Vision 2025, Guide 1: Annual Examen
In Portland As It Is In Heaven, 2025
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)
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(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.
