Advent 2023, Pt. 2: Rejoicing & Celebrating

Take Communion

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

Leader: You or someone else can read Psalm 16.

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

Option 2: Close your day with the daily Examen:

1. Review the day with God.

2. Where did I feel furthest from God? 

3. Where did I feel nearest to God?

4. In light of all that, pray one prayer for tomorrow.
   
   

End in Prayer

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

Advent 2023, Pt. 1: Waiting

Take Communion

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

• What do you feel like you are waiting for in this season? (Note: This could be something tangible like a job or a pregnancy, or something thematic like rest or hope.)

• What are some of the helpful and unhelpful ways you tend to respond to seasons of waiting in your life? (e.g. coping to numb the pain, trying to force an answer, prayer, leaning on Community, etc.)

• Think back on times when you have had to wait on God for something. How do you feel like God met you or even changed you in that process? 

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

• If you are in a season of waiting, where might God be showing up?

• Has anything surprised you about what it means to wait? 

• As you journey through Advent, you may want to pay attention to the gifts that have come to you through the waiting. What is true for you now that wouldn’t have been true if you hadn’t had to wait?

• In this Advent season, what is one way you create more space for God to meet you? (e.g. carving out to time to read the Scriptures, being still before God before the day begins, slowing down, etc.)

  •  It may be helpful to engage with an Advent devotional book or online resource during this season. Follow this link for recommended reading including short weekly Advent meditations from our friends at Practicing the Way. 

End in Prayer

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

Family Guide: Generosity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• What did the hurt man in this story need? (He needed help! He needed medical care and a safe place to stay while his body healed.)

• Who showed him generosity? (The Samaritan)

• In what ways was the Samaritan generous to the hurt man?

• How do you think the hurt man felt when the Samaritan helped him? How would you have felt?

• When he finished the story, Jesus told his friends to go and show others love, just like the Samaritan did. Whether we’re helping someone in an emergency situation or bringing joy to a friend through a surprise, there are all kinds of ways we can be generous. What are some ways we can show generosity to others?

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

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

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which of these three do we want to commit to?

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

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

Community, Pt. 5: Humility & Wonder

Take Communion

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

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

• God, where do you want to show me that you are with me?

• Where do I wish the darkness would hide me?

• Search me, God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. God, is there any relational wounding or conflict in my life that you want to speak to me about right now? What do you want to say about it?

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

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

• What was that experience like for you? Do you find exercises like this difficult or easy? If so, what contributes to that for you?

• Did the Spirit bring anything or anyone to your mind? Did he invite you to take any step towards reconciliation? (Keep in mind that we want to honor people, so, where it’s appropriate, try to not use names or too many details.)

• How do you typically react to conflict? (e.g. fear, defensiveness, avoidance, etc.)

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

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

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

End in Prayer

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

Community, Pt. 4: Friendship

Take Communion

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

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

End in Prayer

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

Community, Pt. 3: Church

Take Communion

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

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

Review the Last Practice

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

• If you spent time praying for our city, did you sense God say something to you or move you in any way towards your neighbors? If not, what would you want to ask God for?

• Did anyone work through the Family Guide? If so, how did it go? 

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

• Attending Sundays: For those who haven’t yet rebuilt the rhythm of attending the Sunday gathering, perhaps we would like to commit to doing so. If we only attend once per month, maybe we could try for twice or three times. 

• Hosting: A gathering can be a pretty intimidating place to be, if we don’t really know anyone on a Sunday. For those of us in Communities, Bridgetown is our home, which means that we get to welcome new people at the Sunday gathering. This could look like intentionally meeting and engaging with the folks around us and hosting the space with prophetic hospitality. Think about the way we do or don’t interact with people at a Sunday gathering, and consider committing to being more present to the people around us.

• Embodied Worship: Another way to participate in the Sunday gathering is to engage in worship in an embodied way. The Bible often connects worship to our bodies, encouraging people to sing, lift hands, bow down, dance, and shout. Think about how we currently engage in worship and consider whether or not we sense an invitation to a more embodied response.

