Resources
In the coming season this page will be populated with resources to support Communities
Previous Seasons Resources
As you prepare to lead space for your community please remember the simple preparation process is Listen and Respond. Take time to ask God for ideas, insights, and direction, then simply take a risk and try to obey. The ideas provided below are intended to offer guidance and support, they certainly do not need to all be emphasized every week. They serve as bumpers for the core New Testament values like fellowship, adoration, and teaching (remember “FAT”). Please don’t rely on them too heavily and miss the chance to grow in intimacy with God and lean into your own unique gifts and personality. The real weight of leadership is not in preparation but in facilitation. How do we draw out the spiritual gifts in the group of people gathered? How do we push people to engage what God is stirring in them and engage their own story? This is the role of leadership in the gathering space.
[F]ellowship
This value protects the horizontal bonds of connection, belonging, and love that is to be exemplified within the body of Christ. Without the building of real relationships the substance of the community is lost and we will remain stuck in immaturity.
Eat: Break bread, share food, serve and give toward one another in living rooms and around tables.
Engage: Actively dig into one another’s stories, lives, needs, and dreams (past, present, and future). Practice pastoral and communication skills like (1) Awareness, (2) Curiosity, and (3) Kindness (Check out Ben’s great teaching on these postures on Apple or Spotify).
[A]doration
This value protects the foundational orienting space of vertical aligning with who God is and who He created us to be. It may be somber and quiet or loud and joyful, either way, we as the body of Christ return to trust and Lordship with Jesus together.
Prayer: There are many different types and forms of prayer, but the goal is to grow in familiarity with being led by the Holy Spirit. Expressions may vary from quieter and individual spaces or group prayer that pushes people outside their comforts.
Worship: As with prayer there are many different ways to “worship.” For millennia music has been a primary means for this, but it can come through other forms of proclamation like gratitude, testimony, declaring scriptures, etc.
[T]eaCHING
This value emphasizes the ongoing process of humility and learning that we are continually in as followers of Jesus. Jesus is Lord, Messiah, and King, but he came to us first and foremost as our Rabbi and teacher. Who we are and what we do is continually shaped by a myriad of forces, many of which go unreflected upon. We aim to saturate our minds with the prophetic biblical imagination that Jesus had, that we may be equipped to navigate our culture and lives with wisdom and discernment.
Read: Often this looks like opening up a portion of Scripture (or it could be someone sharing teaching or reading a different source) to dive deeper into the God Story.
Dialogue: While a person will be leading and facilitating (like in worship) we try to emphasize the role of everyone’s participation in processing and engaging the text. The aim is to have group discernment together to arrive at a more clarified understanding from the group's diversity of people. This could have parts of personal reflection, small group discussion, or open discussion with everyone.