is to engage in worship in an embodied way. The Bible often connects worship to our bodies, encouraging people to sing, lift hands, bow down, dance, and shout. Think about how we currently engage in worship and consider whether or not we sense an invitation to a more embodied response.
Serving: It takes so many people to make a Sunday happen – people to serve with Kids, make coffee, help people find seats, switch slides, play instruments, pray for people, etc. A great way to participate in the Sunday gathering is to help make it happen by signing up to serve. Consider committing to an area of serving by signing up at bridgetown.church/serve

(Leader: Take some time to discuss the following prompts.)

For those who do attend the Sunday gathering regularly, why do you do it? What do you experience or participate in that you would miss out on by not being there?
If you used to attend regularly, but haven’t in a while, what do you miss about the Sunday gathering? (e.g. meeting people, worshiping with people, listening to the Spirit in prayer together, having the response time after the teaching, etc.)
What makes regularly attending Sunday gatherings difficult? Is there anything we as a community could do to make getting there on a Sunday easier (e.g. carpooling, sitting together on Sunday, saving seats, etc.)?

As you reflect on the Sunday gathering, is there a way you would like to grow in your participation?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

(Leader: The following can be a whole group discussion, if you have time, or you could split into smaller groups.)

Before we go, let’s talk about the Practice for the week ahead. Each of us is likely in a different place regarding the Sunday gathering, so each of us will have a different next step. As we’ve already spent some time discussing what it could look like to grow in our Practice of the Sunday gathering, let’s each commit to trying something new this next week. Perhaps we want to try to attend more regularly, or to commit to meeting one new person each Sunday, or to be more embodied in our worship, or to sign up to serve. Whatever it is, let’s name this to each other, discuss what might help us keep this commitment, and then take some time to pray that God would help us take this next step.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close in prayer, asking God to help you not just engage but participate in the Sunday gatherings, remembering the privilege and gift it is to gather together with others who love Jesus.

Kylee Logan 10/4/23 Kylee Logan 10/4/23

Family Guide: Witness

Have you ever heard the word “witness”? What do you think it means to “witness” something?

Parents: Pause here for your child(ren) to share their answers.

A “witness” is someone who sees something important take place and tells other people about it. You can witness fun and happy things like your soccer team winning a game or an amazing sunset, and you can witness sad or scary things like a car accident or someone at school being mean to your classmate. What is something that each of us has witnessed this week?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share their answers.

Imagine if you saw Jesus heal someone whose eyes were blind. Wouldn’t you want to tell everyone you knew, and maybe even strangers? The Bible has all kinds of stories about people having really awesome experiences with Jesus and then telling all of their friends about it. In fact, back before the internet and cell phones existed, the only way the Good News that Jesus was King could be spread was by witnesses – people who had experienced this Good News and told everyone they knew about how much God loved the world.

Let’s read through a Bible story about a time in which someone practiced Witness. This story is about a man who was not able to see for his whole life! But then he had a cool encounter with Jesus. Let’s see what Jesus did and how the man responded.

Parents: Pull out a Bible and read John 9v6-11. After reading the story, work through these questions together:

What did the guy in this story “witness”? (He witnessed Jesus healing his eyes!)
What did he do afterwards? (He told people about it!)
Who would you want to tell if you saw Jesus heal someone like this?
Sometimes we witness Jesus do things outside of us like healing people. And sometimes we get to witness Jesus do things inside of us like make us not afraid at night or help us make new friends. What has happened in your life with God that you would want other people to know?

Did you know that, since we are a part of God’s family, we get to be witnesses too? Just like the guy in this story, we get to tell people about Jesus! There are so many ways we can do this: we can pray for people, we can be really good friends, we can cook food for people, we can talk to them when they’re sad, we can invite them to church, and so much more!

Some people really love to tell people about Jesus. Some people feel kind of scared about it. And some people haven’t really thought about it before. All of these things are totally ok! There is no wrong way to feel about it. When each of us thinks about telling people about God’s love, how does that make us feel?

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

There are no bad ways to feel about this. It’s ok to feel a little bit scared or to not really want to try it. It can be hard to do something, especially if we’ve never really tried it before! One thing that helps us to do hard things is to try them with other people. Maybe there are some ways we can practice Witness together as a family!

To start our brainstorming, let’s talk about who in our life doesn’t know Jesus. These can be anyone: friends from school or an after school club, neighbors down the street, friends at mom/dad’s work, family members, etc. Can we make a list of 5 people in our lives who don’t know Jesus?

Parents: Pause here to fill out the “5 people we’re praying for” list below.

Next, let’s talk about how we could share with these people about God. Remember that there are so many ways to share about Jesus with people. We can tell them a story about how we have felt loved by God, we can invite them over to play with us, we can say something really nice to them (like a blessing), we can share something a toy with them when we’d rather not, or so many other things!