• Serving: It takes so many people to make a Sunday happen – people to serve with Kids, make coffee, help people find seats, switch slides, play instruments, pray for people, etc. A great way to participate in the Sunday gathering is to help make it happen by signing up to serve. Consider committing to an area of serving by signing up at bridgetown.church/serve

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

• For those who do attend the Sunday gathering regularly, why do you do it? What do you experience or participate in that you would miss out on by not being there?

• If you used to attend regularly, but haven’t in a while, what do you miss about the Sunday gathering? (e.g. meeting people, worshiping with people, listening to the Spirit in prayer together, having the response time after the teaching, etc.) 

• What makes regularly attending Sunday gatherings difficult? Is there anything we as a community could do to make getting there on a Sunday easier (e.g. carpooling, sitting together on Sunday, saving seats, etc.)?

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

End in Prayer

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

Family Guide: Witness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• What did the guy in this story “witness”? (He witnessed Jesus healing his eyes!)

• What did he do afterwards? (He told people about it!)

• Who would you want to tell if you saw Jesus heal someone like this?

• Sometimes we witness Jesus do things outside of us like healing people. And sometimes we get to witness Jesus do things inside of us like make us not afraid at night or help us make new friends. What has happened in your life with God that you would want other people to know?

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

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

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Discuss what we witnessed at church. What did we hear at church? How did we encounter God?

2. Pray through our list of 5 people. Let’s take some time to pray together, asking that God would save the people on this list and that they would come to know his love for them.

3. Ask God to send us. Let’s pray and ask God to send us to be part of their salvation stories. This could look like asking God for any fun, creative ideas that he would have us be part of, and then waiting in silence for God to put ideas in our minds and hearts.

4. Thank God. Finally, let’s close the prayer thanking God for the way he speaks to us. And let’s take some time talking about any ideas that God seemed to give us.

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

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

Which of these three do we want to commit to?

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

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

Community, Pt. 2: Witness

Take Communion

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

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

• What does everyone understand our Community's mission rhythm to be? Do we have one?

• If we have one, how does everyone feel like it is going? What is going well and what could use some tinkering?

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

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

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

• Including kids: Most Communities have kids in them. If ours is one of them, do the parents feel a desire to find a mission in which their kids can participate?

• Availability: Most of us live pretty full lives, so it’s common to have a desire for our Community’s mission to happen on particular days or times (e.g. the same night our Community meets, Saturdays, etc.)

• Max participation: Another high value is to pick a mission that works for the majority of people in a Community.

• A particular focus: Many Communities or people in Communities feel a strong inclination to serve a particular population (e.g. kids in foster care, refugee families, incarcerated adults, the houseless and homeless, etc.). Are there any such hopes or desires that any of us are carrying? 

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

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

• Time: One of the most common roadblocks a Community has in picking a mission is their collective availability. With so much going on in our lives, we need to find a balance between what we want to do and what we can do. If we haven’t already, let’s talk about everyone’s monthly availability and come to a consensus. It’s ok if not everyone is able to attend every monthly mission. It’s better to have a mission that most people participate in than never picking one because we can’t find one that works for everyone.

• Money: Another common hurdle is money. Some missions may involve financial contribution (e.g. getting background checks to work with kids in foster care, helping support a vulnerable family, etc.), so let’s keep this in mind as we explore mission options.

• Group size: Some organizations can only host groups below a certain size. If there is a value for our whole Community to engage at the same time, this is good to keep in mind as we look for a mission.

• Commitment: A number of mission opportunities require a time frame commitment (e.g. 6 months, a year, etc.). So it’s good to know whether or not we’re able and willing to commit for an extended period of time, or if we’d prefer to find a mission that doesn’t require commitment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

End in Prayer

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

Community, Pt. 1: Communion

Take Communion

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

• What does everyone understand our Community's communion practice to be? Do we have one?

• If we have one, how does everyone feel like this is going? Are we observing communion weekly in a meaningful way? 

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

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

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

• Bread & Wine: Having tangible elements of communion can help symbolize the meal Jesus ate, so some prefer to take communion with some form of bread (e.g. bread, crackers, tortilla, etc.) and some form of wine (e.g. wine, grape juice, etc.). 

• The Whole Meal Together: In church services, the bread and the wine symbolize the whole meal that Jesus ate with his disciples and that we will eat one day with him, so some prefer to use the meal itself as the communion elements.

