Community Guides

Tyler Hanns 5/15/22 Tyler Hanns 5/15/22

Hearing God’s Voice

Before working through this Guide, make sure that everyone has caught up through the teaching on May 15, 2022.

Take Communion

Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal or some version of the bread and the cup that proceeds the meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, pray these words from Paul to the church in Ephesus:

I pray that out of his glorious riches God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3v16-19)

Read This Overview Aloud Together

As we continue the practice and pattern of learning what God’s voice sounds like by what he has already said and done in the pages of the Scriptures, our next task is to begin learning how he speaks uniquely to each of us. Simply put, God knows how we hear his voice, so he will speak to us in a language we understand. In Psalm 139, David declares that God knit us together in our mothers’ wombs, so God is intimately aware of every single part of us, even more than we are of ourselves.

God made us as integrated beings. Think about how we listen and interact in conversations, as we interpret them in our bodies: leaning in to hear more, eye contact or lack thereof, smiling or scowling, feeling elated or frustrated. Words only make up part of how we understand what people are saying. We watch facial expressions and body language, listen for tone and inflection, note each time they reach out to put a hand on our shoulder or how much distance they keep.

And because we are not just spirits, because we are embodied, our conversations with God will work this way too: when God is speaking to us, we interpret or understand it in our bodies. God will use bodily sensations, an image in our mind, a sense or feeling, an emotional stirring, a memory, or whatever it takes to get our attention so that he can tell us of our belovedness. His words will ground themselves in our bodies.

In the Bible, which is our guardrail and guide in learning God’s voice, we find two foundational and core principles to hold while learning to hear God: 1) more than anything God, our Beloved, longs for us to know our belovedness, and 2) that God wants us to hear him more than we want to hear him.

Oftentimes, the best place to begin learning how God speaks to us individually is by answering the question: Where do you most come alive? Whether it’s out in nature or at home baking, exploring new places or going back to familiar ones, being active or still, journaling or running, we can understand this “aliveness” as something we were made to enjoy, as God’s pleasure in us. The places in you that were designed to come alive are the places where our access to God is most uninhibited. That sense of “aliveness” is often how God is training you to hear his voice. For us to learn to pay attention to what he’s saying, we must, like Jesus, withdraw to these solitary places to be with and engage God (Luke 5v16). This week, we want to begin exploring how God has designed us to hear his voice and to practice doing just that.

Discuss The Following Questions

Have you heard God speak to you? Where in your imagination, body, or emotions have you heard him speak? (e.g. maybe you’ve seen an image in your imagination, felt a warmth in your chest, literally seen a bone be mended, etc.)
What makes it hard for you to trust that what you’re hearing is actually God’s voice? How can you know?
Where do you come alive? How can you look for the ways God speaks to you while you’re in those places or doing those things?

Do This Practice Tonight

Two common barriers that come up for us in learning how God speaks are 1) constantly surrounding ourselves with noise and 2) not knowing what to actually expect God to say.

Much of the time, trying to hear God speak in our lives is like trying to hear someone tell us a story at a concert – there’s just too much going on. For this reason, Jesus often removed himself from the crowds and the busyness and got alone to be with God. We can hear God’s voice more clearly as we allow our outer world to quiet and our inner world to still.

Which leads to the other problem: Sometimes we don’t get quiet because we aren’t sure what God is going to say. Whether conscious or not, we feel like he is disappointed or angry with us. But, in Jesus, we learn that God wants to invite us into friendship with him, he wants us to hear how much he loves us. And as we learn to expect and to trust that, learning to hear him will feel a bit more approachable.

Solitude is the practice of removing ourselves from the noise and learning to hear God whisper our belovedness. So tonight, even though we’re not able to really practice Solitude, we do want to practice listening for God to whisper our belovedness. We will do this by reading and reflecting on Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus, a tax collector whose house he invited himself over to have dinner. (Leader’s Note: It can be helpful to read all of the following directions out loud to the group before beginning, so each person knows where the exercise is going.)

1. Settle in & Welcome the Holy Spirit – Go ahead and settle in and get comfortable. It could help to position yourself into an open or receiving posture (e.g. hands open on your lap, eyes closed, feet on the ground or crossed in front of you). Once you’re ready to begin, invite the Spirit to reveal to each person what God is like as you read Jesus’ words. Invite his creativity to stir your imaginations and his comfort to meet each of you.

2. Read Luke 19v1–10 – Next, slowly read Luke 19v1–10 out loud, holding a brief silence afterwards.

3. Read Again, But Put Yourself in Zacchaeus’ Place – Before you read it again, say this to your Community: In Jewish tradition, inviting someone to eat with you was a way of inviting them into friendship. So, as we read through this story again, try to put yourself in Zacchaeus’ place. As you imagine the story, watch the way Jesus approaches you and speaks to you, hear his tenderness, and receive God’s invitation to you of deep friendship.

4. Hold Silence – After the second reading, spend a minute or two in silence as each person dialogues with God. Some may choose to write in their journals or make a note in their phone.

5. Process Together – Finally, after spending sufficient time in silent prayer and reflection, break the silence by thanking God for speaking and revealing himself. After ending this prayer, open a conversation about what stirred in you during that time. Whether profound or totally normal, did anyone hear God whisper their belovedness? What did it sound or feel like?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, there are two Practices to try:

1. Practice Understanding Delight as God’s Pleasure: We want to end where we began: Where do most come alive? This is the question to consider as you plan out your Practice for the week ahead. Spend some time processing that question with the Spirit, being sure to not over-spiritualize it. Once you’ve landed on something, or at least on something to try, make some Solitude time to go to that place and/or to do that thing. Give it however much time you can and repeat it often, remembering that the longer we’re able to practice doing something – in this case hearing God’s love for us – the better we get at it.

While you’re in the place or doing the activity, take a moment to ask the Spirit to translate the “aliveness” that you feel as God’s pleasure and delight over you, as God whispering to you your belovedness. Invite the Spirit to remind you that his base emotion towards you is delight. He longs to be with you, to spend time with you, to teach you to hear his voice. And then just be in the moment; feel the warmth of his deep love towards you.

2. Begin and End Your Day With Truth: Secondly, we can practice hearing God whisper our belovedness by beginning and ending each day with an outloud declaration that reminds us about and trains our minds to dwell on what is true. For example, try beginning each day by saying: Before anything has happened today, I am God’s beloved son/daughter. And try ending each day by saying: Even after all that happened today, I am still God’s beloved son/daughter. After making each declaration, pause for a moment and ask God to root that truth deep inside you.

End in Prayer

Close your time together asking for God to remind you that he delights to whisper our belovedness. Invite him to continue doing so and to draw your attention to it in various moments. Thank him that his affection for us is trustworthy.

Tyler Hanns 5/1/22 Tyler Hanns 5/1/22

Learning God’s Voice

Before working through this Guide, make sure that everyone has caught up through the teaching on May 1, 2022.

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud Together

What does God’s voice sound like? And how can you even know? Why does it often feel so difficult to know what God is saying (or if he’s even saying anything at all)? These are some of the most important, confusing questions we can ask in our apprenticeship to Jesus. In John 10, Jesus tells a crowd of curious onlookers that his sheep know his voice. This would suggest that as we grow in discipleship to him, we will also grow in being able to recognize and know his voice. But, if that’s the case, where do we start?

The Bible is a collection of scrolls spanning well over a thousand years that exists as God’s self-revelation to us; meaning, we can learn what God’s voice sounds like by learning what God has already said. In the same way that you can learn the way somebody talks by reading their memoirs, you can study the cadence of their voice by listening to their podcasts, and explore their passions and interests by being close to them, we can learn what God is like by meditating on the Scriptures.

In fact, in his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul writes that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God.” This means that we can understand what God himself is like as we read about, study, and meditate on the stories of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus, we find, reveals to us what God thinks about us and how God sounds. Through Jesus, we learn significant truths in discerning God’s voice, things like: God’s purpose for us is always “life to the full,” whereas the enemy only ever “comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” So, we conclude, if the voice we’re hearing leads to fear, guilt, or shame, it will always belong to the enemy. God’s voice as revealed through the life of Jesus, though, may bring conviction, but it will always have within it a way forward, a way back into life. The enemy is for our death; God is for our life.

There are so many other truths about God’s voice hidden in and revealed through the life of Jesus – he is tender and compassionate towards us; he is patient and slow to anger; he does not want any to be lost and goes out of his way to find each person; disease and death are always his enemy; and more. The lifelong task ahead of us is to mine the depths of the Scriptures for the treasures revealed there about what God’s voice is like, and to practice again and again to hear God’s voice, to know his will, and to live life to the full.

Discuss The Following Questions

Why would it matter whether or not we can hear God’s voice? What benefit is there in it? Why would God want us to know his voice?
Do you have (or have you had) a rhythm with reading, studying, or meditating on the Scriptures in your discipleship? What is (or was) that? And what do (or did) you notice it do in your life?
What kinds of things or themes have you heard God say to you (or through you to other people)? How do you know they were from God? How do those themes connect with how he reveals himself in the Bible?

