Overview
Patterns for Kingdom Living is a resource and an encouragement to support you as you grow in your Christian faith and practice. If you decide to use it, there are two pathways you can choose between. The first is very short and simple; the second covers the same ground as the first, but then goes further.
Here's a one minute teaser video
And here's a full introduction (8 mins)
Additional introductions
Click to read and watch Bishop John's commendation.
Bishop John writes:
Thank you, on behalf of the church, for what you already do in your life as a Christian, for God and for God’s church. I hope our diocesan Patterns for Kingdom Living resources on these pages will support, affirm and encourage you on your journey of faith, and help you grow in the love of God.
When we think about our discipleship, we tend to focus on our practices: the things we do for God. That can sometimes mean we lose the emphasis on what God does for us. Beginning with thinking about our gifts from God is one antidote to that. If you use only one resource from these pages, I warmly encourage you to use the Gifts for Kingdom Living questionnaire. Be grateful for what God has given you.
I hope that if you choose to follow the simple suggestions given here, you will find yourself refreshed with a deeper appreciation of God’s love, recharged by fresh experience of his grace, and renewed in your appreciation of his good gifts. Then, I am sure, you will see some ways you can offer those gifts back to him in love and service, be a channel of God’s grace to others, and help God’s kingdom grow.
It is also helpful to think about our practices as things that give us opportunities to share in the love of God. In giving, as the prayer often associated with St Francis reminds us, we also receive. The third step of this outline pattern invites you to reflect on some of the Church’s tried and tested aids to discipleship, and consider what might help you on your journey.
If you choose to take up this opportunity, I invite you to pray the prayer below, written by Richard, a son of this diocese, born in Droitwich, who went on to become bishop of Chichester. May God bless you richly as you journey on.
Thanks be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits you have given me,
for all the pains and insults you have borne for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
follow you more nearly,
day by day. Amen.
And there's a downloadable leaflet Stepping out in Everyday Faith which covers the same ground as the video for those who want to read it as well as (or instead of) watching.
The basic structure
Click the path option below to read more.
The short path
Step 1. Complete a simple questionnaire: Gifts for Everyday Faith. You use this to identify what you are good at, enthusiastic about, and energised by.
Step 2. Talk to one other person (a friend, family member, someone else at church, a minister) about your gifts and strengths. In what ways do you, or could you, use your gifts, and play to your strengths?
Step 3. Not a step on its own, but a way of completing step 2. Be grateful for the gifts you have, and look for opportunities to use them.
The longer path
Step 1. Complete a simple questionnaire: Gifts for Everyday Faith. You use this to identify what you are good at, enthusiastic about, and energised by.
Step 2. Identify (perhaps with the help of one of your ministers) a Kingdom Companion to go on this journey with you.
Step 3. Ponder your pattern. What helps you live a life of love – with God and with others? Take a look at the suggested areas of reflection, and resources we have identified.
Step 4. Have a structured conversation (in person, online or by phone) with your Kingdom Companion. Look at your gifts, and the things you think might help you. The leaflet Stepping out in Everyday Faith, and these pages of the website will help you here.
Step 5. Decide on the next step or steps you want to take in your journey, and plan how you will take them. There is a form you can choose, and a prayer, to help make your commitment clear.
Step 6. Talk to your Kingdom Companion in three or four months’ time (and again three or four months after that) about how things are going.