LifeShapes – the Circle

The Circle:  Choosing to Learn from Life

We kicked off the ‘New Passion Fruit Year’ last night by looking at the first of eight “LifeShapes” that provide a simple and memorable way to understand key discipleship principles.

The first is the learning circle, which helps us identify the significant events of our lives in a way that enables us to move deeper into God’s will.  To put it another way, it helps us discern when God is speaking to us through the events of life, and to do something about it.  The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. –Mark 1:15

As we discussed, the key thing is to look for a “Kairos moment”: a significant event (positive or negative, never neutral; leave an impact on you; signalling an opportunity to grow spiritually and emotionally) and then (prayerfully) enter into the circle of learning (3 steps to repentence (=changing one’s mind) and 3 steps to faith (=doing something about it).

The circle is below.  Learn it, use it and start becoming aware of those Kairos moments!

Circle of Learning

The steps are below: ORDPAA – “Old Robbie’s Dad Prefers American Airlines” or “Oh, Repent, Dammit, Priests And Archbishops!” 🙂

• Observe – what happened, and how did you react/feel?
• Reflect – on your observations.  Why did you feel the way you did?  What does that say about you? Is there a pattern?
• Discuss – seek the wisdom of others.  Do your observations and reflections make sense?  Do you discern an opportunity for growth?
• Plan – figure out a practical way to grow.
• Account – tell somebody about your plan and ask them to follow up with you on it.  How successful will a diet be if you tell no-one?  Or a new regime at the gym if you don’t tell people close to you?
• Act – do it!

An example Kairos moment could be, say, a mounting credit card bill.  Then the cicle might go (O) what I am buying each month?  do I need all this stuff? has this been going on long? (R) what does this say about my sense of identity? why do I feel the need to buy this stuff? (D) “hi Joe, I’m feeling that money has a bit of a hold over me – can I get your thoughts?” (P) need to cancel all but one card and limit myself to €200 per month spend (A) “hey Joe, can you ask me whether I am under my €200 limit every month?” (A) cut up the credit cards!

If you found this post helpful, I strongly suggest you purchase Building A Discipling Culture by Mike Breen (buy from Amazon here).  The book goes through Life Shapes in detail and explains how best to introduce them to a Christian community.

— Continue the discipleship and mission conversation ! —

Thanks for visiting! We have found Life Shapes really helpful in creating a culture of discipleship and mission as our home group has made the transition to an outward-focused missional community.  Why not follow our new adventures on http://theuntaming.wordpress.com/ (or via Twitter or Facebook)?