Do This Practice Tonight

In Psalm 119, David prays, “I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Hiding God’s word in our hearts by meditating on it, excavating it for truth, and (with the help of the Holy Spirit) applying it to our lives, is the way that we follow Jesus. When we study God’s voice, we are more likely to know what his voice sounds like in each moment and less likely to fall prey to the evil around us – which seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.

Tonight, we are going to practice learning what God’s voice is like by meditating together on a parable Jesus tells the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law in order to reveal something about the character of God. (Leader’s Note: It can be helpful to read all of the following directions out loud to the group before beginning, so each person knows where the exercise is going.)

2. Read Luke 15v1–7 & Keep Silence Three Times – Next, slowly read Luke 15v1–7 out loud three times, being sure to spend a minute or two in silence between each reading. This silence will give space for the Spirit to bring the story to life in your imagination, to reveal to you what God is like, and to speak anything else he has in mind to say.

3. Thank God & Discuss – Finally, after spending sufficient time in silent prayer and reflection, break the silence by thanking God for speaking and revealing himself. After ending this prayer, open a conversation about what God revealed. If conversation feels stuck, feel free to use the following questions.

What stood out to you in the story Jesus told?
What was Jesus trying to reveal about God? Is this different from what you assumed? Is this different from your personal experience with him?
How might you pray differently in the future with these attributes of God in mind?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

If it’s true that we can learn what God’s voice sounds like through what he’s already said and done, we want to be people who soak themselves in the Bible. Tonight, we practiced meditating on Scripture through contemplative reading. Another way to meditate on Scripture is memorization, which is a way of getting Scripture so deeply into your mind and soul that it is what surfaces in moments where you feel stuck or at a loss for how to pray or think. Whether through contemplative reading or memorization, the invitation this week is to meditate on one of the following passages:

Psalm 130
Isaiah 43v1-3
John 15v1-8
Philippians 2v5-11

Begin Your Day With a Quick Meditation: This week, start your day out by slowly reading or reciting one of the above passages three times. Each time you do, draw your attention to what it reveals about God and what he sounds like. Ask yourself: What does this passage reveal to us about what God is like? How does this inform what his voice will sound like to me?

Reflect On These Truths at Normal Parts of Your Day: Then, set aside normal moments in your day to remember these themes and ask God to help you live in light of them – moments like the short walk from your car into the office, the final moments of your child’s naptime, as you ride your bicycle home, as you make dinner or eat your lunch, as you walk to your next class, as you brush your teeth, etc. Doing this will help us to connect what we are learning about God into the normal and mundane parts of our lives; it trains us to look for God in each moment.

End in Prayer

Close your time together by asking for God to help you all become better students of his voice, learning to grasp how wide, long, high, and deep Christ’s love is for you and our world.

Tyler Hanns 4/11/22 Tyler Hanns 4/11/22

Maundy Thursday

Overview

On the night before Jesus was killed, he had one final dinner with his disciples in which he would sum up much of his life’s message and teaching with a symbolic practice. Jesus — ever the master of using parables to illustrate and emphasize various truths about God, humanity, and the evil one — would use these last moments not to tell one final parable, but to enact one. He would model for his disciples, and for us, exactly what God’s posture towards us was like in sending the incarnation and exactly what our posture, then, must be towards those around us. While this practice dealt with power, it didn’t do so in a way anyone expected.
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God…” This was John’s build up to the moment: Jesus knew he had all power and authority, he knew his source and his destiny. At this point, as the reader, we might expect Jesus to stand up and give a rousing speech or lift a sword to the heavens, shout some war cry, or set some covert plan in place to take down Rome — but this isn’t what Jesus does in response to his certainty and strength. Instead, we read that Jesus rose from the meal, only to remove his coat, wrap a towel around his waist, and then kneel before each disciple, washing their feet each in turn.
The Maundy in Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin word maundatum, meaning command, and references the statement Jesus makes moments after he washes his disciples’ feet, when he seems to explain what he was doing: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Tonight, we will reenact Jesus’ symbolic gesture together by washing each other’s feet, as a way of remembering God’s love for us and embodying the love he calls us to have for one another.

Take Communion

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

Practice for Tonight

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

Supplies: Make sure you have the following items.

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

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

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

Reflection

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

Practice for the Week Ahead

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

Close in Prayer

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

Kylee Logan 2/27/22 Kylee Logan 2/27/22

Lenten Fasting Guide

This Guide is designed to help you more fully participate in the Lenten season through a better understanding of the context of Lent and the practice of fasting.

Overview of Lent & Lenten Fasting

Lent refers to the 40 day period that leads up to Easter, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Corresponding to Jesus’ 40 day fast (Matthew 4), this season was firmly established in the early church by the fourth century to be an intentional season of fasting and renewal. Originally used as a time to prepare new followers of Jesus to be baptized on Easter, Lent was eventually observed by the entire church as a way of recognizing the need for God’s transforming work in us all through prayer, fasting, self-examination, repentance, and meditation on Scripture. Lent witnesses to the power and beauty of our union with Christ and to the daily dying and rising with Christ that this entails.

One of the primary ways that we lean into the observance of Lent is through the practice of fasting. While fasting allows us to enter into the suffering of Jesus, it is also meant to draw and center our hearts on the deeper gift we receive through his death, burial, and resurrection. Simply put, fasting is a way to place ourselves in the way of grace by withdrawing our reliance on earthly things so that we can feast on God’s presence and power. It is an ancient practice of giving up superficial desires to get in touch with our deepest desires.

Lenten fasting begins on Ash Wednesday (March 2) and ends on Easter (April 17). Lenten fasting differs, however, from traditional fasting in that Lent observes “feasting days.” In the Lenten fast, every Sunday remains a day of feasting, in which we pause our fast as a way of stirring up hope for what is to come — our celebration of the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. So, in Lent we fast and feast as a way of anticipating Jesus’ gift of life.

Participating In the Lenten Fast

The purpose of fasting during Lent is to abstain from things like food, drink, or certain routine actions in order to remind us that only God can truly satisfy our soul-level hunger. We fast from things that bring us comfort in order to feast on God’s presence. Work through the following steps to discern how you will be participating in Lent this year.

Consider the following questions. Take some time to process or journal through the following questions. Pay attention to any invitation you sense from the Spirit.

Have I become dependent on something other than God to attend to the deeper aches of my soul?
What do I use to find pleasure, comfort, or emotional regulation?
What conveniences am I conditioned to automatically use? (e.g. elevators or escalators
instead of stairs, close parking spaces, music/podcasts in the background, etc.)
What could I abstain from that might help draw my attention to my deeper need for
Jesus?

Consider the following list. Below, you will find some frequent things people fast from in the season of Lent. Pay attention to any invitation you sense from the Spirit.

● Foods that are generally associated with feasting: chocolate, all desserts, coffee, caffeine, alcohol, meat, bread, etc.

● Media or Entertainment: cell phone apps, television, a streaming service, movies, radio or music in the car, computer at home, video games, social media, etc.

● Habits and Comforts: shopping (online and/or in stores), using elevators instead of stairs, parking in a spot close to the store, finding the shortest checkout line, surfing the internet when bored, etc.

Spend some time in prayer. Deciding what to fast from doesn’t have to be or feel incredibly ascetic or heavy; it is not meant to be a way of punishing yourself. A Lenten fast is about a fuller experience of our union with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus. So use your responses to the questions and the lists above to spend some time in prayer with the Spirit. Ask Jesus and yourself: What am I being invited into? Pick something you will notice the absence of, but not something that will genuinely cause you suffering.

Finally, commit it to God and share it with others. After deciding what you will be fasting or abstaining from this Lenten season, commit it to Jesus. This could look like journaling about it, writing it on a sticky note to keep on your bathroom mirror, or remembering it in prayer each morning. However you choose, it’s important to enter this journey with clarity and commitment around what God is inviting you to do. Once you’ve committed it to God, share it with your Community and/or a close friend who is also participating in Lent. We do not share as a form of accountability, but as a way to celebrate God’s invitations to us. Continue to celebrate and share with them throughout the Lenten season what you sense the Spirit is doing in and through each of you.

Tyler Hanns 2/20/22 Tyler Hanns 2/20/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 8: For All The Nations

Communion

At some point in your gathering spend a moment taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup. If you don’t have a plan already, you can have someone read the following passage we’ve provided below and spend a moment in silence before continuing:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Yours is the Kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen

Overview

Very simply, spiritual formation is the process of becoming more and more like Jesus for the sake of the world. We are not merely saved from something, but into something. God writes our story in conjunction with all of creation — our neighbors, friends, family, the environment, animals, our enemies, trees, insects. In the Scriptures, God’s eventual vision is for something called New Creation. We read in the Scriptures not about a planet and people who get scrapped at the end, but about everything being made new. One day, when Jesus returns to reclaim and redeem our world, to be made King, we will all be raised again — not into some ethereal immaterial Heaven with harps on clouds, but into our world made whole. We will rise with physical bodies to inhabit our world, but not as we know it now. There will be no more tears and no more pain and no more evil, we will be in bodies with minds and souls no longer corrupted by the fall. We will live in eternity in perfect relationship with God, others, and all of creation.

