Community Guides

Isaiah Adeoye 10/10/25 Isaiah Adeoye 10/10/25

Guide 1: Prophetic Prayer

A Prayer Shaped Life, 2025

Communion

Family

Review the practice so far (10 min)

Since there is no practice so far to review, let’s discuss this series’ aim. By ordering our days around the practice of Prayer, we want to become a Community in which the Spirit cultivates the slow-growing, sweet-tasting fruit of intimacy with God. Through the Guides in this series, we will experience and engage rhythmic expressions of Prayer together: Silent Prayer, Incarnational Prayer, and the Daily Prayer Rhythm. So, before we begin with tonight’s Guide, let’s debrief the Prophetic Prayer Training and then take a moment to discuss our personal experiences with the practice of Prayer, whether good or bad, brief or long, past or current.

What did you take away from the Prophetic Prayer Training?

How would you describe your current comfort level with the practice of Prayer?

Guide overview (2 min)

Prayer, like any relationship, has many forms of communication—talking about concerns, asking for things, receiving affirmations and challenges, and sitting in silence. Prayer is an opportunity to slow down enough to be with God and to sometimes even hear him say something back. In this series, we will be diving deeper into the kinds of prayer that shape and form our lives in God’s love.

One of those kinds of prayer is prophecy—hearing and speaking God’s voice on behalf of an individual or group. Last week, we attended the Prophetic Prayer Training and got to try it together. Prophetic Prayer is all over the pages of Scripture, and it’s something that Scripture’s authors take for granted. God does not need a stage and music to speak: anytime God’s people gather, he is speaking. Smaller groups of friends and family—like our Bridgetown Community—is one of the best places to listen for God’s voice. So, as we lean into the practice of Prayer, our exercise for tonight is Prophetic Prayer.

Exercise for tonight (30 min)

Tonight we’re going to take some time to practice Prophetic Prayer together. As we do this, we’ll use the four-step model for Prophetic Prayer that we learned at the training: ask, listen, search, and risk. Just like at the training, someone will volunteer to be prayed for and we’ll all ask God what he may want to say to them through us. Then, after a minute or so of listening, we’ll share what we sense and pray for that person. Finally,we’ll end by having the person share what resonated with them. Remember: there’s no pressure to get it right—we’re just practicing, and this is a safe group in which to risk!

Before we start, let’s remember together that prophecy is a form of prayer in which the Spirit works in cooperation—not competition—with our imagination, in order to encourage another person or group. Oftentimes, we can miss the voice of God because it sounds or feels too familiar, so it’s important to remember that it almost never feels intense or dramatic, but like a thought entering our imagination from the outside (as opposed to from the inside). Usually, we’ll see some sort of picture, symbol, or memory, or hear a word, phrase, or Scripture. Three helpful questions to process through with God are: What am I hearing/seeing? What might it mean? And what do I do with it?

Select someone: We’ll hopefully get to pray for a few people, but who wants to go first?

Ask, listen, and search: Okay, now that we know who we’re praying for, let’s all take some time to ask God what he may want them to know. Remember, the kind of Prophetic Prayer we’re practicing is not correcting or confronting, but encouraging. So, if you sense something, ask yourself if it is encouraging, if it lines up with or contradicts Scripture, and if it sounds like something Jesus would say. Search yourself to ensure that what you sense is from God and not just something you think this person should know or do. I’ll set a timer for 90 seconds of listening, and then we’ll come back and share.

Risk: Okay! Let’s take some time to risk together by sharing what we sensed. Would a few people share what they heard or saw, and what they think God might be saying through it? After you share it, take a moment to pray it over the person receiving it. (Leader note: Leaders, consider going first to help set the pace for the group. And, for subsequent rounds, encourage people who have already shared to let others share, so everyone can try it.)

Reflect: Thank you all for sharing. As we hear from the person who received all the words now, let’s remember that if and where something connected with them, it’s something we can be praying for and checking in with them about in the future. Okay: What resonated with you and felt like God was speaking to you through another person? And was there any word that you may need to weigh more, whether for clarity or application?

(Leader note: As you have time, move onto another person, continuing to give people more opportunity to receive and practice hearing and sharing.)

Exercise for the week ahead (3 min)

Tonight we experienced an exercise that involved community, but there are also ways for us to grow in the practice of Prayer on our own throughout the week. We all have busy lives, so the ask is not to turn your life upside down to practice Prayer 24/7, but rather to take a step forward in the practice of prayer. In doing so, we partner with God in our own formation for the benefit of our Community.While the practices are personal, they are not private—they are ways of letting God shape us so that when we come together, our Community will be richer, deeper, and more like Jesus.

That said, while we practiced Prophetic Prayer together tonight, until our next Community Guide, the exercise for the week ahead involves the exercise of Silent Prayer:

Silent Prayer: This week we are going to practice Silent Prayer–the prayer of remembering and remaining in the love of God. I will send out a one-page Guide (linked at the button below) to help you develop and build this rhythm.

Silent Prayer Guide

Isaiah Adeoye 9/28/25 Isaiah Adeoye 9/28/25

Vision 2025, Guide 3: Commitments & Individual Examen

In Portland As It Is In Heaven, 2025

Communion

Family

Conclude this series practice (20 min)

In this series, we focused on the practice of Community—leaning further into doing life together as we seek to be a community of love and depth. In the previous Guide, we agreed on our exercises for the week ahead: to read through the Bridgetown Community Commitments and to consider the cost of our desires for Community. Let’s take a moment to conclude this series by discussing each of the four categories of our Commitments and recommitting to each other.

Commit to following Jesus: How are we each feeling invited to recommit to following Jesus this coming year?
Commit to our Community: Where do we each sense an opportunity to invest more deeply in our Community this coming year?
Commit to Bridgetown Church: How could you contribute more intentionally to Bridgetown?
Commit to Portland: How is God inviting us to partner with him to more fully love and serve our city together?

Before we go on, let’s take a moment to recap the decisions and commitments we’re making for this next year. (Leader Note: This is the time to sum everything for clarity. Take some time to close the loose ends. If there’s something that needs more time to discuss/discern, agree on when that follow-up conversation will occur. As you conclude this section, close in prayer, asking God to help us with the commitments we’ve just made.)

Guide overview (2 min)

To speak meaningfully in any way about apprenticeship to Jesus, it’s important to talk about counterformation—about how we are de-formed by the time and place we live, and about what it means to swim against the cultural current of control and toward the formative joy of consent. There are many ways of practicing consent: we consent with our possessions through generosity, we with our relationships through hospitality, and we consent with our image through confession.

One helpful way to practice this formation of consent is praying the Examen. This daily reflection on our day helps us to increasingly yield ourselves to God as we take time to relive that day in his presence. So, in our final Guide for this series, we are going to bridge between this series’ practice of Community and next series’ practice of Prayer by engaging the exercise of praying the Examen.

Exercise for tonight (15 min)

Tonight, our exercise will be to pray the Examen together. The Examen is a form of prayer that involves reflecting back over our day with the Holy Spirit to practice naming signs of his presence to us. While the Examen usually has five steps, we’re going to use one with three: reflecting with gratitude, naming where we saw or missed God, and confessing where we fell short.

As we start, find a comfortable position and get into whatever posture of prayer feels honest and helps you focus. I’ll guide us through the prompts as we review our day with God.

Come, Holy Spirit, and walk us back through our day. What did we do? Who did we talk to? Where did we go? What did we feel? Where were you?

(Leader Note: Let people silently review their day for 1–2 minutes.)

Gratitude: What kindled gratitude? As you reviewed your day, what brought you gratitude? What or who were you thankful for today? Let’s pray aloud, one at a time, short prayers of gratitude, thanking God for every big and small gift we can possibly recount from today.

Review: Where did I see or miss God? As you reviewed your day, where did God show up? Big or small, where did I see or miss God’s presence in a moment or through a person? Let’s pray aloud, one at a time, short prayers noting the little whispers from the Spirit we missed and those we responded to, particularly paying attention to all those we saw and welcomed hospitably as well as those we may have looked past.

Confess: Where did I fall short today? As you reviewed your day, where did you experience a moment of weakness, coming face-to-face with your humanity? Let’s pray aloud, one at a time, short prayers about ways we fell short today, freely receiving God’s forgiveness—a forgiveness that is, mysteriously but certainly, more powerful to shape and redeem us than perfection.

(Leader Note: Close this time asking god for help to see him more clearly tomorrow.)

Exercise for the week ahead (2 min)

Tonight we experienced an exercise that involved collaboration and teamwork, but there are also ways for us to grow in this practice of Community and Prayer on our own throughout the week. We all have busy lives, so none of us have time for too much. But taking a step toward the practice on our own is a way of partnering with God in our own formation for the benefit of the Community. While the practices are personal, they are not private—they are ways of letting God shape us so that when we come together, our Community will be richer, deeper, and more like Jesus.

That said, as this Community Guide completes this series, until the next one, our exercise for the week ahead is to:

Pray the Examen. Whether on your commute home or before you get into bed, take a few minutes each evening to review your day with God, journeying through our three movements: gratitude, noticing God, and confession.

Isaiah Adeoye 9/21/25 Isaiah Adeoye 9/21/25

Vision 2025, Guide 2: Family & Discipleship

In Portland As It Is In Heaven, 2025

Communion

Review the practice so far (10 min)

In this series, we are focusing on the practice of Community—leaning further into doing life together as we seek to be a community of love and depth. In the last Guide, we agreed on our exercises for the week ahead: to continue processing our relationship to change and to attend the Hospitality of Need lecture with Kevan Chandler. So let’s talk about how that went!

Did anything more come up as you processed your relationship to change?
What invitations did you sense the Spirit extend to you through the Hospitality of Need lecture?

