Shared Stories.

// Know your story //

Our stories are extremely powerful. The significant people, places and events of our lives continue to impact how we approach each day, each decision, each relationship in the present. Knowing our stories – the good, the painful, the successes, the failures and how they effect us today – is critical in our apprenticeship to Jesus. We need to know our stories and bring them into the presence of God to be redeemed.

// Share your story //

Taking the courageous step to share our stories with those in our groups brings us into something we all desperately need: authentic community. Where the world would have us settle for living lives of functional individualism, pretence and shamed-based secrecy we are seeking to build honest, emotionally-healthy, contending communities that will loyally cheer each other on into spiritual maturity

// Timeline //

We invite everyone to prayerfully reflect and plot out their life story a timeline with significant people, places and events. Put the positive ones above the line and the more challenging ones below the line. As you do this, reflect on how those different moments shaped your relationship with God and how they shaped you as a person. Below is a little snapshot of what we mean.

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// Top Tips //

  • Writing out your story on the timeline isn’t a five minute job. We recommend you set aside a couple of hours somewhere quiet to reflect, pray and ask God to speak to you about your life. Then, set it aside and come back to it a few days or a week later and see what else you remember. Our prayer is that filling in the story itself would be an intimate encounter with Jesus

  • Take the whole gathering just for one person to share. Don’t rush it. Giving your story space will enable better reflection and the chance to meet with Jesus through it.

  • Establish principles of confidentiality that everyone understands and is happy with. Feeling safe is vital to being vulnerable.

  • Be clear to each other that questions are encouraged to help you dig deeper into the things you share and they impact they have on you today.

  • Make sure after a person has shared that they receive prayer. It can be a vulnerable thing to share personal things with others. You may want to pray for particular themes that came up.

  • Remember: this is not counselling, it is friendship. If anything is raised in a person’s story that needs more specialist support, find our pastoral signposting document here.