Processing Our First Public Gathering

Yesterday was a meaningful day with the Renew launch team as we spent time processing our first public gathering, which was held last week. Here were some of the questions we asked during our time of reflection:

-Who were some of the people you met? What were some of their stories? What were the

follow-up interactions like with who came who were skeptics?

-The way we as The Church love those unacquainted with Jesus is a litmus test of our spiritual

health. How were we practicing hospitality (i.e. making the ‘other’ feel safe, welcome and comfortable)?

-What were your expectations for last week?

-Where did you see Jesus show up?

-How is our faith being stretched? How can we grow in the importance of prayer?

-The world doesn’t care what we say about the love of God if we don’t allow for opportunities for people to experience it. Did we love well? How do we know?

-What do we need to know about or be aware of?

-If we have concluded that our gatherings are for “formation for mission” then how can we ensure that will happen again in our next gathering?

-How do we keep our eye on the ball and make sure our focus is on living out the gospel message in our contexts through the week ahead?

As we’ve said before, our gatherings are not the main event. Our gatherings are just the pep rally. We’re much more interested in getting people to check into the game and experience the Jesus life with us. And it was exciting to see people begin to see that vision fleshed out in reality.

We haven’t “arrived” (never will) and we have a long way to go, but it was a encouraging – and refreshing – to see how everything felt so natural in our gathering. Much of the feedback from people experiencing Renew for the first time mentioned that it was environment of hospitality, genuine care and concern – a warm atmosphere where people could be themselves. Our team stepped up and served, officially and unofficially, formally and informally, big and small, up front and behind the scenes.

Our next gathering is May 24, but there are plenty of ways to be involved in the rhythms of Renew.

Just let us know if you are interested in participating with us.