Guide overview (2 min)

Our story at Bridgetown has always come back to practicing the Way of Jesus together in Portland—to planting the seeds of our apprenticeship to Jesus deep into the soil of community. And more than Bible studies or sermon discussion groups, our Bridgetown Community is a practice-based formation group built around our shared desire to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.

The Communities Team spent the summer looking under the hood of Bridgetown Communities—collecting feedback, dreaming together, and discerning what God was up to. And near the end of that time they realized that, if anything, there was an invitation to double down on the direction we were already going—specifically, to reinforce our Community rhythms: Family, Discipleship, & Mission. Tonight we will explore a few of these shifts by considering how to deepen our expression of Family & Discipleship in the coming year.

Exercise for tonight (30 min)

As we center our Community around practice-based formation, there are 2 main changes we will start implementing this month: 1) developing our Family rhythm, and 2) deepening our Discipleship rhythm. Tonight we will explore these shifts and plan our next steps together. Then we’ll have space to dream together about anything else God might be inviting us into during this next year.

1. Our Family rhythm (10 min)

For years, Bridgetown Communities have had a monthly Family night intended to build trust and relational depth. And while this rhythm has worked for some Communities, most feel like once per month is somewhat lacking. So, the first change we’ll make is to move from a monthly Family night to a weekly Family practice during dinner. Starting next week, our first hour together will look something like this:

After communion and as we start eating, we will have some kind of intentional conversation. The Communities Team will recommend a prompt with each series for us to use each week, like they do for communion. This new rhythm will only take 15 minutes of our hourlong meal, deepening our relationships together. And, since next week is the series finale, we’ll each answer the question: In one sentence, what do you want God to do in your life over this next year?

One person this change will specifically impact is our Family Coordinator. They have done a great job coordinating our Family nights, and we’re so grateful! So I want to share about how my conversation with them went about their role. (Leader Note: Share the plan. Will they coordinate the weekly Family practice? Plan extracurricular events? Step down?)

Before we talk about the next change, let’s take a moment to process this one. Let’s get into groups of 3 or 4 and answer the following questions:

What excites me about this new Family rhythm?
What will I miss about our old Family rhythm?
What steps do we need to take to make sure this happens each week?

2. Our Discipleship rhythm (10 min)

Some may be wondering what is going to happen to our monthly Family night. As we continue to run after what the Spirit is inviting us to, we want to press deeper into our Discipleship rhythm. The Communities team heard a lot of feedback about Community Guides—namely that they’re long, infrequent, and lack actual practice. So the shifts coming to Community Guides are that they will be 45 minutes, they will be more practice-based, and there will now be 3 of them per month. Having 3 monthly Guides allows them to be shorter and more closely tied to the series, letting us engage the practice more regularly. That said, if something happens (like our mission night overlaps with a Guide’s release), I will simply send the Guide to everyone for us to go through on our own, so we can come ready to discuss the “exercise for the week ahead” next time we meet. This allows us to be more intentional about our own formation and gives us more time as a Community to engage in practice and reflection.

Before we talk about any other invitations we’re sensing, let’s take a moment to process this change. Let’s get back into groups of 3 or 4 and answer the following questions:

What excites me about this new Discipleship rhythm?
Am I feeling any resistance? Why might that be?
What could God do in our Community through this change?

3. Anything else (10 min): Before we talk about the exercise for the week ahead, let’s take the rest of our time to process anything else we’re feeling invited into as a Community. Whether it’s a new or old invitation, what has been stirring in you for our Community? Maybe you want to step up to help serve in some way, or need to step back from a role you’ve had? Maybe there are ideas about our mission, or how we do meals? Let’s take a few minutes to discuss and dream together. (Leader Note: Set a timer for this to make sure it doesn’t go too long.)

Exercise for the week ahead (3 min)

Tonight we experienced an exercise that involved collaboration and teamwork, but there are also ways for us to grow in this practice of Community on our own throughout the week. We all have busy lives, so none of us have time for too much. But taking a step toward the practice on our own is a way of partnering with God in our own formation for the benefit of the Community. While the practices are personal, they are not private—they are ways of letting God shape us so that when we come together, our Community will be richer, deeper, and more like Jesus.

That said, until our next Community Guide, the exercises for the week ahead are to:

Read through the Community commitments. Next week, we will be reviewing our Commitments for the coming year. So, before then, let’s each look over the commitments we’re making to one another in being part of this Community. We can review those at: bridgetown.church/community-commitments
Consider the cost. As we continue to dream about what God has in store for our Community, let’s each take some time in prayer this week with the following questions: What do I want to be true of our Community in a year? And what might I need to sacrifice in order to make that happen? We’ll come back next week to discuss.

Isaiah Adeoye 9/4/25 Isaiah Adeoye 9/4/25

Vision 2025, Guide 1: Annual Examen

In Portland As It Is In Heaven, 2025

Communion

Review the practice so far (10 min)

Since there is no Practice so far to review, let’s discuss this series’ aim. Each fall, we take a few weeks to reorient ourselves around our vision: to see God’s Kingdom come in Portland as it is in Heaven. This year, we do so with a renewed desire to deepen our practice of Community, reaffirming our commitment to one another and to the whole church. The Guides in this series will invite us to reflect on and adjust our practice of life together—changes that our Community Leader(s) will unpack at Cohort on September 17, and that we will process together in the next Community Guide. While most of these shifts will be small (focused on Community Guides and our Family rhythm) we each respond differently to change, so let’s start our time by splitting into smaller groups to discuss our responses to change—whether it’s energizing or daunting—and what may be helpful for us to know about each other in seasons of change.

In general, does change make you nervous or does it energize you? Why?
What is important for others to know about you in seasons of change?

Guide overview (2 min)

Everyone is a disciple: Everyone is following someone or something, aiming their attention and affection in a particular direction. And whoever or whatever sets that direction, is forming us in its image. As followers of Jesus who live by the story of the Scriptures, we find God inviting his people repeatedly to pause and remember what he’s done in their midst. From moments of deliverance and victories in battle to annual feasts and the weekly Sabbath, remembering is a practice that helps God's people mark moments of his presence and action so that we can let him set the direction of our future.

With that, we will spend the rest of our time tonight looking backward and forward—backward at our lives as a Community this last year and then forward at God’s invitations to us this next year. As one of 130-or-so Bridgetown Communities, we have our unique strengths, weaknesses, advantages, and blind spots. And, like every Community, it can be easy to fall into routine and forget to pause and look at what God has been and wants to be doing in and through us. So while our practice for this series is Community, our exercise for tonight will involve reflecting on what God has brought us through, where he has taken us, and how he might be leading us forward.

Exercise for tonight (30 min)

To guide our reflection tonight, we are going to do an annual examen with reflective prayer and conversation through a few different prompts with the goal of remembering and celebrating what God has done in our midst.

Here’s how we’ll do it: After settling in, we’ll take some silent time to let the Spirit walk each of us through the last year—bringing to mind events, people, and moments—and to speak to us about the coming year. Then, we’ll come back to share, reflect, and celebrate together. To get us started, I’ll pray through this next section (Pray & Reflect), including a list of questions to springboard our memory and imaginations, then we’ll sit in silence for 5 minutes. As God brings things to mind, feel free to jot them down on paper or in a note on our phones.

Pray & Reflect (5 min)

Holy Spirit, so much has happened in our lives individually and as a Community this last year—more than we’re able to recall right now. So we ask you, Good Shepherd, to guide our memories and focus our thoughts on moments, people, and events that stood out to you. Whether it’s a moment from the Holy Spirit Conference or the time we added new people or transitioned Leaders or had a sweet moment on mission together—what is it that you would have us remember about this past year? And then, whether adding new people, shifting around some roles, or recommitting to this Community—what would you have us dream together for this next year?

Regarding this last year:

Who did we meet?
What miracle, gift, or healing did we witness?
How did we serve Portland?
How was I personally impacted by our Community?
How did I see people in our Community change?
How did we grow closer to God and one another?

Regarding this coming year:

Where do I need to ask for help?
Who might God be inviting us to become?
How might he be calling us to serve Portland?
What might need to change or transition to make room for how God’s forming us?
How do I feel invited to recommit to this Community?

(Leader Note: Set a 5 minute timer, closing in a quick prayer of gratitude before moving on.)

Share (20 min)

Now, as we share what God brought to mind, we’ll spend 10 minutes looking backward and 10 minutes looking ahead. I’ll set a timer for both parts, so that we can all stay focused.

As we look backward, remembering what God has done, we’ll take each memory one at a time, so feel free to add more detail or gratitude to what each person is sharing. But before we move on from that memory, we’ll all pause together and say, “Thanks be to God.”—praying in unison our gratitude for God’s kindness.

Then, after those 10 minutes, we’ll look forward. While this time will also be an open discussion, let’s try to not get too bogged down by the details—this is mainly a time for personal reflection, we don’t need to agree to change anything tonight. This is the beginning of a conversation we’ll continue through this series, so give each other time to process and pray over the next few weeks.

Finally, before we begin, can someone keep a list of what gets shared, so we can have something to call back to in the future—building a collection of gratitude to God for what he’s done and to keep talking about what invitations we sense God extending to us for the future.

Exercise for the week ahead (3 min)

That said, until our next Community Guide, the exercises for the week(s) ahead are to:

Continue processing your orientation to change. Transition can be disorienting. Taking time to reflect with the Holy Spirit on our postures towards change can help us show up healthily. In the coming week, consider your relationship to change: What is it? Where does it come from? What invitation might God be extending to you? Consider continuing the conversation we started tonight with God, a good friend, or a therapist.
Go to the Hospitality of Need midweek lecture. On Monday, September 15 at 6:30 PM, Bridgetown will be hosting an evening with Kevan Chandler about the hospitality of need, exploring how our own needs can create space for kinship within the ordinary rhythms of life. Communities are being encouraged to make this their mission expression for the month.

