The Community Practice

The Community Practice

Getting Started

Welcome

The modern world is facing a crisis of loneliness. The digital age has confused connectivity with community. Many of us ache to know and be known, to love and be loved, to belong to a family.

And yet we fear it, too, scared we’ll get hurt, or be rejected, or feel constrained by commitment.

In our lonely age, Jesus’ invitation is more provocative than ever before. His call to “come and follow” him is a call to join his community—which he likened to a family. Not a family in the modern Western imagination of mom, dad, and 2.5 kids, but in the ancient Mediterranean sense of a large, extended family of parents and grandparents and cousins and neighbors and co-workers and friends who aren’t technically blood, yet are family—what sociologists call “fictive kinship groups” and the New Testament writers call “brothers and sisters.”

But we won’t find this kind of community just by attending church on Sunday. As important as it is to gather for worship with our local church, we each still have to find and form our own “fictive kinship group”—our own family within the larger village or tribe that is the church.

In this Practice, we will explore the key skills required to do this. It’s not rocket science; it’s as simple as sharing meals, building joyful connections, being vulnerable with one another about our sorrows and sins, and staying together when (not if) things get hard.

Living in community is not easy, and it won’t just “happen” in our busy, disconnected world. It will require practice. But if you say yes to Jesus’ invitation to become a part of his family, it has the potential to deeply change your life for the good.

Welcome to the Practice of community.

The Nine Practices

Community is just one of nine core Practices in the body of resources available from Practicing the Way. The Practices are spiritual disciplines centered around the life rhythms of Jesus. They are designed not to add even more to your already overbusy life, but to slow you down and create space for the Spirit of God to form you to be with Jesus, become like him, and do what he did. Ultimately, they are a way to experience the love of God.

To run another Practice or learn more, turn to page 106.

How to Use This Guide

A few things you need to know

This Practice is designed to be done in community, whether with a few friends around a table, within your small group, in a larger class format, or with your entire church.

The Practice is four sessions long. We recommend meeting together every week or every other week. For those of you who want to spend more time on this Practice, we’ve included an additional four weeks of bonus conversations in the appendix to go deeper in Scripture and discussion. You are welcome to pause for these conversations in between sessions or skip over them.

You will all need a copy of this Companion Guide. You can purchase a print or ebook version from your preferred retailer or find a free digital PDF version at launch.practicingtheway.org. We recommend the print version so you can stay away from your devices during the Practices, as well as take notes during each session. But we realize that digital works better for some.

Each session should take about one to two hours, depending on how long you allow for discussion and whether or not you begin with a meal. See the sample session on the following page.

Are you a group leader or facilitator? Log in to your online Dashboard or sign up at launch.practicingtheway.org to find ideas, best practices, and tips on running this Practice. Page 110 also offers helpful information and tips on running this Practice.

Our Practices are designed to work in a variety of group sizes and environments. For that reason, your gatherings may include additional elements like meals or worship time or may follow a structure slightly different from the following sample. Please adapt as you see fit.

Sample Session

Here is what a typical session could look like.

Welcome

Welcome the group and open in prayer.

Share a meal (60 min.)

Gather around a table to eat together and share a conversation.

Introduction (2–3 min.)

Watch the introduction to the session and pause the video when indicated for your first discussion.

Discussion 01: Practice reflection in triads (15–20 min.)

Process your previous week’s spiritual exercise in smaller groups of three to five people with the questions in the Guide.

Teaching (20 min.)

Watch the teaching portion of the video.

Discussion 02: Group conversation (15–30 min.)

Pause the video when indicated for a group-wide conversation.

Testimony and tutorial (5–10 min.)

Watch the rest of the video.

Prayer to close

Close by praying the liturgy in the Guide, or however you choose.

The Weekly Rhythm

The four sessions of this Practice are designed to follow a four-part rhythm that is based on our model of spiritual formation.

Learn

Gather together as a community for an interactive experience of learning about the Way of Jesus through teaching, storytelling, and discussion. Bring your Guide to the session and follow along.

Practice

On your own, before the next session, go and “put it into practice,”* as Jesus himself said. We will provide weekly spiritual exercises to integrate this practice into your everyday life, as well as recommended resources to go deeper.

Reflect

Reflection is key to spiritual formation. After your practice and before the next session, set aside 10–15 minutes to reflect on your experience. Reflection questions are included in this Guide at the end of each session.

Process together

When you come back together, watch the introduction, and then start by sharing your reflections with your group. This moment is crucial because we need one another to process our lives before God and make sense of our stories. If you are meeting in a larger group, you will need to break into smaller subgroups for this conversation so everyone has a chance to share.