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Examen Week 6 – Story

Lent2023 , , , 0 Comments

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 or articulate this, sometimes we’re not sure about the story we are telling or want to tell, or about the stories we’ve heard about God. But God invites us to immerse ourselves in God’s story. The primary way we will be able to do that is as we read, explore and chew over the bible. Its the bible that shows us the story God is telling. One of my favourite ways I’ve heard the bible described is as ‘a unified story that points to Jesus.’

You also have a story that you are living out and telling to the world, it is a story of God and you and the people around you, it is a story where the hero is Jesus! You are one of the best demonstrations and explanations of what it looks like to follow Jesus in the present day.

How confident do you feel telling God’s story?

What is the story that your life tells?

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

Thank you Father that I have a story
and I’m part of your story.
Help me find my voice,
and share our stories well.
Amen.

Ponder

Do you find it easy to read, understand and tell the story the bible tells?
What might help you grow in confidence about knowing and sharing God’s story?

What are you most grateful for about scripture? What do you find hard or difficult?

When do you get to encounter the bible? How often do you find yourself reading, listening to or sharing God’s word?

How do you feel about the story your life is telling?

What is your story? Why is it that you are trying to follow Jesus?

What is God teaching you or doing in you at this time?

Try This

Are you intrigued about the idea of the bible as a ‘unified story that points to Jesus’? Its a phrase used by The Bible Project.

Their website is full of videos and tools to help make the bible more understandable and shareable. Why not spend some time exploring: bibleproject.com

If you are working through a book or some daily readings try telling someone else about it. If you aren’t try asking some Kairos friends what they use.

Can you describe why you are following Jesus? Take some time to write down your story. Thank God for it, and ask for a chance to share part of it with others.

Can you describe what God is showing you or teaching you right now? Can you think of a way to describe what you are practicing or trying this Lent? Again write a few thoughts down, thank God and ask for a chance to share.

Deliberately practice telling other people about things your are interested in or passionate about – often people are interested in people who have interests. This doesn’t have to be specifically faith related – just practice getting used to sharing the things that are important to you.

Practice asking others what they are interested in or thinking about. Often we miss out on sharing stories because we don’t ask people about theirs.

Do you use social media? Is there a way you could share a part of God’s story in a positive, generous, loving way.

Continue a ‘try this’ practice you found helpful last week.

I have friends who aren't yet Christains and can spot people of peace.

Examen Week 5 – Friends

Lent2023 , , , , 1 Comment

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 groups who think or act just like us, or to adapt our ways of speaking and thinking to match the people we spend life with. Jesus sends us out with a greeting of peace: we can make friends with people around us, and we have something distinctive to offer – our relationship with Him!

As we get to know a wider range of people we find that our own experience and understanding grows. We’ll be better able to practice curiosity and empathy, we’ll be less at risk of isolating ourselves and can learn how others make sense of and understand the world.

We’ll also start to spot people of peace – those people in whom God is already at work, who God is drawing to Godself. These people get to take a step closer to Jesus because they happen to know you!

Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’ Luke 10: 5

Lord I give my relationships to you.
Show me how to build friendships with people different to me,
train me to use empathy and curiosity to build links
so that I might learn from others,
and help them come closer to you.
Amen.

Ponder

Where do you get to spend time with people who are different to you?
More specifically where do you get to be with people who don’t share your faith?

How easy do you find it to be yourself in those places?
Do you ever find yourself getting nervous or defensive, or overly judgemental and offensive? How might you become someone who can offer peace?

Think about your friendships, who might God already be working in, drawing them to Godself?
Are there people who might be interested in an invitation to a coffee, to try out a Kairos Community or Gathering, or just to spend a bit more time with you?

Try This

Perhaps you have lots of friends who aren’t yet Christians, spend some time praying for them. Ask God to Awaken them to his love, bless them, Increase their curiosity and draw them want to explore more.

Ask God to show you if there are people in your life who are already curious or interested in faith. Pray for that person each day and ask God to show you how to encourage them as they explore.

Perhaps you don’t have many friends but you do already have a place where you get to meet people who don’t think or act or live as you do? Think of a way you could invest in friendships in that place. That could be deliberately staying there longer, finding the social spots in that area, or trying to get to know one person there better.