Isaiah Adeoye 8/24/25 Isaiah Adeoye 8/24/25

Genesis Series, Scripture Guide 5

Over the next three summers, as we work our way through the scroll of Genesis, we will dive into the practice of Scripture in our Communities. Because Jesus was immersed in, lived by, and ultimately lived out Scripture, we engage in this formational practice to learn how to recognize God's voice, understand His character, and find ourselves in the story of His world and mission to make all things new.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Psalm 104v1–3, 33–34

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;

it can never be moved…

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Review the Last Practice (5 minutes)

Let’s take some time to check in with one another about how the practice of Scripture is going.

How have you chosen to practice Scripture this summer, and what was your experience engaging with it this week? (e.g., rich, dry, surprising, challenging, refreshing)
What do you want God to do in you, through your Scripture practice this summer?

Leader Note: Set a timer for 5 minutes. When the timer is up, call everyone back together before reading the next section.

Read this Overview (5 minutes)

After the flood, humanity spread across the earth, yet their hearts were still bent in the same direction, away from God. At Babel (Genesis 11), the people came together to “make a name for ourselves,” building a tower to the heavens in defiance of God’s command to fill the earth. Their unity was rooted in pride, not trust. In both mercy and judgment, God confused their language and scattered them, bringing their self-made kingdom to an end.

Centuries later, at Pentecost (Acts 2), we see a stunning reversal. The Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to speak in many languages so that people from every nation could hear the gospel in their own tongue. What was scattered at Babel began to be gathered in Christ, not by human achievement, but by the Spirit’s power.

At Babel, language is divided. At Pentecost, language is united. God’s vision is not uniformity, but a beautifully diverse family made One in Jesus.

This summer, we’ve taken time to explore a number of different ways to engage the Scriptures, any of which can be applied to any passage of Scripture. For example—considering the passages we just discussed (Genesis 11v1–9 & Acts 2v1–13)—if we were to read Scripture aloud or study Scripture, we might read them back to back, listening for the contrast between scattering and gathering. Or if we were to meditate on Scripture, we could spend time with Genesis 11v4 (“Let us make a name for ourselves”), asking the Spirit to reveal where we might be building “towers” in our own lives. Or if we were to memorize Scripture, we might commit to memory the first few verses of Acts 2, holding in our heart the story of Pentecost.

Practice for the Night (20 minutes)

For tonight’s practice we will spend time reflecting on how we were formed by God’s Word these past months as we engaged Scripture through the Genesis teaching series .

We began this summer series with a simple question: What might happen if we gave ourselves more fully to the Scriptures? We’ve explored ways of reading, meditating on, memorizing, and praying Scripture, allowing it to shape our understanding of God and our life with Him. Over these last several weeks, each of us has likely had a range of experiences, from moments of deep connection to times of distraction or struggle.

As we look ahead, we want to pause and name what God has done in us through this practice, and to consider what we want to carry forward into the rest of the year. This is an opportunity to thank Him for the ways He has met us, to be honest about what’s been challenging, and to make intentional commitments for the future.

With that in mind, let’s take the next fifteen minutes to talk through these questions together:

What did we set out to do when we began this series and how did that goal go?
How did I experience God deeper or more fully through this practice?

Let's now pair off and talk about how we will each continue to engage Scripture after this series. It could be helpful to consider things like what it might look like to give God more quality time as opposed to simply more quantity, or how we might rearrange our days so Scripture has space to speak in moments that matter most.

How could I continue engaging in Scripture after this series is over?

Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

As we step into this week, let’s not leave our commitments here in the room. Go and do the thing we committed to doing and watch for how God shows up.

End in Prayer (1 minute)

Leader: Pray to close your time, asking the Spirit to guide each person in their practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 8/10/25 Kylee Logan 8/10/25

Genesis Series, Scripture Guide 4

Take communion (2 minutes)

Psalm 104v1–3, 33–34

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;

it can never be moved…

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Review the Last Practice (5 minutes)

Let’s take some time to check in with one another about how the practice of Scripture is going.

How have you chosen to practice Scripture this summer, and what was your experience engaging with it this week? (e.g., rich, dry, surprising, challenging, refreshing)
What do you want God to do in you, through your Scripture practice this summer?

Leader Note: Set a timer for 5 minutes. When the timer is up, call everyone back together before reading the next section.

Read this Overview (5 minutes)

In John’s Gospel, Jesus challenges the Jewish leaders by saying: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5v39-40)

In saying this, Jesus is warning them that it’s possible to read Scripture—even passionately—and still miss him. The goal of reading Scripture isn’t simply to gain knowledge or to learn facts, but to know the person of Jesus and to help us be with Him, become like Him, and do what He did. The Scriptures are not something that we master, but rather, they help us learn to hear His voice and aim our entire lives towards Jesus.

To do that, we need a way of reading that opens us to God’s voice and forms us through reflection and response. Lectio divina, or “divine reading,” is a historic way of engaging Scripture meditatively that does just that. It involves five simple movements that make up the acronym BREAD: Be still, Read, Encounter, Apply, and Devote. We are going to take time to meditate on Scripture through this particular practice of Scripture tonight.

Practice for the Night (20 minutes)

Leader Note: Before you begin, read through the practice and assign reading parts in advance to ensure a smooth and focused flow. Timekeeping is important—feel free to gently move the group forward if any section lingers too long.

Tonight we’ll practice this way of meditating on Scripture together by reading Genesis 8v15-22. While each of us may come to this feeling something different—some excited, some nervous, others uncertain—no matter how long we have been reading Scripture or following Jesus, we can trust that God desires and does speak to us. This exercise is not about who knows the Bible best or who can interpret the passage in its historical context. In fact, let’s actually do our best to resist any urge to explain or analyze this Scripture passage. This time is about patiently listening for how God might be speaking to us personally, here and now.

Be Still: Before we begin, we’ll take a moment to get comfortable. We might silence our phones, make sure the kids are okay, and settle into a posture that helps us become open to the Holy Spirit. We’ll slow our breathing, quiet our thoughts, and invite God to meet us here.

Read: Next, one of us will read Genesis 8v15–22 slowly and clearly. As we listen, we’ll each pay attention to a word or phrase that stands out. After the reading, we’ll sit together in one minute of silence, reflecting. Then, we’ll take some time to share what stood out.

Encounter: Then, another person will reread the same passage, this time even more slowly. As we listen, we’ll ask: Why is this word or phrase standing out? What might God be saying to me through it? Then we’ll enter another minute or so of silence to ponder and listen together.

Apply: Then, as we reflect on what we’re sensing, we’ll begin to pray—offering our thoughts and responses to God. After another minute or so of silence, we’ll take time (as we feel led) to speak aloud what we sense God is saying. An example might be: “The word steadfast stood out to me. I want to pray that, as a Community, we would be steadfast in our discipleship to Jesus.” Not everyone has to speak, but God honors our vulnerability and boldness, and it shapes us as a Community.

Devote: Finally, we’ll close with a final minute or so of silence. We’ll rest in God’s presence, give thanks for His voice, and ask together: How will we walk this out in our daily lives?

To end our time, we’ll take 7 minutes in groups of 2–3 to share with each other what we felt God was saying to each of us. We can ask each other, “What was that experience like, and how did you sense God speaking to you?”

Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

This week, we will continue pressing into each of our chosen practices of Scripture. For any of us who want to grow in this practice of reading Scripture meditatively, BREAD is a great resource for this. You can download it for free at bridgetown.church/bread or purchase a copy at the bookstore on Sunday.

If you would like to practice BREAD with the Genesis texts for the upcoming Sundays, here’s a reminder of the passages we will be exploring for the rest of the Summer.

Aug 17: Genesis 9v8–29
Aug 24: Genesis 10v1–11v9
Aug 31: Genesis 11v10–12v3

End in Prayer (1 minute)

Leader: Pray to close your time, asking the Spirit to guide each person in their practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 7/27/25 Kylee Logan 7/27/25

Genesis Series, Scripture Guide 3

Leader note: Prepare your Community for the night by sending out the link to this Guide ahead of time. Remind everyone to bring a paper Bible, as we'll be reading and following along in Scripture together.

Over the next three summers, as we work our way through the scroll of Genesis, we will dive into the practice of Scripture in our Communities. Because Jesus was immersed in, lived by, and ultimately lived out Scripture, we engage in this formational practice to learn how to recognize God's voice, to understand his character, and to find ourselves in the story of his world and mission to make all things new.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Psalm 104v1–3, 33–34

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;

it can never be moved…

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Review the Last Practice (5 minutes)

Leader Note: As a reminder, a few practical options for an individual Practice of Scripture would include: reading the Genesis text that follows along with the teaching series, memorizing a Psalm or Gospel passage, practicing Lectio Divina through BREAD or the Lectio 365 app, or something else entirely that the Spirit highlighted.

Let’s take some time now in groups of three to check-in with one another on how the practice of Scripture is going by considering these questions:

How have you chosen to practice Scripture this summer, and what was your experience engaging with it this week? (e.g. rich, dry, surprising, difficult, refreshing)
What do you want God to do in you, through your Scripture practice this summer?

Did you notice any internal pushback or resistance during your Scripture practice this week?

Leader Note: Set a timer for 5 minutes. When the timer is up, call everyone back together before reading the next section.

Read this Overview (3 minutes)

Bridgetown Church was named for the many bridges that span the Willamette River, connecting the east and west sides of our city. The communities that live on either side are full of life and meaning, but the bridges themselves—strong, intricate, carefully designed—are masterpieces in their own right.

