A Vision for Renewal: Rooted for Renewal (01.19.20)
Facilitator’s Note: Encourage your CG to bring journals/writing material each week, as we sometimes encourage journaling, such as in this week’s practice guide.
Remembrance & Thanksgiving
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, ask someone to open the gathering time with prayer.
Reflecting on Sunday’s Scripture
Read Psalm 1:1-5 and Jeremiah 29:4-7 and discuss:
- What do these passages reveal about the character of God, His hopes for His people, and for the world?
- What might it look like for you to be rooted and “seek the peace and prosperity” of our city?
Practice: Envisioning Renewal
Together as a group, take 7-10 minutes to prayerfully reflect on what renewal means to you. Start on a personal level, then move outward to your close relationships, our church, your work, and society broadly. Use the following prompts to focus on what the Lord might be bringing to mind for you. Use the initial time to journal or sit quietly and pray.
Prompts to ask God during silent prayer:
- Lord, how do you want to root and renew my heart? In what areas of my life do you want to turn over new soil?
- God, what are some dreams or hopes that you have placed on my heart? Are there any dreams you want to remind me of that I may have forgotten?
- How do you want to use me and my dreams for renewal in my spheres of influence?
Come back together as a large group (or break into 2s and 3s), and take turns sharing dreams, hopes, or goals you believe God is reminding you of.
- Share about what came up during prayer.
- If dreaming or hoping was difficult for you, what seems to be getting in the way? Open up to the encouragement of others in the group.
- In the ways do you see gaps between the renewal God is calling you into and how you’re currently living? Feel free to confess and seek help from your group.
- Listen to one another, pray for one another, and affirm/build one another up through prayer. Praise God for giving the group’s dreams for renewal.
Closing Intercession
Have one person close in prayer or use the Prayers of the People model below:
With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord, saying “Lord, have mercy.”
For the peace from above, for the loving-kindness of God, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the Holy Church of God, and for the unity of all peoples, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For our church leaders, and for all the clergy and people, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For our president, for the leaders of the nations, and for all in authority, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For our city of San Francisco, and every other city and community, and for those who live in them, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For seasonable weather, and for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the good earth which God has given us, and for the wisdom and will to conserve it, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For those who travel on land, on water, or in the air, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who remember and care for them, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, and degradation, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
For the absolution and remission of our sins and offenses, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
That we may end our lives in faith and hope, without suffering and without reproach, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord, have mercy.
Defend us, deliver us, and in thy compassion protect us, O Lord, by thy grace.
Lord, have mercy.