calendar SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES February 1 - Mid week service 8 - Silence 17 - Fast: Social Media March 1 - Mid week service 1 - Confession 17 - Fast: No Food 26 - Church-Wide Prayer April 5 - Mid week service 12 - Silence 21 - Fast: No Screens May 3 - Mid week service 3 - Confession 19 - Fast: No Drink But Water 28 - Church-Wide Prayer June 7 - Mid week service 14 - Silence 16 - Fast: No Lunch August 2 - Mid week service 9 - Silence 18 - Fast: No Food September 6 - Mid week service 6 - Confession 15 - Fast: No Screens 24 - Church-Wide Prayer October 4 - Mid week service 11 - Silence 20 - Fast: No Drink But Water November 1 - Mid week service 1 - Confession 17 - Fast: No Lunch 26 - Church-Wide Prayer December 6 - Mid week service 13 - Silence 15 - Fast: No Sugar July 5 - Mid week service 5 - Confession 21 - Fast: No Social Media 30 - Church-Wide Prayer Brookhaven Presbyterian Church www.brookhavenpres.com Facebook.com/BrookhavenPres Twitter: @BrookhavenPres
temptations mentioned above as they occur in the context of community ( I didn t practice the disciplines as well as she did I feel judged; I did way better on the disciplines than you did why aren t you trying harder? etc). 1 What are Spiritual Disciplines? Spiritual disciplines are practices of experiential Christianity that are found in the Bible and the tradition of the Church, practiced by Christians for thousands of years, that promote fertile ground for spiritual growth. Spiritual disciplines do not in themselves create spiritual growth, but provide an effective space for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts. The disciplines we are engaging in this calendar are: Corporate Worship; Confession; Silence; Fasting; Prayer; Reading Scripture. Warning! Spiritual disciplines are highly prone to misuse. Many if not most people reject them on one of several grounds: either that they can lead to self-righteousness and legalism ( I kept the calendar perfectly God must be pleased with me, or My roommate didn t keep the disciplines is he even a Christian? ); spiritual despair ( I can t keep this calendar God must not be pleased with me. ); or neglect ( God will love me if I don t do any of these anyway, so why try? ). This pride, despair, and licentiousness will all come out at various times in practicing the spiritual disciplines. That s a good thing! That is the spiritual discipline doing part of its work bringing sin to the surface so that we see the depth of our depravity and our commensurate needs for the justifying work of Christ on the cross and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. At all times, it is important to remember the grace of God: God does not love anyone more for practicing the spiritual disciplines, nor does he love anyone less for not practicing them. Then why would we do them? Because they are an opportunity to grow closer to him. We practice the spiritual disciplines sheerly because they are beneficial to us they help provide space in our lives for us to know and love God more, knowing that his love for us will never change, regardless of how well or poorly we practice these disciplines. In Community? The disciplines here are meant to be accessible as an individual or in community if that s something you feel comfortable with (e.g. with your family, roommates, small group). If you choose to use the disciplines in this way, make sure to answer the A note on practicing spiritual disciplines in the context of your family: Practicing spiritual disciplines can be an amazingly unifying experience for you and your family. Here are some practical ways to teach, practice and illustrate disciplines with your children. While some of these things seem fairly obvious, we want to help remind and guide you as you encourage your children in knowing the Lord. Make an effort to come to mid-week services and corporate prayer as a family. This can be difficult with school, feedings, work and nap schedules, but it may be worth the effort for your family. Include your children in fasting. Obviously, don t allow them to not eat for a full day but teach them the reason you are fasting. If they are old enough, you can include them in fasting and help them choose something to fast from. Practice confession with your children. Do this by example with age appropriate confessions from you. Example: Mommy has not been patient with you today. I have acted out in my anger and yelled. Will you forgive me and pray with me to ask God for His forgiveness? Then, help them think about their sin. Read and practice prayer and silence together. Find a time during the day where you can consistently do this together. Make sure you keep it age appropriate. A note on practicing spiritual disciplines in the context of roommates and friendships: Many of us crave depth in community with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Committing to incorporate the disciplines together is a great way to grow closer to each other while pursuing your relationship with the Lord. A few practical ways to do this: Plan a regular roommate dinner (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly depending on your schedule) where you intentionally share what you are learning in your reading of the word and your times of silence and solitude. Schedule a few times each week where you replace your normal time with the Lord with reading and praying with your roommates. Drive to a mid-week service or go to corporate prayer together and talk