This week, we want to remember that our formation should have global consequences. And one of the ways in which we partner with God as he makes all things new is prayer.

Discussion

Prayer is an active form of mission. It changes reality around us and moves God’s to action. How do these ideas change the way you think about prayer?
How could believing that God could change things on a global scale when you pray change the way you pray?
What might God be inviting you to pray for individually or as a Community?

Practice for Tonight

Tonight, we want to take some time to pray together on behalf of our world. Spend particular time praying for those on the margins (as Jesus and the prophets in the Old Testament did): Pray for those with different socioeconomic experiences as you; for those who speak different languages than you; for those impacted by violence or displaced by natural disasters; for those who don’t know Jesus; for those who experience the imbalance of a particular system. Pray where God leads you to pray.

And as you pray, remember that prayer is conversation. God wants to speak to you, even as you are speaking to him. So take special care to listen for God’s invitation to you or your Community. Where is he calling you to become the answers to your own prayers? Where could he be inviting you to join him on the margins (individually or as a Community)? As you ask God to intervene and to do something, is he also asking you to intervene and do something as well?

Practice for the Week Ahead

Lent is the 40 day period that leads up to Easter and begins next week on Ash Wednesday (March 2). Historically, Lent is observed by fasting from something for those 40 days, except for Sundays, which serve to remind us of the resurrection of Jesus which will be celebrated on Easter. Traditionally, people fast from indulgences like alcohol, chocolate, meat, dessert, etc.

That said, the day before the Lenten fast begins is called Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday (March 1). This is a feast day on the church calendar, in which people get together to celebrate all that God has done as they prepare to fast the 40 days before Easter.

As we enter Lent as a church, we want to invite everyone into the feast and the fast!

If your Community does not meet on Tuesday, this may change the way you meet for a week, but if you’re able, we’d love to invite you to participate by meeting up on Shrove Tuesday and feasting together. But not just any feast! Have a feast that includes all the things that people will be fasting from (or things that are symbolic of what people are fasting from) for the Lenten season. Realistically, this may be a meal made up of desserts, bread, alcohol, meat, and fatty foods, so feel free to round it out with other foods as well. While it’s obviously not an excuse to overindulge, it is certainly a time to celebrate.

Spend time this week sitting with the Spirit and having a conversation about what it is you want to be fasting from during the Lenten season. Once you pick something from which to fast, plan to bring it (or something that symbolizes/references it) to next week’s Community to share with everyone!

After that, we would love to have your Community join us on Wednesday (March 2) for our Ash Wednesday gathering.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 2/13/22 Tyler Hanns 2/13/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 7: Search Me & Know Me

Communion

Overview

Confession is good for the soul, but it can be very hard to do. It is also a terrifying gift, which should sound like a contradiction because it is. We live in a world that is invested in looking like good, moral people. After all, appearing good is one way of dealing with the notion that something is wrong with us. We can put a great deal of energy into maintaining that image, but this very appearance of goodness can be a way we defend ourselves against our sin. When we can’t see our sin we have nothing to confess. The truth is that we all sin, and when shame, guilt, or fear consume our minds, we tend to hide. We’ve somehow universally agreed to sort out our issues in private and keep up appearances in public, which is a tragic mis-step because hiding is an agonizing lie.

So, what’s the only alternative to hiding? It’s the refusal to hide, the terrifying insistence on exposing ourselves to God. That’s the only way to open ourselves up to unconditional love. The curse of sin doesn’t have to define us, even when we make the most massive mess. It’s in that moment of realizing what we’ve done, that we get to run to the Father. The gift from our Creator is that grace, not sin, defines us. And that’s the power of confession. God takes our worst moments and turns them into our triumphs.
In the practice of confession, we excavate down into the layers of our life, uncovering beyond what is obvious on the surface and deeper into the story of our own history.

The reward of believing in grace and practicing confession is that the parts of our stories we most want to edit or erase all together become the very parts of our stories we’d never take back and never stop telling. That’s the kind of author God is: Not an editor, but a Redeemer. He only works with rough drafts, but he only writes redemption stories.

Discussion

What has your experience or practice with confession looked like? Where has it been difficult or not used well? Where have you seen it bring joy, compassion, or even greater self-awareness?
What would help create a safe space or person when it comes to confession? What would take away from a space or person being safe when you think about confessing.
At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive. What might God want to give you through the practice of confession? What would you want to receive? (e.g. greater intimacy with God, greater compassion for others, greater knowledge of self, etc.)

Practice for Tonight

Remember that a healthy person is not a person with no sin, it’s a person with no secrets. As you spend time discussing tonight, use the following four layers of sin (used by the early church) as a framework to guide your process.

Blatant – These are sins universally recognized within both secular culture and the Kingdom of God. (e.g. acting on feelings of rage, lust, greed, etc.)
Deliberate — These are sins (usually outward, behavioral sins) recognized in the Kingdom of God, but not within the broader, secular culture. (e.g. sexual expression outside of marriage, overindulgence of food or alcohol, marijuana use, etc.)
Unconscious — The sins are deeper thought patterns that lead or give birth to expressed sin. (e.g. prioritization of productivity over people, codependency, being defined by success, etc.)
Inner Orientations — This category reminds us that sin reveals who or what we really trust. Searching here reveals the motivations behind our actions. (e.g. security, power, control, affection, pleasure, approval, etc.)

Split up into same gender triads. Use the next chunk of time to split into smaller groups and confess to one another the ways that you have failed to love God and others. This could be something you shared on Sunday when you came down for response time or something else. As a way of honoring one another’s privacy and comfort level, you may want to simply share one word or phrase that sums up what you’re wanting to confess (e.g. lust, jealousy, gossip, resentment, rage, over-indulgence, pride, etc.).

Keep in mind that this is not the time to provide counsel, advice, or share a connected personal story. Simply hear the confession, anything else they want to share about it, and then bless them in their honesty before God and others by praying a simple prayer over and with them. Your triad gets to host a space to offer grace, while God is the one who extends forgiveness.

Also, keep in mind that nothing that gets shared in your Triad should be shared outside of it. What is being shared is vulnerable and sacred, so please respect the trust being given by not sharing it with anyone else (even spouses or others in the Community). If something that is shared involves a threat of harm to self or other people, it is appropriate to privately share that concern with a Community or pastor.

Practice for the Week Ahead

Set aside some time for confession and self-examination. In the presence of God ask for light to pierce your defenses. Then consider asking, Who have I injured or sinned against through thoughtlessness, neglect, anger, or so on? As the Holy Spirit brings people to mind, confess your feelings to God. Ask God to forgive you and if need be to give you grace to forgive them. Write an apology, make a phone call or confess out loud, and ask God for help and wisdom to move forward.
Read through Psalm 139 or Psalm 51 or James 5. Be still before God and ask Him to breathe new life into you as you confess your need and dependence on him. Take some time to pray that God would help you desire honesty, which leads to confession, which leads to change.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 2/6/22 Tyler Hanns 2/6/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 6: Our Daily Bread

Communion

Overview

Many of us feel comfortable singing out to God in praise or asking God to intervene in other people’s lives, but we can get hung up on asking him to do something in our lives. For some, this is connected to an altruistic false humility, but for others it’s rooted in a fear of what might happen if I ask and God doesn’t do it. There are all kinds of psychology and personality structures involved in why we don’t ask. And yet, Jesus insists on it.

There seems to be a correlation between the flowery and formal language of our prayers and our asking God for immaterial, ethereal things. But when the language we use in our prayers stays grounded, our prayers tend to stay grounded too. The example of what to ask for that Jesus uses when he teaches his disciples to pray is bread — which means that God intimately acquaints and involves himself with the normal and most basic details of our life. There is nothing too ordinary in our life to ask God about — parking spaces, our next meal, a job promotion, a good grade, or relationship help. Jesus unmistakably rips prayer out of the sacred, stained-glass, ornate walls of the Temple and places it in the commonness of everyday life, which is likely another reason Jesus also said that we have to become like children if we are going to receive the Kingdom.

If you pray for only big things, exclusively limiting your conversation with God to the objectively noble requests, you live a cramped spiritual life, with little room for the actual God we meet in Jesus. The kind of prayer Jesus had in mind roots us in gratitude instead of control, and moves us deeper into an empowering relationship with God. This week, we want to practice stepping deeper into this empowering relationship with God by praying in a way that wages war on control and plants seeds of gratitude in our soul.

Discussion

Do you find it easier to ask God for big things or small things? Why do you think that is?
What do you think might happen if you begin to ask for the things that feel harder? What risk is involved?
Have you experienced the growth in gratitude and shrinking of the need for control that comes as you pray? Describe that.

Practice for Tonight

As has already been mentioned, praying for our daily bread the way Jesus taught us to can feel odd for some. With the understanding that it likely comes more naturally to some people, we want to practice praying some daily bread prayers together. This will be done in a few simple movements:

If you’re able, break into smaller groups of 3 or 4 people.
Once you’re in these smaller groups, have someone open your prayer time by welcoming the Spirit and asking him to begin to quiet your minds and to tune you into the needs in your life right now.
Then, one by one, begin to pray and ask God for the needs that arise. It doesn’t need to be flowery or formal or long, but could sound as simple as, “God, would you help me on my test this Friday.” or “Jesus, help me figure out when to call and check in on my brother this week.” or “My week feels really full and I know that I’ll need a moment to rest sometime. Can you give me time to do that?” or “God, I don’t know how I’m going to pay rent this month. Could you please make a way?”
End your time together by praying out in gratitude to God, believing as best you can that he heard each prayer and longs to respond to you.

Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, challenge yourself to ask for God’s help or intervention in the small areas of life.

Pray when your setting changes — One option would be to ask God each time your setting changes. For example, if you work at an office, when you wake up you could ask God to help guide your day, then you could ask God while you’re eating breakfast to give you the energy you need for everything going on, then you could pray for a safe journey or parking spot in the car, then you could pray for your meetings at work. Or, if you’re a stay at home parent, you could begin your day the same, but each time you and your child move on to a different activity, you could ask God to bless your communication with each other, your attitudes, that a certain child would be at the park, that nap time would go well, and that you’ll have a really good moment of connection with your child. You can try to pray at each of these changes, or you could pick one that you want to focus on for the week, in which you take a moment to ask God for everything on your mind (e.g. your commute, waking up, lunch time, etc.)

Pray when your feelings change — Another option, for those more in tune with their emotions, is to pray in line with your emotional changes. If you find yourself becoming anxious about something (e.g. a doctor’s appointment, grocery shopping, company coming over, etc.), pause and ask God what you need in that moment. If you find yourself wanting or hoping for something, translate that into prayer. If you find yourself joyful, pause to thank God for providing for your needs in that moment.

Pray out of gratitude — One way to learn to ask God for what you need is to thank him for the ways he’s already met your needs. Whether at meal times or as a way of reflecting on your day each evening, thank God for the ways in which he has met your needs. Then take a moment to think to the next day or part of your day and let these things guide you in asking him for what you might need next.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 1/30/22 Tyler Hanns 1/30/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 5: Holy Spirit Conference Reflection

Communion

Overview

This Guide will function differently than the others in this series because we believe that God did something significant and beautiful and 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 at those who went to the Holy Spirit Conference or one of 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, testimony is a way of asking God to do it again. So spend some time reflecting on the ways God moved in you, our church, and our city this last weekend.

Discussion

Where did you see God move? What are you celebrating?
What did God do in you? What changed in you?
What were you asking God for? Did you sense him answer you in any way?
What hopes were ignited in your for Bridgetown, your family, our city, yourself, or some other are?
What did God do through you? Did you get to participate in anything the Spirit was up to this weekend in someone else’s life?
With all of this in mind, how would you try to name what God did in our church this weekend?
What’s next? Do you sense the Spirit giving you a prophetic imagination for what he might be up to in the coming season?

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 1/23/22 Tyler Hanns 1/23/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 4: The Lord’s Prayer, Pt. 2

Communion

Overview

Prayer is a compelling wonder: God acting on earth in response to conversation with a human being. And yet, prayer is also a confounding mystery: God doesn’t seem to always do what we want when we pray. So, for many, our prayers live paralyzed between wonder and mystery, which can result in our prayers being safe and somewhat passive. In this confusion we can stop praying, let alone praying boldly.

But prayer is also a profound invitation. The Scriptures tell the story of God partnering with humans in managing his creation. More than just giving God a to do list, prayer is the way by which we relationally partner with God to rule and reign in our world, to see his kingdom come and his will be done. In the midst of the communication breach brought about by the fall, prayer becomes the means by which we push back the curse that’s infected the world and infected us. See, while we dream of a God who brings heaven to earth, God simultaneously dreams of a praying people to share heaven with.

This week, we want to talk about and practice a particular type of prayer that involves praying on behalf of other people, called intercession. The motive behind all true intercessory prayer is love for the other. It is the distribution of God’s resources to those around us, as we rule and reign with him. Intercession restores our world and restores the God-given identity breathed into us first.

Discussion

Prayer is a compelling wonder (God’s hand moves to action when we pray), a confounding mystery (sometimes God doesn’t seem to hear us), and a profound invitation (God invites us to help distribute the resources of Heaven). Which of these help name your current experience with prayer?
What is your experience with intercession? Where have you experienced its fruit? (Perhaps you have seen God move through your own intercession. Maybe you’re being here is the result of someone else’s intercession.)
How are you feeling about the Prayer Room for the month of February?

Practice for Tonight

The Practice for tonight has two parts:

1. Pick an hour to go to the Prayer Room together — We would love to see every Community who is able spend one hour together in the Prayer Room during the month of February. Spend a few moments picking an available hour and having someone sign up at bridgetown.church/prayerroom.

2. Start praying together tonight — One of the goals of every Bridgetown Community is to be on mission in some way. Whether or not your Community has an active place that it is serving to see the renewal of our city, we would really encourage you to pray. We believe that prayer changes reality and moves God’s hand to action. It’s a way by which we partner with God to see his Kingdom come and his will be done in our lives and in our world. Because of this, we believe that prayer is a form of mission. Not only does prayer actively change the world, it also changes us: in prayer we can experience God’s invitation to become an answer to the exact prayers we were praying.

Take some time tonight for intercessory prayer. Begin to name the things in our city, in the lives of your neighbors, at your work, in your neighborhood, where you want to see God change reality — and ask him to do it. And, as you pray, also listen for God’s voice, to see if he is inviting you to participate in that distribution of Heaven’s resources.

Close in prayer, thanking God for what he is doing through your prayers and committing to continue praying for the renewal of our city.

Practice for the Week Ahead

The Practice for this week is also twofold:

1. Sign up for the Prayer Room — Not only do we want to see every Community sign up for an hour in the Prayer Room together, but we’d also love to see everyone who is able also sign up for their own slot to spend an hour in prayer alone. Sign up at bridgetown.church/prayerroom.

2. Begin an intercessory prayer rhythm — Consider setting aside some time this week to try interceding for your friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, or total strangers. Whether God brings people to your mind or whether you make a list, take some time and ask for the resources of Heaven on behalf of those in your life.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 1/16/22 Tyler Hanns 1/16/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 3: The Lord’s Prayer, Pt. 1

Communion

Overview

When Jesus was on earth, he taught his disciples to pray the well-known and ancient prayer we have come to call “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father.” When Jesus taught his disciples about prayer, he didn’t tell them to pray more or to pray harder, but to pray differently. In doing so, he was showing them how to pray and offering them a model to follow in their own prayers.

During these next two weeks, we will be making our way through the Lord’s Prayer together. Jesus starts it out this way: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” Simply understood, Jesus is teaching us to begin our prayers by remembering who we’re talking to. God is not a far off, distant Being in the sky. Instead, Jesus uses the word Father, which is meant to call our mind back to the physical and relational nearness of God to Adam and Eve in the Garden. He is asking us to remember that God is good and God is close.

When we remember how close and good God is to us, our only natural response is praise, which is why Jesus’ next line was, “Hallowed be your name.” Powerful prayer is born out of adoration. And as we learn throughout the rest of the New Testament, while hallowing God’s name is easy to do when you feel like it or when things are going well, it is most important and formative to do when it’s a choice—to pray defiantly when you are facing pain that feels impossible or a circumstance that feel inescapable.

Discussion

Is it difficult for you to pray prayers of adoration to God? If so, what are some of your barriers?
Where in your life do you need to pray “in defiance,” or to pray in a way that doesn’t match your current circumstance? Perhaps it feels like an impossible prayer for a loved one, a place of pain or suffering in your life, a situation at work, or something else entirely.
What do you think might change in your thinking, faith, and/or experience of God’s presence if you prayed in adoration of God and in defiance of your circumstance?

Practice for Tonight

Tonight we want to take some time to pray together the way Jesus invited us to. We will work through three movements: remembering who God is, remembering who we are, and remembering who we are to each other.

To begin, have everyone get comfortable and begin by welcoming the Spirit and spend a few moments in silence together. Proceed when you’re ready by reading each section out loud and then doing each in turn together.

Remember Who God Is: Our Father — For the first movement, we want to focus on who God is, remembering that Jesus began his prayer by calling God “our Father.” Spend some time praying together by having people spontaneously name who God is. This could sound like “God, thank you that you are our Defender.” or “Father, thank you that you are Healer.” or something about God as Creator, Father, Provider, Teacher, Redeemer, Savior, etc. As each person prays, invite the Spirit to show you what it means that God is each of these things. Reflect on the personal nature of each name and thank him for that.

Remember Who We Are: Beloved — Throughout the Scriptures, God calls us Beloved. He renames us according to our true identity, and not what we do or don’t do. For this next movement, read each of these verses aloud one at a time, pausing after each to let them sink in. If there is someone who feels comfortable sharing that they have a hard time receiving the promise one of the passages holds, your Community may want to pray for them and ask God to reveal their belovedness in a new way.

Colossians 1v13-14: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Romans 8v1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…”
Ephesians 3v12: “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”
2 Timothy 1v7: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-control.”

