Community: Week 2 (Oct 17-22)
Community Practice: Week 2 | Week of October 17-23
Communities @ Grace
Goal for Week 2: The goal for Week 2 is to become increasingly familiar with Community life by sharing a meal together and working through a Practice together. Further, the goal is to prepare the group by making plans for their Community going forward.
Food and Hosting:
Host: By the end of week 1, a place to meet ought to have been established. Be sure to contact anyone who missed the first week, and confirm they have date, time, location, and any other needed details for week 2.
Food: The meal is a potluck in which participants will bring most of the food. Ideally, whoever is hosting Community at their home is responsible to provide plates, cutlery, and drinks.
Overview of the Night:
6:15 - 6:30 : Arrive + Set Out Food
6:30 - 7:00 : Welcome, Pray, Eat, + Mingle
7:00 - 7:15 : Group Introductions (again)
7:15 - 7:25 : Guided Discussion - Scheduling
7:25 - 8:10 : Prayer Practice
8:10 - 8:20 : Next Steps
8:20 - 8:30 : Pray for One Another + Close
6:15 - 6:30 : Arrive + Set Out Food
6:30 - 7:00 : Welcome, Pray, Eat, + Mingle
Give a few minutes for people to settle in. The leader can open the night by welcoming the group and gathering them together to prepare for dinner.
Gather everyone’s attention and spend a couple minutes reading off from your list of names of the people who will be in that Community.
Encourage people to make note of who is there to get to know one another as they eat. (ex. Maybe sit by someone different than you did last week!)
7:00 - 7:15 : Group Introductions
Gather together and take a few minutes for everyone to re-introduce themselves, ideally going around in a circle.
During this time, make note of who has attended.
7:15 - 7:25 : Guided Discussion - Scheduling
Lead your group through the following discussion:
If there isn’t some sort of plan for our nights together, nothing will get done. For this reason, it is helpful for Communities to have a tentative schedule.
There is no exact science to scheduling a typical night with your Community, but a hypothetical 2-hour schedule could look like:
6:15 - 6:30: Arrive. IIf we’re going to make the most of the night, we have to show up on time.
6:30 - 7:10: Gathering begins. Serve food. Eat. Mingle. Hang out. Our goal is to have food ready and prepared for us all to enjoy by 6:30.
- To open your meal together, you can invite someone to open the time together with a simple prayer of thanksgiving.
- Then, while you eat together, catch up and learn what’s going on in each other’s lives. Consider a guided conversation:
Highs & Lows of the week
What is something Jesus is teaching you right now?
7:10 - 8:10: Weekly Practice.
- Work through the weekly Practice together. This includes debriefing your individual Practice from the previous week, sharing thoughts about the Practice, doing a Practice together, and then making plans to try the new Practice on your own in the week ahead.
- Follow the practices that are given. This can take anywhere from 45 mins to an hour.8:10 - 8:30: Prayer
- Either as a whole group, or in smaller groups of guys and girls,
spend some time praying together and for one another.
- If the host is cool with it, people can hang out longer, but people need to be able to count on the night wrapping up at a consistent time.
7:25 - 8:10 : Prayer Practice
Intro the Prayer Practice by saying something like:
“Tonight’s practice is meant to be a stand-alone, an example of what going through a Practice could look like as a Community. Going forward, your Community will not continue in a Prayer series, but rather focus on Community & Healthy Relationships.
Proceed to lead the group through the Prayer Practice, making sure to leave ample time to do the hands-on Practice together.
Prayer Practice
Note: Again, this is a stand-alone, a “test-drive” as Jay would say for how we as a Community would use this segmented time each week around a Practice, following dinner.
Begin by Reading This Overview (5 minutes)
Let’s be honest, for most of us, prayer is a weak point in our apprenticeship to Jesus. Most of us don’t really enjoy prayer. We feel bad, even guilty, about how little we pray. When we finally do make time to pray, we often don’t know what to say. Or we’re so distracted we can’t focus.
Yet for Jesus, prayer was central to life with God. Most people define prayer as simply, “Talking with God.” Prayer is a back and forth conversation that comes out of a depth of relationship. But at an even more basic level, prayer is a junk drawer word for all of our relationship to the Father.
That’s why prayer was such a huge part of Jesus’ life. We read he, “often withdrew into lonely places and prayed.” (Luke 5v16) And for Jesus, prayer wasn’t a drag or a duty. He seems to genuinely enjoy his Father’s company. I think that’s why the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray.” (Luke 11v1) Jesus’ answer was “the Lord’s prayer,” which wasn’t a liturgy to recite, as much as a template to follow when you pray.
Our practice of prayer will start there. This week, we’ll just set up a time and place to pray, do a little breathing prayer to center our mind and body, and pray through the Lord’s prayer. It’s an easy exercise that you can do in two minutes, or over two hours. The main point this week is just to get into the rhythm of daily prayer.