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

• The Community Guide: Every teaching series will have its own communion Practice that we are welcome to use. It begins every Community Guide and anyone can find those at bridgetown.church/teaching

• Scripture: Most common is to simply take a moment to read a passage of scripture – a psalm, teaching of Jesus, the story of that last meal Jesus ate with his disciples.

• Silence & Prayer: Taking a moment in silence to remember God’s presence to us and then closing in prayer can be really powerful.

• Gratitude: Take a moment to do some sort of gratitude exercise – “What is one thing you are grateful to God for from today?” – and have each person say it aloud as a quick prayer.

• Sharing Personally: The communion leader may take a minute or two to share what God has been speaking to her or him about and then close in prayer.

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

• Communion Point Person: Establish a person whose role is to oversee ensuring that communion happens weekly. They wouldn’t lead communion each week, but simply help coordinate who does.

• Communion Tag: End communion each night by having the person who led it that week ask someone else present to do it next week

• Communion & Meal Combo: If our Community cycles through who makes the meal each week, leading communion could be folded into that responsibility.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

End in Communion & Prayer

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

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

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

Leader: Spend 30 seconds or so in silence

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

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

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

Vision Series Guide: Our Community Vision

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after dinner. If you don’t already have a Communion plan, have someone read these words from Paul in 1 Corinthians 11v24-26 

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

Think of our Community like a boat out on the ocean: everyone has an oar and we’re all rowing together to go somewhere. But this can only work if everyone agrees on where we’re headed. If we all have a different understanding of or vision for where our boat is going, we’ll likely just paddle in circles. To make sure we’re not going in circles, during the Vision Series every Fall, each Bridgetown Community sets aside intentional time to return to the Commitments and to have a conversation about what’s going well and where we can improve. And tonight is that night! 

Do These Practices Tonight

1. General Community Reflections

Let’s take some time to reflect over the last year of life in this Community by discussing the following questions?

• What has this Community meant to you over this last year? Who or what are you grateful for? Where has God met you through this Community?

• Have you noticed the Practice of regularly attending this Community change you as a person or as a disciple in any way? How so?

2. 6-Stage Cycle of Community

A Community is a bit like a living thing – far from being static and rigid, it is constantly growing and changing with those who are in it. With that in mind, there is a patterned story within most Communities that includes these 6 stages or seasons that repeat themselves again and again. 

While these stages do not have a specific amount of time associated with them (and we won’t necessarily go through all of them in a year), Communities change stages all the time. Though it may feel uncomfortable, change isn’t always something bad and we don’t need to fear it. It can actually be a huge opportunity to grow deeper in vulnerability and transformation with God, yourself, and each other. There are healthy and restorative ways through each stage.

Let’s take a few minutes to work through the description of each phase. As we do, keep in mind where we think our Community might be. It’s ok if we don’t all agree about where we are at. This dissonance can actually foster important conversations as we explore not just where, but why each of us would place our Community where we do and to talk through what we think helpful steps forward might look like.

Let’s work through these questions together:

• What was the state of our Community last year around this time? What changes (good or hard) have we gone through communally?

• As we read this, what stages currently fit our Community? What evidence would you suggest supports that?

• Based on where we think we are, what would our next stage be and how would we like to prepare for that?

3. Community Commitments 

Next, we want to begin a conversation about recommitment. To commit to something is to actively participate in it; it is to show up in a way that you are engaged and contributing. Community Commitments are a way of framing the foundation of and setting the direction for our Community. None of them should be a surprise, as they are the list everyone agreed to upon joining a Community. We revisit this list each year as a way of a) reminding us about the commitments we’ve made and b) figuring out how we can recalibrate to get back on course if we’ve drifted. The Community Commitments are organized into 4 categories: active participation in your own spiritual formation, active participation in Bridgetown Church, active participation in your Community, and active participation in Portland.

As we discuss them, it would be great if we could all open up the Community Commitments (or share a screen with someone next to you). Once we have them open, I’ll read each out loud to remind us what our Community is organized around and then we’ll work through a few discussion questions. As a side note, if there are any questions or concerns about any of these Commitments, please talk with me at some point (it doesn’t have to be tonight). I’d love to help you work through it or help point you to someone who can.

Leader: Pause here to read through the Commitments. Once you’ve read them all, move onto the following questions.

