Thursday, March 26, 2009

discipling: update on Lifeshapes

It was the 6th week of Lifeshapes (an 8 week discipling course we’re trying at Opawa) last night. The topic was how to pray. Which is not a new question, but asked by Jesus disciples in the Gospels. Jesus response to “How do we pray” was to offer the Lords Prayer. So that makes a great place to explore how to pray.

We started the evening sharing what makes prayer a challenge and what makes it a joy. We had some teaching about the Lords Prayer, followed by three practical suggestions of ways to use the Lords Prayer to pray. We then had 10 minutes to “try” before a final feedback – what was helpful/unhelpful. The homework was set: try praying the Lords Prayer daily. Until we gather again next week.

And after the evening ended, members of the group remained. They gathered around the Lords Prayer (projected on the screen) and just kept talking. About what it means, how it challenges us, shapes us, relates to our life. It was great to sit and watch and be part of.

This is the power of the block course teaching we’ve been slowly developing at Opawa over the last 2 years. As a church we want people to grow, yet we are a multi-congregational church, with people old in faith and new in faith. So amid that diversity, we’ve employed a number of strategies to encourage next steps in growth. One is block course Wednesday evening teaching during Term time. And last nite was fruit of that. People from different congregations, staying on, to talk about how praying the Bible can form them spiritually.

Posted by steve at 11:10 AM

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