We begin a series of short teachings on Enjoying God by having Seth focus on Joy: What is it? And why is it important in our Faith?

Each Missional MicroChurch is going through the Spiritual Discipline of Enjoying God in Silence and Solitude, these podcasts are suppliantly resources to help the community in their discussion and practice.

They are all short and can be listened to several times during the week in preparation for the Sunday discussions.

Find more resources at gathered.church/spiritual-practices

Seth gives a very quick introduction to the concept of enjoying God as we head into a 4-month practice of Silence and Solitude. This will be the first of 8-10 short teachings on the topic, each building on the other.

This was recorded at one of our Park Gatherings (so we apologize for the additional noises of birds and breeze).

This is a short response to the concerns many Christians have around restrictions. If you are a follower of Jesus, it is important to address every situation in light of his good news. 

This doesn't answer every concern but instead addresses and responds to two themes that keep coming up in conversations. It is a gentle reminder for us to keep our Kingdom reality/identity in focus during this time. Are we reflecting on Jesus well through our responses? Are we ostracising brothers and sisters for their difference in convictions? For the sake of others watching on, are we causing division or living out love? 

We must take seriously the implications of what it means to be Ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, here and now.

Seth introduces us to a fresh way of seeing the Story of God.  It is not new, it's actually very old... but then again, it's not old, it's new (to our generation). 

The Chiastic Structure of the Bible highlights the key focus of the story... Was the main focus the death and resurrection of Jesus? Was it to get us "into" heaven or was it to save us from hell? Or was the focus of God's Story something else? 

In 2018, Seth authored a book called "Picture the Story", where he goes into greater detail, and in this gathered teaching time, we got to scratch the surface of this fresh re-telling and were led into a great discussion that lasted much longer than this recording captures.  

This is part of the ongoing training that we went through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ and the full story of his Good News.

Please visit gathered.church/formed-by-scriptures for more resources and top readings around this. 

Jason leads with clear teaching around key misunderstandings we can have in regards to what the bible is and how we read it. As always Jason's humility, well-read knowledge and thorough study allowed us to hear some of his deep insights about what it means to be formed by scriptures.

This is part of the ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/formed-by-scriptures

Will continues the teaching around being Formed By Scriptures where he shares the purpose of reading the scriptures and touches on how we read it.  He looks at several threads that weave together when coming to the text, each being crucial to keeping in check.

This is part of the ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/formed-by-scriptures

In this teaching, Jason reminds us of what the Bible is, that it is not only a gathering of many stories but actually one larger story. A story of who God is and what he is like. He takes us through how the bible speaks of the bible (within the Bible itself) and talks through some of the differences/similarities between the word of God and the written scriptures.

This is part of the ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/formed-by-scriptures

Seth takes the gathering through verse after verse of how Jesus practised prayer and the things he said about prayer. This leads into a great unscripted discussion where the whole gathering engages both with their heads and their hearts.

This is part of ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/hearing-gods-voice

Seth continues the teaching around hearing God’s Voice and talks about how God talks to the normal everyday person. And that we have a role and special part to play.  This is part of ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/hearing-gods-voice

Seth spends time reminding us that it is our right as sons & daughters of God and as citizens of the Kingdom. That God speaks regularly to us and that we can all hear his voice.  This is part of ongoing training that we are going through at Gathered.Church around Spiritual Practices and the need to be formed by Christ.

And there are resources and recommended reads at gathered.church/hearing-gods-voice