• Consider this list, what do you feel like we do well as a Community? 

• Where might there be an opportunity for growth for our Community or for you as an individual? What might we be missing? (e.g. for Community: mission, taking more leadership responsibility, praying for each other, etc.; for an individual: regularly attending the gathering on Sunday, showing up to Community on time, being present, etc.)

• In light of all this, what specific things do we want to grow in as a Community? And how do we get there? How will we each, individually, be a part of committing to that growth?

4. Other Important Conversations 

Whether we have enough time and stamina left this week or we want to set aside some time in the future, there are likely some other conversations that may be helpful for our Community to have. 

Leader: Not all of these will be relevant to your Community. Please have read through them in advance and pick out one or two that might feel helpful to discuss.

• How is mission going? Is it time to revisit that conversation?

• How is our meal plan working? Do we need to revisit that?

• How are our Leader(s) and/or Coordinators feeling? Do they need help with anything?

• Is there anything we want to start, stop, or continue doing as a Community?

• How do we feel about the way we’re currently integrating kids in our Community? Do we need to talk about that again? Or do we need to get ahead of some upcoming transitions?

• Are there any other conversations we need to have that we might be avoiding? 

End in Prayer

Before we leave, let’s spend some time praying for our Community, asking God for the things that came up tonight, and inviting the Spirit to help us become more like Jesus together.

Video #6: Slow to Anger

We recommend working through this Guide in August.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

The video below explores one particular reality of how God reveals his character, namely, that he is slow to anger.

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Video #5: Visual Commentary: Ex 34:6-7

We recommend working through this Guide in August.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

The video below explores the most quoted verse of the Bible by the Bible – the one where God describes what he's like.

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Video #4: Exodus 19-40

We recommend working through this Guide in July.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

A continuation of the first Guide and video, the video below explores the second half of the scroll of exodus, providing a helpful framework and context for the second half of our series.  

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Video #3: The Covenants

We recommend working through this Guide in July.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

The video below backs up a bit from just Exodus, exploring and giving helpful insight into the cultural and biblical category and theme of "covenant". 

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Video #2: Moses & Aaron

We recommend working through this Guide in June.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

A large theme in Exodus and the Torah as a whole relates to Israel's need for a priesthood. The video below explores the failed beginnings of this priesthood along with the hope for a future perfect priest.

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Video #1: Exodus 1-18

We recommend working through this Guide in June.

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, take some time to reflect on these words from Exodus 34v5-7, in which God describes himself to Moses:

The Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, Yahweh. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “Yawheh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Watch This Video Together

The video below will explore the narrative of the first half of the scroll of Exodus, giving a helpful framework for and understanding of what's going on. Since we'll be teaching through Exodus over about 3 months, this video offers a great snapshot of the context of what's going on.

Discuss These Questions Together

• As we watched the video, what stuck out that we may have not heard or thought of before, or that makes us think in a new or deeper way?

• Considering the themes that stuck out, what might they reveal to us about God? 

• When something sticks out to us, it might be an invitation from God. Based on our discussion, what invitation might God be extending to us individually or to our Community? And how could we lean into this invitation this week? (e.g. meditating each morning on this theme, memorizing a particular scripture, taking time in the middle of our day to be present to God, doing a fast, practicing generosity, etc.)

Extra Time?

If your Community has any extra time, feel free to spend it praying for each other. You could do this many ways, but it could be fun to practice prophetic listening prayer for people in your Community by doing the second part of the “Do These Practices Tonight” section of the Community Guide on Prophecy from the Hearing God series.

Hearing God, Pt. 4: God’s Voice in Nature

(Leader’s Note: If possible, consider working through this Guide outside. Whether in someone’s backyard, at a park, or even on a rooftop deck at someone’s apartment, it could aid the Practice tonight to be in nature of some kind.)