Perhaps you find it hard to identify places where you get to mix with people. Ask God to show you how to do that, think about places you do go that you know others will also inhabit. Talk through your thoughts with another Kairos person, or with your Kairos Community.

When you meet with others from Kairos, include some time to name and pray for people you each think might be ‘people of peace.’

Copy of Copy of Unforced Rhythms (2)

The Third Rhythm – Ask Questions and Tell Stories

Rhythms of GRACE, Uncategorized , , 0 Comments

We have been exploring how we can use the Rhythms of GRACE to continue to share with everyone around us the good news that Jesus loves them and wants to be part of their life. This week we are going to explore our third rhythm: Asking Questions and Telling Stories.

Recently a number of organisations have noticed that people are more open to the christian faith than perhaps we had previously thought. The Bible Society recently discovered that there are many people who are interested in finding out more about the bible. Tearfund discovered that in the first few weeks of lockdown many people were becoming interested in prayer.

As we practice Generous Blessing with those around us and Receive and Release God’s Spirit – praying for and with our family, friends, neighbours and colleagues – we will find that some are particularly interested in the way we live and want to know more. We will discover that there are people of peace around us in whom God is already working, drawing them closer to him.

Asking Questions and Telling Stories means making use of empathy and curiosity to build strong relationships with people. It is about being genuinely interested in people’s lives, wanting to learn from other opinions and undertand other people’s points of view. It means not rushing to tell people what we think about everything but taking time to build strong friendships.

It also means looking out for and confidently making the most of opportunities to share the spiritual side of our lives with the people in our lives. If Jesus is good news to you and makes an impact in your life then it is totally natural to share that with others.

1 Peter 3:15 says “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” We’re not always great at simply describing our relationship with God to others. Recently we have been learning how to tell our own stories in 6 words – explaining the difference God has made in our life. This is a great thing to practice so that you are ready to share why you follow Jesus when an opportunity arrises. (If you want to learn more about that watch the video Neil made recently).

Sometimes a person of peace may not want to hear your whole story but would like to know part of it. Being able to identify and share the difference God makes in your life right now – answers to prayer, peace in the middle of difficulty, a desire for justice and goodness – means you can share these things with others at the right time. One way to be ready for this is keep an ongoing list of ways God is making a difference in your life in a diary or journal.

We are finding ourselves in a new stage of lockdown. You may well have the opportunity to spend time with people who you have not seen for a while or with new people you have got to know over the last few weeks. As you connect with people make space to ask some questions – How are you? What has lockdown been like for you? What have you been thinking about? Really listen and pay attention to the answers people give you. If you don’t feel that you have many of these opportunities why not ask God to help you and lead you to some people who are already looking for him.

One of the best ways communities can practice this rhythm is by making space for people to ask questions and explore faith together. Could your community run Alpha online, the Story of God or create another opportunity for friends to join you and discover more about God?

How are you practicing this rhythm in lockdown? We’d love to know!

Ask Questions and Tell Stories

Recovering the Art of Conversation

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“One generation will tell your works to another.”  Psalm 145

We are continuing to look at our third Rhythm of GRACE – Asking questions and telling stories. John McGinley, who came up with the idea of a rhythm of grace (great book here) describes this rhythm as recovering “the art of a loving conversation”. We do seem to have found ourselves in a world where there are many voices, emails, text messages that are issuing instructions: what to do, what to buy, how to live. There are far fewer that invite us into a conversation. I don’t know about you, but I find I am far more drawn to questions and stories than I am to instructions. 

Asking questions and telling stories is about learning to use empathy and curiosity to have loving conversations with one another and with those around us; as we build these kind of conversations we will find we develop close friends and we will see those friends drawn to Jesus. A few weeks back I encouraged you to find ways to immerse yourself in God’s story.  As we continue to do that, and also look to make good use of questions and stories in all our relationships, we will find that our ability to share God’s love with those around us will increase. 

Let’s think for a moment about asking questions. How do we learn to practice loving curiosity? For a while our approach to discipleship has been based on questions.  We ask one another “What is God saying and what am I going to do about it?”  When we gather round the bible lots of us use the Discovery Bible Study Questions to increase the impact of God’s story on our lives.  When we think about our own growth, or walking on a journey with people of peace we ask “What next Lord?”  We know a bit about how to ask questions to develop disciples. 