In much the same way, the book of Genesis is threaded with genealogies that function as literary bridges, carrying us from one major narrative to another. While it can be easy to skip over these sections in search of what comes next, each genealogy contains the same carefully crafted beauty and theological truth as any other part of Scripture. Studying the literary context of Scripture helps us slow down to notice the artistry and intent that weaves the story together.

The ancient authors—especially the writer of Genesis—assumed that we would read this way, listening carefully and mentally weaving connections between stories and generations. Which is why, tonight, we will practice this form of Study in Scripture together. In a moment, we will take time to study Genesis 5 using this lens, learning to ask three key questions along the way.

By considering these questions, we become students of the literary work of art that is the Bible—listening to Scripture the way it was meant to be heard: as a unified story that leads to Jesus.

Practice for the Night (25 minutes)

Genesis 5 can be broken into three distinct parts: verses 1–6 recap the story so far, verses 7–27 summarize the generations between Adam and Noah, and verses 28–31 introduce us to the life of Noah. Likewise, our Practice for tonight will be divided into three movements.

In a moment, we will break into groups of 2-3, and read through each section, one at a time. After each reading, we will ask ourselves one common question within literary study.

Before we begin, let’s take a moment to get into groups and settle in. We’ll put phones away, check on kids in the other room if needed, and take a few deep breaths. Then, when ready, we’ll open our Bibles to Genesis 5.

Leader note: Take a minute here to designate the groups of three. Then give a minute of silence for folks to settle in.

After each passage is read aloud, we’ll pause and consider a corresponding question to help our literary study:

Leader note: Instead of reading all the questions out loud now, choose one person in each group to be the facilitator who will read the question after each section of the chapter. Encourage your Community to keep their observations and answers to each question brief. You will only have about 5 minutes to cover each section. After the 15 minutes are up, call everyone back in to wrap up the night with the Practice for the Week Ahead.

Read verses 1-6, then answer the question: How might this passage serve as a bridge between what came before it and what comes after it?
Read verses 7-27, then answer the question: What might the pace, structure, or repeated language reveal of the author’s intention?

Genealogies can be difficult to engage with, and it’s not always obvious where to begin, but there are several ways to answer this question. For example, the repeated refrain “they lived” and “they died” may be highlighting the fulfillment of God’s warning in Genesis 2, “you will surely die.” At one point, the pattern breaks, prompting the question: why? You might also observe that, ironically, extraordinarily long life spans are summarized by the author in a single sentence. Consider what the author might be communicating through this deliberate pace.

Read verses 28-31, then answer the question: How does this moment fit into the larger story of God’s mission?

E.g. The curse of sin has stolen humanity’s rest. The name “Noah” comes from the Hebrew word for “rest.” Consider what prophetic hope the author might intend to echo, or foreshadow, with this introduction. You might also observe that there is a Lamech in Seth’s line just as there was in Cain’s line. Consider how the juxtaposition of Lamech’s boasts in Genesis 4 and the number of years Lamech lived in Genesis 5 (777) might highlight the nature of God’s mission.

Practice for the Week Ahead (2 minutes)

This week we will continue pressing into each of our chosen practices of Scripture. If it serves to deepen your practice, consider incorporating a form of literary study by asking yourself one, or all, of those three questions as you approach scripture each day.

If you would like to practice this with the Genesis texts for the upcoming Sundays, here’s a reminder of which passage we will be diving into each week:

July 27: Genesis 5v1–32
Aug 3: Genesis 6v1–22
Aug 10: Genesis 7v1–9v17
Aug 17: Genesis 9v8–29
Aug 24: Genesis 10v1–11v9
Aug 31: Genesis 11v10–12v3

Leader Note: If someone is looking for more tools in literary study, consider these options:

The BibleProject App, for tracing repeated themes.
The Blue Letter Bible App, for tracing repeated words and phrases.
Additional resources from our Bridgetown Bookstore, such as Tremper Longman III’s book, “How to Read Genesis.”

End in Prayer (1 minute)

Leader: Pray to close your time, asking the Spirit to guide each person in their practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 7/13/25 Kylee Logan 7/13/25

Genesis Series, Scripture Guide 2

Over the next three summers, as we work our way through the scroll of Genesis, we will dive into the practice of Scripture in our Communities. Because Jesus was immersed in, lived by, and ultimately lived out Scripture, we engage in this formational practice to learn how to recognize God's voice, to understand his character, and to find ourselves in the story of his world and mission to make all things new.

Leader note: Do you have a story from your Community’s time together, whether it’s a moment of transformation, breakthrough in prayer, or a story from a recent practice you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Psalm 104v1–3, 33–34

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;

it can never be moved…

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Review the Last Practice (5 minutes)
Leader Note: Take your time here—don't rush. Give space and invite anyone who feels led to share about how God is deepening their engagement with Scripture this summer. If the group feels quiet or uncertain, offer a few practical options (e.g. reading the Genesis text that follows along with the teaching series, memorizing a Psalm or Gospel passage, practicing Lectio through BREAD or the Lectio 365 app, or something else that the Spirit highlighted). Then, simply pray, asking God to meet each person exactly where they are, before moving into reading the overview.

Let’s take some time to check in with one another about how the practice of Scripture is going.

How have you chosen to practice Scripture this summer, and what was your experience engaging with it this week? (e.g. rich, dry, surprising, difficult, refreshing)
What do you want God to do in you, through your Scripture practice this summer?

Did you notice any internal pushback or resistance during your Scripture practice this week?

Read this Overview (5 minutes)

Formation into the image of Jesus is a lifelong journey, marked by steady intention and openness to the Spirit's transforming presence. As followers of Jesus, we long not only to know Scripture but also to embody it, allowing the truth of God’s word to reshape every part of our minds, hearts, and actions. Scripture isn’t simply text on a page; it's a place of encounter with the living God, who graciously meets us right where we are.

Last time we gathered, each person was invited to select a specific practice of Scripture to lean into this summer. This intentional choice helps us actively engage our minds, bodies, and hearts with Scripture, following the example of Jesus who lived in joyful submission to God's revealed truth. Tonight, we get to build on our practice through the corporate reading of Scripture, listening carefully to the Spirit as we enter into the story together.

Specifically, we will read the story of Cain and Abel from this week's teaching text, Genesis 4v1–16. In corporate reading, we pay attention to the story as it was intended to be heard by the original audience, wondering what God may be speaking to our present lives through these ancient words. As we read and discuss, we reaffirm our commitment to growing as a community rooted deeply in Scripture, expectant and open to how God might shape us through the living word this summer.

Practice for the Night (20 minutes)

There are many beautiful ways to engage Scripture – individually or corporately, silently or aloud, single verses at a time or in large chunks. The Scripture’s original audience would have been hearing and receiving this story in a very similar way as we will this evening. So, tonight, we are going to take some time to practice Scripture by reading a larger story out loud. As we do, we trust the Spirit to meet us in our reflection as a Community.

Leader note: Before jumping in, choose two people to read Genesis 4v1–16 out loud.

Get Comfortable.
Before we begin, let’s take a moment to settle in. Put phones away, check on kids in the other room if needed, and take a few deep breaths. Try to find a posture that feels relaxed yet attentive and open to the Spirit's presence.

Leader note: Invite one person to read Genesis 4v1-16.

Read Genesis 4v1–16.
We’ll read through the passage together twice. As the Scripture is read by the first person, simply listen carefully, paying attention to words, phrases, or themes that seem significant or meaningful to you. After they read it, we’ll hold silence together for about a minute.

Read the Scripture passage again.
Before the second person reads the passage again, let’s pay attention to any emotions or questions that surface within you. Again, once they read it, we’ll hold another minute of silence together.

Reflect and Share.
Take a few minutes to share briefly as a group:

How was your experience reading in this way (i.e. a large portion out loud together in one sitting) different for you from when you read your Bible by yourself?
As you listened to this passage being read out loud, what stood out to you? How did corporately reading this together impact the way you engaged the story?
Are there ways God might be inviting you carry this practice forward into your chosen summer Scripture practice?

As we close this portion of the night, let’s carry these reflections into the week ahead and remember that we are part of a much bigger story God is writing in his mission to restore all things, for his glory and his purpose.

Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

This week we will continue pressing into each of our chosen practices of Scripture. If it serves to deepen your practice, consider incorporating reading longer passages like we did tonight, on your own or with a friend.

If you haven't yet landed on your practice, take this next week to prayerfully discern how God is inviting you to engage Scripture. Next week, come ready to share what practice you’ve chosen and how it’s going.

Again, here are some options:

Follow along with the Genesis texts for the upcoming Sundays:

July 20: Genesis 4v17–26
July 27: Genesis 5v1–32
Aug 3: Genesis 6v1–22
Aug 10: Genesis 7v1–9v17
Aug 17: Genesis 9v8–29
Aug 24: Genesis 10v1–11v9
Aug 31: Genesis 11v10–12v3

Memorize a Psalm or Gospel passage
Engage in Lectio Divina using BREAD or the Lectio 365 app
Or any other Scripture practice the Spirit is highlighting for you

End in Prayer (1 minute)

Leader: Pray to close your time, asking the Spirit to guide each person in their practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 6/26/25 Kylee Logan 6/26/25

Genesis Series, Scripture Guide 1

Over the next three summers, as we work our way through the scroll of Genesis, we will dive into the practice of Scripture in our Communities. Because Jesus was immersed in, lived by, and ultimately lived out Scripture, we engage in this formational practice to learn how to recognize God's voice, to understand his character, and to find ourselves in the story of his world and mission to make all things new.