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone lead through this guided prayer:

Holy Spirit, as we begin our time tonight, would you bring to our minds a moment in which we heard your voice really clearly this last week? 
(Leader: Pause here for a moment.)
God, we remember that you are kind and that you love to speak to us. 
We remember that you are patient and will continue to teach us to hear you.
We remember that you are gracious, gentle, and good.
And, for all of this, we are thankful.
Amen.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

Throughout history, various parts of nature have been worshiped – the sun that gives light and warmth, the rain that waters and nourishes, the land that provides sustenance and shelter. Watching stormy waves break offshore or the flames of a raging bonfire stirs reflection on the power and majesty they hold. But how much more the One who made it all? Rather than worshiping the creation, the authors of Scripture teach us to worship the One who made it, the Creator. God is not the trees or the sun or the ocean, but God does allow his voice to speak through them. For millennia, creation has moved God’s people to worship of the Creator. 

From cover to cover, the Bible speaks of nature and creation worshiping God, declaring his glory, and revealing his voice. In the Psalms, we read that the skies declare God’s glory and his works. Job tells his friends to ask the animals and the earth to teach them about God. Even Jesus tells the Pharisees that if his disciples are quiet, the rocks themselves will cry out. In fact, most of God’s miracles in the Bible interact with creation — Jesus turns water into wine, Moses parts the sea, Elisha uses a stick to heal poisonous water, Jesus uses mud to cure blindness. If we pay close enough attention, God is revealing himself to us through his creation. 

Think about the last time you were intentionally outside. There is an aliveness that courses through us, even a hope that begins to grow. What if this is God speaking to us? What if we are hearing God’s voice outside of our early morning quiet time or the Sunday gathering? Perhaps our bodies, brains, and souls are hearing something about God in nature that, even when we’re not aware, causes us to respond accordingly. What could happen in our connection to God if we began to intentionally listen to the natural world around us? What revelation about God’s kingdom and character, big and small, might God be trying to show us?

Do This Practice Tonight

Tonight we are going to sit with Psalm 19, which has something to say about God’s voice in nature, and then we’ll take some time to share our own experiences of God in creation. 

To begin, we are going to meditate through Psalm 19, letting the words guide us in how we can allow nature to teach us about what God is like. We have already spent some time during this series exploring how God speaks to us through the Bible, so as we read through this ancient song slowly a few times, pay attention to what sticks out in these verses. As a word or phrase or sentence pops out, stay with it and let it roll and your mind and heart. What might God want you to know about how creation is trying to teach you about him?

Welcome God to Speak – Take a few deep breaths and let your mind and body settle. Take a moment in the quiet to invite the Spirit to speak to you through his Scriptures about his creation.

Let’s Read & Meditate on Psalm 19 – After a moment of silence, we’ll read the passage slowly twice, allowing time in between each reading for us to meditate in silence. It may be helpful to have a different person read each time, so both readers get a chance to hear the Scripture read over them. As we meditate in the quiet, name what sticks out to you. Is it the active role creation plays in worshiping God? Is it that God’s way of living is likened to the sweet taste of honey? Is it the fact that God is called our Rock? What does this ancient song have to teach us about creation? What specifically might God want to speak to you through it?

Thank God for Speaking – As we move on, take just a moment more in the quiet to thank God for speaking to us in his Scriptures about how he speaks to us through his creation. 

(Leader’s Note: After another moment, close in prayer and call everyone back together.)

Now let’s spend some time reflecting together. We’ll work through just a few questions together: 

1. What was God saying to you (or teaching you or doing in you) during that meditation on Psalm 19?

2. What encounters have you had with God in nature before? Where do you feel that “aliveness” in you that wells up by being in God’s creation? 

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week’s Practice is pretty simple: Go on a walk with God. Whether at Mt. Tabor Park or in your own backyard, intentionally place yourself alone with God in nature. As you walk, invite God to open all of your senses to what his creation is saying about him. Take time to find 2 or 3 things that may have something to reveal to you about God. Perhaps it’s the smell of a flower or the sight of a tree or the sound of birdsong. Just as we stayed with the word or phrase that stuck out to us from Psalm 19, stay with this whatever seems to be drawing your attention and ask God to speak to you through it. Keep in mind that all of this will likely require you to go slower than you’re used to, so be willing to stop or sit down or linger when you feel God speaking. Take your time and be as present as you’re able. Whenever your time is up, thank God for speaking to you through his creation and make the intention to remember this practice next time you find yourself outside. 

Two quick notes. First, this could be a helpful Practice to include in your Sabbath rhythm, especially during the summer – slowly lingering with God in the cathedral of creation, letting him speak to you about who he is. Secondly, this is an incredible Practice to do with children because they tend to be better at paying attention to what we may normally filter out as distractions. 

