Community Guides

Kylee Logan 7/31/24 Kylee Logan 7/31/24

Jude, Pt. 1: Scripture

Take Communion

Leader Note: 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 Note: 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.

Review the Last Practice

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice of Scripture let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another about how the practice of daily Scripture reading went.

What did your time in Scriptures look like this week? Did you take advantage of BREAD in your time of meditation? If so, was it helpful? If so, what was helpful about it?
What was something God spoke to you about through Scripture, more specifically Psalm 139, this week that you found particularly encouraging, or convicting?
Was there any way that you felt led to practically respond to God’s voice this week (i.e. generosity, obedience, sacrificial love for another, forgiveness, etc.)?
If your practice of Scripture reading is more irregular than you’d like or feels hard to integrate, what might be helpful to change this week in pursuit of greater consistency?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

We’re following Jude into a very deep dive of the Hebrew Scriptures. If it was a swimming pool, most of us wouldn't be able to see the bottom. But Jude, the brilliant pastor that he was, knew what he was doing. He wrote this letter to a church or churches who had fallen prey to some unnoticed, corrupt teachers who had embedded among them. He wrote with urgency, but with deep compassion, beginning his letter with intimate identity-language, reminding his dear friends that they were called, loved, and kept. He was writing to say two things: 1) What’s happening in your churches isn’t new – false teachers rebelling against God’s goodness is an ancient pattern that goes all the way back to Genesis and 2) that such practice always leads to death. There is no way to rebel that keeps you on the path of life.

We see Jude tracing a series of examples through the Hebrew Scriptures, some of which are probably new to us because they aren’t in our Bibles, but all of which would have been entirely familiar to his audience. Jude was reminding them that even though grace had been extended to them, they were still as much at risk of the destruction that rebellion produces as their own ancestors were. But also that they were just as able to choose the life and flourishing that Jesus offers instead.

Jude is speaking to them as a parent. He is warning them, pleading with them to change course, to return to Jesus. And he needs them to know the seriousness of what’s going on. He needs them to really see what’s at stake. But, as we find out, Jude doesn’t write to those who are following these false teachers with anger or legalism; he knows and understands that belief is a process, that spiritual formation is a journey, and that oftentimes belief grows out of the soil of belonging. Jude tells the church to contend for the faith, and this week we get to learn more about how to do that: we keep ourselves in God's love and we show mercy to those in doubt.

Do This Practice Tonight

In the narrative of Scripture, and as we see it in Jude, “mercy” is “enacted compassion.” It’s what happens when we see something that moves our heart in the same way God’s is moved, and then we do something about it. Jude is inviting us to imitate God by contending for the faith. And in a letter about how we do that, we learn it’s about staying in God’s love and showing mercy to others. So, tonight we are going to take some time to Practice lectio devina, a way of prayerfully engaging with Scripture as it reveals who God is, who we are, and how we can respond. Lectio Devina is not about “mastering” Scripture, but surrendering to it as a living and active authority in our lives. We’re reading for depth, not breadth. We’ll engage the five movements that traditionally are included in lectio devina, and then end our time hearing from one another about how God is inviting us to respond.

The five movements that are included in lectio devina are:

Prepare (Silencio): quiet preparation of the heart
Read (Lectio): read the word
Meditate (Meditatio): meditate
Pray (Oratio): respond, pray
Contemplate (Contemplatio): contemplate wait on God

Leader note: Jude v17–25 will be read aloud three different times during the practice, so it could be helpful to have three different people be available and willing to read.

Let’s take a moment to get comfortable. This can involve putting our phones aside, making sure the kids are doing okay in the other room, and getting into a posture that helps you feel open to the Spirit.

Now, let’s begin.

Prepare. Let’s become quiet and come into God’s presence by slowing down, and intentionally releasing the chaos and noise in your mind to God.

Read. Let’s have someone read Jude v17–25 out loud. We’re not in any hurry, so read this passage slowly. When a word or phrase catches your attention as you’re hearing it read out loud, attend to what God is saying. Listen and wait.

Meditate. We’re going to hear Jude v17–25 read a second time outloud. Listen for any invitation that God is extending to you in this passage. Meditate and reflect on the words that stand out to you. After this passage is read outloud, we’ll wait in silence for a few minutes.

Pray: Let’s read Jude v17–25 for a third and final time. This is the moment we get to move towards responding and prayer, as we enter into a more personal dialogue with God. There’s no right or wrong to do this. The important thing is to respond honestly and openly with God.

Contemplate: Lastly, let’s contemplate, rest, and wait in the presence of God. The end of v21 and beginning of v22 says “...wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt.” What feelings or thoughts are stirring up in you? In the ways you have experientially known the mercy and compassion of God, how might you be sent out to help others to do the same? How might you be invited to contend for the faith by staying in God’s love and extending mercy to those around you who are having a hard time doing that?