about how the Lord spoke to you during those times. Pray together and for each other during the scheduled fasting days BPC Spiritual Disciplines 2017 Calendar This calendar of disciplines is meant to be an accessible introduction to the spiritual disciplines. As a result, please feel great freedom to amend any of the disciplines, do more or less of them as you are able and as they might be helpful for you. Mid-Week Service: 12:15-12:45pm on the 1st Wednesday of every month Confession: Before the Mid-week Service at 12:00 every other month (odd months) Silence/Solitude/Listening: 2nd Wednesday of every other month (even months) Fasting: 3rd Friday of every month (check calendar for specific fasts) Church-Wide Prayer: Sunday morning every other month (odd months) Reading Plan: Set by different reading plan resources of your choice 2
Mid-Week Worship Service FASTING Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness. Psalm 29:2 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! Psalm 95:6 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another. Hebrews 10:25 Perhaps the most important spiritual discipline in scripture and throughout church history is gathering as the church to worship God together. It is all too easy to put the Lord on the shelf as we get into the swing of the day and the week. Corporate worship provides us an opportunity to interrupt our days to refocus our hearts on God, and to do so in the context of our faith community. This service simply consists of Scripture readings, singing, and the Lord s Supper. Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Joel 2:12-13 And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:16-18 He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that we do not live by bread alone but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Deuteronomy 8:3 Fasting is a time-tested spiritual practice that is an opportunity: To create space in your life to focus specifically on God (by substituting time eating with time with God). To use physical hunger (or hunger for something else) as a reminder of how much we hunger for God; to say to God, As much as I desire food right now, God, I desire you even more. To use physical hunger to bring deep hidden sins to the surface in order to better understand ourselves and our need for God s grace. Fasting makes our sin come to 3 4
the surface in a way that makes it impossible to avoid. When we re hungry, we re more likely to be impatient, angry, or rude to others. That isn t because we re hungry it s the hunger that draws out who we naturally are. Additionally, we realize how much food can easily become an idol in our lives. We rely on it for comfort and strength instead of finding ultimate comfort in the Lord. And finally, fasting brings out the deep sin of self-righteousness, pride in ourselves for performing the fast, because we feel better than someone else who didn t do the fast, or because we feel lousy for not doing it right. When those things happen, recognize them for the sin they are and confess your works-based sense of righteousness before God. Remember that fasting or not fasting has no bearing on the amount God loves you he loves you not because of anything you ve done but simply because he loves you. Fasting is not a discipline that is easy to get initially. It must be practiced. Don t be concerned if it takes a while to get into a rhythm. This more than many other disciplines is a spiritual exercise. You can t run a marathon the first time you run neither should you expect to be good at fasting the first time you try it. 5 If some of the fasts on the monthly calendar on the back page are not accessible for you (like fasting from food for a day) or not challenging enough for you, feel free to substitute another fast in its place. For instance, if you ve never fasted before and are fearful of a day-long fast, start smaller and fast from lunch, or fast from sun-up to sun-down. Or if you don t use social media then fasting from it may not create any more space for you to see your need for God. Consider substituting something else. Possible substitute fasts include: Meat Lunch Coffee Sex Working out (especially if fitness out is an idol for you) Food from sun-up to sun-down Anything else you sense you rely on too much The weakness of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but because we keep stuffing ourselves with other things. John Piper CONFESSION Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. James 5:16 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 When sin entered the world man and woman, overcome by shame, impulsively covered themselves up and hid from one another and from God. For the rest of history mankind has followed the same pattern, more controlled by the power of our shame than we often realize. Knowing that this is our temptation, God instructs his people to confess your sins to one another and pray for one another (James 5:16). When we obey this command the brother or sister to whom we confess does not sit in the place of Christ, extending forgiveness that only Christ can offer, but does sit in the place of Christ s body, the church, in order that we might be reminded of the truth of the gospel and encouraged that we belong to Christ s body, lest we seek to flee or hide any longer. For this reason, the discipline of private confession is a corporate practice of spiritual formation. Because many may be unfamiliar with this historic Christian tradition, it is important for us to stress what private confession is not: It is not necessary for the forgiveness of sins. Every believer has direct access to the Father through the intercession of the Spirit and the assurance that If we confess our sins [privately], he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). It is not a method or form of accountability. While accountability is commended in scripture as a means to fight temptation and sin, the purpose of confession is to address the guilt and shame of sin. 6
