On Sunday Jen about the fourth of our journey statements: ‘I have friends who aren’t yet Christians and can spot people of peace.’
The reading was Luke 9: 1-5 + 10: 1-7. You can download the talk here or listen on the player below.
Read more about friendship here.
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.’
On Sunday 5th March Paul Dowling spoke on the third of our Journey Statements: I experience fruitfulness on my frontlines. The reading was John 15: 1-17. You can download the talk here or listen on the player below.
To explore our Journey Statements a bit more have a look at our Lent Examen Journey.
On Sunday 19th February Chris Watson spoke on the second of our Journey Statements: I am in a Kairos Community the grows my faith. The reading was Acts 2:42-end. You can download the talk here. Or listen on the player below.
On Sunday 18th September Ben shared a word for this new season we find ourselves in. Pay attention to foundations!
Ben was speaking from Matthew 7: 24-29.
You can download the talk here or listen on the player below.
We are thinking about how we might use the Rhythms of GRACE to strengthen our Outward relationships as households and communities during this time of lockdown, distancing and anxiety. Today we are going to think about the first rhythm: Generous Blessing.
Generously bless
“Through you all nations will be blessed” Genesis 22:18
We are a people who are called to be a blessing. We seek to do this in practical and spiritual ways embracing generosity as a way of life. Encounters with Jesus were often joyful events full of blessing, the wedding at Cana, the miraculous catch of fish, the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus taught his followers to use what they had, even if it was only a little, and expect God to increase it.
This is an area where we are already strong! There has been lots of blessing and generosity shown already over the last few weeks. The responses to Blaze’s big climb and our call to pray about provision show that many of us are committed to financial generosity – thank you!
God is already stirring our generosity, how can we respond more fully?
Here are a few thoughts of what blessing could look like at this time.
Small steps go a long way! A generous blessing doesn’t have to be a grand gesture. A phone call, a note through the door, a batch of cookies or a text that says I’m thinking of you can be very powerful, so keep going with the small steps.
In times of grief we choose to bless. Many of us are coping with bereavement and loss, at a time like this blessing becomes even more important, but might look a bit different. Choosing to stay in touch with and walk alongside one another, and our friends and neighbours in times of mourning is a very valuable way of practicing generosity.
Without justice there can’t be generosity. A belief in God’s desire to bless goes hand-in-hand with God’s justice. It’s been so good to see Blaze challenge us to remember the poorest in our world. Practicing blessing could look like standing up for those less privileged than us, in our own country and around the world.
Prayer is blessing. Our first rhythm connects easily with our second: Receive and Release God’s Presence. Bringing some people in your neighbourhood or family before God in prayer and asking that he would bless them is powerful. I remember the last time we dug into this rhythm and prayed for God’s blessing on our friends and neighbours. We began hearing stories of friends we were praying for getting new jobs, discovering provision and becoming open to the idea that God loves them – fantastic! I write names of people in the back of one of my journals and regularly pray God’s blessing over them.
Break out of the blessing bubbles. It can be easy to feel like we are being generous when in fact our blessing focusses mainly on our friends or people we know will bless us back. God calls us to bless all people! That means being thoughtful about finding ways to bless people who aren’t ‘just like us’ or might not immediately respond with gratitude. Ask God: who might I miss that you are calling me to practice Generous Blessing with?
How are you already practicing generosity and blessing?
Are there ways that God is calling you to embrace these practices more?
As a church we aim to live as disciples of Jesus with healthy UP, IN and OUT relationships. We connect UP with God in worship and prayer, IN with each other as communities of disciples and OUT into the world in love, mission and evangelism.
As we all get used to the new patterns of life that we have developed at this time of crisis, a lot of us seem to be thinking about those OUT relationships. We are seeing that this moment has offered us exciting opportunities for sharing God’s love with friends and neighbours, but we are also noticing that we’re having to be more deliberate and creative about how we practice that OUT in ways that work for now.
The rhythms of GRACE are a set of practices that we have been using over the last couple of years to strengthen all our relationships and develop habits of mission together as households and communities. This is a good time to look at them again and ask how we might practice GRACE in these moments.
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
The acronym GRACE reminds us that all things, including life together, are gifts of God. These rhythms are not intended as a strait jacket, to force all of us to be the same. Rather see them as tools to pick up, play with and put into practice. Let them guide you closer to God and further in love and mission. You needn’t force yourself to put them all into practice at once, but rather keep them as a guide asking God and each other: “How do we already do this? What could do with a bit more focus right now? What could we do next?” They are based on some of the practices we see Jesus modelling and training his disciples to adopt.
