Practicing The Way - Session 08
December 16, 2024

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Session 8 — Life Together

PREPARATION:

01 Share about your process of creating a Rule of Life. What worked for you?


02 What feelings came up for you as you worked through this exercise?


03 What do you anticipate will be the most life-giving and transformative practice you came up with?

SESSION PLAN

Gather:
Pray
Video: [CLICK HERE] (21 minutes)

Pause for Discussion:
01 Of the three relational characteristics named (depth, vulnerability, and commitment to transformation), which is the hardest for you?


02 Reflect on your life and relationships, who has been or could be a “soul friend” to you on this spiritual formation journey?


03 What has Jesus done in your life over the last eight weeks during our time together?


04 What’s the next step in your spiritual journey, your “next right thing”?

Continue Video: Practice: Identify your intentional community and begin to meet (6 minutes)

Continue the Conversation:
01 What comes up when you consider meeting in an intentional community?


02 What natural pathways exist in your life for this, whether within your church or other spaces?


03 As you examine your own desires, what do you envision for your time? Engaging in a practice? Reading a book? Taking a BibleProject class? Meeting for a meal or prayer? Or something else?

Pray

PERSONAL REFLECTION/JOURNAL EXERCISE:

01 As you think back over this course, what is sticking with you most?


02 Take a moment to remember how you felt when you first started this course. What has changed in how you feel or think? How do you see yourself or God differently? Do you notice any change or growth?

Do life in community

Jesus’ call to community isn’t a theory or an idea, it’s a practice — a relational way of doing life together.

Jesus would preach to crowds of thousands, but he spent most of his time with a small circle of disciples, in homes and around tables.

It’s important to worship in church on Sunday and be part of a larger community, but it’s just as important to know and name your “twelve” and your “three.” To cultivate spiritual friendships that last for years.

So our final practice is to identify our intentional community and begin to meet with them regularly.

01 Identify a community to meet with regularly.

02 This community could be with just one or two others, or a dozen or even more.

03 We recommend you meet weekly, but it could be bi-weekly or monthly.

04 We also recommend you share a meal when you meet. The act of “breaking bread” is central to the Christian way. Something powerful happens when we eat together.

  • But remember, there’s no one “right” model for you to follow. You may choose a house church with 20 kids running around a backyard on a Sunday afternoon or a small triad for group spiritual direction early in the morning.
  • We encourage you to follow the pathway of your church — whether in a small group, table community, or house church, or a women’s or men’s Bible study.
  • You could follow this Course with any of the nine Practices available from Practicing the Way, share a weekly meal and pray for one another, or work through more free resources from BibleProject, like the following:
    – Reflections mini-cast with discussion questions: bibleproject.com/podcasts/ reflections
    – Reading plans: bibleproject.com/reading-plans
    – Heavier classes: bibleproject.com/classroom