This simple five stage process can be used on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon or an evening. It is a way of bringing together the reflections of individuals and considering or discerning them in community.<\/p>\n
Set this up by asking people to journal their hopes. vision, dreams for the church or several weeks. These may be collected on a vision wall in the church. Ask people to prepare their hearts for this time together. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allow about an hour and a half or 2 hours.
<\/b><\/p>\n
Worship and Prayer<\/b>
Quiet worship to orient people and focus the session, opening people to God.<\/p>\n
Introduction to purpose and process<\/b>
Explanation of the purpose of the meeting, the key issues on the agenda (Like vision, or a key decision) and the process of listening to God and each other. <\/p>\n
1. Personal Reflection<\/b>
Individuals to sit quietly and journal before God on the future direction of this church \/ organisation. Write on a blank piece of paper. <\/p>\n
2. Small Group Sharing and Discerning<\/b>
Gathering in groups of 4 (no more), listen to each other and collect your reflections and ideas. Prepare a number of key things to share with the whole congregation \/ group. <\/p>\n
3. Plenary Session<\/b> 4. Small Group Reflection and Discussion<\/b> 5. Personal Reflection<\/b> Offering the Reflections \u2013 Prayer<\/b> <\/p>\n Following the meeting the church vision group or consultancy team gather the written reflections and write a summary report on the key themes which emerged. <\/p>\n Outline of the Process<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This simple five stage process can be used on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon or an evening. It is a way of bringing together the reflections of individuals and considering or discerning them in community. Set this up by asking … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,6],"tags":[29,18,27],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-consulting","category-leadership-2","tag-congregation","tag-discernment","tag-vision"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions\/161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnmark.net.au\/kz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Open sharing; 1st<\/sup> from each small group; then for specific sharing from people who believe they have something to share with the whole. Encourage people to take notes on what they sense are significant contributions. <\/p>\n
Back in same small groups, process and reflect on what was shared with the whole group \u2013 is there a direction emerging or some key issues coming out. <\/p>\n
Individuals have the opportunity to put down on paper their final reflections, concerns, \u2018sense of where God is leading\u2019 after listening to the whole congregation \/ group, discussing with their small group and reflecting on the changes that have occurred for them. <\/p>\n
Each person brings their own written reflections and places them on the Lord\u2019s Table \/ space at the front. <\/p>\n