Common Life Groups are designed for deep formation. They aim to be honest, prayerful, contending mini-communities with a set of simple, Spirit-filled practices based on our four-fold common life of God’s presence; loving community; deep formation; and imaginative mission.
The headlines
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CLGs are small groups of around 4 people who commit to living out shared stories and shared rhythms together to pursue maturity in Christ.
Shared Stories is all about cultivating honest, emotionally-intelligent, loyal mini-communities to travel the journey with by sharing our life stories with each other.
Shared rhythms is about helping each other grow in the priorities of our common life: presence, community, formation and mission through simple, Spirit-filled practices.
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As often as you want to in order to create meaningful momentum in the group. The day, time, frequency and location of gatherings is set by each group according to their own hunger levels and capacity.
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Most groups will form organically by people being bold and asking others. However, if you have tried asking people and haven’t been able to form a group then get in touch.
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We are being spiritually formed every day, the question is simply into whose likeness and toward what kingdom? Such is the power of unintentional spiritual formation that we need to have a plan for intentional counter-formation against the way of the world and toward the way of Jesus. These groups are our offering, alongside the broader life of our church community, to help you pursue spiritual maturity and follow the way of Jesus.
Shared Stories
For stage one of the groups, each person takes an evening to share their story with the others.
Know Your Story
Our stories are extremely powerful. The significant people, places and events of our lives continue to impact how we approach each day, each decision, each relationship in the present. Knowing our stories and how they effect us today is critical in our apprenticeship to Jesus.
Share Your Story
Taking the courageous step to share our stories with those in our groups brings us into something we all desperately need: authentic community. Where the world would have us settle for living lives of functional individualism, pretence and shamed-based secrecy we are seeking to build honest, emotionally-healthy, contending communities that will loyally cheer each other on into spiritual maturity.
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We encourage everyone in groups to write out the timeline of their life so far. This isn’t a five minute job. We recommend you set aside a couple of hours somewhere quiet to reflect, pray and ask God to speak to you about your life. Then, set it aside and come back to it a few days or a week later and see what else you remember. Our prayer is that filling in the story itself would be an intimate encounter with Jesus
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Take the whole gathering just for one person to share. Don’t rush it. Giving your story space will enable better reflection and the chance to meet with Jesus through it.
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Establish principles of confidentiality that everyone understands and is happy with. Feeling safe is vital to being vulnerable.
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Make sure after a person has shared that they receive prayer. It can be a vulnerable thing to share personal things with others. You may want to pray for particular themes that came up.
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Remember: this is not counselling, it is friendship. If anything is raised in a person’s story that needs more specialist support, get in touch and we can signpost you to particular provisions.
Shared Rhythms
For stage two of the groups, you support each other to form spiritual disciplines.
Since the desert fathers and mothers, Christians have sought to live from what's often termed a “rule of life”. In its most simple form, a rule of life is a set of priorities and values embodied in practices and rhythms that people organise their lives around to help them grow toward Jesus. Imagine it to be like a trellis you plant in soil to help plants grow up: you plant certain practices in the soil of your life to keep the right things at the centre and live in the direction of the Kingdom.
Our community of faith hopes to be increasingly marked out by four things: God’s Presence; Loving Community; Deep Formation; and Imaginative Mission. This is what we call our Common Life.
These groups are designed to help each of us live out this way of life by forming shared rhythms – Spirit-filled trellising – in each of these areas.
Explore resources
We will be helping you explore the way of Jesus through highlighting the life Jesus invites us into; how it can be opposed in modern day life; and, therefore, what formative practices we can engage in to intentionally pursue it. Our hope is to join the dots between spiritual warfare and spiritual formation in a really helpful, pragmatic way.
For now, the key thing is to begin getting into groups and signing up for a LIFT OFF
Get in a group.
We’re so glad you want to pursue spiritual maturity. Here’s how to get going.
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Don’t just get into a group with your best mates as a matter of course. Stop, ask God about it and think through the practicals: stage of life, location, personalities and so forth. Being with people who are different from you and who you don’t know very well already can be a great environment to be sharpened. Unity around Jesus in spite of difference is how we become more like Christ and not just create echoes of ourselves.
And remember, if you don’t know anyone yet who you could ask we recommend two things as a starter.First, try getting more involved in community life by joining a Seed Community or serving on a team for example. Secondly, drop us a line and let us know you’d like to join a group, we have a number of people in the same boat and we may be able to link you up.
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Let’s be honest: none of us like rejection! And the possibility of someone saying “no” or “I’m already in a group” can feel a bit intimidating and hold us back. But our encouragement is to ask God to give you the courage and embrace the vulnerability. It’s worth it in order to form a community who will contend for one another.
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We will be regularly running LIFTOFFS: sessions where you can get equipped as a group with all you need to thrive. Come along to on before you get going if you want to make the most of the group.
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If you’ve got yourself into a group of three or four people, please let us know who is in your group. That way we can keep you updated on information and resources and pray for your group.
Get going.
Fires need a spark to get going. Start 2025 with intentionality and come along with your group to our next LIFTOFF.
