In attendance – KR, CA, GP, SJ, KC

 1)      Lectio Divina Reading of scripture – Isaiah 42

1 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. 10 Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. 11 Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains.

 NOTE: Do your own three-fold reading before spending time in conversation with the responses below…

 First Phase – Reading – general impression:

         I have called you in righteousness, a light to the nations

         I have given you as a covenant to the people

Second Phase – Reading – word or phrase impression:

         Prison

         Vs 2-3 – “he will not cry out, he will not break or quench”

Third Phase – Reading – idea or concept impression:

         Freedom, Release –the power is God’s

         We are the gift that is given

Fourth Phase – Meditation – where is God leading you?

         Be the light – Be Christ in his physical absence

         God is calling me/us to a miraculous journey, and says, “Be not afraid.”

         To seek those in captivity and lead them out to freedom.

         To be a light to our church. (someone who will follow because s/he trusts)

         Holding someone’s hand and bringing them to the light.

2)      God’s dream being revealed – what’s our process?

a)      Highlighting the dream seeds

                                      i.      Direct people to the daffodil dream bulletin board

                                    ii.      Create other visuals in the ministry building organized by theme

                                  iii.      Ask questions in conversation… “Someone listed XYZ as their dream. What do you think of when you hear that? Where do your thoughts go from there?”

b)      Looking for patterns and connections – what themes emerge? How do these ideas group themselves? What connections exist between internal and external needs and resources?

 

 

 

c)      Telling stories about life and ministry – Begin practicing telling future stories. Choose a specific date in the future – 2, 3, 5, 10 years out, and tell a story about life at Forest Grove at that time. The narrative reveals the ministry priorities. We then explore how to “reverse engineer” that future – how do we get there from here?

  Additional Conversation

         Some discussion of my DDP newsletter article and my description of the brokenness of the human condition. We discussed additional ways to word it, and so the article was changed to include that alternate wording.

          Discussion of Discernment – Are we discerning what to do or how to do it? Scripture seems fairly clear on the what – at least in broad strokes. We were pointed to Matthew 25:31-45 – “The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats” – “…feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned…” The questions come, “What specifically am I / are we to do? How are we to live this out?” This is a large part of our project. A piece of the answer is to connect the four needs/resources boxes above. We’ll talk more about a discernment process next week.

          Connecting by Larry Crabb:  “We have made a terrible mistake! We have wrongly defined soul wounds as psychological disorders and delegated their treatment to trained specialists. Damaged psyches aren’t the problem. The problem is disconnected souls. What we need is connection! What we need is a healing community!”… “Relationships heal when they reflect the energy of Christ. We can impact others by:

o   Letting people know we delight in them as Christ does;

o   Eagerly looking for the goodness in someone’s heart and identifying the passions that are prompting loving, strong choices;

o   Exposing the darkness in someone’s heart, their sin and pain, in order to engage them more convincingly with the Savior’s kindness; it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance.”   (p21)