Practicing Witness is like practicing riding a bike or playing piano or dribbling a basketball or speaking Spanish – we learn it best when we do it over and over again. So rather than just doing something once, it can be helpful to pick something that we do on a regular rhythm.

Here is a list of three specific ideas for us to explore that are simple and repeatable. Let’s discuss them and pick one to try for a season!

Idea #1: Pray through our list on Sunday after church – One of the ways we could practice Witness could be to spend our car ride home from church each Sunday praying through the list of 5 people that we made. This could be done in a few movements:

Discuss what we witnessed at church. What did we hear at church? How did we encounter God?
Pray through our list of 5 people. Let’s take some time to pray together, asking that God would save the people on this list and that they would come to know his love for them.
Ask God to send us. Let’s pray and ask God to send us to be part of their salvation stories. This could look like asking God for any fun, creative ideas that he would have us be part of, and then waiting in silence for God to put ideas in our minds and hearts.
Thank God. Finally, let’s close the prayer thanking God for the way he speaks to us. And let’s take some time talking about any ideas that God seemed to give us.

Idea #2: Invite someone over for dinner – Another really fun idea could be to pick one night every month to invite someone from our list over for dinner. Some months we might invite a friend from school and their family, other months we might invite mom’s coworker and their family, or some month’s we might invite a neighbor from down the street. Whoever we invite over, the goal of these dinners would simply be to share the love of God through hospitality. Whether praying for them before they come over or taking time to bless them at dinner with kind words of what we appreciate about them or perhaps even telling them about what God is doing in our life, we want the people who sit at our table to know that they are loved by our family and by God.

Idea #3: Invite someone to come to church with us – Church is a really cool place to witness God. We witness God through the songs that we sing and the Bible stories we learn and the friends that we make. Could we invite someone to witness God with us at church on Sunday? Perhaps plan to invite someone from our list once a month. We can decide at the beginning of each month who we are going to invite and which Sunday it will be. And then we could have conversations with them about where we all witnessed God at church.

Which of these three do we want to commit to?

Parents: Fill out the “Our Family Witness Practice” sheet below (including any relevant details) and put it up where the whole family can see it!

Whether on a car ride from church or at dinner later this month or some other time, let’s decide when we want to bring this up again. And, finally, let’s end by praying together for these 5 people by name, that God would help them to know his love and that God would send us to help them know his love.

Witness Resources

Kylee Logan 10/4/23 Kylee Logan 10/4/23

Community, Pt. 2: Witness

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

During the last Community Guide, we talked about setting aside intentional time to pray for our Community, asking God to guide and guard us as we work through this series together. Before we talk about tonight’s Practice, let’s take a moment to talk about how this went.

If you spent time praying for our Community, what did you ask God for? If not, what would you want to ask God for?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Throughout history, the rhythms of prayer and justice have functioned as a sort of inhaling and exhaling for the church: we inhale the presence and life of God through prayer and then we exhale justice, being pushed out of our living rooms and onto the streets. And in this process, as we become more like Jesus, we begin to see God’s presence in our city, especially among places, spaces, and people we once considered too dark or broken. Over time, we become our prayers.

One of the primary rhythms for a Bridgetown Community is to be sent by the Spirit to serve Portland in the same way that Jesus did his city: by becoming proximate to the poor. So one of our Community’s goals is to practice a monthly rhythm of mission. But we don’t make ourselves proximate to those on the margins in order to feel good about ourselves. Instead, with Jesus as our guide, we aim for kinship: for the kind of relationships in which time and space eventually creates family. We want to invite people to become part of our family as we are invited to become part of theirs.

Tonight, we are going to spend time exploring how our Community’s current rhythm and Practice of mission has been going, or working to build one if we don’t yet have one.

Do This Practice Tonight

Whether or not we have a regular rhythm of mission or justice, our goal tonight is to work towards establishing one that is intentional, simple, and repeatable. Since the goal is to have a monthly expression of mission that makes us proximate to those on the margins in our city, we will need to have sustainable rhythms in place to make that happen. But, since there are many ways in which a Community can practice mission, there is freedom in what we pick together. Before we get to the brainstorming, let’s take a moment to talk about where we’re currently at.

To begin our conversation, let’s discuss our Community’s current rhythm of mission.

What does everyone understand our Community's mission rhythm to be? Do we have one?
If we have one, how does everyone feel like it is going? What is going well and what could use some tinkering?

Leader: Pause for people to explore your Community’s current rhythm.

The following part of the Guide is aimed at helping our Community establish or shore up our Mission Practice through 3 discussion prompts. Each provides a few of the most common options Bridgetown Communities choose. So we’ll spend some time with each prompt and the options, making sure not to move on until we have returned to answer each question.