Do This Practice as a Community Right Now: (10-30 minutes)
1. Put away your phones or any other distractions, and get into a comfortable, but alert position.
2. (Leader) Invite the Holy Spirit to come…
3. Pray through the Lord’s prayer, like this…
“Our Father…”
Take a moment and think about the idea of God as your Father, with good intentions toward you. If you want, imagine God in your mind’s eye. Picture his face. Make eye contact with him.
“In heaven…”
Take a moment to think about the idea that God is all around you. As you breathe in and out, imagine yourself breathing in and out more of the Holy Spirit.
“Hallowed by your name…”
Spend a few minutes just sitting with the Father in joyful, grateful, worship. You might want to sit in silence for a few moments. Or sing a chorus. Or rattle off a list of things you’re grateful for. Or praise God with specific things you love about him.
If you are in a group, encourage people to make their expressions of praise and gratitude out loud, one at a time. (E.g. “Father, thank you for your kindness.” “Father, thank you for loving me.”)
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…”
Spend a few minutes asking for God’s will to be done in your city/church/community/life.
Think of specific things to pray for.
One at a time, spend time as a group verbally giving to God specific things in your life that you’re wrestling with control over. A simple prayer of, “Your will be done in ______," is a great place to start.
“Give us each day our daily bread…”
Spend a few minutes praying for specific needs and wants in your life or that of your community (this is a great time to pray through your “prayer cards”!).
This is also a great time to pray over specific people in the community who need something: a job, healing, wisdom to make a decision, etc. Get them in the middle of the room and pray over them.
If you are in a group, consider splitting into groups of 2-3 and having each person share one area of need in their life. After each person has shared, pray for one another, asking God to meet that need.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors…”
Spend a few minutes in quiet asking God for forgiveness for specific areas in your life, and releasing others to forgiveness.
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Spend a few minutes praying against temptation (the word can also be translated trouble) in your life.
Pray against specific sins….
Pray against any kind of evil - spiritual evil (demonic), human evil, natural evil, etc.
Pray against bad things in your life or community, and for God’s blessing - the divine flow of good things into your your life and community.
4. (Leader) Close in a prayer of gratitude to the Father for hearing you.
Read Over This Coming Week’s Practice (10 minutes)
Basically, this week’s practice is just to do the exact same thing as above, but by yourself. It’s that easy.
You can do this in two minutes or over two hours - it’s up to you. Go as fast or slow as you want.
Before you do it, here’s two quick exercise options to get started:
Exercise Option 1: (10 minutes)
Get out your calendar or journal, and set a time and place to pray that is quiet and distraction free. For most, the mornings are a good time. But you might prefer an afternoon walk or evening
Set a modest goal - daily is ideal, but if that’s too much, shoot for three times a week, for 10-15 minutes, or something that feels a little challenging, but doable.
Fill in 1-3 prayer cards. At the top put the name or subject, then write out a few bullet points of Scriptures, dreams, or requests you have. Remember, be specific!
Exercise Option 2: (2-10 minutes)
If you have a hard time with distraction, here’s a little breathing exercise you can begin with, before you start into the Lord’s prayer:
Take long, deep, slow breaths (if you want, count 4 seconds in, 4 seconds wait, 4 seconds out, repeat). Inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth.
Start to pay attention to your breathing. Just “watch” your breath go in and out.
Release the constant chatter in your mind. Let each thought go as quickly as it comes, and just focus on your breathing.
Your mind will seize this opportunity to run wild with thoughts, feelings, memories, to do’s, and all manner of distractions. That’s okay. Don’t judge yourself, feel bad, give up, or worry. When you notice your mind start to wander, just recenter with a quick prayer word, like, “Father…” or “Jesus, have mercy” or “Holy Spirit,” and come back to your breathing.
In the beginning, just 1-2 minutes of this is a huge win, and 10 minutes is a home run. When you feel like you’re ready, move from breathing to praying.
Work Through These Discussion Questions (10 minutes)
Any thoughts, creative ideas, or feedback on this coming week’s practice?
How do you normally pray? What creative ideas would you add to this practice from your own prayer life?
What does it normally feel like when you spend time just “being” with God?
8:10 - 8:20 : Next Steps
Preface by saying: to make this work, it will take sacrifice. We want to do what is best for the majority of the Community.
Weekly Meal Details:
What are we eating next week?
Who is bringing what?
Can someone be Meal coordinator?
Ongoing Communication: Begin by seeing if anyone wants to take ownership of Communication going forward. Then ask the following:
What is your preferred means of Communication?
(Example options: texting, group email, GroupMe phone app, etc.)
Agenda for the next few weeks: In the coming week, your leader (or chosen communication person) will receive an email with practices for the weeks ahead.
Final questions: Create space for follow up questions where needed. Make yourself available for questions and utilize the Communities @ Grace Leadership Team as a resource.
8:20 - 8:30 : Pray for One Another + Close
Set aside at least 10 minutes at the end for prayer. Invite people to share personal prayer requests. Either the leader can pray for these, or ask if anyone would like to pray for an individual request shared.