Describe the Experience of Being Loved
A Be-Loved Community is a place where everyone gets loved! In our fourth class, we explored the experience of "being loved." We passed a Talking Piece and listened carefully as each person shared from their personal experience. What is it like to be loved?
Here are some of the descriptive words, terms, and messages offered:
Trust
Respect
Comfort(ed)
Unconditional
Being Heard
Being Affirmed
Recognized
Genuineness
Inner Peace
Presence
Nurtured
Encouraged
Locates us in our "original goodness"
Reminded of who we are when we forget
Don't need to prove yourself
Embraced fully as you are
Engage risk in accepting
"Overbearing"--"O, Love That Will Not Let Me Go"
Blessedly destabilizes our notions of self-sufficiency
We agreed to each write a paragraph for the next class expanding on our discussion. If our congregation makes an ethical commitment that everyone will have the experience of being loved in our faith community, what will that mean for our life together? What will our church and its ministry come to look like? How will it change us--individually and as one people?
At a practical level, it was noted how the quality of our listening in class changed when we engaged Circle Process and passed the Talking Piece, with only the person holding the piece authorized to speak at a time. Deep Listening is a discipline of love.. What if we learned to practice it in every area of community life?
Here are some of the descriptive words, terms, and messages offered:
Trust
Respect
Comfort(ed)
Unconditional
Being Heard
Being Affirmed
Recognized
Genuineness
Inner Peace
Presence
Nurtured
Encouraged
Locates us in our "original goodness"
Reminded of who we are when we forget
Don't need to prove yourself
Embraced fully as you are
Engage risk in accepting
"Overbearing"--"O, Love That Will Not Let Me Go"
Blessedly destabilizes our notions of self-sufficiency
We agreed to each write a paragraph for the next class expanding on our discussion. If our congregation makes an ethical commitment that everyone will have the experience of being loved in our faith community, what will that mean for our life together? What will our church and its ministry come to look like? How will it change us--individually and as one people?
At a practical level, it was noted how the quality of our listening in class changed when we engaged Circle Process and passed the Talking Piece, with only the person holding the piece authorized to speak at a time. Deep Listening is a discipline of love.. What if we learned to practice it in every area of community life?
If everyone were to experience being loved in our church community we would grow through the individual peace each member would contribute knowing that their community recognizes their distinct individualism ( a gift from God) and its importance in creating the "whole" of the church community. What a rich and diverse community it could be. By gathering and listening deeply to each other we may be able to discern the areas of greatest need in our local community and shape our ministry to meet those needs, each bringing their individual talents to the work. But the ministry choices need to be a community commitment in order to prevent just a few members from carrying the burden of the ministry. Ministry supported by the entire community would be a pleasure to serve in.
ReplyDelete