Let’s wait for God to speak as we take the next few minutes in silence.

Close. Offer a brief prayer of gratitude to God for his mercy and compassion, and for the ways the Spirit met with the Community tonight.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to continue this Practice of Scripture by setting aside intentional time every day for lectio devina. Either in your daily BREAD reading, or a Psalm, or the book of Jude, practice lectio devina by following these five movements: (Keep in mind, this could take as little as 5 minutes or up to an hour if you’d like. This is all about keeping company with Jesus whether or not he speaks to you.)

Prepare (Silencio): quiet preparation of the heart
Read (Lectio): read the word
Meditate (Meditatio): meditate
Pray (Oratio): respond, pray
Contemplate (Contemplatio): contemplate wait on God

Close by getting into groups of 2-3

Let’s split up into groups of 2–3. While there is no pressure to hear from everyone, we want to carve out space for anyone who wants to share what feelings, thoughts, even specific invitations came up during the practice. Close your time in prayer by blessing each person to live a life of love in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Kylee Logan 7/11/24 Kylee Logan 7/11/24

Ruth, Pt. 3: Scripture

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice of Scripture let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another about how the practice of daily Scripture reading went.

What did your time in Scriptures look like this week? Did you take advantage of BREAD in your time of meditation? If so, was it helpful? If so, what was helpful about it?
What was something God spoke to you about through Scripture this week that you found particularly encouraging, or convicting?
Was there any particular way that you felt led to practically respond to God’s voice this week (i.e. generosity, obedience, sacrificial love for another, forgiveness, etc.)?
If the practice of Scripture is more irregular than you’d like or feels hard to integrate, what might be helpful to change this week in pursuit of greater consistency?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Tragedy and death. Feeling forgotten by God. Being victimized by disasters outside your control. The book of Ruth opens with truly devastating circumstances for Naomi and Ruth — deaths of sons and husbands, famine, and feeling forgotten and without hope. By the close of the book, we see each and every plot line that interrupted the lives of these two widows transformed by redemption — where there was death, new life. Where there was lack, abundance. Where they felt alone, they experience loyalty, honor, and love.

While God is not frequently talked about by name in the book of Ruth, God’s providence is behind every scene of this story, weaving together circumstances and faithful actions to produce kingdom realities. God is not interested in playing games with us or being a puppet master. He deeply desires to redeem and restore every plot line in our lives, and he’ll do it through our circumstances, through others, and through the small, faithful choices we make that we think go unseen. Ruth shows us that even if we hold real feelings of bitterness or fear, believing that God is out to punish or abandon us, we’re invited to trust a truer reality: if God has not redeemed a situation, then God isn’t done yet.

God weaves together the faithful obedience of his people to bring about his redemptive purposes in the world. And that is the real and true ending of Ruth. Chapter four’s genealogy shows that Boaz & Ruth’s son Oved was the grandfather of King David, from whom came the lineage of the Messiah. And so, all of a sudden, all of these seemingly mundane ordinary events in the story are woven into God’s grand story of redemption of the whole world. So, we too are invited to consider how God might be at work in the very ordinary, mundane details of our lives as well.

Do This Practice Tonight

Tonight, we are going to take some time to Practice praying Scripture together. Praying Scripture for ourselves or even for one another can lift the burden from our own shoulders and place it directly on God’s, and giving us words to pray where we may not have them Praying Scripture is one of several ways to enter deeply into the text, possibly becoming attuned to a unique and personal word from God. So, we’re going to pray Ruth’s great grandson David’s words in Psalm 139 tonight.

We’ll begin in the quiet, simply noticing God’s love. Then we’ll have a few folks read Psalm 139 out loud over us, and we’ll end our time by sharing what you’re sensing God saying to you.

Leader note: Before starting the Practice, ask if there would be one person willing to read Psalm 139v1-12, and then a second person to read Psalm 139v12-24.

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

Breathe. Let’s become quiet and take a moment to breathe. Welcome God’s love for you. Give yourself permission to let go of any of your own agendas. And let’s open ourselves to the wonderfully human prayers given to us in Scripture. If it’s helpful, you’re welcome to close your eyes, place your hands open in the posture of receiving, or place a hand over your heart as you welcome God’s nearness.

Psalm 139. Let’s have (name) read Psalm 139v1-12, and then (name) read Psalm 139v12-24 aloud and slowly. We’re not in any hurry. Any words and verses that catch our attention can become invitations to simply be with God and hear his voice. We want to slow down Scripture reading to a pace that serves listening.

Prayer of Gratitude. Offer a brief prayer of gratitude thanking God for hearing us, leading us, and showing us how to listen to his voice with our whole and honest selves.

