As lockdown eases, we have the opportunity to ask, as a church, what the next step of our life together might look like.
We're inviting everyone to join as as we pray and seek God together, reflecting on the experience of the last few months and listening to God for his guidance for the future.
Please see below for some of the resources we'll be using throughout this process. We'll be adding to this page regularly, so keep checking back for more.
Pause...
Carl Smethurst from the SWBA has made this short video reflecting on the process of coming out of a crisis.
He points out that there are three stages to any crisis:
- Response
- Recovery
- Reconstruction
The danger is that we rush to reconstruct without giving space for recovery, or to consider what the next step might look like.
Do watch the video and use it to help with your own prayers and reflection.
Five Values
During our Sunday services we're going to be exploring some of the ways we can think about the future using Baptist Together's five values.
The values are:
- Being a Spirit led community
- Feeling like a team (celebrating diversity)
- Embracing adventure
- Inspiring others
- Hungering for God's kingdom
You can see the messages associated with these each week below.
Spirit Led Community
Feel Like a Team
Embracing Adventure
Inspiring Others
God’s Kingdom
Praying Together
On Sunday 9th August we devoted some of our online service to praying through the five values together. We'd love it if people could keep praying at home. The prayer points we shared are available below.
- Pray that God would speak to us and lead us
- Pray for a commitment to hearing God’s voice (rather than our own preferences)
- Pray for words, visions and prophecies, and wisdom in discerning when he is speaking
- Give thanks for the growing diversity of our church, and pray that those on the margins would be drawn further in
- Pray for a greater sense of unity and purpose
- Pray that people would discover and be empowered to use the gifts God has given them
- Pray that we would have boldness and confidence in God as we face the challenges before us
- Pray that our eyes would be open to look for radical ways to serve him
- Pray that we would realise that our lives are not our own, and be able to place them in his hands
- Pray that God would instil in us a renewed desire to grow as disciples of Christ
- Pray for wisdom and openness in thinking about how we can structure church life to enable and encourage discipleship for all
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would speak and work through us to inspire others to begin their own journey of discipleship
- Pray for a deeper hunger for God’s kingdom in our church
- Pray that our eyes would be opened to God’s kingdom as it appears, and the different ways God is working, even outside church life
- Pray that God’s Spirit would enable us to work to see the kingdom come practically in our community