SF102Community

Session One: Introduction to CommunityBig Idea: How does Life Story fit within our vision of spiritual formation.

Pay attention to: • Knowing God more deeply• Knowing ourselves more deeply• Knowing one another more deeply

CHAPTERS IN YOUR STORY

Life Story Exercise 1

Session Two: God’s Authorship

Big Idea: How do I make sense of God’s sovereign authorship of my story in light of the reality of pain and failure.

Pay attention to: • The temptation to call evil good• The temptation to blame God• This is NOT meant to be a theological debate.

CHARACTERS AND EVENTS

Life Story Exercise 2

Session Three: Experiences &

RelationshipsBig Idea: The past is neither irrelevant to nor determinative of the present and the future

Pay attention to: • Paul’s perspective on his past

FORMATIVE ELEMENTS

Life Story Exercise 3

THE AUTHOR OF YOUR STORY

Life Story Exercise 4

Session Four: Formative Elements and ThemesBig Idea: Our experiences and relationships have formed us deeply.

Pay attention to: • One of the most significant dimensions of Life Story is the emergence of a theme or themes• Meaning & Purpose, Faith Points, Memorial Stones

IDENTIFYING THEMES

Life Story Exercise 5

CHAPTER TITLES

Life Story Exercise 6

Session Five: Telling Our StoriesBig Idea: Spiritual community develops as we tell our stories well and listen to one another well.

Pay attention to: • Crabb and Allender’s three principles of encouragement

CREATIVE PREPARATION

Life Story Exercise 7

Session Six - Ten: Life Story Presentations

Session Eleven: Knowing & Being KnownBig Idea: Reflecting the entire Life Story process in light of the stated objectives from Session One.

Pay attention to: • Knowing God more deeply• Knowing ourselves more deeply• Knowing one another more deeply

Session Twelve: Turning Toward IntegrityBig Idea: Connecting where we’ve been in the first two semesters with where we’re going in the third.

Pay attention to: • Temptation to draw back out of fear of exposure• Temptation to compare• Struggle to stay connected over the summer

PreparingYour Life Story

Themes in Life Story

Identify Themes in Your Story

• A theme is a recurring idea in your story

• A theme is a descriptive “meaning statement” that weaves together the elements of your story.

• A theme places the elements of your story in a meaningful perspective.

• A theme answers the question: “What is this story about?”

These sheets are not to be

neat and organized; it’s brainstorming!

These are the twocomponents of the story

that will be told in this chapter.

These two are reflectionsupon the formative

stories above and theywill help you identifythemes in the next step.

I went back and highlightedIn Exercise 5 and did it with

color coding with itemsthat could be grouped

together, these groupingsended up being, for

all intensive purposesbeing my themes.

Creatively Presenting Your Life Story

The Difference between Theme and Metaphor

• A theme answers the question: “What is this story about?”

• A metaphor is a vehicle that carries the theme and helps explain it.

Theme: From Chaos to OrderTitle: Pittsburg State College Dallas Carbondale Springville

Song: “Kung Fu Fighter”

“Breaking Up is Hard To Do”

“I’ve Got You, Babe”

“Take This Job and . . .”

“Back In The Saddle Agai

n”

Chaos

Order

• Non-Christian home

• Alcoholics

• Fighting

• Parents Divorce

Salvation

• Trying to prove self

• Break-up w/girlfriend

• Lost election

Calling to Ministry

• Dallas Seminary

Marriage to Jill

• Marriage Conference

PastorCommunity

Church

• Testing

• Church Split

• Power struggles

• Denial of Problems

CareerDecision

PastorSpringville

BibleChurch

Life Story Theme

Life StoryusingPersonalBrochure

Theme: “Lost and Found”

Metaphor: A Travel Brochure

Life Storyusing Books as a Metaphor

Life StoryusingBroadwayMusicalsas aMetaphor

Theme: “In the Dance”

Life Story•Drawings

•Photo Album

•Business Cards

•Model of a Farm

•Baseball Caps

•You Name It!

Life Story

GailSeidel

Life Story

BrokenHeart

Life Story

Protected Heartportion closingdown

Life Story

ChallengedHeartbut stillProtected

Life Story

ExposedandThawingHeart

Life Story

Opening up . . .EmbracingHeart

A moment of truth . . .

Life Story

Gail Seidel

Parents Divorce

A Beginning Composition

with Brand New Notes

Discovering the Melodies

Practicing the Score Combining Melodies for Life

Increasing the Harmony

Balancing the Volume1 4 5 18 19 23 24 49 50 69

Mother: Church,BeautyPersevering

Father: Self-made manHardworkingAlcohol

Melodies:

• Searching for security and what is normal…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

• Determination and striving toward excellence ………………………………………………………………………………….………………….

• Influencing through hospitality, networking, welcoming in ……………………….

• Passion ignited for leading, teaching, mentoring ever-present students ………

• Longing for “home” - creating one in 22 places …………………………..…………

Counter Melodies,minor, discordant notes

• “I have to hold it all together” - Super-Responsible ………………………………………………………………………………...……..……….

• “I have to compensate to appear ‘normal’” ………………………………………………………………….………………………………….……

• “Contribution and value measured by affirmation and recognition” …………………………………………………………..…………………

Grandmother Renna Kate Hearne Hinkle

*

Aunts, Uncles - “Normal”“Front Seat”

SALVATION

4th grade - “teacher in training”

9th grade - discovering comfort and delight in leading and speaking up front

16 yrs: “My all to Christ”

ANDY - steady anchor, passion

Campus Crusade Staff • vehicle for training • passion ignited for mentoring younger women

ViennaEastern EuropeRussia

*

University of Texas

MARRIAGEHospitalityStudents: U. of IllinoisChildrenCadets: West PointStudents: Texas A&M

*

Leave pastorate for pastors in Eastern Europe and Russia

Marriage of our children

Energy Channeled Under Pressure

Circle of Friends ………………………………………………………………………………

Disruption into Focus and Offering

Life StoryGail Seidel

DTS: Spiritual Formation

DTS Students

DTS Graduation

Grandchildren

DMin Gordon ConwellTheological Seminary

• Influencing through hospitality, networking, “welcoming in”

• Passion ignited for leading, teaching, mentoring ever-present students

• Longing for “home” - creating one in 22 places

Theme: Energy channeled under pressure -Disruption into offering and focus

The End

Principles of Encouragement

Encouragement, Larry Crabb

“The essence of encouragement is exposure without rejection”; the need to communicate, before anything else, acceptance.

“Understanding is sometimes better than advice;” after someone shares something deeply painful or personal is not the time to offer advice.

Principles of Encouragement

Encouragement, Larry Crabb

“The more precise the understanding, the more encouraging the words;” our level of listening directly limits the level to which we can encourage.

Principles of Encouragement

Encouragement, Larry Crabb

Gail’s Life Storya vignette

My Grandmother and “Snake Boy”