Respond. If anyone would like to share, what words or verses stood out as Psalm 139 was read aloud? What did you sense God saying to you? Has there been any specific situation or area in your life that you’re longing for God to redeem? How did you sense God leading you into prayer?

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to continue this Practice by setting aside intentional time to read the Scriptures and stay in Psalm 139. You could substitute your own name where the text says me and I. For instance, insert your name or someone’s name who you are praying for on a regular basis (a friend, your child, someone else) in the blanks: For you created _______’s inmost being; you knit _______ together in _______’s mother’s womb. _______ praises you because _______ is fearfully and wonderfully made…

Similar to the last few weeks, the heart of this Practice is two-fold. First, it’s to allow God to shape our prayer life through the words of Scripture. Secondly, it helps us consider that God is at work in the very ordinary, mundane details of our lives for his redemptive purposes.

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

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that the redemption of all creation comes through our ordinary lives and the Practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 6/20/24 Kylee Logan 6/20/24

Ruth, Pt. 2: Scripture

Note for Communities with families: The Family Guide for Scripture just came out! You can find it here and practice reading scripture together with your kids this summer.

Take Communion

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 Note: 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.

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review the last Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to be hyper critical or judgmental of yourself or others.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Scripture, let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another about how the practice of daily Scripture reading went.

What did your time in Scriptures look like this week? Did you take advantage of BREAD in your time of meditation? If so, was it helpful? If so, why?
What was something God spoke to you about through Scripture this week that you found particularly encouraging, or convicting?
How did you practically respond to God’s voice this week? Was there any particular way that you felt led to respond (i.e. obedience, sacrificial love for another, forgiveness, etc.)?
If the practice of Scripture is more irregular than you would like, how do you plan to alter your approach this week in pursuit of greater consistency?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

All of us handle grief and disappointment differently. Some of those differences are by choice, and some are the implicit stories we believe. The book of Ruth offers us a picture of how the stories we believe, the habits we form, and the community we keep deeply influence the way we respond to life’s most difficult moments. In this narrative, Ruth is honored for the way she chooses to respond to suffering, making an intentional choice to cling to her community, even in the face of profound grief.

Ruth is a beautiful example of what redemption and renewal is possible when someone allows their grief to push them toward God and others, rather than away from them. As she chooses to wrap her arms around her mother-in-law, Ruth experiences the God of Israel wrapping his arms around her through the ordinary actions of his chosen people. In this pivotal act of love and faith, Ruth rather unknowingly partners with God to secure the lineage of Jesus, the savior of the world, declaring “Where you go I will go, where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God” (Ruth 1v16).

Tonight, we’ll spend some time Praying Scripture, using this verse as a template for our practice.

Do This Practice Tonight

Let’s break into groups of 2 or 3, and take the next 15-20 minutes to discuss the following prompts:

Share with your group where you are currently carrying grief or disappointment, to the extent that you feel led.
In a moment of silent prayer, ask God what it practically looks like for you to cling to him and others, while at the same time mourning the grief you shared.
Using Ruth 1v16 as a template, give each person in the group an opportunity to pray in their own words a commitment to cling to God amidst your grief journey.

Leader Note: Be sure to close in a prayer of gratitude for how God was present in this practice and how he chose to uniquely meet us in it.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to continue this Practice by setting aside intentional time to read the Scriptures and pray this same commitment each day, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and you will be my God.” Take a moment now to identify a time each day you intend to pray this verse over your life, then consider setting a reminder for yourself to do so.

Leader note: Take just a minute or two and give the group a chance to do this.

Keep in mind, the Practice of reading Scripture is aimed more at growing a relationship with God, so let this practice be more than a mantra. Let this prayer be a daily liturgy that reshapes your perspective toward each day. As we see in the life of Ruth, God is using our ordinary choices—our everyday lives—to bring about the renewal of all creation.

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

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that the renewal of all creation comes through our ordinary lives and the Practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 6/16/24 Kylee Logan 6/16/24

Ruth, Pt. 1: Scripture

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

Note for Communities with families: The Family Guide for Scripture just came out! You can find it here and practice reading scripture together with your kids this summer.

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review the last Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to be hyper critical or judgmental of yourself or others.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Scripture, let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another how it went last week practicing Intercession for those in our community.

Does anyone have an update from a lament or request that was shared with us during the previous series?
Who in the room chose to pray for one of those requests? Which of the three gifts (silence, groaning, or tongues) did you practice when interceding for that request? What was your experience like?
When reflecting on the time spent interceding for others, how have you grown in compassion? Along with that, are you noticing yourself more attuned to God’s heart and voice?
How has this practice impacted the way you might pray for others in the future?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

The book of Ruth is a story about the lives of 3 people, told over just 4 chapters. But when you look closer, you’ll see that this short story actually contains the whole story of the Bible. This narrative emphasizes the biblical refrain of the renewal of all creation, through the ordinary lives of ordinary people. This means that the story of Ruth is an invitation to wonder at the ways God might use our ordinary choices—our everyday lives—to bring about redemption.

