A Vision for Renewal: Renewal (For the Culture) (01.13.20)
Facilitator’s Note: Welcome back to a new year! As this might be your first time back in CG for the year, prioritize reconnecting and seeking God’s blessing for you group.
Opening Prayer & Remembrance:
After greeting everyone, open the meeting time with 3 minutes of silence to help you focus on interaction with God and one another. At the end, recite the Prayer of St. Francis aloud together:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master, grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen.
Reflecting on Sunday’s Scripture
Read Genesis 1:26-31 and discuss:
- Who is God revealed to be in these Scriptures? How does this influence what it means to be “made in the image of God?”
- According to this passage, what are humans intended to do in the world? What are the implications of this for our daily lives?
Practice: Envisioning Renewal
Together as a group, seek the Lord’s renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2) by dreaming out loud about a renewed world.
- Pause for 2-3 minutes of silence and ask the Holy Spirit to fill and inspire your group about God’s vision for renewal. Ask God: What hopes do you have for the renewal of our city? Take special note of any hopes that surprise you and that you feel you wouldn’t have come up with on your own.
- Take turns sharing 1-2 hopes you believe God has for the renewal of our city.
- Praying aloud together, confessing the gaps between our current reality and a renewed world. Ask for God’s forgiveness and help in what is broken in our world.
- Openly discuss as a group what, if anything, God might be calling your group to intervene in and intercede for. Pray for that and consider getting strategic about taking action.
Closing Intercession
End by praying the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil,
For thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory
Forever and ever.
Amen.