Leader note: Do you have a story from your Community’s time in the Generosity Practice you’d like to share? We would love to hear from you.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Psalm 104v1–3, 33–34

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;

you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;

he stretches out the heavens like a tent

and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.

He makes the clouds his chariot

and rides on the wings of the wind.

He makes winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants.

He set the earth on its foundations;

it can never be moved…

I will sing to the Lord all my life;

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

May my meditation be pleasing to him,

as I rejoice in the Lord.

Read this Overview (5 minutes)

Most of us in this room likely have a Bible somewhere in our homes, or at least a Bible app on our phones. While what we call the Bible today presents to us as one big book, in reality it’s a whole library of texts—scrolls of different genres, communicating in distinct ways and addressing specific peoples. And while it may not have all been written to us, it is certainly still for us. We believe the Bible in all its variety and texture is part of a unified narrative—pointing backward to creation and forward to redemption through the person of Jesus. As followers of Jesus, we follow his lead in trusting the Scriptures around which he built his life.

As a church community, we will take the summer to slowly walk through Genesis 1–11, beginning with the story of Creation on the opening pages of the Bible. These chapters hold the Bible’s beautiful and tragic origin story, explaining the deceptive crisis and redemptive promise that are braided through the biblical drama.

The adventure of reading and engaging with Scripture is different for everyone, as we all have our own relationship to Scripture based on our individual experiences, backgrounds, and personalities. And with these unique differences in mind, each of us will commit to growing in our individual practices of Scripture throughout the next few months of this series.

Practice for the Night (25 minutes)

Tonight, we’ll spend some time together talking about our relationship with and practice of Scripture as it stands right now, and begin to discern where the Spirit might be leading each of us to lean in this season.

To begin, let’s talk through a few questions together:

What from these last few weeks of teaching on creation revealed something new or meaningful to you about God as Creator?
What is your current practice of Scripture like? How did you get to this place?
Is there a particular way of engaging with Scripture that you really enjoy or find helpful? (e.g. memorizing Scripture, lectio divina, word study, etc.)

This summer, the aim for each of us is to find or deepen our rhythm of engaging with Scripture. But we want to do so by starting where we are, not where we think we should be—the goal is not to go from never reading Scripture to reading the whole Bible in the next 3 months! So consider where you currently are and prayerfully decide on one step to take that is sustainable and life-giving for you. As you reflect on what invitation God might be extending, here are a few different modes of engaging Scripture:

Follow along in Genesis. In these Guides, we’ll share the upcoming teaching texts, so in the week leading up to each Sunday’s teaching, commit to reading and re-reading the passage that the teaching will cover. This mode of study can help bring the teaching to life!
Meditate on Scripture. Lectio divina is an ancient, time tested way of meeting God through the Scriptures by reading slowly and repetitively with the goal of hearing God’s voice. You can use a BREAD journal (designed for this exercise), or read a Psalm of your choosing each day and practice listening to the Spirit through the words of Scripture. For more about how to practice lectio divina, visit page 6 of BREAD, provided at this link.
Memorize Scripture. Setting scripture to memory is a way of planting it deep in our hearts, allowing it to shape our thoughts. Paul exhorts us to continually renew our minds through scripture, knowing that as we allow God to renew our minds he also transforms our lives with his truth. This summer, perhaps consider one of these options for setting scripture to memory:

A shorter passage you may already be familiar with, such as John 3v16, Proverbs 4v5–6, Psalm 23, or Genesis 1v26–31
A longer passage that may be meaningful to you, such as John 15, Galatians 5, or Romans 12

That said, the right step for you might be something else entirely! The goal is simply to take a step forward from where you are now in order to meet God in the pages of Scripture.

While we've only had a few moments to think about it, is anyone feeling resonance with and curiosity about how they might be engaging Scripture for the summer?

Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

This week, think and pray about how God is leading you to deepen your practice of Scripture this summer, and next week we’ll come back ready to share. We will begin each Guide in this series by checking in with one another about how this is going.

If you are starting at square one—maybe you very rarely read Scripture—a small step might be committing to read the teaching text from Genesis before Sunday’s teaching each week. You could read in a paper Bible, listen on your commute, or choose something else that fits in your schedule. If you read Scripture fairly regularly as narrative (e.g. working through a Bible reading plan), consider engaging with lectio divina a few days a week, asking the Spirit to speak to you personally through the passage you read. If you already have a robust practice of daily Scripture reading or lectio divina, a good next step might be memorizing a passage (or more!) of Scripture and planting it in your mind and heart.

End in Prayer (1 minute)

Leader: Pray to close your time, asking the Spirit to guide each person in their practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 6/8/25 Kylee Logan 6/8/25

God is Love, Guide 3: Communal Generosity

Leader Note: Read through this Guide in full before your Community meets as it will require some forethought and planning. There are two options: one if you already know a need and one if you don’t already know a need. Also, remind your Community to send you any current financial needs they may have that they would feel comfortable sharing with the group.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Leader Note: Begin this time 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 through the prayer as written below.

“God, before anything existed, you were there—and you were love. You didn’t become love; you’ve always been love. Out of that endless love, you made us. You pursued us. You brought us back to yourself. And here at this table, we see what your love looks like: self-giving and sacrificial. We remember you, Jesus—your body given and your blood poured out for the world. We love because you loved us first. Help us receive your love fully and share it generously—by the way we spend our time, care for others, and give of ourselves. Amen.”

Read This Overview Aloud (5 minutes)

Our last Guide was about practicing individual Generosity—listening to the Spirit and quietly giving in the flow of our ordinary lives. And along with being a personal discipline, Generosity is also a shared way of life. From the very beginning, the church has been a communal economy: a Spirit-filled family marked by mutual provision and sacrificial love. The earliest believers “were one in heart and mind… and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them” (Acts 4v32–35). This generosity wasn’t forced, but was joyfully given as an overflow of the love they received from Jesus.

Scripture reminds us that Generosity starts with those among us, the people we eat with, pray with, and share life with. Communal generosity grows from a people who know they belong to God, and therefore belong to one another. So while we look outward once a month to take spiritual responsibility for our city in our monthly Mission Rhythm, this week we look inward to take spiritual responsibility for the people right here in our Community. Now, sharing our own needs can bring up an array of emotions, but the essence of Christian community is that we will all have needs and that we will all have something to give. Together, we ask tonight: “Who among us has a need that we can meet in love?”

We offer what we have—not simply our money, but our attention, our trust, our faith—so that someone else might experience the goodness of God through the care of his people. And when we live this way, we tell the truth about who God is: God is love and his love knows no lack.

Do This Practice Tonight (30 minutes)

Tonight’s practice has two parts. First, we will begin by sharing stories of gratitude from this past week and by reviewing the practice from the last Guide. Then, we’ll come together to consider who God might be inviting us all to be collectively generous to.

To start, let’s take the next few moments to discuss the following questions:

How have you experienced God’s generosity toward you this week?
While the goal is never to “perform” Generosity, we do want to bear witness to it together as we grow in our practice as a Community. In response to God’s generosity to you, were there moments this week where you sensed God prompting you to give to someone else—whether one time or on-going? How did you respond?

Opening Prayer

For the rest of our time together, we’ll discern as a group how we can practice Communal Generosity—pooling our resources to love someone we know. Let’s begin with prayer, asking the Spirit to guide us in this conversation of discernment.

Leader Note: Pray aloud, inviting God to continue to make your Community as generous as he is. If you already know a need, feel free to close the prayer and move onto the Share part. If you don’t already know a need, also ask the Spirit to bring to mind one person each of us knows that has a need your Community could meet. Remain silent in prayer for about a minute, giving space for God to speak, then simply close this time of prayer saying, “Amen.”

Share

Leader Note: If you already know a need, now would be the time to share it with the group, whether the person with the need is willing to share for themselves or if they’d rather you share for them. This can be as simple as saying "someone reached out this week about an unexpected bill totalling $XX”. If you don’t already know a need, ask the Community if, while they were praying, God highlighted a need they have or a need they know of in their network of relationships. Even if your Community has already helped someone financially recently, the Spirit may have a further invitation for you all. You can do that by simply reading the question below:

If a need you have came to mind while we were praying, please feel free to share that with the Community, but if there isn’t a need within our group, is there someone in our broader relational network (e.g. a neighbor, friend, or someone we serve during our Mission week) that comes to mind who is in need?

Discuss & Decide

In a moment, we will pray for discernment as to how God is inviting each of us individually to give to this need, but right now, let’s take some time to discuss how we can best meet this need as a Community, and facilitate giving in a healthy way.

Leader Note: Funds can be given to the leader (via cash, Venmo, etc.) to be distributed, but be sure to pursue accountability by involving two people in the process. If the financial need surpasses the capacity of the Community, consider sharing this need with the church via the Benevolence Form.

Pray for Discernment & Blessing

We’ll close out our Practice for tonight by praying for two things. The first is for the Spirit to speak to each of us what we are individually being invited to give through the question: “What would it look like for me to give—not just money, but prayer, presence, and encouragement?” As we consider this question in prayer, let’s remember that God’s invitation to each of us will look different, the same way it did for those in Jesus’ Parable of the Poor Widow (Luke 21). There is no “better” or “worse” invitation—only the one God is asking of you.

The second thing we will pray for is a blessing over the person(s) we intend to honor with our gift. We’ll pray that God would multiply it, provide abundantly, and that our friend(s) would feel seen and deeply known in the process, because this is not just an act of charity—this is the economy of heaven breaking into our midst.