In the first chapter of Ruth, we get a hard look at life outside of Eden. Famine and death bring us to the grief of three women left behind in the aftermath. As we observe each woman’s response to their nearly identical suffering, we are confronted with the reality that the stories we believe, the habits we cultivate, and the community we keep deeply form us and shape who we become. Tonight, as a community, we will re-enter the story of Ruth together. As it is read aloud, we will listen for the ways God might be moving in the ordinary details of our lives. Through the practice of reading scripture (lectio divina) we learn to listen to God's voice, recognize his presence and see where he is at work in and through us.

Do This Practice Tonight

Leader Note: If you want to follow along in your BREAD book, we’ll be using the prompts on page 6. It could be helpful to ask someone else in your Community to read Ruth chapters 1-4, so that you and/or your Co-Leader can guide everyone through the prompts below.

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

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

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

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

Read: Now, let’s read through the book of Ruth. After a minute or two, we will reread the story. As we read, take notice of what stands out and perhaps even write it down.

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

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

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

Leader Note: Pause before moving on.

Let’s take a moment now to turn to the person next to us and share anything you’d like about your experience tonight with this practice. After your neighbor finishes speaking, simply thank them for sharing and when everyone is done we will reconvene to pray.

Leader Note: Be sure to close in a prayer of gratitude for how God was present in this practice and how he chose to uniquely meet us in it.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we want to continue this Practice by setting aside intentional time to read the Scriptures daily. Keep in mind, the Practice of reading Scripture is aimed more at growing a relationship with God than gathering information about God. If you don’t have a regular Practice of reading the Bible, consider picking up a copy of BREAD and/or BREAD for Kids at church this Sunday.

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

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking God to continue teaching your Community that the renewal of all creation comes through our ordinary lives and the Practice of Scripture.

Kylee Logan 6/6/24 Kylee Logan 6/6/24

Family Guide: Scripture

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.

In our Bridgetown Church family, we are on a lifelong adventure to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what he did. Something we can participate in that combines ALL those things is reading the Bible!

When you think of the Bible, what comes to mind?

(Give space for answers.)

The Bible we have today looks like one big book. But, when you open it up, the Bible is actually a little library filled with lots of different kinds of stories! There are poems, there are adventure stories, there’s history, and there are songs praising God. All these little stories make one big story when you put them together: a big story about how Jesus rescues the whole world.

Do you have a favorite story from the Bible, or somewhere else? What is it? Why do you like it?

(Give space for answers.)

Jesus was once a child, just like you. He spent his childhood learning and even memorizing the story of Scripture. Since Jesus is who we want to be like, we want to read the Bible often too.

The Bible is a story about God and his people, and God’s plan to love and rescue the whole world. We get to follow and even be part of that story, from creation to God blessing his special people to God’s people going astray and Jesus coming to earth to heal and save us, inviting ALL of us to be part of his story. We even get to look ahead at how God will one day make the whole world new and how his church — us — gets to be a part of it!

Let’s open our Bible together to Psalm 23 and read this poem (written by King David) out loud together. As we read, let's listen for what David is saying about God and how he loves us, so we can talk about that afterwards.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

Response

What does this poem tell us about who God is?
What does this poem tell us about how God loves us?

After we read the Bible, we can pray and talk to one another about what we read. We can even ask God, “God how are you asking me to respond to what I read? Is there anything you want me to know, to do, or to change?”

How is God inviting me to respond?

When we need to remember something really important, it can be helpful to be reminded of it really often! The Bible teaches us about who God is and how we are loved and rescued by him, and we need to be reminded of that all the time. In Deuteronomy 6, God’s people are encouraged to talk and think about Scripture often — especially with their families — like at home, out and about, when you’re headed to bed or when you start your day. Reading the Bible often helps us remember that this is our story, too, and gives us a chance to let God speak to us through Scripture.

Jesus took those words of Deuteronomy 6 really seriously. He read scripture every single day, and even memorized lots of it! Many followers of Jesus today do the same as they learn to be with Jesus, become like him, and do what he did.

How does the idea of reading the Bible every day make you feel?

(Give space for answers.)

The Bible is a big book, and it’s okay if reading it sometimes feels really big or overwhelming! Even just a little every day helps us learn how to be like Jesus and remember who God is. A great place to start can be the Psalms, like the one we just read, and the Gospels, which are stories about Jesus' life.

