As a church we are going on a Lent journey together, asking God to ‘investigate our lives’ Psalm 139.
At Kairos we have been developing 5 journey statements that might sum up the first stages of following Jesus. They are not the last word on being a disciple, but they each mark a step on the journey. They are not at the foot of the mountain (that is simply saying yes, I’ll follow you) nor are they at the top. Think of them as maps for the route – somewhere after setting off from basecamp.
We’ve produced 2 versions of these statements, one with ‘I’ and another with ‘we’. That’s another tension. We are called to be a body, to journey with each other. And Jesus calls us each individually.
The journey statements are:
- I encounter God’s presence in prayer and worship
- I am in a Kairos community that grows my faith
- I experience fruitfulness on my frontlines
- I have friends who aren’t yet Christians and can spot people of peace
- I am able to share God’s story and my story.
This Lent I invite you to join me using these statements to examine our lives.
Let’s hold them up to ourselves and see how we’re doing on this journey. What have we learnt so far as we’ve followed Jesus? What might God be asking us to learn next? We’ll look at one of these each week.
We’ve called this journey ‘examen’.
The examen is an ancient Christian practice of looking over your life by asking questions. It’s been developed and practiced in many forms. One of my favourite comes from the beautiful little book “Sleeping with Bread” in which the examen is distilled into 3 simple questions:
- What am I most grateful for?
- What am I least grateful for?
- What can I learn from these things?
On our journey we’ll ask many questions, but keep returning to those three.
Each week there’ll be some different things you are invited to try.
Don’t try and do them all, but maybe see if there are one or two you might like to give a go. As Lent goes on you might find yourself enjoying one or two new practices and wanting to stick with them and trying to build a habit. Alternatively you might like to try a couple of different things each week. Both approaches are completely fine, as long as you don’t over-burden yourself with things you feel you ought to do!
Click on the summaries below to read each week’s post. We have also made a booklet for weeks 1 and 2, to use on your own, in a triplet or with a larger group. You can download that here (link loads a pdf).
Walking with Jesus towards the cross
As we move towards the end of Lent we get closer to Easter and walk with Jesus through the last few days of his life as he journeyed to the cross and then the empty grave. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him […]
Examen Week 6 – Story
I am able to share God’s story and my story. Your story is caught up in God’s great story of creation, fall, redemption and new creation. Your story has always been part of God’s story and with each step you take following Jesus the stories become more intertwined. Sometimes we find it hard to understand […]
Examen Week 5 – Friends
I have friends who aren’t yet Christians and can spot people of peace. We are not called to keep ourselves to ourselves or to stay within our own little bubbles. Just like his followers in the New Testament, Jesus sends us out into our everyday lives. It can be very easy to either stick with […]
Examen week 4 – fruitfulness
I experience fruitfulness on my frontlines. God invites us to experience fruitfulness in the places where we are planted. We have started to use LICC’s language of frontlines – a place where we are often, where we get to know people around us and are involved in some sort of activity or work. A frontline […]
Examen Week 3 – Community
I am in a Kairos Community the grows my faith. This week in our Lent Examen journey our focus is Community. As someone created in God’s image you are created for relationships. God is love, so you are made to love and to be loved. Our call as a church focusses on three things, loving […]
Examen – Week 2: Prayer and Worship
I encounter God’s presence in prayer and worship You are created in God’s image to know relationship with God. All people are. In Genesis we see how God would walk with humans in the cool of the day. You are amazing, and you are lacking, you need God’s presence. Prayer and worship are ways in […]
Examen – Week 1: Ash Wednesday
There is a tension at the heart of Lent that helps us on our spiritual journey. On the one hand we start with Ash Wednesday. We might mark ourselves with a cross and we ask God to forgive us. We accept that we are broken, fallen and in need of rescuing. Then we begin to […]