We’ve come to the end of the Stepwise Faith-Filled Life course and had our last group session. It’s been an interesting journey and an interesting group. I’m grateful for all the thought-provoking discussion and the conversations we’ve had through the course. It was good to have someone from another church being part of our group. In all honesty, I think it would have been better to have had a mix of people from different churches than having people mostly from the same church, but it’s been interesting nonetheless. I found it more difficult in places than I expected – I struggled at times with the group dynamics and other things going on in my own life but overall, it’s been good to have done it.
As a final reflection after session 8, we’ve been given the following questions:
Look back at your session one posting on ‘why am I here?’ Reflect on your journey, where are you now?
My initial motivation when I started Stepwise was to explore my faith further and find out more about where God might be leading me. At that point, I thought Faith-Filled Life might be the first step on the path to becoming a locally-accredited lay preacher or worship leader as I wanted to be more equipped for leading services. I hoped that God would show me where he wanted me to go and how he wanted me to serve him and show his love to others around me. I was also hoping that he would address some of the doubts I’d had about him since my daughter died.
I’m not quite certain yet where God is leading me, but it seems to be in a different direction from where I thought Stepwise would lead me. I’m a little nervous and unsure at the moment but I’m trying to trust God’s direction for my life. On the personal side, while I don’t really recall my doubts being addressed directly, I do feel that these have lessened and my faith has become stronger. I have a deeper sense of God’s love for me than I think I had at the start of the course.
Here’s my spider-web at the end of the Stepwise course.
What has changed for you?
The direction I feel called in has definitely changed. Between Stepwise and the Lent course we did at church, I’ve felt a definite pull to look outwards from church towards the local community, and consider how our church can best meet the needs of the community.
What would you like to do next?
Part of me would still like to do Faith-Filled Worship, just so I can be better equipped for leading services, but I’m sensing God is calling me to look at Faith-Filled Community instead. I’d like to try and become involved in some kind of community project within our church but there are big challenges ahead with regards to having the time and the resources and I’m not quite sure how to meet those.
How will you go about doing that?
At the moment, prayerful consideration is the way forward! I’m also going to meet with my mentor tomorrow and if another Stepwise course is the right step then I’ll make contact with the URC to find out more about available courses.
Where have I seen God lately
- In the responses of our church to being asked to share their thoughts on what our church would be and do if the Holy Spirit filled us as dramatically as it did the disciples at Pentecost. There’s a lot of food for thought in those responses and I’m hoping that discussion of them might help shed light on where God wants us to go as a church.
- In things falling into place for last week’s service in spite of various obstacles in the way (literally!) and in being able to get everything I needed to do done in time (and get enough sleep too!).
- In my children’s laughter and their love for each other.
- In moments of taking a closer look at nature and being reminded of how wonderfully varied and incredible it all is.
A Kintsugi Faith 