We believe the way forward for our congregations involves reconnecting with God’s faithfulness, God’s story, and God’s promises to us as God’s people. Moving into God’s preferred future means connecting our current story with God’s story. There is a distinctly Christian way to approach the future—by affirming God’s leadership and God’s abundance in our lives. The stories we tell ourselves must be shaped by God’s stories and promises. We believe that God will show us the way forward and provide the resources needed to go there. We will continue to dwell in the world as God reconnects us with the neighborhood.

This set of practices involves making explicit connections between the characters, events, and symbols of the biblical story and a congregation’s story'. The point of the “chapters exercise” we will explored this month is to use a narrative framework for reflecting back on the history of your congregation in order to name ways God might have been present and active over the course of its history. This helps build up capacity for naming God’s action in the midst of the congregation’s current life.

Note: This is like a spiritual autobiography of your congregation. A way of seeing where/how God was with you, and where/how you were with God…It allows you to see how God has been involved in your history and how that speaks to your future.

Exercise Steps

Introduction

Imagine that the history of this congregation is going to be made into a book. You are going to reflect on the history and create an outline of the life story of this congregation. Our outline will be made up of chapters that begin and end and have chapter titles. Do your best to remember as far back as you can.

Step 1: Determine what year the congregation began.

Step 2: Describe, to the best of your ability, what the early life of the church was like

(i.e. what do you know who was there, why did they start, where did they meet, who were the key leaders, etc. - or who would you need to ask?).

Step 3: When do you think this “first chapter” of the church’s life came to an end?

Step 4: What would you call the first chapter?

Step 5: What happened in the second chapter of the church’s life?

Step 6: When did that chapter end?

Step 7: What would you call that chapter?

Step 8: Repeat steps 5-7 until you reach the present day.

Now go back over your description of the life of this church.

In each chapter, how do you think God was particularly active or present?
What was God’s role in each chapter?
What might God have been up to during each chapter? Go through and write down a sentence or two about what you think God might have been up to during each chapter. It is helpful to look for patterns, similarities, and even anomalies as God can work through anything.

Final Step

In light of the history of this church and God’s presence during that time, what do you think the next chapter in the life of this church looks like? What do you think God might be up to in the next chapter of the life of this church?

February 2025: Naming God’s Presence and Activity Over Time