Did you know that God sent us a helper to teach us to understand the Bible? It’s true! God’s Holy Spirit does so many things in us, but one of them is that he helps us to understand what God is saying through the Bible, and what he is trying to teach each of us when we read it. When you read something that feels confusing, you can ask the Spirit to help you understand. The Holy Spirit is who brings the Bible alive in us!

Here are a couple ideas for how we could get more Scripture into our lives now. Let’s pick one to try this week.

Explore the Bible together

Followers of Jesus often read scripture together to encourage one another and learn together. Here are a couple ideas for us to choose from to explore the Bible together.

Every night before bed, let’s read a Bible story together. We can use a story Bible like The Jesus Storybook Bible or The Biggest Story Bible, or read straight from the Bible itself. Before we read, let’s pray together to ask God to show us something about him, his story, and what it means for us.
Another idea is to read a verse out loud when we eat together as a family, like at breakfast or dinner. We can even choose one verse to read every day and memorize it together! Or, we could choose one Psalm, and do a verse of it each day, or read the whole Psalm out loud together.

Adults: If your family would like to try memorizing scripture together, a few memory verses to consider are Psalm 27v1, Proverbs 3v5–6, Philippians 4v6–7 or 4v8, Ephesians 4v32, and John 3v16–17. Your family could also try memorizing a longer section a verse at a time, such as Psalm 23, Psalm 103v1-5, 1 Corinthians 13v4-7, or Romans 12v9-18.

Explore the Bible on your own

Once every week (maybe on Sunday or your family’s Sabbath), pick a Psalm to read on your own and talk to God about! If you open up BREAD for Kids (available in the Bridgetown Bookstore), there’s a Psalm picked out for each week, and space for you to draw or write down what you think or feel about what you read. If your grown-ups use BREAD too, they’ll be reading the same Psalm as you each week, so you can talk about it together if you like.

Which ideas would you like to try this week?

Grown ups: circle or write down how your family would like to proceed.

No matter what we try, let’s commit to reading God’s words to us, and pray now that God would transform us and show us his love while we read the Bible.

Kylee Logan 5/26/24 Kylee Logan 5/26/24

The Gifts Of The Spirit For The Work Of The Kingdom, Pt. 4: Intercession

Take Communion

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

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

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review the last Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to be hyper critical or judgmental of yourself or others.

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on Intercession, let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another how it went last week utilizing the Psalms in your prayers of Lament.

How did practicing Lament go this week? In what ways did you experience God’s presence through this practice?
In what moments did you experience comfort, or maybe discomfort, while sharing your grief with Jesus?
Was using a Psalm helpful to give voice to your grief? How so?
How is God inviting you to make Lament a more active part of your prayer life?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Last week, we discussed how powerful the practice of Lament can be in moments of grieving and desperation. There are often moments of such deep sorrow, or compassion for another, that we find ourselves at a loss for words. And in those times, the psalms are a brilliant gift to us in finding the language that best articulates the cry of our hearts. But, there are also times when we meet the limitations of language, and are restricted by our native tongue — unable to find the words to capture our heart’s cry.

It is in these moments of grief, God, by His Spirit, grants us a gift. Throughout church history, followers of Jesus have practiced the spiritual gift of groaning and tongues as a response to these moments of impasse within intercessory prayer. In our current cultural moment, we tend to value technology, rationale, usefulness, and intellect, so we often undervalue this gift, and instead we seek to exhibit competence, coherence, and control in our spiritual lives. But in the midst of this discomfort, tongues has a way of building our faith, drawing us closer to the heart of God, and orienting our hearts toward others in the form of intercession.

Do This Practice Tonight

Tonight, we are going to practice interceding for one another in prayer, by means of groaning, tongues, or silence.

During our last Community Guide, we went around the room and shared the places in life we were holding the grief of unanswered prayer. We are going to revisit those again today, so we will go around and one-by-one remind the room of our request(s). Then, as a Community, we will all simultaneously pray aloud for that individual's request. If anyone wasn’t present for that discussion, take a moment now to identify an aspect of your life where you lack the words for what you want most from God, or want to say to God. Ask yourself, “What space in my life feels like my prayers are restricted by language?”

Let’s take a moment now to gather our thoughts and remember our requests.

[Pause for folks to reflect]

In moments of great desperation, grief, or compassion, the Spirit gives us a gift to communicate with God in a way that goes beyond language. One gift, or way to communicate, is through groaning, a form of lament that comes from your entire being. Another is the gift of tongues, a type of private speech that is led by the Spirit and is intelligible to us. A third way of communicating to God that goes beyond words is silence, holding a request before God without needing to make a sound. Each of these gifts relieve us of the burden to know all things and yet allow us to remain an active part of God’s good work in the lives around us.