Remember Who We Are To Each Other: Sisters & Brothers — All through the Scriptures, followers of Jesus are referred to as sisters and brothers. We’re family. So for the third and final movement of the night, spend some time being open to people sharing their impossible prayers. Where do each of us need help praying in defiance adoration? As people are comfortable to share, bear their burden with them in prayer. Have someone ask God on behalf of each person who shares. Alternatively, if this process has stirred up faith in someone, and they feel compelled, invite people to share something that they believe about God, as a way of building up the faith of others in the room.

When your time is done, close in prayer, asking God to continue to remind you all who he is, who we are, and who we are to each other.

Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, there are a few options.

1. Remember Again — Maybe the Practice you did tonight was really helpful for some people and they want to repeat it. Simply follow the prompts again, changing them as you need and feel led.

2. Pray Scripture — Sometimes it is really helpful to pray another person’s words when you don’t know where to start, especially when you’re praying prayers of defiant adoration. Use Jesus’ prayer in Matthew 6v9-13 as a template to begin your own conversation with God. Or, perhaps use one of David’s Psalms (like Psalm 139) to start talking with God.

3. Look At Jesus — Sometimes we can get so lost in our circumstances and what we think we should be doing or praying or feeling that our connection in prayer feels somewhat fuzzy. Whether your find an artistic rendering of Jesus online or you simply imagine him, spend some time looking at him and spend some time remembering who he is, what first drew you to him, and what he might say to you were he physically with you.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 1/9/22 Tyler Hanns 1/9/22

Teach Us To Pray, Pt. 2: Be Still & Know

Overview

One of the most commonly known lines in the Psalms comes from chapter 46: “Be still and know that I am God.” When we think about praying, there are three really helpful ideas in this statement: to be still, to know God, and to know yourself. With inventions like the clock, the lightbulb, and the iPhone, our natural tendency towards hurry and efficiency has only increased. The invitation of prayer is the invitation to be still — to stop playing God over your own life for a moment. To put productivity and busyness aside for a bit, to release control, and to return to the created order.

But stillness is only where prayer starts. In that stillness, we begin to know God and to start to see things from God’s perspective. We are all addicted to ego and control, prone to go about our lives like we are the center. Stillness is the quiet space where God migrates from the periphery back to the center — and prayer pours forth effortlessly from a life with God at the center. Lastly, beyond self-help and ego management, prayer is an invitation to really know yourself. When we live in constant noise, we forget our own mortality and forget who we are. But when we remember our mortality, we recover who we are. When I pray, when I see myself as I really am from God’s perspective, I behold not only my own smallness but also how valuable I truly am to God.

This week, we want to recover a vision of what it means when God says to “be still and know that I am God.”

Discussion

Why do you think we stay busy? What does busyness do for us?
What is your response to the idea of being still? Does it bring up anxiety? Do you long for it? Maybe both?
Do you have any regular rhythm of “being still”? If so, share what it is and what it’s been like for you.

Practice for Tonight

Last week, we explored forming a regular rhythm of prayer for the duration of this season. Tonight, we want to debrief how that’s been going. Whether you want to talk together as a whole group or break into smaller groups, spend time updating each other on what that experience has been like for you. Some questions to help guide that time, should you need it, might be:

What prayer rhythm did I want to try through this series?
What has been good about it? (e.g. it feels more natural than I thought it would, I had a cool moment with God, I am feeling more centered each day, etc.)
What has been difficult? (e.g. I haven’t been able to keep the rhythm as often as I thought, it’s felt frustrating or boring, I don’t know if I’m doing it right, etc.)
What changes to your rhythm do you think would be good?

Practice for the Week Ahead

Pick a consistent time — perhaps the first or last minutes of your daily routine. It may be the final moments before rushing off on your morning commute, the sudden silence right after dropping the kids at school, the daily run out of the office for lunch break, or after your roommates leave in the morning. And try to make the time consistent, since there is no such thing as a habit or priority that doesn’t happen consistently.

Next choose an ordinary place — your favorite chair, the back porch steps, the upstairs balcony, or the window seat of the city bus — and let it become a sort of “ordinary holy ground.” Set a timer, so you don’t have to keep checking the clock, and then be quiet and still. Wait. Start with two minutes. (Bump it up as you feel ready.)

Sit up straight with your two feet planted firmly on the ground, hands open on your lap. Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply and exhale slowly three times. Pray something simple like, “Here I am, Lord,” or “Come, Holy Spirit,” or “Lord, have mercy.”

The purpose of this stillness is not revelation, though it’s nice when that happens. The purpose is consent — consenting to the work of God’s Spirit, which is deeper than understanding or words. Practice this silence as a sacrificial offering to God. After the timer goes off, let spoken prayer follow as a response.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Tyler Hanns 1/2/22 Tyler Hanns 1/2/22

Teach Us to Pray, Pt. 1: Pray As You Can

Overview

Most of us don’t really enjoy prayer. We feel bad or guilty about how little we pray. And when we finally make time to pray, we either don’t know what to say or are too distracted to focus. And yet, right now, all over the world, people are praying — to the gods or to Allah or to Yahweh, through meditation or chanting, out loud or silently, corporately or alone, with an unshakeable belief that Someone is listening or as a last second hail Mary to the universe. Prayer is something of a global language that is ancient and modern.

Jesus’ disciples noticed how close he was to the Father, so they asked him to teach them how to pray. And what did Jesus do? Rather than giving them a sermon on prayer or a theology about God, he prayed. Then and there, Jesus prayed with them. And as he did, the disciples learned that Jesus’ praying started with the assumption that God loved him. Prayer, we discover, is about bringing to God what is in us, not what we think should be in us.

The invitation this week is to commit to praying as you can, rather than as you think you should.

Discussion

How would you define prayer? And do you think prayer is important? Why or why not?

What has your experience with prayer been like?
What could God be inviting you to in the area of prayer through this next season?

Practice for Tonight

At its core, ‘praying as you can’ simply entails starting right where you are – in whatever season, with however much faith, for however long, and however you choose. Instead of stretching yourself, start small and attainable. If you don’t pray regularly, then probably don’t start by committing to pray for an hour every day. Maybe commit to begin each day in prayer. Or perhaps commit to praying for someone in particular. Or commit to praying with your spouse or roommate each night. There is no ‘right’ or ‘better’ way to pray.

As you consider what you feel God inviting you into for this series, we want you to keep in mind a few traits that can make a goal easier to meet. An attainable goal is:

Achievable — Don’t go too far beyond what you’re currently doing.
Sustainable — Remember that this series will be 2 months long.
Simple — The simpler and more tangible, the better.
Spirit-inspired — We can do a lot on our own willpower, but the Spirit is our most empowering source.

By now, you at least have begun to formulate a few ideas of what it might look like for you to pray as you can in this season. Work through the following prompts together to help each person decide what they want to commit to:

We already listed some ideas at the beginning of this section (feel free to go back and reread them), but work together to come up with some other goals someone could set when it comes to praying as you can.
When it comes to creating an attainable goal, which of the 4 traits above do you tend to find yourself struggling with the most?
Finally, whether or not you’re actually ready to commit to it, what could it look like for you to pray as you can?

Before moving onto the next section, go around and have everyone in your Community say what invitation to prayer they want to try committing to in this season. If someone’s not sure, that’s ok — they’re welcome to offer an idea or a potential goal.

Practice for the Week Ahead

The Practice for the week ahead is to begin to pray as you can. Take some time to develop a rhythm for whatever it is you committed to. If you wanted to pray for a particular person in your life each day, maybe write their name on a sticky note and put it on your bathroom mirror. If you want to start your day with prayer, perhaps you put your Bible on top of your phone when you go to bed as a reminder. If you want to pray with your roommate or family, have a conversation with them to see if it’s something they are interested in and then make a plan. If you want to do midday prayer, block it out in your calendar each day.

Whatever it looks like, take a practical step towards your goal this week.

Close in Prayer

Before you end your time together, pray, asking the Spirit of God to fill and empower you to pray as you can. Take some time to pray for other prayer requests as they come up.

Kylee Logan 12/19/21 Kylee Logan 12/19/21

Advent, Part 4: Love

By Gavin Bennett & Bethany Allen

Candle Lighting & Communion (2 minutes)

In the Advent season, lighting a candle is used to symbolize Jesus being the Light of the World who comes into our darkness. So grab any candle from somewhere in your house, dim the lights, light the candle, and take communion as one person reads the following prayer out loud:

God of Love,

Your Son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us.

He is a sign of our love,

Of your light coming into our darkness.

Help us to walk in that love during the weeks of Advent.

May we celebrate the first coming of Jesus,

even as we await his return.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our Savior.

Amen.

Read This Overview (5 min)

Though it is often overused and misused in our culture, love is something that we as humans not only desire but need, at both a conceptual and an emotional level; it is the glue to our relational connection and wholeness.

And it’s not just a human thing: God’s base emotion towards us is love. When God looks at us, he brims over with delight and affection. The Scriptures even go as far as saying that God is Love, meaning that the fundamental element making up the Trinity is Love. And so it’s no surprise that love plays a central role in the Christmas story—from Joseph’s protective love for Mary, to Mary’s deep love for her newborn son, to the Father’s love for us in sending Jesus in the first place, love is laced the whole way through. As the people of God, we get to sit in this love, abiding in it, and letting it wash over us. And as we allow it to reach us to our core, we realize that it is our call to embody it, as well.

