Hope for Our Next Steps
Who Are We? Over the course of this study, we have explored this question through a variety of lenses, seeking biblical wisdom, delving into lessons from our shared history, and envisioning the people God calls us to be. As the study draws to a close, we invite you to commit to an on-going journey from head to heart as you reflect back and look forward. As individuals and churches, as we live as children of God, called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and certain in the belief that transformed lives, transform lives.
Pre-Session Assignments
- Read through your Who Are We Journaling Responses
- Scripture: Psalm 139:1-14, 23-24
Small Group Session Agenda
Opening Prayer
God, you are here. Unlimited in presence and power, you exist and do exceedingly and abundantly above all we can ask or imagine. Thank You. Great Storyteller, who knows who we are and fills us with Your breath, we are shaped by Your words. Skillfully, meticulously, and lovingly, You’ve formed us as your Image bearers. From generation to generation, you are God and Your mercies are new every morning. Remind us of those intersections where your story transforms our story.
You’ve delivered us from ….[provide a time of silence for people to pause and whisper their personal responses]
You’ve delivered us for your purpose and not our own.
You’ve delivered us to something that only time can tell.
Lead us in this session and enable us to be present with and for one another,
For your glory to be made known, and
For your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
WHO ARE WE AFFIRMATION
In the gift of this moment, we affirm that we are divinely loved and lovable.
We are the children of God.
Together, we will learn from the actions and words of one another.
Christ’s lessons on love are centered in how we treat others and in how we treat ourselves.
We will exercise courage in this study as we share stories of struggle and strength.
We will stay at the table and receive those stories with grace.
We will not be afraid to launch into the deep.
We will commit to the vulnerability necessary to allow God to break us open.
We will set and respect boundaries and honor confidentiality together.
When uncertainty arises, we will remember the Spirit of “peace that passes our own understanding” and can intercede for us.
We will remember that even when we don’t feel “United,”
The uniting love of Christ can reveal a pathway to greater
wisdom and mutual respect.
No matter what, there is a place for each one of us in this study together.
Let us hold each other up in prayer, hold each other accountable in love, and
trust that our God is making all things new.
Thank you for the gift of being present to one another in this holy time.
Video content
Video with Bishop Latrelle Easterling
An overview of the themes discussed in the 18-week study, Who Are We? A Journey From Head to Heart.
HEAD & HEART DISCUSSION
- What connections do you draw between the study, your own life and your ministry?
- What concepts do you find most challenging? Where are you experiencing cognitive dissonance?
- What key concepts or ideas from the study do you think are important to our work within the Baltimore-Washington Conference?
- What changes in attitudes, thinking or action will you take as a result of this study?
Closing Assignment
As Bishop Easterling said in the video we saw today, let us not stop allowing these lessons to transform us. Instead of journaling, we invite you to complete this form. May you take what we’ve gained in this study and continue to apply it as we study scripture, build relationships with one another and those on the margins and do our skilled servant work as the Body of Christ.
Closing Prayer
As your image bearers, we go into the world to be salt and light.
We go to love like you, to live like you, and to be merciful like you.
We go as
Your covenant community
Your witnesses
Your people
Your children who are called to go to comfortable and uncomfortable places in seeking to follow Your will.
To likely and unlikely places led by Scripture and informed by reason, tradition, and experience.
We go to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of your world.
In Jesus’ Name, we go together as one, Amen.