We are going to use the remainder of our time together tonight to practice praying for each other. We will begin by hearing a lament from someone and then, after they share their request, we will all pray out loud together for that request. As we pray, let’s do so however the Spirit leads, keeping in mind that he may invite us out of our comfort zones, to intercede in one of the three ways we’ve just mentioned: through tongues, with groaning, or in silence. Then we will pray for the next person, and continue doing this for the rest of our time together.

Leader Note: Choose someone to share first and, when they’re done, introduce the moment of prayer by simply saying to the group “Let’s all pray aloud for this request.” Once there is a lull in the prayer, ask the next person in the circle to share and repeat the practice. When everyone has had the chance to be prayed for, thank the room for their vulnerability and participation.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, we are going to intentionally practice intercessory prayer for the requests mentioned tonight, utilizing the three prayer gifts we talked about earlier.

Let’s all choose one request from the night to intercede for every day this week.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how practicing intercession has helped us grow in compassion for others and become more attuned to God’s presence in our lives.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer. Pray that God would continue to grow the Community with a renewed sense of the Holy Spirit’s power and loving presence.

Kylee Logan 5/8/24 Kylee Logan 5/8/24

The Gifts Of The Spirit for the work of the Kingdom, Pt. 3: Lament

Leader Note: During the Practice for Tonight section, Psalm 80 will be read aloud. Plan ahead to have a Bible available for you or someone else in your Community to read from.

Take Communion

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

Review the Last Practice

Leader Note: As you review the last Practice, it may be helpful to remind everyone that this is a space to simply notice how it went, not to be hyper critical or judgmental of self or others.

Before we jump into tonight’s practice on Lament, let’s take a few minutes to hear from one another how last week went, discerning God’s voice through the Prayer of the Examen.

Last week, we practiced the Examen. How did that go?
In the moments you felt nearest to God, do you notice any particular themes emerging?
In the moments you felt furthest from God, were there any specific feelings you noticed surfacing? (i.e. anxiety, apathy, confusion, joy, loneliness, etc.) What did it look like to name and bring those emotions to God?
What is one way you want to include the Examen into your practice of Prayer going forward?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

Life can be painful, even tragic. It can feel full of unfixable problems. People we love die. Our bodies fail us. Our children make choices that pain us. We grieve singleness, or grieve how a relationship has changed. Sorrow can show up at a moment’s notice. Jesus himself told us, in this life, you’ll have trouble (John 16v33). Did you notice what he didn’t say? In this life you’ll have trouble, and your job is to pretend it’s not that bad, or get over it.

Whether we grew up in church contexts or not, many of us came up in environments where we were learned to bottle these things up, “find the bright side,” or move on from painful experiences or emotions. As a result, so many of us find it difficult to know how to face hard things with God, or how to pray in the midst of them. Learning what to do with our pain, grief, or even uncertainty is a large part of the journey following Jesus.

When we are in the midst of pain or grief, we have good company in Jesus, a man of many sorrows who called those who weep and mourn blessed. (Matthew 5v4). We read on the pages of Scripture that when we are grieved and have no words to pray, the Spirit prays and intercedes for us with wordless groans (Romans 8v26).

The Bible has a word for these kinds of pained prayers: Lament. Sometimes the most healthy response to the brokenness of this world and our own life is a mixture of tears and prayers, leading us to partnership with the Spirit in God’s transforming work. Tears and prayers of Lament were never intended to solve the problem of suffering, but they can suspend the raw nerve of pain by placing us right into the loving presence of God. Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, who does not abandon us but rather has the ability to hold all of us. One day God will wipe every tear away and every sorrow will be behind us. But until that day, we get to take our pain into prayer to the one who is acquainted with our grief.

Do This Practice Tonight

Tonight, we are going to spend time discussing what it means for us to pray prayers of Lament and then do that together. In our western American context, we know very little about Lament so our aim tonight is to view grieving as a form of love through prayer. Over two-thirds of the psalms hone in on Lament: taking our frustrations, sufferings, and heartaches to God, from a posture of worship. We will read a Psalm and pray aloud with one another in response to a few prompts.

So, let’s begin by settling in by putting away any distractions and get comfortable.

Leader Note: Once everyone has settled in, open in prayer.

Silently to yourself, draw to mind an unanswered prayer in your life or a point of grief or pain that you are carrying tonight. With that unanswered prayer or place of pain in your mind, let’s have someone read Psalm 80. As you hear this passage read, do your best to hear it through the lens as your own prayer.

Read Psalm 80.

Let’s sit in silence for a few minutes, just letting the words of the psalm give you space to think and feel the weight of lament in your own life, Community, or world. It can be lament over unanswered prayer or a point of pain.