Scripture Reading (5 min)

Each week of Advent, we want to read aloud a portion of the birth story of Jesus that helps us look deeper at each of the four themes of Advent (hope, peace, love, and joy).

1 John 4v7-21

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Reflection Questions (30 min)

Spend some time working through the following questions:

Where did I experience God’s love this last week?
Where do I need to experience God’s love this coming week?
How can I embody God’s love this week?

Kylee Logan 12/12/21 Kylee Logan 12/12/21

Advent, Part 3: Joy

By Gavin Bennett, Joy Schlichter, & Bethany Allen

Candle Lighting & Communion (2 minutes)

God of Joy,

Your Son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us.

He is a sign of our joy,

Of your light coming into our darkness.

Help us to walk in that hope during the weeks of Advent.

May we celebrate the first coming of Jesus,

even as we await his return.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our Savior.

Amen.

Read This Overview (5 min)

While anticipation can produce anxiety or fear, in Advent we remember that God’s original plan was that it cultivate joy and connectus to love himself. The perfect expression of love is God embodied, Jesus, and joy is the fruit or byproduct of knowing that God is near to us.

Christmas is a mixed bag of both joy and sadness for many. We each come to the holidays with some combination of disappointment, nostalgia, pain, and excitement. When it comes to joy, though, the truth is that many of us often confuse it with simply a good feeling or sentimentality. But it is so much more than that.

If joy as the culture sells it can only leave us numb, where does true joy come from? As we look in the Scriptures, true joy is ultimately born of and from salvation. And salvation is God stepping into and changing our reality, breathing life into the things we thought dead.

For the apprentice of Jesus, our salvation, our rescue from sin and its effects on our world, is not static. It is something that has happened and keeps happening. In the Scriptures, joy is rooted both in God and in the ways of God, or living life as God intended it. Through Jesus, God is showing us the best way to be human, to live a life filled with joy. In Advent, we watch as joy comes to earth and we wait for the fullness of it to come again.

Scripture Reading (5 min)

Each week of Advent, we want to read aloud a portion of the birth story of Jesus that helps us look deeper at each of the four themes of Advent (hope, peace, love, and joy).

Luke 2v8-15

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Reflection Questions (30 min)

Spend some time working through the following questions:

Where did I experience joy this last week?
Where do I need to experience joy or remember the joy of my salvation this coming week?
How and to whom can I embody and reflect God’s joy this week?

Practice For the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

Jesus came for everyone — adults and children alike — so this year our Advent practices will be inclusive of children! That said, there will be two sections in each Advent practice: one for families with children to work through and one for individuals without children to work through. The practices are essentially the same, just with more interactive elements in the children’s one. So whether you live by yourself in an apartment or with a house full of kiddos, there’s something this season for everyone.

Advent Practice for Families

If you haven’t discussed Advent with your child before, start with a moment to define the practice. (Keep in mind that the following is written at the Kindergarten level — feel free to change as you see fit for your child.)

Advent is a special time before Christmas where we remember the birth of Jesus. A long time ago, God promised he would send a Rescuer to fix everything in the world that was broken and make things whole again. God’s people waited a very long time for that Rescuer. Finally, after waiting for what felt like forever, the great rescuer came! He came in a way people wouldn’t expect: as a baby. Jesus is that Great Rescuer. During Advent, we remember how God’s people waited for Jesus for a long time. We light four candles to help us remember four very important things that Jesus brings us: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

Next, grab a candle (any kind will do!). Invite your child to sit with you and to quiet their mind and their body. Once you’re ready you can read and do the following:

On the third week of Advent, we remember joy. [Light the candle or help your child light the candle] Joy is happiness we feel deep down in our hearts. Sometimes, you can’t help but smile and laugh when you feel joy. You might feel joy when you get to eat your favorite food or play with your best friend. Or you may feel joy at the end of a really fun day. The Bible tells us that news of Jesus’ birth will bring people joy! During Advent, we remember that we can have joy because our Great Rescuer has come.

Ask your child to share about a time they experienced joy. They may remember a time they laughed so hard it made their belly hurt. Or they may remember a night they went to bed with a happy heart after a really good day. Take time to listen and engage with their ideas. Share a time where you experienced joy from God. We see in the Scriptures that a natural response to experiencing joy is singing. Cue up your favorite family song. Preferably a worship song or a Christmas carol, but if the Trolls soundtrack has been on repeat in your home, that’s absolutely fine too. Spend a few minutes dancing and singing to the song as a family. Be as silly or as fervent as you see fit. If an expression like this is new for your family, be the first to jump in. If your family is in a season that feels void of joy, consider honestly discussing that before playing a song, knowing that we can praise God and enjoy Him, even in difficult seasons.

To close, pray a blessing over your child:

May you experience joy in the coming of Jesus this Christmas. When you laugh, dance, and sing, would you know that God is present with you in your joy. May you look to Him as the greatest source of joy.

Advent Practice for Individuals

Grab a candle (any kind will do!). Quiet your mind and body. Once you’re ready you can light the candle, remembering that on the third week of Advent, we remember joy. Joy is a deep, profound happiness, the fruit or byproduct of knowing that God is near to us.

As you sit there, ask yourself where you have experienced God’s joy — whether in the short visit of blue skies during a rainy day, in a friend visiting from out of town, in early morning prayer, in a conversation with a roommate, the options are endless!

Next, we see in the Scriptures that a natural response to experiencing joy is singing. So cue up a favorite worship song and spend a few minutes singing and dancing before the Lord. If you are in a season that feels void of joy, consider honestly discussing that with God before playing a song, knowing that we can praise God and enjoy Him, even in difficult seasons. Remember that sometimes joy overflows into singing and/or dancing, but sometimes joy is the byproduct of worshipping by singing and/or dancing.

Before ending your time, take some time to reflect on the truth that there is a deep joy in the first coming of Jesus and there will be a deep joy upon his return. Ask for God to help you look to Him as the greatest source of joy.

Kylee Logan 12/5/21 Kylee Logan 12/5/21

Advent, Part 2: Peace

By Gavin Bennett, Joy Schlichter, & Bethany Allen

Candle Lighting & Communion (2 minutes)

God of Hope,

Your Son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us.

He is a sign of our hope,

Of your light coming into our darkness.

Help us to walk in that hope during the weeks of Advent.

May we celebrate the first coming of Jesus,

even as we await his return.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our Savior.

Amen.

Read This Overview (5 min)

What if the problem isn’t that peace is so far off? What if the problem is that we don’t actually understand peace as the Bible means it? In the Bible, peace is more than just the absence of conflict. Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, is when God steps into creation and sets the world right. Not just by stopping evil, but by restoring all that it’s taken. The peace that God brings is not about the absence of something; it’s about the presence of Someone.

The kind of peace God brings is not passive, it is God actively breaking into what’s wrong and making it right. So, if the shalom of God is the power of God, then our path of formation and transformation as disciples of Jesus is to not remain peacekeepers, but to become peacemakers. We get to prepare the way for his return by actively making peace around us.

Scripture Reading (5 min)

Each week of Advent, we want to read aloud a portion of the birth story of Jesus that helps us look deeper at each of the four themes of Advent (hope, peace, love, and joy).

Luke 2v8–15

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Reflection Questions (30 min)

Spend some time working through the following questions:

Through Jesus’ incarnation and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, we have access to God’s peace in the midst of our fear. Where have you encountered this peace? Where do you need it?
Where are you still experiencing fear and where do you need to experience greater peace that’s on offer through God’s presence?
Where are you feeling the absence of something and needing the presence of someone?
Beyond your story, where have you seen peace come to earth this year?

Practice For the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

Advent Practice for Families

Next, grab a candle (any kind will do!). Invite your child to sit with you and to quiet their mind and their body. Once you’re ready you can read and do the following:

On the second week of Advent, we remember peace. [Light the candle or help your child light the candle] Peace is when everything is how it’s supposed to be. Peace may give you a calm feeling in your heart and your body. Sometimes you may even feel a peace inside you when things around you feel scary or sad or really busy. When Jesus came as a baby, he was called the Prince of Peace! Jesus came to bring peace to our hearts and gave us the Holy Spirit to help us bring His peace to the world around us.

Ask your child to share about a time they experienced peace. It may be a memory of a time they felt peace, or a particular place or situation that was full of peace. Take time to listen and engage with their ideas. Share a time where you experienced peace from God. Then, brainstorm as a family ways you can engage with the theme of peace this week. You might choose to create peace in your home by planning a cozy family movie night. Or perhaps spend a morning in nature together, taking in the peaceful rhythms of creation. Other families may choose to engage with our city as peacemakers, by donating to or serving with local organizations like Because People Matter or Portland Rescue Mission.

Whenever we see our hope list, we can pray: “Thank you God! Thank you that I can hope in you!”

To close, pray a blessing over your child:

May you experience the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. Would God fill you with His Spirit of Peace, so that as you grow, you bring peace to the world around you.

Advent Practice for Individuals

Grab a candle (any kind will do!). Quiet your mind and body. Once you’re ready you can light the candle, remembering that on the second week of Advent, we remember peace. Peace is not about the absence of conflict, but about the presence of God. Peace is when God steps into creation and sets the world right.