Practicing this rhythm starts with taking that same approach into all of our relationships and thinking of good questions that might open up conversation and friendship. It also means not asking a question and then rushing on to give an answer, but taking the time to listen, to pay attention to people, to learn what they are really saying. 

A great way to take a next step with this rhythm is to start asking God questions about people in your life. Did you start praying for five people during Thy Kingdom Come?  Why don’t you continue to pray for them and ask God:

“What do you love about this person?” 
“What are you wanting to do in this person’s life?”
“How can I serve this person Lord?”

when-you-enter-a-house-first-say-peace-to-this-house-if-someone-who-promotes-peace-is-there-your-peace-will-rest-on-them

Peace to This House – By Chris Watson

MSC News , ,

I’m now a few weeks into my new role, leading MSC development at Kairos. It has obviously not been the start to the new role I’d expected. Nevertheless, it is great to be working with a team of other leaders who are committed to living out the Kairos vision and values. I have been struck several times by the encouragement we have received from others to press on with the vision of making disciples who make disciples in a community of communities. It has been good to see how we have done this in both our gathered and scattered modes of meeting over the last few weeks.

One of the ways in which we live out being disciples who make disciples is looking out for our people of peace; those who welcome us, appear willing to share life with us and are open to the Kingdom. These are the people that Jesus encouraged His disciples to spend time with. When Jesus sends his disciples out to the surrounding towns, part of his instructions are, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.”( Luke 10:5-7). In the same way Jesus is willing to let people go who are not ready to hear what he has to say or to follow him. This is clear in the way in which Jesus allows the rich young ruler to walk away. (Mark 10:17-27).

We all have connections with different people, sometimes we find it difficult to know which of these are our people of peace and to move on from natural to spiritual conversations. However, doing this will often help us to discover if someone is in fact a person of peace. A couple of Sundays back we saw our Christmas publicity for the first time – the cards look fabulous if you haven’t seen one yet, there are plenty at the resource base so do grab some. They are a way to invite people into our Christmas activities, but I think they can also be used to help us to move our conversations on from the natural to spiritual level. I know this is how we plan to use them within the context of LINKS and I would encourage you to do the same in your context. I’m praying for some significant conversations over the next few weeks that enable us to identify our people of peace and encourage them to make steps into a discipleship journey.

DO SOmething!

How to help your People of Peace grow

MSC News , ,

By Ben

You’ve probably heard us talk about “People of Peace.”  People who like you, want to hang out with you and are open to and interested in learning how to follow Jesus from you.   Jesus talks about them in Luke 10.

Hopefully you have a person of peace – someone you can identify who is responding to you in that way.

How do you help them grow in their discipleship?  There are some simple principles – pray for them, look for ways to bless them, invite them to the things that your MSC is doing, and make the most of opportunities to share stories of what God is doing in your life.  Sometimes you do need a bit more of a plan though.  Here is a great little story from Clive and Ruth about what they did:

“A friend of ours had said she wanted to find out more about the Christian faith.  We thought that Alphawould be great since it provides solid teaching combined with plenty of space for questions and discussion.

Kairos wasn’t scheduled to run an Alpha course in the near future, so we decided to run it at home.  In practice, you can download all the talks and guides from the Alpha website.

 Running it at home made it easier to fit in with family schedules and meant we could easily rearrange so our friend didn’t miss out.  Holding it in our home gave it a more informal atmosphere and we able to build a deeper understanding with our friend than would have been the case in a larger group.  Conversely, it did mean that the dynamic of being part of a group was missing.  Also the sessions on the Holy Spirit were run over a few weeks and so didn’t have the same intensity as an away day.

Overall, it was a really good time and it was so encouraging to see our friend’s faith grow and her understanding develop of who God is and what it means to be a disciple of Christ.  The recent start of Discovery Bible Studies with our friend has been a natural progression.”

You don’t have to do Alpha (although it is brilliant and increasingly easy to use with their new films).  Some people in Ohana tried inviting some friends along to a Parenting Course that has just finished; this built stronger relationships and has left people wanting to join in with the main activity of the MSC.  I know some communities made plans on Saturday to try out the Storyformed Way.

Remember:  the harvest is plentiful!  This isn’t about finding the right thing its about doing something and trusting that God will bless it and use it – he’s even more keen than you are that your friends get to know him!

Want to hear some more about the person God is calling you to reach?  Watch this great video from Caesar Kalinowski.

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