Leader Note: Close this prayer time with our Sunday giving prayer: King Jesus, we give joyfully because you held nothing back from us. We give generously because we want to become like you. We give sacrificially because we want others to taste the life of your Kingdom. Receive these gifts and use them for your glory. Amen.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (2 minutes)

As we close out our Guides on Generosity, let’s follow through on our plan to meet this need this week. If you sense God inviting you to give financially, take the step of sending that money in the way we decided to do so tonight. If you sensed God inviting you to pray specifically, do that. And if you sensed an invitation to presence, do that. And if tonight God highlighted to you someone in need, but we as a Community aren’t able to support them, consider what invitation God might be extending to you this week. Additionally, what we practiced tonight should be a regular part of our Community rhythm, so if a need ever arises, we all should feel welcome to let a Leader know or share it with the Community during our prayer time. Finally, if your family is looking for a way to practice Generosity with your kids, follow this link to walk them through the Family Guide on Generosity:

Family Guide on Generosity

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking the Spirit to grow in each of you a heart of gratitude, a deeper trust in God’s generosity, and a desire to reflect his generosity to others.

Kylee Logan 5/22/25 Kylee Logan 5/22/25

God is Love, Guide 2: Individual Giving

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Read This Overview Aloud (5 minutes)

Generous, self-giving love is at the heart of who our Trinitarian God is. We see the nature of God put on display clearly in the person of Jesus. Jesus constantly lived in community, was interruptible, and put the needs of others over his preferences. As Jesus’ followers, we get to respond to his self-giving, generous love toward us by embodying it to others. In John 15, Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you…My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” How then, did Jesus love us? By giving his time, his resources, and his very life.

As God has been unceasingly generous toward us, we get to respond by loving one another in the same way. In Philippians 2, Paul exhorts the church in Philippi to “make [his] joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love…in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Choosing this in our own lives could look like giving up our preferences, giving away our time, and making financial sacrifices to make sure all needs are met in the family of God—even if it means going without something we want or a level of comfort we are accustomed to.

Tonight, we’ll spend some time in smaller groups talking about how we might embody God's love to others through our own financial generosity.

Do This Practice Tonight (30 minutes)

Tonight’s practice has two parts. First, we’ll spend some time together sharing stories about how we’ve experienced God’s generosity this past week and reviewing last week’s practice. Then, we’ll break into smaller groups to consider where or to whom God might be inviting us to be generous.

Let’s take the next few moments to consider the following question all together:

How have you experienced God’s generosity toward you this week? As in our last discussion, it may be something “small” or something that feels “big” to you—every good thing comes from God and his generosity is something to celebrate!
As you reviewed your budget, how did you feel about your current rhythms of generosity? Did you sense any prompting from God to deepen, expand, or grow it in any way?

For the rest of our time together, we’ll split into smaller groups of 3–4 for discussion and prayer.

In the Scriptures, the early church is described as freely sharing resources with one another and helping each other as needs arose. As we are increasingly formed into the image of Jesus, we aim to mimic him and the early church by making sure the needs of those around us are met. Let’s explore a few questions together:

What are some of the barriers to giving financially to others?
Have you given financially to someone you knew before, such as a neighbor or community / church member? What was that experience like for you?
After sitting with your finances and as we talk through these prompts, what step toward generosity do you feel God inviting you to take? (Feel free to take a moment to pause and listen to the Spirit’s prompting before discussing.)

Take time in small groups as time allows to pray for each person in what God is calling them to practice.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

This week, we want to take a step toward giving money to others. If God brought a person or people to mind this evening to be generous toward, take one step toward obedience to what God’s put on your heart. If you don't already have someone in mind, ask God to show you how you can emulate his joyful generosity, and to let you in on the beautiful gift of sharing what you have with others. God's generosity is for all people, so don't miss out by waiting for the 'perfect' opportunity. Jump in and give it a try! In the coming weeks, we’ll process together what God did with your giving.

Finally, in our next Guide, we’ll consider as a Community how we can maximize our impact by pooling our resources toward helping someone we know. In preparation for that practice, consider whether you or someone you know has specific financial needs right now that our Community can come alongside and support as a family. If someone, including yourself, comes to mind, reach out to me (the Community Leader) to share that need.

Leader Note: If you are aware of a financial need within your Community already (a medical bill received, a member moving, a birth, a death, or something else), consider reaching out to that individual in the coming weeks to ask how the Community could come alongside them financially.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Kylee Logan 5/1/25 Kylee Logan 5/1/25

God is Love, Guide 1: Gratitude

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Read This Overview Aloud (5 minutes)

At the center of our faith is this stunning reality: God is love (1 John 4v8). This means that love isn’t just something God does—it’s who he is. Out of this very nature, God created life and sent his Son into the world. He did not do this in response to our love for him, but because he first loved us (1 John 4v9–10). As followers of Jesus, we are invited to receive that love deeply and let it shape our whole lives.

From the earliest Christian communities to today, the cross stands as the ultimate expression of God's love; it is self-giving and sacrificial. In response to this love, the earliest Christians shared their resources freely—selling possessions to care for the poor, supporting widows and orphans, and welcoming strangers with radical hospitality. Financial generosity was never seen as a burden, but as a joyful, natural response to the love they had received.

Practicing gratitude can help anchor us in God's generosity to us, serving as an antidote to the fear and anxiety in the world around us. As we remember how God has been generous to us, that gratitude forms us into people who live from security and not for security.

Throughout this teaching series, each of our Community Guides will be aimed at deepening our practice of Generosity. Since our generosity is only ever a response to God's generosity to us, this first Guide will focus on cultivating gratitude. The following Guide will help us to reflect on our own personal rhythms of Generosity. And the final Guide will be an experience of communal generosity, as we combine our resources to bless someone in need.

Do This Practice Tonight (25 minutes)

Our practice for tonight will have two parts. First, we'll take a few minutes to discuss the idea of gratitude as a whole, and then we'll actually practice it together by sharing our own experiences of God’s goodness—something we'll do at the start of each Guide in this series. Let’s take the next few moments to consider the following questions:

Why do you think gratitude and generosity are so closely connected?
Do you currently have a practice of gratitude? If so, what does it look like?

Leader note: Watch the time. This discussion should be kept to about 10 minutes to preserve at least 20 minutes for the second portion of the practice.

Now, we’re going to spend the rest of our time tonight telling stories.

We want to make space for each person to share one or two specific ways they have recently experienced God’s generosity. It might seem big or small—anything from financial provision to beautiful weather on a hard day, a restored relationship to an encouraging word from a friend. Every good thing comes from God (James 1v17).

As each person shares, let’s listen well because each story is a glimpse of God’s faithfulness and is part of the bigger story of his love at work in our lives. After each person shares, we will have someone pray a quick prayer of blessing over them—thanking God for how they’ve experienced his generosity and asking that they’d have more experiences like it.

Leader note: Assess the size and personality make up of your group. If 20 minutes isn’t enough time to give everyone the chance to share and be prayed for, consider breaking into smaller groups of 4–5. Set a time for 15 minutes, and when the timer is up, gather the group back in to close out the night with the Practice for the Week Ahead.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (3 minutes)

Before we dive deeper into the topic of financial generosity in our next Community Guide, we want to each take a preliminary step of setting aside time to consider how our habits reflect the values we want to be shaped by. So, at some point this week, set aside 30 to 60 minutes to think through your financial practices—your income, spending, and current rhythms of Generosity. As you do, prayerfully ask yourself these few questions:

What do my habits show me about my priorities? How do they reflect what I truly value?
How am I already living generously?
And if God were inviting me to start a new rhythm of Generosity, what could it be?

After you spend some time reflecting, commit to one small step toward better aligning your rhythms with your values this week. And if it’s helpful, you might consider journaling about what you discover, or talk about it with someone in our Community—it could help prepare your heart for our conversation next week.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Kylee Logan 4/10/25 Kylee Logan 4/10/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation (Conclusion)

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

On the night before Jesus was killed, he shared a final meal with his disciples. In these last moments, he didn’t tell one last parable, he enacted one. Through a simple, symbolic act, Jesus summed up his life’s message, revealing to us God’s posture toward humanity. And, while this act dealt with power, it didn’t do so in a way anyone expected. As his apprentices, we are to take this same posture towards one another.

“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.

Do This Practice Tonight (35 minutes)

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: Let’s make sure we 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: As the Community Leader, I will be “washing” the feet of each person in your Community. (Leader note: 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, let’s all remain quietly reflective throughout as we play some sort of worship or instrumental music. (Leader note: Here is a playlist that you are welcome to use.)
The person whose feet are being washed will sit in a chair with their feet in the bin or bucket.
I will “wash” their feet by simply pouring the warm water from the pitcher over their feet.
I will then take a towel and dry the person’s feet.
We’ll repeat steps 2 – 4 until every person has had their feet washed.

Leader note: Close your time in prayer thanking Jesus for your Community, and for the way he modeled serving one another well.

Renunciation Reflection Conclusion

We’re going to transition now into time reflecting on the season of Lent and our Practices of Renunciation as we prepare for Easter and the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.

We began this Lenten season asking God what good gift he wants to give us, and to show us what we might be using as a substitute for that gift. Or, put another way, all the ways we grasp for ourselves what God wants to freely give us. As we’ve walked over these last six weeks or so, we’ve likely had a spectrum of emotions, thoughts, and experiences—from frustration to fulfillment and everything in-between. As we look ahead to the conclusion of Lent on Resurrection Sunday, we want to consider all that God has done in this season of turning away from lesser appetites so we can turn toward all that Jesus has for us, and to consider what we want to carry forward into the rest of our year. With that in mind, let’s take the next ten minutes or so to talk through these questions:

Did anything surprise you about your experience with Renunciation during this season of Lent?
In your Practices of Renunciation and Reclaiming, how have you experienced God freely giving you what you’ve been trying to take for yourself?
What is one thing you want to carry forward beyond Easter and into your normal practice of life with Jesus?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

Our Practice for the week ahead is simple: we will finish out our Lenten renunciation through the rest of the week, celebrating its completion on Easter Sunday!