As you sit there, ask yourself where you have experienced God’s peace — it could be in the form of a deep settledness in the character of God even though the world around you felt like chaos, or a literal seeing of God’s restoration of something or someone. Next, think about how you can engage with the theme of peace this week. Whether creating peace in your home by planning a cozy family movie night, spending a morning in nature to take in the peaceful rhythms of creation, engaging with our city as peacemakers by donating to or serving with local organizations like Because People Matter or Portland Rescue Mission, or something totally different. Whatever it is, engage this week in peace.

Before ending your time, take some time to reflect on the truth that the peace of God transcends all understanding, circumstance, or logic. Ask for God to fill you with His Spirit of Peace, so that you become someone who brings peace to the world around you.

Kylee Logan 11/28/21 Kylee Logan 11/28/21

Advent, Part 1: Hope

By Gavin Bennett & Joy Schlichter

Candle Lighting & Communion (2 minutes)

God of Hope,

Your Son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us.

He is a sign of our hope,

Of your light coming into our darkness.

Help us to walk in that hope during the weeks of Advent.

May we celebrate the first coming of Jesus,

even as we await his return.

We pray all this in the name of Jesus, our Savior.

Amen.

Read This Overview (5 min)

Each Sunday of Advent is meant to draw our attention to the realities of Jesus coming into our world, God’s incarnation. We are called to cultivate and align our hearts with those who first waited for the coming Messiah through our own practice of waiting. In the waiting of Advent we remember what was prophesied, promised, and realized in Jesus, and we anticipate his return, when he will set everything to right.

One of the gifts we receive from God in this waiting is hope. Hope, as we understand it in Scriptures, is the expectation of coming good based on the person and promises of God. A little bit of hope can cover over a whole lot of waiting. And in the stories of the Scriptures, we discover our rich heritage as a people who wait—from Abraham to the Prophets, Simeon and Anna to Paul, we find the invitation to wait with a hope in One who fulfills his promises. More than just helping us as we wait, hope also provides an opportunity of encounter with God.

Scripture Reading (5 min)

Each week of Advent, we want to read aloud a portion of the birth story of Jesus that helps us look deeper at each of the four themes of Advent (hope, peace, love, and joy).

Luke 2v22, 25-38

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord… Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Reflection Questions (30 min)

Spend some time working through the following questions:

Can you identify with Anna or Simeon in their waiting? What stirred up in you as you heard this passage being read?
What are you hoping for in this season?
Where has your hope been unmet? Where have you felt disappointment?
Where do you need help from the Spirit to hope with greater faith?

Practice For the Week Ahead (5 minutes)

Advent Practice for Families

If you haven’t discussed Advent with your child before, start with a moment to define the practice. (Keep in mind that the following is written at the Kindergarten level, so feel free to change it to help your child best understand and engage.)

Next, grab a candle (any kind will do!). Invite your child to sit with you and to quiet their mind and their body. Once you’re ready you can read and do the following:

On the first week of Advent, we remember hope. [Light the candle or help your child light the candle.] Hope is the feeling when you’re waiting for something really good and trust deep in your heart that it could happen. Sometimes, when we’re sad, hope is that feeling we have when we’re looking forward to a time when we’re not sad anymore. Other times, you feel hope when you’re happy and excited about the future.

Ask your child if they’ve felt hope before and what they hoped for. Take time to listen and engage with their ideas. Share things you hope for, perhaps things you hope for in their lives as they grow. Write down or have your child draw the things that are shared and put the list in a place the whole family will regularly see it, like the refrigerator or front door.

Whenever we see our hope list, we can pray: “Thank you God! Thank you that I can hope in you!”

To close, pray a blessing over your child:

May you experience the hope of Jesus this Christmas. May you know that God always keeps his promises and that you can hope in Him.

Advent Practice for Individuals

Grab a candle (any kind will do!). Quiet your mind and body. Once you’re ready you can light the candle, remembering that on the first week of Advent, we remember hope. Hope is when we wait for something really good that we also believe could happen.

As you sit there, ask yourself what you are hoping for in this season. Write these things down and put the list in a place you will regularly see it, like the refrigerator or front door. Whenever you see your hope list, read each item and pray: “Thank you God that I can hope in you.”

Before ending your time, take some time to reflect on the truth that God always keeps his promises and that you can always find hope in Him.

Kylee Logan 4/11/21 Kylee Logan 4/11/21

Part 9: Justice & Mercy

Community Guide

The Community Guide below is based on Sunday’s teaching for our current series: Future Church. As your whole Community gathers (online or socially distanced), use the Community Guide below to give shape to your night together.

Begin by Practicing the Lord’s Supper Together (5 minutes)

Begin your night by partaking of the bread and the cup together. Have each person bring their own Communion elements. To facilitate your time, you can either ask a member of your Community to come ready with a short prayer, liturgy, or scripture reading, or assign someone to read the scripture we’ve provided below and spend a moment in silence before continuing.

Isaiah 58v 6 – 9
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

Emotional Health Check-in (10 Minutes)

As we focus in on this series, we want to continue to create space for checking in on each other, but doing so in a shorter amount of time. Take a few minutes to do an emotional health check-in with your Community, creating space for each person to answer the question below:

What or who is making you feel hopeful or joyful this week? What’s one area we can pray over, perhaps where hope feels lacking?

If the need arises, spend a few minutes praying for one another, asking God to meet needs and help each person carry what feels heavy right now.

Read this Overview (5 Mins)

All over the Gospels, we find Jesus, who is the exact representation of God, engaging the world’s brokenness. As we pay close attention to what he says and does, we learn how important justice, mercy, and peace are to God’s heart. In one story, Jesus is recorded quoting something God said in Hosea chapter 6: “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” And then he invites his listeners to “go and find out what this means.” As readers of this text, we become these listeners — this invitation becomes our invitation. And this invitation is not one of learning or studying; it’s an invitation of experience.

In our world, it’s expected that we put ourselves above others; but Jesus instructs us to lay our life down for others. In and through the life and teachings of Jesus, we learn that in God’s Kingdom the last will be first. The question we want to lean into in this season is: How can we help make the last first today? Not just in the future. And not just as a one time act of charity. How can we invite people, through relationship and life together, into the family of God?

To start orienting our hearts towards people on the margins is through the practice of intercession.

Debrief this Sunday’s Teaching (20 Minutes)

With that in mind, work through the following discussion questions as a Community:

What did you think of the distinction between serving the poor on occasion (charity) and being with the marginalized, inviting them in as family? Have you ever thought about it this way?
Have you ever had the experience of being invited in, when you felt like an outsider? If so, how did that experience impact you or your life?
As you listened to the teaching, did anyone come to mind who you feel called to have at your table (literally or figuratively)? What’s one step you could take toward that person or persons this month?

Practice For The Week Ahead: Revisiting your Rule of Life for Justice & Mercy (10 Minutes)

This week, continue revising and working on your Rule of Life Chart, keeping in mind that the goal is not to fill in every box, but to come to a good balance and rhythm in each category.

As you work through the Justice & Mercy section, consider what your existing practices are in this area and write them down. Take some time to consider and pray through what your next step in justice and mercy might be, and what God is inviting you into in this season of your life. Remember, aim to start where you are, not where you think you “should” be.

RULE OF LIFE

Below are a few ideas to get you started as you brainstorm and pray through your next step in justice and mercy.

Entry-Level Practice: Set aside time each week to pray for your neighbors, by name if you can — particularly neighbors on the margins, such as the houseless.
Baseline Practice: Half of the world lives on less than $2 per day, mainly eating some form of rice and beans. Dedicate one meal each week (with your family or Community) to enter into the burden of not having options by eating rice and beans yourself. During this meal, pray for those friends, neighbors, and strangers in need.
Reach Practice: Set aside funds you might be saving by eating rice and beans rather than your regular meal or takeout, and utilize those funds for hospitality. Invite someone outside your normal circle over for a nice meal and send them away with leftovers and blessing.

Again, the goal is not to adopt a regimented practice for the sake of checking a box, but for the purpose of being someone who day-by-day is becoming transformed into a person of justice and mercy.

Prayer (10 Minutes)

Spend a few minutes praying for God’s grace over each other, that we might become a people who seek to be like Jesus: pursuing justice alongside mercy, and creating invitation to family wherever we go. Pray there might be a sweeping renewal of the Holy Spirit in our city. Ask that God would stir up within us a desire to be with him in prayer and to serve him, one another, and our neighbor in love.

Kylee Logan 3/28/21 Kylee Logan 3/28/21

Part 8: Sabbath

Community Guide

Begin by Practicing the Lord’s Supper Together (5 minutes)

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

– Matthew 11v28–30

Emotional Health Check-in (10 Minutes)

As we focus on this series, we want to continue to create space for checking in on each other, but doing so in a shorter amount of time. Take a few minutes to do an emotional health check-in with your Community, creating space for each person to answer the questions below:

What are you hopeful for as we look toward spring and summer?

If the need arises, spend a few minutes praying for one another, asking God to meet any needs within your Community.

