Instructions:
Step 1:
If agape is a creative force…let’s spend a little time brainstorming how we can engage with the spirit of agape in our own lives.
Spend a little time in prayer and/or journaling using the following queries as a starting place to spark your own creative forces:
- How am I guided to expand, strengthen, work for sustaining or creating Beloved Community?
- Where can I add love-in-action? Where do I see brokenness that seeks transformation? Where do I see community lacking and how?
- What work is mine to do?
Step 2:
Now, brainstorm a list of concrete, actionable things you can do RIGHT NOW to expand Beloved Community. Remember, it could be in your workplace, your neighborhood, your faith community or the greater community and it can be a smaller action item (example: bring the newspaper up to your neighbors doorstep or invite a homebound elder from your Meeting to lunch) or on a bit of a larger scale (host a neighborhood potluck or organize a street clean-up day). See how many items you can come up with. Over the course of our retreat, continue to add to your brainstorm list. Feel free to share ideas in the discussion below.
Step 3:
The invitation: Each week, choose one action item to engage with. After you carried out your action item, spend some time in reflection. What were some noticings/learnings/takeaways from your engagement experience? Any surprises, if so what and why? Any challenges and how did you meet those challenges? Any specific joys? How was spirit moving in the experience?
Step 4:
Share the story of your experience in a group discussion. Feel free to enhance your story with photos, drawings, video, etc.
