Community Wide Bible Study on Our Call, Our Purpose, Our Identity

Objective: To explore, recognize and articulate the personal vocations of members and officers through a focused conversation about how, when and where we locate ourselves in this church/ministry and our responsiveness to God call/purpose for our lives

Wednesdays at 1:00pm and 7:00pm, beginning May 4

Lunch at 12:15pm / Dinner 6:15pm

What You Will Need:

• Your Bible
• your Conversation Box (which includes Your Calling Spiritual Gifting’s workbook, meditation and prayer tools…* each item distributed weekly) *
• Maat Circles (story circles of dialogue)
• topic outlines and reflective questions distributed in the class

This approach to reading and understanding the Bible, review of personal vocation and community practice with specific spiritual tools (candles, prayer beads, affirmations, cleansing rituals, etc.) is relevant to this conversation because it encourages us to consider more carefully the relations between our present spiritual/religious learning space and the larger religious/spiritual educational community. It also emphasizes the knowledge and understanding that emerges from the learning community process rather than the product of one source of information.

 

CLICK HERE FOR PDF FLYER and REGISTRATION FORM

or REGISTER & Pay ONLINE

---

May 4: What Is It? Called By God into Community 

• The conversation will engage participants in seeking a common definition and understanding of God’s Call to do a good work. Using the Bible to substantiate key principles about vocation/call including ideas about (a) any prerequisites to God’s inclination; (b) call as a way of being in the world not a job to do in the world; (c) Where is personal transformation in relation to the call from God; (d) what is the community call;

May 11: How Do I Recognize It? How Do I Know It? -Testimony and Witness For Our Faith 

• We will focus upon listening for and to the inner voice of God and the outer voice of community. Exploration of persons who heard their inner voice and outer community call (e.g., Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Lucy Craft Laney, Gayraurd Wilmore, etc.). This conversations uses participants’ stories of when they felt God’s inclination, what they decided to do; what happened, instances when they felt they mis-heard God’s call; how did they come to believe this, what they do to discern their spiritual vocation

May 18: Calling is One Thing-Capabilities are Another -Confidence in Our Capabilities, Confusion in Our Call

• Anything you need me to do I’ll Do” often is our response in answering God’s call for our lives. This discussion requires a critical review of the motivations we assign to service in the church and community. The conversation will explore spiritual exercises to aid in evaluating when we confuse our doing (because we have learned capabilities) with our being, a confusion that is orchestrated by a society that rewards doing more than being.

May 25: Navigating One’s Call—Striving for Harmony in Working Through, Serving Out & Living In One’s Call

• Some have wrestled, recognized and are walking in God’s call, the challenge is balancing spirit work and life work so that there are periods of harmony and balance. This conversation shares healthy perspectives to navigating the peaks and valleys, stumbling and rushes of our vocation. The session will present strategies that can aid in maintaining growth and learning to improve our recognition and acceptance of vocational challenges and changes.

Small Group Break-Outs (Maat Circles) Every Class Session

• Each Wednesday there will be two break-outs such that attending all four Wednesdays will result in participating in four different break-out sessions. Break-outs are hands-on sessions designed for community dialogue and practical experience with spiritual tools that strengthen one’s discernment of God’s Will. Items for the “Conversation Box” will be distributed in each break out session.