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The Companions in Christ Series
Participant's Book Intro
Back to Companions in Christ Series
Welcome to Companions in Christ, a small-group resource for spiritual formation in small groups. It is designed to create a setting where you can respond to God's call to an ever-deepening communion and transformation in Christ--as an individual, as a member of a small group, and as part of a congregation. The focus is on your experience of God and your discovery of spiritual practices that help you share more fully in the life of Christ. You will explore the potential of Christian community as an environment of grace and mutual guidance through the Spirit. You will grow closer to members of your small group as together you seek to know and respond to God's will. And your congregation will grow when you and your companions begin to bring what you learn into all areas of church life, from classes and meetings to worship and outreach.
How does Companions in Christ help you grow spiritually? It enables you to immerse yourself in streams of living waters with the spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture, study, worship, and Christian conversation. These means of grace are the common ways through which Christ meets people, renews their faith, and deepens their life together in love. Though Companions is not a Bible study, group members will spend a good deal of time with scripture and will probably benefit more from this resource if they are familiar with the basic Bible stories. Though this resource is not training in spiritual guidance, members will gain skills and practice in how small groups become settings for spiritual guidance. And though Companions is not an introductory course in Christianity for new Christians, it does help church people take up the basic disciplines of the faith in life-changing ways.
An Outline of the Resource
Companions in Christ has two primary components: individual reading and daily exercises throughout the week with the Participant's Book and a weekly two-hour meeting based on suggestions in the Leader's Guide. Each week the Participant's Book has a chapter introducing new material and five daily exercises to help you reflect on your life in light of the chapter. These exercises aim to help you move from information (knowledge about) to experience (knowledge of). An important part of this process is keeping a personal notebook or journal where you may store reflections, prayers, and questions for later review and for reference at the weekly group meeting. The commitment for the daily exercises is about thirty minutes. The weekly meeting will include time for reflecting on the exercises of the past week, for moving deeper into learnings from reading the chapter, for having group experiences of prayer, and for considering ways to share with the congregation what you learned or experienced.
The material in Companions in Christ covers a period of twenty-eight weeks divided into five parts or units, as well as an introductory meeting and a closing retreat. The five parts are as follows:
- Embracing the Journey: The Way of Christ (five weeks)--a course in Christian spiritual growth as a journey toward holiness and wholeness, individually and in community, by the grace of God.
- Feeding on the Word: The Mind of Christ (five weeks)--an introduction to several ways of meditating on and praying with scripture.
- Deepening Our Prayer: The Heart of Christ (six weeks)--a guided experience of various forms and styles of prayer.
- Responding to Our Call: The Work of Christ (five weeks)--a presentation of vocation or call: giving ourselves to God in willing obedience and receiving the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
- Exploring Spiritual Guidance: The Spirit of Christ (five weeks)--an overview of different ways of giving and receiving spiritual guidance, from one-on-one relationships, to spiritual growth groups, to guidance in congregational life as a whole.
Your group may want to take a short break between parts either to allow for some unstructured reflection time or to avoid meeting near Christmas or Easter. However, the parts are designed to be sequential. It would be difficult and unwise for new members to join at the beginning of a later part or for a group to skip a part, since each part builds on previous ones.
Your Personal Notebook or Journal
"I began these pages for myself, in order to think out my own particular pattern of living. ... And since I think best with a pencil in my hand, I started naturally to write." Anne Morrow Lindbergh began her beloved classic, Gift from the Sea, with these words. You may not imagine that you think best with a pencil in hand, but something truly wonderful can happen when we reflect on the inner life through writing.
Keeping a personal notebook or journal (commonly called "journaling") will be one of the most important dimensions of your personal experience with Companions in Christ. The Participant's Book gives you daily spiritual exercises every week. More often than not, you will be asked to note down your thoughts, reflections, questions, feelings, or prayers in relation to those exercises.
Even if you are completely inexperienced in this kind of personal writing, you may find that it becomes second nature very quickly. Your thoughts may start to pour out of you, giving expression to an inner life that has never been released. If, on the other hand, you find the writing difficult or cumbersome, give yourself permission to try it in a new way. Because a journal is "for your eyes only," it can be done in any style that suits you. You need not worry about making it sound beautiful or about writing with good grammar and spelling. You don't even need to write complete sentences! Jotting down key ideas, insights, or musings is just fine. You might want to doodle while you think or sketch an image that comes to you. Make it fun and relaxed. No one will see what you write, and you have complete freedom to share with the group only what you choose of your reflections.
There are two important reasons for keeping a journal or personal notebook as you move through Companions in Christ. First, the process of writing down our thoughts clarifies them for us. They become more specific and concrete. Sometimes we really do not know what we think until we see it on paper, and often the process of writing itself generates new, creative insight. Second, this personal record captures what we have been experiencing inwardly over time. It helps us track changes in our thinking and growth of insight. Our memories are notoriously fragile and fleeting in this regard. It is hard to recall the specific feelings or creative connections we may have had two weeks ago, or even three days ago, without a written record. Even though your journal cannot capture all that goes through your mind in a single reflection period, it will serve as a reminder. You will need to draw on these reminders during small-group meetings each week.
Begin by purchasing a book that you can use for this purpose. It can be as simple as a spiral-bound notebook or as fancy as a cloth-bound blank book. Some people prefer lined paper and some unlined. You will want, at minimum, something more permanent than a ring binder or paper pad. The Upper Room has made available a companion journal for this resource that you may purchase if you so desire.
When you begin the daily exercises, have your journal and pen or pencil at hand. You need not wait until you have finished reading and thinking an exercise through completely. Learn to stop and write as you go. Think on paper. Feel free to write anything that comes to you, even if it seems to be "off the topic." It may turn out to be more relevant or useful than you first think. If the process seems clumsy at first, don't fret. Like any spiritual practice, it gets easier over time, and its value becomes more apparent.
Here is how your weekly practice of journaling is shaped. On the first day after your group meeting, read the new chapter. Jot down your responses to the reading: "aha" moments, questions, points of disagreement, images, or any other reflections you wish to record. You may prefer to note these in the margins of the chapter. Over the next five days, you will do the exercises for the week, recording either general or specific responses as they are invited. On the day of the group meeting, it will help to review what you have written through the week, perhaps marking portions you would like to share in the group. Bring your journal with you to meetings, so you can refer to it directly or refresh your memory of significant moments you want to paraphrase during discussion times. With time, you may indeed find that journaling helps you to think out your own pattern of living and that you will be able to see more clearly how God is at work in your life.
During the weeks that you participate in Companions in Christ, you will have the opportunity to focus on your relationship with Christ and to grow in your openness to God's presence and guidance. The unique aspect of this experience is that your searching and learning will be encouraged by other persons in your small group who are indeed your companions on the journey. Those of us who have written and edited this resource offer our prayers that God will speak to you during these weeks and awaken you to enlarged possibilities of love and service in Christ's name. As we listen and explore together, we will surely meet our loving God who waits eagerly to guide us toward deeper maturity in Christ by the gracious working of the Holy Spirit.
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