1. What matters to us? When we consider our monthly mission, each of us carries a number of values and desires. While we won’t be able to fulfill each of them, it is important to take some time to name them. In Communities, some of the most common are:

Including kids: Most Communities have kids in them. If ours is one of them, do the parents feel a desire to find a mission in which their kids can participate?
Availability: Most of us live pretty full lives, so it’s common to have a desire for our Community’s mission to happen on particular days or times (e.g. the same night our Community meets, Saturdays, etc.)
Max participation: Another high value is to pick a mission that works for the majority of people in a Community.
A particular focus: Many Communities or people in Communities feel a strong inclination to serve a particular population (e.g. kids in foster care, refugee families, incarcerated adults, the houseless and homeless, etc.). Are there any such hopes or desires that any of us are carrying?

What values are we holding as individuals or a Community that will be helpful to guide our conversation tonight?

2. What are our limitations? Another helpful category to guide our conversation is one of resources. When we consider engaging a mission, it’s important to be honest about what we really can offer together. As we go through the following list of common limitations, let’s engage in conversation about how we want to address each limitation.

Time: One of the most common roadblocks a Community has in picking a mission is their collective availability. With so much going on in our lives, we need to find a balance between what we want to do and what we can do. If we haven’t already, let’s talk about everyone’s monthly availability and come to a consensus. It’s ok if not everyone is able to attend every monthly mission. It’s better to have a mission that most people participate in than never picking one because we can’t find one that works for everyone.
Money: Another common hurdle is money. Some missions may involve financial contribution (e.g. getting background checks to work with kids in foster care, helping support a vulnerable family, etc.), so let’s keep this in mind as we explore mission options.
Group size: Some organizations can only host groups below a certain size. If there is a value for our whole Community to engage at the same time, this is good to keep in mind as we look for a mission.
Commitment: A number of mission opportunities require a time frame commitment (e.g. 6 months, a year, etc.). So it’s good to know whether or not we’re able and willing to commit for an extended period of time, or if we’d prefer to find a mission that doesn’t require commitment.

As we continue our conversation, what limitations should we keep in mind?

3. Who can coordinate? It is crucial to have one or two people coordinating our Community’s mission. Usually, these are people who have a strong desire to serve a particular population. The role is to be the liaison between the Community and the organization or area of service. These individuals would help coordinate details like making sure people know when and where to be each night we serve. The vision is for these people to not be the Community Leader, as they are already coordinating so much

Does anyone feel interested in stepping into this role? Let’s take some time to talk through this. The truth is, without someone keeping this at the front of our mind, we’re not likely to follow through.

Finally, with all of this in mind, let’s take a moment to look at a few of the current options available to serve with organizations that Bridgetown currently partners with. We don’t have to do one of these, but they’re great places to keep the conversation going.

take action

Before we move on, can someone recap what we talked about and what our next steps are?

Note: If we weren’t able to land on something this week, let’s commit to talking about it again next week. And if our Community hasn’t ever served before, rather than trying to discern, just pick something to try for 6 months! Some great first options might be to serve with The Feast (a monthly meal hosted for our neighbors before the 5 PM gathering at Bridgetown’s downtown gathering space), Night Strike (a weekly opportunity to serve the houseless and homeless population every Thursday evening under the Burnside Bridge), or The Neighborhood (wrapping around and supporting a foster family in our city for 6 months).

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

Before we close in prayer, let’s talk about the Practice for the week ahead. We would be missing something massive if we don’t talk about prayer. We believe that more than just good thoughts or feelings, prayer changes reality and moves God’s hand to action. So as we move closer to our neighbors through mission, let’s also commit to holding them before God in prayer. Let’s ask that God would move our hearts to compassion and action, that he would raise up people of God in our church and city to do justice, that he would dismantle unjust systems, and that we would be the kinds of people to pursue healing, kinship relationships with those on the margins of our city.

Finally, with the goal of helping families at Bridgetown engage the core Practices in their homes, similar to how we do in Community, there will be one Family Guide for each teaching series that connects to a Practice we are engaging together in Community. These Guides are written to be conversational and to include all members of the family. The first Family Guide will be on what we discussed tonight: Witness. That Guide can be found by clicking the button below or on the teaching page for this series.

Family Guide

End in Prayer

Leader: Close in prayer, asking God to send you all out to be a people of love to a city in need. Ask that people would come to know God’s love as your Community serves them, and that your service would be aimed towards kinship.

Kylee Logan 9/21/23 Kylee Logan 9/21/23

Community, Pt. 1: Communion

Take Communion

Leader: While most Communities begin their time with communion, tonight’s Practice is centered around communion, so consider waiting to take it together at the end of this Guide.

