The Way of Jesus

• Stages of Faith

Gateways to the four sections

• Earth [Plant]

• Wind [Sail]

• Fire [Shine]

• Water [Swim]

EARTH

Intro: Plant seeds and establish roots

Introductory video by Rod White

Experience the Earth

How do I get started following Jesus?

First steps

• • Link to Circle of Hope Website

  • Link to Gospel of John in English. Life of Jesus (from John) in Spanish

Planting Together

Planting together begins with a seed that sends roots deep.

• • Intro to Circle of Hope

Cells are a place to be known, belong and to give what you have been given.

• • Short intro: Cells for beginners

Sunday Meetings are "us in public:" a place to worship, learn, connect and let Jesus be seen.

• • Short intro: What to expect in a Sunday Meeting

We generate everything we do from the cells that gather in public meetings.

• • List of Compassion Teams

  • List of Mission Teams

Read and Listen

Earth-oriented books and audiovisuals.

Link to Pastors’ Goodreads Earth page

Some of our best writing for getting PLANTED in faith

Core teaching for nurturing seeds of faith

• • Aren't people lying to you about Christianity?

  • How to study the Bible with Circle of Hope

  • What is the Bible?

  • Is God going to punish me?

  • 15 fact-based reasons to accept the resurrection of Jesus

From our Pastors' blogs:

• Jonny Rashid -- More than Self-expression

  • The Black Hole Helped Me See Jesus

  • You're not a worm nor a spider but the beloved of God

• Ben White -- Today If You Hear His Voice

  • Its OK to say the Bible is unbelievable

  • How do Yoga and Christianity Intersect?

• Rod White -- Development

  • I Matter: The Terrible Wonderful I AM

  • The dreaded future: How Jesus helps us get from here to there

Gifts for Growing

[each section is linked to the schedule of offerings]

WIND

Intro: Catch the Spirit and Sail

Introductory video by Priscilla Shirer

Experience the Wind

How do I relate to the Holy Spirit?

• • Experience a person-to-person relationship with God

  • Learn to interpret your spiritual feelings

  • Discover motivation from a new center

  • Act out your new connection

Practical next steps to take

• • Use Circle of Hope Daily Prayer :: WIND

  • Receive the Gifts for Growing

Sail together

Sailing together starts with a launch and opens up new destinations

Six basic ways to keep in step with the Spirit

Step into the dialogue

• • • • List of Circle of Hope leaders

Gain a foundation for spiritual formation

• • • • Explore our Guide to Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction

      • 2PROAPT Bible study method

      • Read the Bible in a year plan

      • Sunday meeting messages archive

      • Our YouTube channel

        • • Sunday meetings

          • Resist and Restore Podcast

          • Music and more

      • Circle of Hope Audio Art – our music albums

      • Our Pastors’ blogs

        • • Ben White: Today, if you hear his voice!

          • Jonny Rashid: more than self-expression

          • Rachel Sensenig: Looking Up

          • Julie Hoke

      • Our foundational book: A Circle of Hope: Jesus at work among the Next Generation of the Church. Buy it here.

Take a risk to follow your passions and use your gifts

• • • • Starting a Compassion Team

      • Starting a Mission Team

Make a covenant

• • • • What is a covenant?

      • Our written covenant

      • Outline for the meeting: About Making a Covenant.

Connect with the culture and lore of our church

• • • • Explore all the proverbs, here.

Deepen your mental as well as spiritual health

• • • • Explore: How the church can help you gain or maintain mental health.

      • Visit the Circle Counseling website

Read and Listen

Wind-oriented books and audiovisuals

Link to pastors’ Goodreads Wind page

Some of our best writing to help us SAIL

Core teaching for moving with the WIND of the Spirit

• • • Take 6: Learn how to use daily prayer

    • Friendship in Proverbs: What make and US? - Trust

    • Transformation Formulas: The Biotic Math of Jesus

    • Bored while praying? The monks were too.

    • Despise the shame

    • Is Circle of Hope "soft on sin?"

    • Introduction to Lent

    • Is that Jesus dancing?

    • What is a covenant?

    • How do I relate to the Holy Spirit?

    • Reconciliation begins with forgiveness—primarily of you.

From our Pastors' blogs:

• Jonny Rashid -- More than Self-expression

  • • Cells aren’t a container for content, they are the content

    • Why your faith should disturb you more than it calms you

    • Loving God breeds intimacy, not thinking

• Ben White -- Today If You Hear His Voice

  • • I Guess It Was the Spirit

    • The Gospel Must Begin with Love

    • Elephants can swim and other surprises

• Rod White -- Development

  • • Turning: The basic skill of spiritual survival and growth

    • Jesus is risen, now what?: Listen to Colossians 3

Gifts for Growing

[each section is linked to the schedule of offerings]

FIRE

Intro: Receive what you’ve been given and make a difference

Introductory video by Peter Enns and Tom Wright

Experience the Fire

Become a good tree who bears good fruit.