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue growing your Community through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 4/3/25 Kylee Logan 4/3/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #5

Take Communion

All-loving God, we praise you and rejoice in your presence. We come to this table together with hope and longing love, sharing the Lord's Supper, to eat and drink a foretaste of that future Wedding Supper. Jesus, we are making ourselves ready: tuning our hearts and training our appetites to desire you and you alone. Infuse our lives with your presence as we share your body, broken for us, and your blood, poured out for us. You wait with longing for us to drink anew in your kingdom, so we say: Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly.

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Throughout the season of Lent, we are engaging in the practice of Renunciation: giving up a particular (often good or neutral) appetite that we tend to use as a substitute for something God already wants to give us. And, as a reminder, we will spend the remainder of this teaching series reflecting on our practice of Renunciation in light of the themes found in one of the seven letters in Revelation.

Tonight, we’ll reflect on Jesus’ letter to the church of Philadelphia, in which he commends and encourages them by saying that he sees how they have kept to his way and endured struggle for the sake of love.

Ultimately, the practice of Renunciation aims to open us up to more of God’s love so that his love permeates our everyday lives. Because love is the goal, the prayer is that our practice of Renunciation (and our accompanying practice of reclamation) will produce lasting change in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to both experience God's love in the present and to allow it to transform us going into the future beyond Lent. So tonight, we will join the church of Philadelphia and do just that.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

Leader Note: Feel free to work through the following questions as a whole Community or in smaller groups, so long as everyone has an opportunity to share.

How has your practice of Renunciation been going this week? (e.g. Where did you feel God’s presence? Where did you feel resistance?)
How have you experienced the love of God more deeply during your practice of Renunciation?
With just a short time left, is there anything you hope will continue from your Lenten Renunciation into your everyday life with Jesus? (e.g. a new way of thinking, a changed relationship with technology, or a different pace of life, etc.)

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

Our Practice for the week ahead is to continue our Renunciation and Reclaiming through the season of Lent. Remember, Renunciation is about joy and desire! Because we are human beings, we will always be susceptible to reaching for something that God wants to give us. In our Renunciation, we are asking God for what he already desires for us and learning to receive from him rather than taking it for ourselves. So, this week, let’s resolve again to renounce our good or neutral appetites and receive God’s kindness and love.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader Note: Close your time together in blessing prayer for one another, asking God to continue growing each person through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 3/30/25 Kylee Logan 3/30/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #4

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Tonight, we’ll reflect on Jesus’ letter to the church of Sardis, where he reveals that he sees them as spiritually dead—spiritually “falling asleep” to the gospel. Jesus calls the church to “wake up” and become alive again by remembering the teaching of faith and choosing to walk in that good news.

At this point in your Lenten renunciation journey, Easter may feel more like a finish line than a celebration. Like the church in Sardis, we may have “fallen asleep” to what drew us to this particular practice at first. While this is part of the human experience, when we see our Renunciations as something to “get past” and finish, we miss out on the original intent to receive the freedom and life of God. Jesus teaches us that the pathway back to spiritual vibrancy is through the act of remembering—remembering what led us to the practice of Renunciation in the first place. Tonight, we will join the church of Sardis in remembering, in asking the Holy Spirit to reawaken us to our spiritual desire.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

Leader Note: Feel free to work through the following questions as a whole Community or in smaller groups, so long as everyone has an opportunity to share.

How has your practice of Renunciation been going this week? (e.g. Where did you feel God’s presence? Where did you feel resistance?)
Renunciation is a way of withholding a good or neutral appetite to receive what God freely wants to give you. How have you found yourself wandering from or forgetting that reality during Lent?
As you enter this coming week, what could it look like for you to wake and reset your focus on what God is trying to freely offer you in this season?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

Our Practice for the week ahead is to continue our Renunciation and Reclaiming through the season of Lent. Remember, Renunciation is about joy and desire! Because we are human beings, we will always be susceptible to reaching for something on our own terms that God wants to freely give us. In our Renunciation, we are asking God for what he already desires for us and learning to receive from him rather than taking it for ourselves. So, this week, let’s resolve again to renounce our good or neutral appetites and receive God’s kindness and love.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader Note: Close your time together in blessing prayer for one another, asking God to continue growing each person through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 3/20/25 Kylee Logan 3/20/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #3

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Tonight, we’ll reflect on Jesus’ letter to the church of Thyatira, in which he calls them to reject prominent false teachings and to return to Jesus’ vision for the good life. It’s important that we too take time to name and acknowledge the people who are influencing our lives and discipleship to Jesus, for good or ill. It is so easy to grow impatient for the things we want from God that might not be coming on our terms or in our timing—whether it’s a sense of belonging, comfort, peace, community, rest, or something else. In that impatience, we may be tempted to replace God’s best with lesser loves. So tonight, we’ll join the church in Thyatira by reflecting on the influences that impact our journey with Jesus.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

To begin our practice for the night, let’s take a moment to think back to the first week of our Renunciation, remembering what it was that we desired for God to give us rather than to try and take for ourselves. Let’s take just a moment to remember, and then we’ll share in one or two words what that good gift is.

Leader Note: Give everyone 20 seconds or so to think, and then invite people to share in one or two words.

Last week we focused on cultural influences that pull us away from our practice, so this week we want to focus on those who pull us towards it. So let’s take a few moments in silence to take note of the people who most influence us towards Jesus and the better love that he is offering us. If it’s helpful, feel free to use a journal or piece of paper to write down any thoughts. Then we’ll come back together and share one or two people each.

Leader Note: Give everyone 1 minute or so to think, and then invite people to share a name or two each.

As we have all experienced, it’s helpful to have people in our life who influence our relationship with Jesus. But more than just learning from someone, it’s important to share the journey of discipleship together. In this season of Lent, we get to do that by practicing Renunciation alongside one another—not necessarily giving up the same things, but identifying where we see God in each other's practice.

With that in mind, let’s have a discussion about our Renunciation and what this invitation might look like.

How has your practice of Renunciation been going this week? (e.g. Where did you feel God’s presence? Where did you feel resistance?)
Who are you letting into your practice of Renunciation, and how is that helping you?
Based on the last question, who is someone you could carry your practice of Renunciation with, and what might that look like?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader Note: Close your time together in blessing prayer for one another, asking God to continue growing each person through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 3/16/25 Kylee Logan 3/16/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #2

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Throughout the season of Lent, we are engaging in the practice of Renunciation: giving up a particular (often good or neutral) appetite that we tend to use as a substitute for something God already wants to give us. As a reminder, we will spend the remainder of this teaching series reflecting on our practice of Renunciation in light of the themes found in one of the seven letters in Revelation.

Tonight we’ll reflect on Jesus’ letter to the church in Pergamum, where believers faced massive pressure to compromise their beliefs to fit into the culture around them. Today, we face similar pressures to adopt cultural values that clash with the way of Jesus in order to fit in. Social pressure can make it easy to compromise, but we know that the reward for faithfulness—which is Christ himself—far outweighs any worldly gain. Jesus’ call to the church of Pergamum, and to us, is to an interior examination, to resist the temptation to compromise, and to follow his narrow way, even in the face of opposition.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

For tonight’s practice, we are going to take time to reflect on our practice of Renunciation through the themes in Jesus’ letter to Pergamum.

Leader Note: Feel free to work through the following questions as a Community or in smaller groups, so long as everyone has an opportunity to share.

How has your practice of Renunciation been going this week? (e.g. Where did you feel God’s presence? Where did you feel resistance?)
Renunciation has the tendency to push us out of alignment with our city’s culture. Over the last few weeks, have you noticed any tension develop in or around you as your practice Renunciation?
How have you found your practice of Reclaiming (i.e. picking up a practice) has helped you stay true to Jesus’ narrow path?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

Our Practice for the week ahead is to continue our Renunciation and Reclaiming through the season of Lent. Remember, Renunciation is about joy and desire! Because we are human beings, we will always be susceptible to reaching for something that God wants to give us. In our Renunciation, we are asking God for what he already desires for us and learning to receive from him rather than taking it for ourselves. So, this week, let’s resolve again to renounce our good/neutral appetite and receive from God’s deep love.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader Note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue growing your Community through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 3/10/25 Kylee Logan 3/10/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation Reflection #1

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Throughout the season of Lent, we are engaging in the practice of Renunciation, which is when we give up a particular (often good or neutral) appetite that we use as a substitute for something God already wants to give us. Last week, we kicked off Lent with Ash Wednesday, where we all chose something to renounce and something to reclaim for the 40 days of Lent. So for the remainder of this series, we will reflect on our practice of Renunciation in light of the themes found in the seven letters in Revelation.

Tonight, we’ll reflect on our practice of Renunciation through the lens of Jesus’ letter to the church of Smyrna, in which he calls them to faithfulness in the face of difficulty. Often in practices like this, we can begin with excitement and even zeal for what we’re doing or what God is doing. But at some point, we can find ourselves in a disillusioning moment of struggle brought on by doubt, suffering, or even a trial. This pattern can lead us to ask questions like, “Is my Renunciation working?” or “Will this actually help me find deeper satisfaction in God?” At this point, we have to decide between faithfulness and retreat. The season of Lent reminds us that we are mortal, so inevitably we will choose to retreat at some point. But the greater invitation will always be to return to faithfulness. And when we choose faithfulness, we experience a deeper satisfaction and fulfillment in God. Jesus’ call to the church of Smyrna—and to us—is to choose faithfulness in the struggle, even when it feels like suffering.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

For tonight’s practice, we are going to take time to reflect on our practice of Renunciation through the themes in Jesus’ letter to Smyrna.