Read This Overview Aloud Together

On the night before Jesus was betrayed, he sat down with his disciples for one last meal. Throughout the centuries that followed, the church has observed this final meal under many names – earliest followers of Jesus called it “the love feast”, our Catholic brothers and sisters refer to it as the sacrament of the Eucharist, and many Protestants know it as the Lord’s supper or communion. Each offers important glimpses into the person of Jesus and his relationship to us; and, however it is observed, this historic and biblical Practice is one that ought to be taken up with great intentionality. In it, we remember the life that Jesus gave us through his death, taking communion as a symbolic celebration of the wedding feast we will eat one day with him in New Creation.

At Bridgetown, we primarily observe the Practice of communion through the weekly meal eaten together in Bridgetown Communities all over the city, attempting to model Jesus’ own meal with his friends. Taking a moment to mark this meal as separate from the other meals we eat during the week – through prayer, scripture, silence, or another way – helps us enter into a sacred space in which we look back to the death of Jesus and forward to our resurrection. And to do so with all present – kids and adults – helps us mirror the diverse beauty of God’s Kingdom.

Tonight, we are going to spend time exploring our Community’s current rhythm and Practice of communion (or building one if we don’t yet have one).

Do This Practice Tonight

Whether or not we have a regular rhythm of communion, our goal tonight is to establish one that is repeatable, simple, and intentional. Since the goal is to take communion together each week, we will need to have sustainable rhythms in place to make that happen. But, since there are many ways in which a Community can observe communion each week, there is freedom to find one that best fits our Community. Before we get to the brainstorming, let’s take a moment to talk about where we’re currently at.

To begin our conversation, let’s discuss our Community’s current rhythm of communion.

What does everyone understand our Community's communion practice to be? Do we have one?
If we have one, how does everyone feel like this is going? Are we observing communion weekly in a meaningful way?

Leader: Pause for people to explore your Community’s current rhythm.

The following part of the Guide is aimed at helping our Community establish or shore up our communion Practice through 3 questions. Each question provides a few of the most common ways Bridgetown Communities observe communion. So we’ll spend some time with each question and the options, making sure not to move on until we have returned to answer each question.

1. How do we want to take communion? Since communion is a symbol of the wedding feast we will eat with Jesus in New Creation, there are many ways to represent that meal. In Communities, two of the most common are:

Bread & Wine: Having tangible elements of communion can help symbolize the meal Jesus ate, so some prefer to take communion with some form of bread (e.g. bread, crackers, tortilla, etc.) and some form of wine (e.g. wine, grape juice, etc.).
The Whole Meal Together: In church services, the bread and the wine symbolize the whole meal that Jesus ate with his disciples and that we will eat one day with him, so some prefer to use the meal itself as the communion elements.

2. How do we want to lead communion? There are many ways to lead communion, none of them better than another. Here are some of the most common ways people choose to do it, though it’s ok to let whoever leads each week choose:

The Community Guide: Every teaching series will have its own communion Practice that we are welcome to use. It begins every Community Guide and anyone can find those at bridgetown.church/teaching
Scripture: Most common is to simply take a moment to read a passage of scripture – a psalm, teaching of Jesus, the story of that last meal Jesus ate with his disciples.
Silence & Prayer: Taking a moment in silence to remember God’s presence to us and then closing in prayer can be really powerful.
Gratitude: Take a moment to do some sort of gratitude exercise – “What is one thing you are grateful to God for from today?” – and have each person say it aloud as a quick prayer.
Sharing Personally: The communion leader may take a minute or two to share what God has been speaking to her or him about and then close in prayer.

3. Who leads communion? Our Community is made up of individuals who are unique gifts to the world around us. While not everyone feels comfortable immediately to lead communion, anyone can. Here are the most common ways Community’s figure out whose turn it is to lead:

Communion Point Person: Establish a person whose role is to oversee ensuring that communion happens weekly. They wouldn’t lead communion each week, but simply help coordinate who does.
Communion Tag: End communion each night by having the person who led it that week ask someone else present to do it next week
Communion & Meal Combo: If our Community cycles through who makes the meal each week, leading communion could be folded into that responsibility.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

Finally, before we take communion tonight and close in prayer, let’s take a second to talk about the Practice for the week ahead. The invitation is to set aside some intentional time to pray for our Community. Specifically, spend some time in intercession, asking God to guide and guard our Community as we work through this series together.

End in Communion & Prayer

Leader: We’ve provided an optional communion liturgy below that you’re welcome to use, but you’re welcome to lead communion however you would like.

As we close with communion, take a moment to breathe deep and to be still and silent before the Lord.

Ask God to help gather your scattered senses and to make you aware of his presence.

Leader: Spend 30 seconds or so in silence

Hear the words of Mark’s account of Jesus last meal with his disciples:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Leader: Spend 30 seconds or so in silence, then close in a prayer of gratitude.