[4] Becoming a community

Our theme this week was becoming a community.

Rhythm of prayer

We met up with the people we had been praying for. We shared any words or encouragements we had for those people one to one. 

This week we are going to continue with morning and evening prayers and using set prayers as we wish. Our focus is going to be mental health issues in Southampton.

Mental health challenges in Southampton

Last week Sarah shared that she felt God is saying for us to focus on particular topics around Southampton. We chose to look at mental health challenges for this week.

Kathy gave us a round up of information about mental health challenges for Southampton and the services involved. And some recommendations for things to pray about. See our page here.

Margaret shared a story from her local florist, who has been upset by the increasing number of funerals for suicides and cancer deaths they have been arranging flowers for. We agreed to pray this week for the florist and for the locality.

Becoming a community

We started by reflecting on Ephesians 2: 19-22 where Paul describes how we are being built into a temple in which God lives by His Spirit. 

Then each group thought about differences between being an organising committee vs a community of prayer:

Next each group wrote a list of things we can do as a group that will help us deliberately become a community. We have put them all into one big list here.

Next week

Next week we are beginning to look at how we get better at seeing what God is doing.

Here is an illustration... In the sacred space last week Greg had a picture of Richard with a shovel and digging a well. Richard felt that God was saying if the wells are muddy and buried we won't be able to see what God is doing. We need to keep the wells clear. This is a picture of spiritual disciplines - they are the tools God has given us to keep the wells clear.

This is how we get better at seeing what he is doing. This was very timely as Kathy had discovered a well when widening a path at Aldermoor Community Farm the Saturday before! 

There are various names for these tools - spiritual disciplines, spiritual transformation, cultivating our spirituality. Over the coming weeks we will be looking at what practically this means, but we are starting with fasting as an example.