It is not an opportunity for the person to whom you confess to be your counselor nor to commiserate with your common struggle. The purpose is for you to be assured that the gospel leaves you still united to Christ and his body. It is not a pious way to be assured that your sin is acceptable. Just the opposite, taking the isolating nature of sin very seriously, confession is an opportunity to be reminded that you are a forgiven sinner whose hiding is inconsistent with the forgiveness you have been shown in Christ. With these clarifications in mind, in private confession you can expect: That your confession will be held in absolute confidentiality That you will be listened to intently and not lectured in response. That you will be assured of the efficacy of the work of Christ to address both the guilt and the shame of your sin, encouraged not to hide any longer, and reminded that you belong among the people of God. That you will be encouraged to seek reconciliation/restitution in instances when you have harmed someone else. That you will be prayed for, both in that moment and going forward, as James 5 instructs. To have a regular time of confession obviously necessitates intentional introspection into the sin in our lives, both surface sin and deeper sin. The encouragement in this time of confession is to ask someone to be your confessor (an individual, a discipleship group, etc) and take time to confess to them at the regular time (if not more often). You might have to ask them to follow the above expectations (confidentiality, no lecture in response, assurance of forgiveness, etc). Additionally, the bi-monthly scheduled confession time will allow anyone who wishes to privately confess their sins a regular opportunity to do so. If you cannot attend the scheduled time, private confession can also be made available at others times or with other leaders (such as discipleship group leaders, ministry team leaders, etc.). We heartily encourage you not to forsake this way in which God has provided for us to experience the freedom of the gospel in the context of his family. SILENCE, SOLITUDE AND LISTENING In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Isaiah 30:15 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. Mark 1:35 Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 By definition, silence is the absence of sound while solitude is the state of being totally alone. For most of us, those words do not hold a lot of appeal and the thought of being alone makes us uncomfortable. We don t always know what to do with the absence of sound so we fill it with noise music, television, our own chatter. Our culture places a high value on productivity, which brings about a lot of good in our lives and in the lives of those around us, but also produces lives that are full of busyness, constant noise and little room for margin. We seek to succeed in life and desire for our achievements to be noticed. With that comes the temptation to find our identities and fulfillment in our own accomplishments, status in life or even in our failures and disappointments. Additionally, one of the chief ways Satan draws us away from God is by distracting us. Noise is all around us, but if we can escape it, perhaps we may find an opportunity for deeper connection with God. 7 The disciplines of silence and solitude do not end with the definitions above. From a spiritual disciplines perspective, silence is the practice of listening to God in quiet without interruption or sound while solitude is the practice of being along with God. In these disciplines, we are given the opportunity to be still and quiet in the presence 8
of God and to make space in our lives for deeper connection with Him. In Luke 5:16, we see Jesus example of this But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. In prayer, speaking is important, but listening is essential. Some of the benefits we will notice as we practice silence and solitude are: Freedom from needing to speak and freedom from listening to words or music. We notice things we might not otherwise notice about the state of where we are in life (feelings of joy, sadness, loneliness, fears). We are posturing ourselves to have deeper access to God by giving the Holy Spirit time and space to work in our hearts. We are also given the opportunity to see where we are finding our identities outside of Christ and be reminded that our identities are in Christ alone. The inner noise and chaos of our hearts and minds will become more and more settled. Practicing silence and solitude will look different for everyone depending on what stage of life you are in. For some, especially parents of small children or those with work schedules that place you in high demand, it may be difficult to have much time for this but here are a few ways where you can begin practicing silence and solitude in a way that will not be too overwhelming: Start small--initially set a timer for 10 minutes and sit in silence asking God to speak to your heart. As