Community Guide

The Community Guide below is based on the last two Sunday morning teachings from our Annual Vision Series on Rule of Life and living in exile. As your whole Community gathers (online or socially distanced), use the Community Guide below to give shape to your night together.

Begin by Practicing the Lord’s Supper Together (5 minutes)

Begin your night together by partaking of the bread and the cup together. Have each person bring their own Communion elements. To facilitate your time, you can either ask a member of your Community to come ready with a short prayer, liturgy, or scripture reading, or assign someone to read the liturgy we’ve provided below:

Jesus, even when we are faithless, you are faithful.
As we eat this meal, we recommit ourselves to you.
Though we have wandered with steps large and small,
We eat the bread and drink the cup as an act of commitment and re-commitment;
commitment to love,
to discipleship,
to calling you Lord,
and to the covenant.
Our lives are yours. Amen.

Discuss Bridgetown’s Rule of Life (15 Minutes)

Select one or multiple readers and read through Bridgetown’s Rule of Life for COVID-19 as a Community. After reading, work through the following questions as a Community:

  • What are your first impressions of this Rule of Life?
  • Which of these Practices are already a part of your life? Which are you hoping to grow in?

Scripture Reading (5–7 minutes)

Assign one (or multiple) readers to read Jeremiah 29:4-14 aloud for your Community. After reading, spend 30–60 seconds in silence.

Debrief this Sunday’s Teaching (20 Minutes)

Work through the following discussion question as a Community based on this Sunday’s Teaching:

  • Under the pressure of exile most of us default to either separatism (escaping from culture) or syncretism (becoming like our culture). Which are you more prone to and what does that look like?
  • Jeremiah 29 gives seven commands for those in exile:
    • “Build houses” – Meaning, settle down roots and find joy where you find yourself.
    • “Marry and have sons and daughters” – Meaning, live in a thick web of relational life and multi-generational family.
    • “Increase in number” – Meaning, not just have children, but also invite your friends
      and family to Alpha, practice hospitality, etc.
    • “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city” – Meaning, do all you can to make the city you call home more like the Garden of Eden. Be a good citizen; pay your taxes, support the local economy, share with the poor, volunteer, vote, pick up trash on the sidewalk, etc.
    • “Pray to the Lord for it” – Meaning, pray for the city.
    • “Do not let prophets and diviners among you deceive you” – Meaning, watch out for false teachers and for those who would lead you astray with lies, by saying what “your itching ears want to hear” as Paul put it.
    • “Seek (God)” – Meaning, seek to find God in your city. Pray, fast, read scripture, and orient your life towards finding him.

Which of these seven commands stands out to you? What would it look like to put it into practice?

Prayer (10 Minutes)

Spend a few minutes praying for our city. Per the words of Jeremiah, we want to seek the peace of welfare of our city, praying and asking God to prosper it. Pray for peace, spiritual renewal, and a move of God in our city. Pray for strength for each other and every follower of Jesus to live as a creative minority in our city.

Practice For The Week Ahead: Prayer for the City (2 Minutes)

The Practice for this week is to set aside time each day to pray for the welfare and peace of our city. We encourage you to set a specific time (when you wake up, before bed, at lunch. Or a time in which you set an alarm) to pause each day and pray for our city.