Examen – Lent 2023

1

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).

2

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close