Personal Development Vision
Download Discipleship vision plan for 2009
Intro…
1. As a Christian community, we should want to know God more and be changed and transformed by God. This process is not just a passive activity but is about engaging with God. In the Bible, James 4:7 says “Draw close to God and he will draw close you.”
2. By taking some time out and writing down some spiritual goals for the year, we are much more likely to do them!
3. When working through this PDV, allow God to guide your reflection and your hopes.
4. Don’t over commit! Be realistic about what you can do and begin to think about how some of these goals will work with you schedule.
5. We are keen to for people to be accountable with their PDV. As a leadership team, we have committed to meeting with someone regularly to make sure we put our PDV into reality. If you would like someone who can meet with you occasionally and support you, recommend useful material and pray with you, then let us know!
6. During the year we will keep coming back to these PDV forms in Be gatherings and chat through together how they are working.
7. This PDV is only a framework and it might be that things happen in the year and take us in a different direction.
8. We’d love to have a look at these over the next couple of days and scan them for common themes, so that we can structure the Be Church programme where appropriate.
9. This PDV should be seen as a bigger holistic vision for the year which should also include your vision for your physical and mental growth, your engagement with the world and your dreams!
10. Finally, some people find it really helpful to ‘journal’ their walk with God – buying a simple exercise book and writing their feelings, reflections, hopes and journey.
A. Prayer
Prayer is speaking to God and allowing God to speak to us. In our busy lives, prayer can often be squeezed out. This is our lifeline to God. How can we ensure the year is punctuated with prayer?
- Create a prayer space?
- Incorporate prayer into daily chores (e.g. washing up, walking the dog)?
- Spend 5 minutes each morning/ night?
- Agree to meet with others to pray?
- Take a prayer walk each week?
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B. Bible Reading
As Christians, the Bible is the revelation of who God is and his story with humankind. Woven into the text are important values and truths.
Examples of Goals:
- Aim to reading the New Testament (Jesus & the early Church).
- Aim to read some books in the Bible that you have never read before.
- Go big and aim to read the whole Bible!
- To choose one book of the Bible and really get to grips with it – reading it and then re-reading it regularly (e.g. one of the accounts of the life of Jesus) and spending time reading around that book.
- Commit to reading the Bible each day on the train to work.
- Spend time reflecting each week on the different teaching and prayers of Jesus.
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C. Ancient Spiritual Disciplines
Christians from across the centuries have been practicing spiritual disciplines. These disciplines themselves do not make us ‘holy’ but they enable us to re-focus our lives on God. Maybe this year, we can take up and explore one of these disciplines?
Fasting – is the doing without something that is hard.
Resting – is the concept of Sabbath, creating a rhythm of life with rest stops.
Communion – is celebrating and reflecting on the Last Supper with bread and wine.
Giving – is the concept of tithe, giving a percentage of all finance (previously crop harvest).
Rhythm of Prayer – In the Jewish tradition, people would pray three times a day – morning, afternoon and evening.
Pilgrimage – by taking a journey to a place of significance, Pilgrimage is a way God gives us to answer that yearning to physically travel to discover God and the truths about ourselves.
The Church Calendar – working through the different festivals in the Church Calendar over the year to discover more of the ‘Story’.
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D. Character
As Be Church, Jesus is our role model and our aim should be to develop Jesus-like characteristics. The Bible (in Galatians 5) speaks of the Fruits of the Spirit of God as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Jesus’ life was characterised by these fruits.
In your life, what fruits(s) would you like to nurture?
How might you be able to help cultivate this characteristic in your lifestyle?
How will these fruits impact the way we live?
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E. Mission
What steps will you make this year to be the change that yopu want to see in the world? Both locally and globally...
Who are you going to consistently pray for to come to know more of God?
What could stop you from sharing about Jesus? How will you overcome these obstacles?
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