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together asking God that we might grow as hearers of his voice.

Hearing God, Pt. 3: The Examen

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone lead through this guided prayer:

Holy Spirit, as we begin our time tonight, would you bring to our minds a moment in which we heard your voice really clearly this last week? 
(Leader: Pause here for a moment.)
God, we remember that you are kind and that you love to speak to us. 
We remember that you are patient and will continue to teach us to hear you.
We remember that you are gracious, gentle, and good.
And, for all of this, we are thankful.
Amen.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

Jesus said that his sheep know his voice. How do we know God’s voice? While there are many tools that can help us along on this journey, one that might not immediately come to mind is the historic practice of the Examen. The Examen – also called “the examination of consciousness” – is a form of prayer in which we take time with God to look back over our day, paying special attention to our felt closeness to God. Where did I feel the closest to God today? and Where did I feel the furthest?

The practice of the Examen has been used for centuries as a way of training oneself to stay tuned into God’s presence. Think back to what was mentioned a few weeks ago in the conversation around the Scriptures: meditating on what God has already said through the pages of the Bible helps us to know what God’s voice sounds like. The Examen functions similarly: looking for God’s closeness in our past day cultivates the ability to more clearly notice where God is at in our present. We begin to more easily recognize what God is up to around us, which helps us to keep in step with the Spirit.

Tonight we will walk through a simple framework for the Examen, taking some time to practice it together. 

Do This Practice Tonight

While there have been various frameworks for the Examen over the centuries, the general aim is always the same: to review our day with God, noticing where we felt close to God and where we felt far from him. We’re going to practice this together now. So let’s take a moment for everyone to get comfortable and then we’ll begin. I’ll guide us through the four prompts, giving us space between each, and then we’ll share together after we’re done.

(Leader’s Note: Wait until everyone has settled in, perhaps inviting people to put away phones and other distractions. Invite the Holy Spirit to make you all aware of his presence, and then spend a few moments in silence, letting the Spirit gather you all back to yourselves. Leave somewhere around two minutes between each of the four prompts.)

First, review your day with God. Start from the moment you woke up this morning and reflect through your day up until this moment here. What did you do? What happened to you? What did you feel? Where did you go? Who did you see? What did you get done? What was left undone for another day? What did you say today? What victories did you experience? Where did you feel loss? Let’s take some time to review our days with God.

Next, ask the question: Where did I feel the furthest from God today? Filter back through your day again, this time noticing at which point you felt the furthest from God. And as it comes up, what about that moment made you feel far from God? 

Then, ask the question: Where did I feel the nearest to God today? Once more, filter back through your day, this time noticing at which point you felt the closest to God. And as it comes up, what about that moment made you feel near to God? 

Finally, in light of your reflections, pray one intercession for tomorrow. Taking stock of what you have noticed through all of this, take a moment to ask God for something for tomorrow. Is there somewhere you need him to intervene? Do you want him to help you pay better attention to your temper? Would it be helpful for the kids’ nap time to go smoother? Spend some time asking God for what you need tomorrow.

(Leader’s Note: Once you’ve given time for the final prompt, close with a quick prayer and invite people to share what that experience was like for them and if anyone wants to share about something God brought up for them.)

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, each of us is invited to practice the Examen this week. Follow through the prompts above at some point near the end of your day – on your commute home, as you’re doing the dishes, while you’re getting ready for bed, or perhaps even right before you go to sleep. Whenever you choose to do it, remember that repetition forms habit, so try to do it at some point each day this week.

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together asking God that we might grow as hearers of his voice.

Hearing God, Pt. 2: Prophecy

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone lead through this guided prayer:

Holy Spirit, as we begin our time tonight, would you bring to our minds a moment in which we heard your voice really clearly this last week? 
(Leader: Pause here for a moment.)
God, we remember that you are kind and that you love to speak to us. 
We remember that you are patient and will continue to teach us to hear you.
We remember that you are gracious, gentle, and good.
And, for all of this, we are thankful.
Amen.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

At its most simple, prophecy is hearing God’s voice on behalf of yourself, an individual, or a group. Most often, when we speak of prophecy, we refer to having sensed an image in our mind, a feeling in our body, a verse from Scripture, lyrics to a song, a word, or some other thought in our imagination that God may have put there. In 1 Corinthians 14, we read that all followers of Jesus are to eagerly desire the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but especially prophecy. We eagerly desire prophecy because God loves to speak to us and to reveal his love for us. 