To remind you, the rhythm is based on 5 practices:
Generous Blessing – demonstrating God’s love by blessing those around us practically and spiritually.
Receive and Release God’s presence – being filled with God’s Holy Spirit ourselves and sharing that with others through prayer and worship.
Ask Questions and Tell Stories – Using empathy and curiosity to build relationships and making the most of every opportunity to share our stories of knowing Jesus.
Celebrate Often – Saying thank you for what God is doing, partying regularly and well (like Jesus) and celebrating even small steps forward.
Eat Together – Gathering with friends, neighbours and new guests around food and God’s story.
Over the next few weeks we are going to explore each of these rhythms of GRACE and think about how we can use them well to strengthen our outward relationships during lockdown.
For now I’d like you to think about each of these practices and ask…
* What is already working well in my life?
* Is there something I have stopped that I could take up again?
* Is this an opportunity to try something new?
Next – we’ll look at the first rhythm: Generous Blessing!
Last term we spent a lot of time training. Kairos Community leaders gathered together to listen, talk and plan. Now is the time for us all to begin again to get on with the work God has called us to of loving God and building community.
Some of you have a clear idea of the community you would like to lead to be part of, others are not so sure and will need some time to see what develops and decide what they want to join. Both approaches are fine and we need to go at the timescale God has given us.
Whether you are raring to go with a Kairos Community or are still feeling hesitant I want to encourage you to learn to liveas community as well as joina Kairos Community. For a number of years we have organised ourselves around principles of discipleship and mission. I think we have come to see more recently that in order to learn and grow we also need practices.
Development usually comes from small steps and simple practices that when repeated and accumulated lead to big change. In Matthew 11 Jesus encourages his followers to take on his yoke. In John 14 he describes himself as a way. He invites his disciples to imitate his actions as well as believe his words. Again and again throughout history movements that have developed rules, rhythms and practices have found their ability to befriend God and join in with His work has been strengthened.
At the Base Camp weekend I introduced to our leaders the rhythm of GRACE. 5 sets of practices that will build up our muscles and enable us to live in Jesus’ way as individuals, in our households and as Kairos Communities. These 5 practices are:
Generously Bless– regularly look for other people we can serve, love and show God’s goodness to in generous ways.
Receive and Release– regularly let ourselves receive God’s presence with us as we worship and pray, then share that with those around us.
Ask questions and tell stories– practice curiosity and empathy in a way that helps build connections with people and let our lives be formed and speak of God’s great story.
Celebrate– let joyful celebration, parties and thanksgiving often happen around us.
Eat Together– welcome friends, neighbours and strangers to table with us and share food together.
I’ll be writing about each of these in my emails over the next few weeks and encourage each of us to take some steps and try some experiments that develop these practices in our lives. They are a rhythm of GRACE, part of God’s gift to us to enable us to more fully live as his followers.
Which part of this rhythm already intrigues, encourages or challenges you? Why not start some conversation with God and those you share life with about how you could develop practices in that area?
The idea of a rhythm of GRACE comes from John McGinley’s brilliant book: Mission Shaped Grace
During October and November a number of us are gatherings at the Kairos Base for Base Camp: 6 weeks to go other some of our core principles and practices. If you have missed a week or want to listen again there’ll all be posted here:
In this first session we talked about our story as a church. Did you know our history goes back around 200 years and includes 4 different buildings as well as a long history of mission in Harrogate?
Session 2: Love God – Covenant
We are called to love God and orientate our lives around him. In this session Chris opens up the idea of Covenant and why we prioritise relationship with the God who loves us.
Loving God and becoming his friend leads us to become interested in the things he is interested in so we find ourselves getting drawn into his kingdom. In this session Helen unpacks what it means to be a friend of God with kingdomresponsibility.
This session comes with homework! This week spend some time (minimum 10 mins) in a place you regularly frequent (pub, workplace, home, community centre, school etc.) in conversation with God. Ask the Holy Spirit “What does your kingdom look like in this place?” Make a note of any thoughts, words, or feelings that you notice.
As we learn to relate to God as both Father and King we find ourselves drawn towards Jesus’ way of living building relationships in three directions through worship, community and mission. In this session we ask “What next Lord?” as we seek to go further with those relationships.
The recording features the start of a video, you can watch the whole thing clicking on the image below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnNJkIu3FUw
Session 5: Jesus’ Followers’ Ways
We go deeper into exploring how Jesus followers build relationships with those around them and participate in God’s mission by noticing the people around them who are leaning in to relationship with them.
Session 6: Introducing Kairos Communities
In our final Thursday session we look at the lost idea of Oikos and the ways in which we might build community together.
1 Thessalonians 1: 1 – 10
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