Leader Note: Feel free to work through the following questions as a Community or in smaller groups, so long as everyone has an opportunity to share.

How has your practice of Renunciation been this week? (Where did you feel God’s presence and where did you feel resistance?)
Where did you experience challenges in your practice? Were you able to talk to anyone about them? And how did these challenges reveal your need for God?
How do you feel invited to choose faithfulness this week in your Renunciation? How might that choice deepen your satisfaction and dependence on God?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader Note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue growing your Community through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 2/23/25 Kylee Logan 2/23/25

7 Letters, Guide: Renunciation (Introduction)

Take Communion (2 minutes)

Read This Overview Aloud (3 minutes)

Lent is a 40-day season within the church calendar that stretches from Ash Wednesday (March 5) to Easter Sunday (April 20), mirroring Jesus’ 40-day fast in the desert. Traditionally, Lent is marked by Fasting as a way of confessing our grief over sin. The Lenten Practice of abstaining from a particular food has often been referred to as Fasting, but it is more appropriately understood as Renunciation. Whereas Fasting is the giving up of all food for a given period of time, Renunciation is the giving up of a particular, often good or neutral, appetite—bodily or otherwise—for the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter. So, for the sake of clarity, we will refer to our Lenten practice as the practice of Renunciation.

As Jesus describes to the church of Ephesus in Revelation 2, it can be easy for us to lose sight of our “first love” and settle for a “lesser love.” A practice of Renunciation invites us to reclaim our first love by focusing on what God freely offers, allowing us to enjoy lesser loves without attachment. The goal is not simply to starve a lesser love but to re-throne our first love.

This year, we want God to use the 40 days of Lent to help us reclaim our first love, which is why we will use tonight to help prepare for our Lenten Renunciation by working through three major questions: 1) What is God wanting to freely give me? 2) What substitute or lesser love might God be inviting me to renounce? And 3) What practice might God be inviting me to re-engage?

Do This Practice Tonight (35 minutes)

Every week through the season of Lent, our Discipleship nights will be solely dedicated to reflecting on and deepening our practice of Renunciation. In preparation for that, tonight’s discussion will consist of three major movements: Revealing, Renouncing, and Reclaiming. We are having this conversation now so that we can show up to the Ash Wednesday gathering ready to begin our practices of Renunciation together.

Revealing: Before we explore what we may end up renouncing or reclaiming, we want to give God the first word. To do this, we are going to take some time in listening prayer, asking God the following question: “What are you wanting to freely give me in this season?” It may be something connected to a deepened understanding of your belovedness or identity, or a sense of peace or comfort in the midst of the chaos you’re experiencing, or a clearer sense of his presence to you. Whatever it is, there is a work that God is doing that he wants you to know about so that you can participate with him in it. If the idea of hearing God feels a bit daunting, start out with the question, “What do you want to receive from God in this season?”

Okay, let’s take a few moments together in silent prayer with God exploring what good gifts our Good Father wants to give us in this next season.

Leader Note: This silent prayer time should be kept to about 5 minutes.

Renouncing: With those themes in mind, let’s take the next few minutes to consider and discuss what good or neutral appetite we use as a substitute for what God is trying to give us that God might be inviting us to renounce for this season of Lent. What is something other than God that we have become dependent on to attend to the deeper aches of our soul? As I read that, something obvious might have immediately come to mind—don’t ignore that.

That said, if you’re having trouble identifying a neutral appetite that you habitually reach for in place of what you are seeking from God, consider the following lesser loves. Afterwards, we’ll each share one that stands out to us:

Wealth: What luxuries might your budget afford you that bring you a sense of security? Could you give up shopping, repurpose your saving habits, or give up a particular habit of consumption like dining out or buying coffee?
Power: What do you repeatedly return to in order to feel a sense of control? What could you give up that would leave you feeling powerless?
Pleasure: What do you use to find pleasure, comfort, or emotional regulation? Is there a specific food or media that you reach for when feeling depleted?
Appearance: What aspect of your appearance fuels your sense of value or likeability? What if you gave up makeup, or a certain product, or took down every mirror in your house for 40 days?
Vocational Success: How does your sense of identity or purpose excessively derive from your career? What if you had a set time you were going to leave the office each day or you refrained from working lunches and used your break to participate in midday prayer instead?

Let’s have a conversation about what God is stirring in you—what lesser love might he be inviting you to lay down for Lent?

Leader Note: This discussion should be kept to 15 minutes.

Reclaiming: Having explored that last question, let’s take the next few minutes to consider what practice God might be inviting us to reclaim during Lent. Put simply, how can you make space to receive the good gift God wants to give you? Think back to when you first met Jesus: What spontaneous expressions of love flowed from you when you first experienced Jesus' love? Perhaps worship came really easily and you were constantly in communion with God. Or maybe it was something like serving, or reading the Bible, telling people about Jesus, or something else. Is it possible that God might be inviting you to return to one of those practices during Lent?

Let’s have a conversation now about what God is stirring in you—what first love might God be inviting you to return to for Lent?

Leader Note: This discussion should be kept to 15 minutes. Afterwards, close this time by having everyone turn to the person beside them and pray blessing over what God is doing in them through this Lenten season.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

Our Practice for the week ahead is to prepare for Lent by continuing to pray and process through what we shared tonight, asking God to clarify what exactly he might be asking us to renounce and reclaim. The hope is that each of us attend the Ash Wednesday Gathering on March 5 beginning our 40-day Renunciation.

If you’re unfamiliar with Lent, it’s good to know that each Sunday (or your Sabbath) of Lent is a “feasting day,” in which we pause our renunciation—eating sugar, going shopping, watching tv, etc.—in order to help stir up hope for what is to come: our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.

That said, the day before Lent begins is called Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday (March 4). This is a feast day on the church calendar, in which people get together to celebrate all that God has done as they prepare for 40 days of Renunciation. It’s not required, but it’s something our Community can take part in if we want! This is a feast that would include all the things that we will be renouncing (or things that are symbolic of what we are renouncing) for the Lenten season. Since this may practically be a meal made up of desserts, bread, coffee, alcohol, and meat, we should feel free to round it out with other foods as well. And while it’s obviously not an excuse to overindulge, it is certainly a time to celebrate.

So let’s spend time this week sitting with the Spirit and having a conversation about what it is each of us want to renounce during the Lenten season, and once you choose something, plan to bring it (or something that symbolizes/references it) to our Shrove Tuesday feast to share with everyone! The following night (Wednesday, March 5), we will plan to attend the Ash Wednesday gathering as a Community.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue growing your Community through the Practice of Renunciation.

Kylee Logan 2/9/25 Kylee Logan 2/9/25

The Beatitudes, Guide 4: Reflection

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus introduces the upside down kingdom of God—the last will be first. His kingdom doesn’t follow a worldly structure of power, fame, or notoriety, but instead, Jesus says that the poor and meek will be blessed.

Take Communion (2 minutes)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Amen.

Review The Last Practice (8 minutes)

Let’s take some time to reflect on how the last Practice went for everyone. As a reminder, our previous Practice invited us to cultivate mercy by praying for those who have hurt us.

How did it feel to sit with God and ask him about how he sees the person you’re struggling to forgive?
How did the Spirit invite you (in either small or big ways) to extend mercy towards that person?

Read This Overview Aloud (5 minutes)

Tonight’s time together, walking through this guide, will function differently than the others in this series. We believe that God did something significant and beautiful at the Holy Spirit Conference, so we want to spend our time together tonight reflecting on the Holy Spirit Conference.

While the questions are specifically aimed to those who went to the Holy Spirit Conference or one of the Sunday gatherings that followed, we acknowledge that the Spirit is not contained by any single gathering, so others are welcome to share their experience of what God’s been doing in their lives during this time. Either way, sharing testimony is a way of asking God to do it again. So, let’s spend some time reflecting on the ways God moved in you, our church, and our city this last weekend.

Do This Practice Tonight (20 minutes)

Tonight, we are going to engage in the practice of reflection as we look back at our time at the Holy Spirit Conference. As we reflect and respond to different prompts (listed below), let’s keep in mind that God’s work is happening both in the most extraordinary and the most ordinary moments of our lives, and in this case, a conference. For example, these miraculous moments could be anything from witnessing or experiencing a physical healing or a very specific word of knowledge during worship or a session. An example of those ordinary moments filled with God’s presence could have happened during an hallway conversation, meeting another conference attendee, lunch with a friend, or silent prayer. The reason we are taking time tonight for reflection is because there’s a unique opportunity to catalyze and capture the experience we just had. Again, for those of you who were not able to attend, please feel free to share a response to these questions in the context of your season of life right now.

So, let’s first open in a prayer of gratitude, acknowledging all the ways that the Holy Spirit was with us during the conference.

Leader Note: As needed, feel free to modify the questions for your group.

Holy Spirit Conference Reflection Questions:

How did you sense the Spirit moving?
What were you asking God for? How did God meet you in that desire?
Did you get to participate in anything the Spirit was up to in someone else’s life?
How would you attempt to name what God did in our church this weekend?
What’s next? What do you want God to continue in this coming season?

Let’s close this portion of the night in prayer by getting into smaller groups of 2–3 people. Let’s first pray gratitude for God’s work in us and secondly, ask him to help us continue receiving and stewarding what he has spoken to us.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead (1 minute)

Our Practice for the week ahead is to continue to respond to the ways God spoke to us at the conference. Let’s take active steps towards pursuing greater love or fidelity that God’s inviting us to. This could look like bringing this before God in prayer, journaling, or carving out time to share with a friend.

End in Prayer (5 minutes)

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue growing your Community through the Practice of Reflection.