A helpful way to think about and process prophecy is in three layers: Revelation, Interpretation, & Application. Revelation asks “What do I sense?” Interpretation asks “What might it mean?” And Application asks “What am I to do with it?” or “Who is this for? And when is this for?” This all takes practice and even the most seasoned person will get it wrong sometimes. We practice prophecy together because the people in this room are really safe to try and not always get it right. Prophecy is not about a technique or a strategy. Prophecy isn’t a superpower. It’s about stewarding God’s presence as he reveals to us who he is and his heart for us. With that, tonight we are going to try prophecy together.

Do These Practices Tonight

We are going to do two Practices tonight as a Community: listening with pictures and listening for someone specific.

1. Listening with a Picture: First is a practice adapted from Pete Greig’s “How To Hear God.” A picture is worth a thousand words because it requires some aspect of interpretation. Even a simple picture can have so much going on – color, perspective, background, foreground, contrast, tones, movement, etc. In this exercise each of us is going to invite God to speak to us through a photo! 

(Leader’s Note: Take a moment for each person to select ONE photo. It’s ok if multiple people choose the same one. That said, because of the easy distraction of digital devices, it is ideal if you’re able to print out these photos. That said, if you’re not able to, that’s ok! Just send everyone the link below, have them pick a picture, and invite them to put their phones on airplane mode.)

Now that we each have a photo, I’m going to invite the Spirit to speak to us. Then we’re each going to take a few minutes to look at the image and ask God to reveal his heart in some way. There’s no hurry as we do this and there is no right answer. Take your time and try to be present to God. As you listen, remember that, in 1 Corinthians 14v3-4, Paul reminds us that prophecy is about strengthening, encouraging, comforting, and edifying. And remember that God loves to speak to us.

(Leader’s Note: Invite the Holy Spirit to speak and then allow the group to spend a few minutes with their picture. It may help to set a 3 or 4 minute timer, so that you can focus on your own photo. Once the time is up, continue below.)

Now we’re going to take a few minutes and share which photo we each picked and what it is we sensed God saying to us through these pictures. Maybe it was for you, maybe it was for someone else in the group or for the whole group. And once everyone has had a chance to share, we’re going to move onto our next Practice. 

2. Listening for Someone Specific: Next, we are going to try hearing the thoughts of God for another person in the room by playing a bit of a game. 

To begin, everyone will close their eyes while I walk around the room and quietly pick someone by tapping their shoulder. The person I tap will be “receiving” the prophetic words.

Then, I will set a 60 second timer and we’ll pause to listen on behalf of this unknown person. This may feel rushed, but it’s a great way to not overcomplicate things and to make sure there’s enough time to do a couple rounds!

After the timer goes off, we’ll stay in the posture of prayer, and anyone who wants to can share the images, words, feelings, etc. that came up during that time. But rather than talking through them, each person will share the image and then pray into it.

Lastly, once everyone who wants to share does, I’ll say “amen” and reveal who we were all listening for. This person then will share what resonated with them. The goal of this activity is not to get everything right. If you say something that doesn’t stick, that doesn’t mean you don’t hear God’s voice. In fact, when you don’t know who you’re listening for, it’s pretty safe to assume that you won’t get everything right. The goal is to practice learning what God’s voice sounds like and to practice sharing what it is you sense. 

We’ll keep doing this Practice a bit. We may even consider ending each night of Community going forward with a quick round of this so we can commit to being learners of God’s voice.

(Leader’s Note: When the time comes, close in prayer. Thank God for speaking and for teaching us what his voice sounds like.)

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, the invitation is to take some time to practice prophecy in an ordinary part of your life. Where might you build a container in your day to pause and turn your attention to hear God’s voice? Whether it’s first thing in the morning, on your lunch break, while the kids are napping, on your commute home, or right before bed, we want to become the kind of people who pause regularly to hear what God is saying.