Next, let’s go around the room and pray your own lament prayer to God. We want everyone to have the opportunity to pray, but there’s no pressure. Push past wanting to censor yourself. Give yourself permission to be honest. This can be a short prayer: bringing the sadness, pain, frustration to Jesus and asking him to help you carry this load. This might sound like “God, I am grieving the dysfunction within my family and the pain addiction brings” or “God, I feel powerless in the mystery of whatever is going wrong in my health” or “God, I feel really lost and I’m hurting.”

Lastly, let’s have a few of us who might be feeling particularly faith-filled in God, even in the face of all of that’s been shared tonight, close this portion of our night with prayers of gratitude. We get to thank Jesus that he went through unanswered prayer and emotional pain in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. He will be present with us in the midst of our pain, and lead and guide us through whatever may come.

Leader Note: If your Community is a newly formed Community, it could be helpful to take 30 seconds or so before moving on to offer a reminder that while there will be many opportunities to encourage and pray for one another during Community nights, be aware of opportunities to pray for one another throughout the week as well.

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

This week, you’re invited to pick out a lament psalm, and use it to give voice to your own prayers of Lament. Some great examples are Psalm 10, 13, 60, 79, or 80. Similar to how we read the passage tonight, allow the psalm to be your prayer. Don’t just read it and move on. Maybe it will involve sitting in the discomfort and letting God comfort you.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how these prayers of Lament helped us remain honest with God, rather than shouldering our burdens alone.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer, asking that God would continue to grow the Community with a renewed sense of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence.

Kylee Logan 4/29/24 Kylee Logan 4/29/24

Family Guide: Prayer

When is a time when you’ve made a brand new friend? Maybe recently you met someone new at school, or at the playground?

(Give space for answers.)

When you first became friends, what did you do to get to know that person?

(Give space for answers.)

If you want to learn about somebody, you have to spend time talking to them! Wouldn’t it be weird if you had a new friend you never spoke to? You just sat in the same room and stared at one another? I imagine you wouldn’t learn much about that person, and they wouldn’t learn much about you. They wouldn’t know what you like or what you’re interested in, and you couldn’t share any plans or excitement with one another.

Getting to know God as our friend is the same. To get to know God, we need to spend time talking with him. Talking with God is called Prayer.

You might be wondering, why do we talk to God though? He already knows everything about me! That’s a great question — we pray, because God is someone we want to get to know, too. To understand him better, to share ideas and feelings with one another, you can talk to him.

God also gave us his Holy Spirit so we could talk to him any time, and so he could talk to us in all kinds of ways too. What are some ways God talks to us?

(Parents: give space for answers)

God talks to us through the Bible, through his Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts, and sometimes through other people, too!

You know who we can look to as an example for how to talk with God? Jesus! And Jesus talked to his Father God all the time! He told God how he felt, what he needed, and what he was thinking.

We can talk to God about anything and everything too — how we are feeling, things we need his help with, what we’re thinking, what we are worried about, to say thank you, and share things we want. Some people pray out loud, and some people like to pray without saying anything out loud at all! What are some times that we pray together?

(Parents: give space to share answers, and perhaps offer examples if needed such as “when we need help,” or “to give thanks for a meal.”)

Do you ever pray by yourself? What are some things you pray about?

If not — that’s okay! We all start somewhere. Prayer can feel a little mysterious or intimidating at first. You might wonder what to say. That is okay — even Jesus’s disciples asked him to teach them how to pray.

Let’s open our bibles together and read Matthew 6v9–13, where Jesus taught his disciples all about how to pray.

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

Another way to pray this you might have heard at Bridgetown Kids goes like this:

God, we love you

We want to see your kingdom everywhere

Give us what we need today

Help us forgive, because you forgive us

Help us follow you

We will worship you forever

Amen

In this prayer, we tell God we know he is Holy and honor him. We ask him for help with what we need, and also help doing the things we should. You can pray any time and place — while you brush your teeth, while you walk to school, when you’re alone or when you’re with family or friends.

At Bridgetown, we follow a daily prayer rhythm or pattern. In the morning, we pray the Lord’s prayer that we just learned. At lunchtime, we pray for people we know who aren’t friends with Jesus yet. And at night, we pray to say thank you to God. It’s so cool knowing that when we pray, there are hundreds of people around the city praying the same things we are!

Prayer is the place where we can get to know God, and we can share more of ourselves with God too. Let’s pick a time and a way we want to try prayer together!

Idea 1: Pray the Lord’s Prayer

Pray the Lord’s Prayer together to begin our day. Remember the Lord’s prayer from our story earlier? Something cool to remember is that all over the city, friends and family from Bridgetown are praying the Lord’s prayer too!

When in our morning could we start praying the Lord’s Prayer together? Maybe in the car on the way to school, at breakfast, or before getting out of bed. When can we start?

Idea 2: Make a prayer tree

A fun tool to engage our creative gifts—like coloring, cutting, writing, and pasting—in prayer is to make a prayer tree! For lots of us, praying with our hands, eyes, and big ideas helps us to remember our prayers and get excited about talking to God often!

