LifeShapes and Overview! Circle! Key scriptures: Mark 1:14-15, Matthew 7:24-29! At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus introduces, through the Parable of the Wise and Foolish builder, the two fundamental questions of Christian spirituality: What is God saying to you and what are you going to do about it? But how can we do what God is asking of us if we don t know what he s saying? What Jesus illuminates in Mark 1:14-15, is how to discern what God is saying. There are times when it feels like our world and God s world are colliding (called a Kairos). When we have those times, we can step more fully into the Kingdom and wrestle with these two questions through a process of Repent and Believe.! Semi&Circle! Key!scripture:!John!15:1312,!Exodus!20:8! Woven!into!all!of!crea@on!is!a!fundamental!principle:!We!are!designed!to! work!from!a!place!of!rest;!not!rest!from!work.!in!john!15,!jesus!takes!it!even! further!and!suggests!that!if!we!aren t!regularly!res@ng!in!him!(abiding)!we! can!never!bear!kingdom!fruit.!we!need!@mes!of!rest!and!recrea@on!with! Jesus!and!with!our!families!every!day,!week,!season,!and!year.!If!we!neglect! this!truth,!neglect!@mes!of!rest!and!perpetually!push!the!pendulum!to! Work,!eventually!it!will!lead!to!a!crash.!What s!worse,!without!@mes!of! abiding!jesus!tells!us!that!all!our!efforts!will!be!fruitless.!!
Triangle Key scripture: Mark 9:2-29! If disciples of Jesus are to be learners of Jesus, we must pattern our life after his life. Jesus had three great loves in his life and was careful to balance his time towards these three relationships: (UP): The! relationship with his Father. (IN): The relationship with his spiritual! family. (OUT): The relationship with a broken world. Jesus stepped into the brokenness and sought transformation individually (people would come into relationship with him and his Father) and communally (seeing that systems of injustice are broken). As disciples of Jesus, we must regularly calibrate UP/IN/OUT in our lives.!
Square Key scriptures: Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 12:22-32, Mark 9:14-29, John 19-23! Jesus was able to take a group of 12 men, invest in them, and teach them to do all that he could do in less than three years. How was he able to multiply his life into theirs so quickly? Jesus! understood that at different points in their journey, he needed to lead them in different ways. At first, he was DIRECTIVE (D1) with them, \casting vision, calling them to do as he did. Then, he was brilliantly and compassionately COACHING (D2) them when they ran into brick walls and wanted to give up. When they started to see more success than failure, both in their Character and in their Competencies, he was more about COLLABORATION (D3). Finally, as he ascended and sent them out into all the world, to make disciples as he had taught them, he! DELEGATED (D4) all his responsibility to them. As disciples we can learn to lead as Jesus led, to teach and train our disciples in the way of Christ.!
Pentagon! Key scripture: Ephesians 4:11-14! Each person has been specifically shaped and designed by God to play a particular role within the Body of Christ. Everyone is either an Evangelist, an Apostle, a Teacher, a Pastor, or a Prophet. This is our Base Ministry and we feel most alive when we serve others in this capacity. However, because God is always concerned with our wholeness and the wholeness of the church, we go through Phases where we learn how to function in each of the other ministries. In that way, though we aren t all called to be Evangelists, we are all called to bear witness to what Jesus has done in our lives. Though we are not all Pastors, we are all called to care. Though we are not all Apostles, we are all called to walk with God s people into their future. That we are not all Prophets, it is the birthright of every Christian to hear the voice of their Father. Though we are not all Teachers, we are all called to understand and hold the out the scriptures as the Light of Truth.!
Hexagon! Key scripture: Matthew 6:9-13! We often struggle with how to pray and scripture shows that the! disciples were no different. One day, when they witnessed how! Jesus prayed, they begged him, Lord! Teach us to pray like you pray! And so he did. The invitation to pray as Jesus prays is open to all of us. Perhaps there is something specific weighing on your heart and you want to take it through the 6 components of the Lord s Prayer. Or maybe you simply want to pray through your day, thinking through each of the aspects of this prayer and let it guide you to the places the Holy Spirit wants to take you.!
Heptagon! Key scripture: Romans 12:4-5! The Body of Christ is a living, breathing organism just like any other living thing in creation. And like all living things, there are always 7! processes to evaluate what should be at work if a being is healthy:! Nutrition, Excretion, Movement, Sensitivity, Reproduction, Respiration, and Growth. The Heptagon is an excellent tool in evaluating where the Holy Spirit is at work, both in the life of your church community as well as your own personal life.!
Octagon! Key Scripture: Luke 10:1-16! Jesus is never more detailed in his instruction on how something is to be done than he is about evangelism. What is his key? His strategy? Find the Person of Peace. Find the person who is open to you, likes you, likes your mission, and wants to serve you (because in doing so they are showing their openness to Jesus). We see this exact same strategy! playing out all through the book of Acts and the early church. The! Octagon looks at how we can discover those Persons of Peace.!