December 2024: Listening to Each Other’s Stories

Listening to God, each other, and neighbor is an essential practice for building relationships needed for faithful innovation. As we learn to truly listen to each other, we also increase our capacity to hear what God might be saying to us as well.

In December our cohorts were introduced to two more tools as they imagine the future for their churches. By creating space to listen to each other, this tool especially helps us focus on hearing stories of a time when we were most spiritually engaged and energized in our spiritual life. And in listening to each other’s stories, our capacity increases for listening to God and what God might be up to.

We start with listening to each other because we can often be in church together and yet never make the time to ask meaningful questions of each other. Listening to each other’s stories is profoundly transformational and often we don’t have a chance to do it in passing on Sundays. We want to create space for this to take place as we become better listeners to each other and to God. Here are two different tools::

Listening to Each Other’s Stories

Pair up with someone else. Share a story of a time when you were most spiritually engaged and energized in your experience with God.

● What was happening in your life during the time you felt most spiritually engaged?

● What energized you most during this time?

● Did the church play a role in this experience in your life? If so, how?

After 10-15 minutes, pairs come back together, then take 10 minutes to share something that stood out to you from your conversation.

Listening for God’ Activity in our lives

We believe that God is present with us in everything we are doing each and every day. Sometimes we are more aware of God’s presence than others. We want to engage in a practice of listening to our own lives and stories and wonder together where God might have been present in the midst of those experiences.

We want to get more comfortable naming what we think God might be up to in our midst. Being able to name God’s activity in our midst gives us the chance to join with what God is presently inviting us into.

We want to get more comfortable starting to say “maybe God is saying this, doing this, inviting us into this.” A way that we can start doing this is by first naming God’s activity in our own lives.

Take a few moments to quietly reflect on the spiritual story you just shared. What might God have been up to in that experience? Jot down a few notes. (10 mins.)

● What do you think God might have been doing in this time in your life?

● Was God teaching you something?

● Was God reassuring or encouraging you?

● Was God challenging you? Inviting you into something?

Share from your personal example from above before having them start to reflect on their own stories.

Pair back up with the same listening partner from last time and share what you think God might have been up to. (10 mins.)

Come back together and share with your table group (or in a large group) what you heard your partner say. (15 mins.)