We can make a prayer tree by cutting a tree with branches out of cardboard, painting on a big sheet of paper, or bringing a real branch in from outside! We can make “leaves” by cutting them out of paper. On each of the leaves, draw or write a thing or person you are praying for. Each week, we can pray over those leaves together. When the prayer is answered, we can hang it up on the tree! Whenever we see those leaves we can remember God listens to us and answers prayers!

Note: for more detailed information and ideas about the prayer tree, check out Teach Your Children Well by Sarah Cowan Johnson. The Prayer Tree exercise is on page 118.

Which of these two options do we want to commit to?

Parents: Circle or write down the option your family has selected.

Whether we make a prayer tree, pray the Lord’s prayer or something else, let’s find time together to talk with God and listen for his voice.

Kylee Logan 4/28/24 Kylee Logan 4/28/24

The Gifts Of The Spirit For The Work Of The Kingdom, Pt. 2: Discernment

Take Communion

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

Review the Last Practice

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

Before we jump into tonight’s Practice on discernment, let’s take a few minutes to share how God led us to be a witness this past week.

Who did you witness to this week, and how did it go?
Was there anything about who God revealed or what God did that was surprising? How so?
Through which of the three categories we talked about was your witness expressed? (Spoken, Supernatural, or Sacrificial)
What is one way you want to build the practice of witness into your life going forward?

Read This Overview Aloud Together

God has given us his Spirit to help us discern his voice from other voices, in our ordinary, day-to-day lives and in big life decisions. So how do we learn what God’s voice sounds like? A great place to begin is in the Scriptures, where we can observe and read how God speaks to his people on the pages of the Bible. By reflecting on the way God has spoken in the past, we develop an ear for his voice in the present day.

Discernment is the spiritual gift and practice of attuning to God’s voice amidst the competing, counterfeit noise around us. This involves a lifetime of training in which we grow increasingly familiar in differentiating between God’s whisper from the deceiver’s lies, and our soul from our ego. An essential tool of spiritual discernment is community. Discernment in community looks like noticing and nurturing the presence of God’s activity with and for one another. We do this in three primary ways: Spiritual Friendship, Spiritual Direction, and Group Discernment.

In discernment, we must hold the truth that God wants us to hear his voice. Discernment is not a maze he puts us in or a puzzle for us to solve; it’s a gift from the Spirit, allowing us to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd who knows and loves us. The goal is not to reach a stage of discipleship in which we no longer need to discern what God is saying, but to instead increasingly practice hearing his voice and learn to trust it more and more.

Tonight, we are going to take some time to talk about what it means for us to discern God’s voice as we practice Prayer by way of the Examen.

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 own 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, put away our phones or other distractions, and then we’ll begin. I’ll guide us through the four prompts, giving us a few minutes between each, and then we’ll share together after we’re done.

Let’s pray, welcoming the Spirit and ask him to gather any of our scattered senses, and spend a few moments in silence before our first prompt.

First, let’s 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 brief 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, we are going to intentionally practice the Examen. Whether it’s every evening or a few times this week, set aside time near the end of your day to follow through the four prompts above. It could be 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. And, remember that repetition forms habit, so do your best to create a rhythm that makes the most sense for you.

The next time we meet, we’ll take time to hear about how practicing the Examen has helped us be more attuned to God’s voice in our everyday lives.

End in Prayer

Leader note: Close your time together in prayer. Pray that God would make your Community a people who recognize and obey his voice.

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

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

Take Communion

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

End in Prayer

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

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

Maundy Thursday Community Guide

Overview

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

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

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

Communion

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

Practice for Tonight

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

Supplies: Make sure you have the following items.

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

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

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

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

Reflection

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

Practice for the Week Ahead

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

Close in Prayer

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

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

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 7: Witness

Take Communion

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

End in Prayer

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

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

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 6: Sabbath

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

End in Prayer

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

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

Family Guide: Sabbath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parents: Work through these questions together:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sabbath Resources

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

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 5: Generosity

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

End in Prayer

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

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

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 4: Fasting

Take Communion

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

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

End in Prayer

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

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

Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 3: Solitude

Take Communion

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Family guide: SOlitude

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

End in Prayer

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

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Family Guide: Solitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parents: Work through these questions together:

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

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

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

Parents: Pause here for each person to share answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solitude resources

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Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 2: Scripture

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

Take Communion

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

Review the Last Practice

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

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

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

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

End in Prayer

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

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Unforced Rhythms of Grace, Pt. 1: Prayer

Take Communion

Read This Overview Aloud Together

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

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

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

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

Do This Practice Tonight

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read The Practice for the Week Ahead

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

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

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

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

End in Prayer

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