There are a number of ways to do this. It could be great to practice that picture exercise for 3 or 4 minutes each morning. You could consider asking God to reveal his heart to you for someone in your life. You could even start by asking him to bring someone to mind and then to reveal his heart for that person. However you choose to engage, trying it at some point each day is a great way to practice hearing God’s voice. 

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together asking God that we might grow as hearers of his voice.

Hearing God, Pt. 1: Scripture

Take Communion

Leader: Begin your gathering by taking communion together, whether as a full meal together or some version of the bread and the cup before or after your meal. If you don’t already have a Communion liturgy, have someone lead through this guided prayer:

Holy Spirit, as we begin our time tonight, would you bring to our minds a moment in which we heard your voice really clearly this last week? 
(Leader: Pause here for a moment.)
God, we remember that you are kind and that you love to speak to us. 
We remember that you are patient and will continue to teach us to hear you.
We remember that you are gracious, gentle, and good.
And, for all of this, we are thankful.
Amen.

Read This Overview Aloud Together 

Since our aim is to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did, it is crucial to remember that the only way to get the life of Jesus is to take on the lifestyle of Jesus. The Scriptures played an essential role in Jesus’ life and ministry; he lived as if they were authoritative. The Scriptures were not as much a tool, instrument, or weapon for him, as they were part of how he viewed and interacted with both God and the world. The integration of Scripture in Jesus’ life was paramount to his ability to see the transforming promise of the coming Kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus is the singular person in all of biblical history to claim that the Scriptures were not only forming him, they were about him. The story of the Bible culminates in the person of Jesus.

The Bible has the power to translate the world around us and tell a truer, better story that exposes lies and reveals the coming hope of life as it should be. It is a book (or, more accurately, a library) unlike any other, in that as we read it, we are read by it. And yet, the Bible can be a polarizing topic because we all come to it with different histories and experiences. Tonight we want to take time to understand where each of us began this journey and where each of us hopes to go with it.

Do This Practice Tonight

In recognizing that the Bible is the best training ground in our quest of hearing God’s voice, it is important to name and know where each of us is coming from. Some of us have had beautiful experiences with the Scriptures, and currently find it easy to hear God’s voice in them; but others of us have a checkered history and find it difficult to look past some of what feels problematic to find God’s voice in them. So, for our Practice tonight, we are going to have a discussion in smaller groups about our individual histories with the Scriptures. Our goal tonight is not to solve each other’s problems or to make each other feel the same way we do, but to get a framework for where each of us is coming from as we lean into learning to hear God’s voice in the Bible. So let’s get into smaller groups, and then we’ll work through some prompts.

(Leader: Pause so everyone can split into smaller groups. At that point, invite everyone to work through the following questions, which you may consider putting into whatever communication platform your Community uses so everyone can see them.)

• What did you grow up hearing about God’s voice as it relates to the Bible?

• When we talked about daily Bible reading, what emotional response stirs in you, positive or negative? Where in your past might that response come from?

• What obstacles come up for you as you consider reading the Bible every day? (These could be internal obstacles like anxiety, perfectionism, boredom, etc. or external obstacles like kids, shifting schedules, etc.)

• In a year, what would you like your relationship with the Bible to look like?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

For the week ahead, we are going to practice daily Bible reading. Some of us already have daily rhythms of engaging the Scriptures that are vibrant and fruitful – if that’s the case, keep doing that! But for those who don’t have a daily rhythm of reading the Bible or you have one but it feels a bit dry, consider finding a reading plan and giving it a shot. There are a plethora of great, free reading plans through platforms like BibleProject and YouVersion. 

Starting this coming Sunday, Bridgetown will be selling a daily Bible reading journal that has prompts to help you pray, meditate, and journal through the Scriptures using a rhythm called BREAD, a form of lectio divina (which is an ancient and time-tested method of meeting with God in the pages of the Bible). The hope is that those who don’t have a vibrant Scripture reading plan would engage the Bible through BREAD. 

Whatever tool each of us chooses, we want to follow in the footsteps of our Rabbi, by spending time in the Scriptures every day, so that they might come alive in us and so that we might see the world, know the Father’s love, and serve our neighbor the way Jesus did. 

End in Prayer

Leader: Close your time together asking God that we might grow as hearers of his voice.