Read this Overview (5 Mins)

We live in a culture of constant progress. We strive for more money, more success, more status, more connections, all of which is fueled by the expectation that life will only have us moving upward.

The result of our progress addiction is widespread burnout. Burnout is when your soul can no longer bear the weight of your life.Millennials are considered the “burnout generation.” Writer Helen Peterses writes that burnout isn’t a place Millennials visit and come back from; instead, it is our permanent residence!

It’s been said that burnout consists of three components:

Exhaustion: Physical and emotional fatigue you feel when you’ve been under stress for too long.
Cynicism: Where you switch from trying to do your very best all the time to doing the bare minimum.
Blame: Starting to blame yourself for your inability to keep up.

Over and against our culture of progress and burnout, the scriptures and the way of Jesus invite us to what Hebrews calls “a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” For all of us who are tired, weary, exhausted, and burned-out… there is for us a rest that is built into the fabric and rhythm of creation itself. On the Sabbath we are freed from progress and from our internal pharaohs. Sabbath is a rest that we can set our watches to, that we can build our lives around, and that will bring us into the rest we really need. Let us strive to enter into that rest.

Debrief this Sunday’s Teaching (20 Minutes)

With that in mind, work through the following discussion questions as a Community:

We said this week that burnout is when your soul can no longer bear the weight of your life. Describe a time when you experienced burnout. Are you experiencing burnout right now?
In what areas of your life do you feel a need for constant progress or growth?
What does your practice of Sabbath look like right now? Do you have any fears or difficulties regarding the practice of Sabbath?

Practice For The Week Ahead: Revisiting your Rule of Life for Sabbath (10 Minutes)

This week, continue revising and working on your Rule of Life Chart, keeping in mind that the goal is not to fill in every box, but to come to a good balance and rhythm in each category.

As you work through the Sabbath section, consider what your existing practices are in this area and write them down. Take some time to consider and pray through what your next step in Sabbathing might be, and what God is inviting you into in this season of your life. Remember, aim to start where you are, not where you think you “should” be.

RULE OF LIFE

Below are a few ideas to get you started as you brainstorm and pray through your next step in Sabbath.

Entry-Level Practice: Take your first step into Sabbath by setting aside a first day or time period of Sabbath. Again, start where you are at. So if you are not ready for a full 24-hour period, start small with 4, 8, or 12 hours of Sabbath.
Baseline Practice: Work towards adopting a weekly rhythm of a 24-hour Sabbath. Feel free to utilize this resource on Practicing the Way to form and organize your practice with your family, friends, or household. You can decide on your time window, adopt Sabbath rituals, and find creative ways to rest, celebrate, and worship.
Reach Practice: Expand your practice of Sabbath by powering down your electronic devices for a full 24-hour period.

Again, the goal is not to adopt a Sabbath for the sake of checking a box, but for the purpose of being someone who week-by-week is being transformed by the Practice of Sabbath.

Prayer (10 Minutes)

Spend a few minutes praying for God’s grace over each other, that we might become a people who seek refuge with the Father in the quiet place, and that there might be a sweeping renewal of the Holy Spirit in our city. Ask that God would stir up within us a desire to be with him in prayer and to serve him, one another, and our neighbor in love.

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

Part 7: Vocation

Community Guide

Practice For The Week Ahead: Revisiting your Rule of Life for Vocation (10 Minutes)

This week, continue revising and working on your Rule of Life Chart, keeping in mind that the goal is not to fill in every box, but to come to a good balance and rhythm in each category.
As you work through the Vocation section, consider what your existing practices are in this area and write them down. Take some time to consider and pray through what your next step in vocation might be, and what God is inviting you into in this season of your life. Remember, aim to start where you are, not where you think you “should” be.

RULE OF LIFE

Below are a few ideas to get you started as you brainstorm and pray through your next step on vocation.

Entry-Level Practice: The Hebrew word kavanah refers to an act done with holy intent. Kavanah is when we bring our full presence and a motivation of love and excellence to our work or any ordinary task in order to “reweave” the manifest glory of God into the created order. This week, whatever your current expression of work may be, commit to practicing kavanah in a few specific acts.
Baseline Practice: For the baseline practice, spend some time coming up with a list of values that make up your vocation. Or, if you already have one, spend some time going through it again. Some helpful questions to get you started may include: What is something that you feel like you were made to do? Based on your gifts and skills, what is something you have to offer to the world around you? Even if I don’t have my dream job, how can I be practicing my vocation where I currently am? (Remember that your “vocation” isn’t necessarily something you get paid to do.)
Reach Practice: Make a practice of revisiting your vocation (or values that shape your vocation) with a close friend or mentor who knows you. This could look more formal like a Quaker-style clearness committee or just coffee with someone who knows you well. Alternatively, if you are not currently in what you would consider to be your vocation, begin to craft a practical plan for how you hope to get there.

Again, the goal is not to adopt a regimented practice of vocation for the sake of checking a box, but for the purpose of being someone who day-by-day is becoming transformed God and freed from the culture of careerism.

Kylee Logan 3/14/21 Kylee Logan 3/14/21

Part 6: Hospitality

Community Guide

Begin by Practicing the Lord’s Supper Together (5 minutes)

Begin your night by partaking of the bread and the cup together. Have each person bring their own Communion elements. To facilitate your time, you can either ask a member of your Community to come ready with a short prayer, liturgy, or scripture reading, or assign someone to read the liturgy we’ve provided below and spend a moment in silence before continuing.

Host or Leader reads aloud:
The table of bread is now to be made ready.
It is the table of company with Jesus,
and all who love him.
It is the table of sharing with the poor of the world, with whom Jesus identified himself.
It is the table of Communion with the earth, in which Christ became incarnate.
So come to this table,
you who have much faith
and you who would like to have more;
you who have been here often
and you who have not been here for a long time; you who have tried to follow Jesus,
and you who have failed;
Come. It is Christ who invites us to meet him here.
Community responds:
Loving God,
through your goodness
we have this bread and wine to offer, which has come forth from the earth
and human hands have made.
May we know your presence in the sharing, so that we may know your touch
and presence in all things.
We celebrate the life that Jesus has shared among his community through the centuries, and shares with us now.
Made one in Christ
and one with each other,
we offer these gifts and with them ourselves, a single, living act of praise. Amen.

Emotional Health Check-in (10 Minutes)

Describe your week with three adjectives.

If the need arises, spend a few minutes praying for one another, asking God to meet needs and help each person carry what feels heavy right now.

Read this Overview (5 Mins)

It’s no secret that political polarization is at an all time high right now. Many of us feel the sensation of living within two Americas, one on the Right and one on the Left, and yet fitting neatly into neither. Others of us have lost relationships this year, not due to COVID-19, but to differences in belief and politics. Our culture is quicker than ever to disregard, divide, and demonize over politics.

And while the digital age has caused it to intensify, political polarization is nothing new. Into a world of tribe-against-tribe hostility came Jesus of Nazareth, who literally died to turn enemies into family, who said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” (Matthew 5v9)

Jesus had an uncanny ability to turn enemies into guests and guests into family. He did this through “radically ordinary hospitality,” just eating meals around a table. The word we use for “hospitality” came from philoxenian in Greek. It’s a compound word: Philomeans love, Xenos means stranger or foreigner. Hospitality is the exact opposite of xenophobia.
It’s the love of the stranger. The welcome of all as a guest.

We ache, hope, and work for the healing of our divided nation, and few practices are more effective to this end than hospitality.

Debrief this Sunday’s Teaching (20 Minutes)

With that in mind, work through the following discussion questions as a Community:

Can you think of a time where you experienced meaningful hospitality from someone else? What marked your experience?
What would it be like for you to have a meal with an “enemy” or a stranger? Who could you imagine yourself inviting to dinner?
What is your current practice of hospitality? Do you have any ideas for how to practice hospitality in a COVID/post-COVID world?

Practice For The Week Ahead: Revisiting your Rule of Life for Hospitality (10 Minutes)

This week, continue revising and working on your Rule of Life Chart, keeping in mind that the goal is not to fill in every box, but to come to a good balance and rhythm in each category.
As you work through the Hospitality section, consider what your existing practices are in this area and write them down. Take some time to consider and pray through what your next step in hospitality might be, and what God is inviting you into in this season of your life. Remember, aim to start where you are, not where you think you “should” be.

RULE OF LIFE

Below are a few ideas to get you started as you brainstorm and pray through your next step in hospitality.

Entry-Level Practice: Take your first step into hospitality by inviting a neighbor or coworker on a walk. Consider buying them coffee or a meal to eat outdoors.
Baseline Practice: As it’s safe, work towards adopting a monthly rhythm of hospitality. In the meantime, this could be setting aside a night on your calendar to practice hospitality in your home in the future. You can also experiment with COVID-friendly acts of hospitality, such as regular walks, picnics, dropping a meal off at the home of a neighbor or coworker.
Reach Practice: Expand your practice of hospitality by scheduling a weekly night for having guests at your table.

Again, the goal is not to adopt a regimented practice of hospitality for the sake of checking a box, but for the purpose of being someone who day-by-day is becoming transformed and freed by time alone with God in the quiet.