you discipline your mind and heart to be still, you may find that you crave more than 10 minutes at a time, but do what you feel is accessible for you. If you need help getting started: Read a verse or short passage of scripture and pick one word of phrase that sticks out to you. Meditate on that phrase for a few minutes asking God to show you why He brought it to mind. Turn off your radio once or twice a week on long car rides and intentionally ask God to quiet your heart so that you can hear from him. Turn off background noise when doing tasks around your house Take a walk or run without listening to music. Note: if you fall asleep during your prayer time, solitude or silence, that s ok! God grants sleep to those he loves (Psalm 127:2) CORPORATE PRAYER Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. Matthew 18: 19-20 All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 1:14 Praying with other believers is seen throughout all of scripture. In Acts 2, we see that among other things, the early believers were devoted to prayer. In Acts 1: 23-25, the apostles prayed together for wisdom for a big decision (who was to take the place of Judas as the 12th disciple). James admonishes anyone who is sick to be prayed over by the elders, to confess sins to each other and to pray for healing for one another (James 5:14-16). And Paul encouraged the believers in Colossians 4:2 to pray steadfastly and to be watchful in it with thanksgiving. As a church, prayer is one of our core values and we want to be faithful to continue in the tradition of the early church by praying together regularly as a church body. During these times together, we will spend time seeking God by worshipping him, confessing and repenting of our sins, and praying for our individual needs as well as overall corporate needs. We will also spend time asking for God to use our church for his kingdom to come in individual lives, our 9 10
Work with it some and find the usage that is most helpful to you! RULE OF READING church community and Brookhaven as a whole. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 If prayer is the primary way we speak to God, the Bible is the primary way God speaks to us. Regularly reading scripture is one of the more common and known spiritual disciplines. It is also one of the hardest to keep up, and discouragement can easily create feelings of shame when you inevitably go for a day or longer without opening the Bible on your own. Remember that the goal is not perfection but just to get a little bit more of Christ on a regular basis. Try to read a little bit of Scripture, meditate on it and try to discern what God might be saying through it, what it might say about God, or how it might apply to your life. As you seek to figure that out, here are just a few tips to take into consideration: If you miss a reading or an entire day, don t feel pressure to go back and get caught up. Just use the readings for the current day and save yourself from the pressure and shame of feeling like you re falling behind. We can t digest scripture as well if we feel like we need to hurry through it or that we re doing a poor job of reading it. Begin your time of reading with the Psalms. Use the Psalms provided to prepare your heart to further engage scripture. Many people find it helpful to read from the Psalms, take a moment to pray and reflect in order to quiet and prepare your heart for the following readings. Many people find it helpful to engage the daily readings in more than one sitting. In fact, the original design of the lectionary was for a morning and evening session (which is why you will see two selections of Psalms for every day). Many of us are more used to one designated quiet time during the day to read and pray. But even if it s only a very short time, you might find that you benefit from reading twice during the day (morning and evening, or at some others points throughout the day that are conducive for you). If you do more than one reading, it is suggested that you split the New Testament readings into separate readings. If you re going to skip a reading, don t always make it the Old Testament reading. The lectionary does a great job of breaking the Old Testament up into bite-sized chunks! There are several ways in which to access the lectionary. Here are a few suggestions: Download the BCP app on your phone or tablet Find it in the bulletin and on our website each week Online at http://www.bookofcommonprayer.net/#/lectionary/date If you find that you aren t connecting well with this reading plan, we encourage you to come up with a plan of reading that is helpful for you. The resources on the shelf at church are pretty open-ended in the sense that they do not require you to complete anything on a particular day you can just read a little bit, however much you can, and then move on to the next day. If you have trouble finding a plan that works for you, please feel free to talk to anyone on the church staff. This year as a church, we will be using the lectionary found in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) to read scripture together. The purpose of the lectionary is not to function as a reading plan that you have to keep up with in order to read enough scripture over the course of a day, month or year. It is a helpful guide that will give you regular interaction with all of scripture, preparing your heart with regular reading of the Psalms and providing daily readings from the Old Testament and New Testament. 11 12