Develop an adult faith that builds an alternative

• • Listen to God and pray together

    • Explore: Discerning the Path: Conversations on Spiritual Wayfinding.

  • Take a personal or group retreat

    • How to take a personal, spiritual retreat.

    • Our retreat centers list

  • Explore your spiritual gifts

    • An inventory and Bible studies about spiritual gifts

  • Deepen your practical application of the Bible

    • Read all the Pastors' suggestion on their Goodreads site.

    • Resource: Anabaptist Dictionary of the Bible

  • Explore and imitate the examples of our transnational, transcultural, transhistorical body of Christ

    • Explore or blog: Celebrating Our Transhistorical Body

  • Receive the Gifts for Growing

Shine together

It only takes a spark to get a fire going

Help for being a good tree

Experience communion across boundaries

• • • Our nations

• • Healthy conflict

    • • Forgiveness and Containment

      • Teaching on Guns and Gun Laws

  • Lasting marriage

    • • Marriage in the New Creation

      • Power Struggles and How to Get Beyond Them

  • Loving Family

    • • Our statement about Caring for Children Together

      • Blogsite for parents: Village Parenting with Circle of Hope

      • The Children’s Plan describes how our teams and parents help care for children together.

  • Helpful rites of passage

    • • Resources for baptism, dedication of children, mother and father blessings

Help for bearing fruit

Learn how to be a church planter

• • Expand the kingdom

    • • Why four congregations?

      • Church Growth Eyes

      • Spiritual Gifts Discernment

  • Share God’s love in practical ways

    • • Our Compassion Teams

      • The Mennonite Central Committee

  • Build the New Humanity

    • • Our statement of antiracism and reconciliation

  • Own the whole enterprise: the Map

    • • The link to our 2019-2020 work of art: The Map

Take opportunities to practically build the church

• • Cells

  • Sunday meetings

  • Capacity and Business Teams

    • Common Fund

    • Building Management

    • Technology

    • Communications

    • Good Business Oversight

    • Hub staff

  • Leadership Teams

    • Cell Leader Coordinators

    • Church Planting Core Team

    • Compassion Core Team

    • Capacity Core Team

    • Pastors Team

  • Brief description of how we organize and make decisions: When it is time to lead

Read and Listen

Fire-oriented books and audiovisuals

Link to pastors’ Goodreads Wind page

Some of our best writing to stoke the FIRE

Alternativity stories about how we shine

• Laughable abundance: A story for your buoyancy

Core articles for FIRE builders

• • What to do when your words get twisted.

  • Why Circle of Hope needs miracles.

  • Being a non-anxious presence

  • Tenderness is the heart of the covenant

  • What it takes to plant churches

  • Damn the spiritual torpor!

  • Learning about leadership from the failures of Chip Kelly

  • When pluralism is patronizing

  • Church Planting: Three bundles of stories and hopes for the BIC (2015)

From our Pastors' blogs:

• Jonny Rashid -- More than Self-expression

  • Not about butts in seats, evangelism is recruitment for the rebellion

• Ben White -- Today If You Hear His Voice

  • Resolving not to suck sucks

• Rod White -- Development

  • Rejection: The prophet’s dilemma

  • The Lord among us organizes us, not the program.

  • Build a trust system: Whether trials or Trump it starts with safety

  • Does Following Jesus Feel Too Demanding to You?

Gifts for Growing

[each section is linked to the schedule of offerings]

WATER

Intro: Swim in an ocean of grace and supply living water

Introductory video by Rod White

Experience the Water

How do I develop a lifelong Faith?

• • Jesus told his disciples they would do even greater works than he did.

  • We’re ambitious

Further steps to take

• • Use Circle of Hope Daily Prayer :: WATER, written by water people for water people.

  • Receive the Gifts for Growing and offer them

Swim Together

Opportunities to deepen your prayer, meditation, and contemplation

• • Be guided with a contemplative exercise

    • An example from Ben White

  • Take contemplative retreats

  • Participate in or lead times of prayer

  • Find spiritual direction

    • Our Guide to Spiritual Formation and Direction

  • Do theology

    • Some articles that show our distinctive way

      • The Brethren Mindset – Parts 1 and 2

      • Life in Christ is one whole cloth

      • Atonement Explanations

      • War in the Old Testament: A Journey Toward Nonparticipation

      • Anabaptism

    • Books

      • The Book: A Circle of Hope

      • Perelandra: Dialogue with the Green Lady

  • Discipline your year

Opportunities to exercise your gifts and serve

• • Lead in the Sunday meetings

    • Sunday Meeting Plan

    • Children’s Plan

  • Lead a cell

    • Cell Plan

  • Start a compassion of mission team

    • Starting a Compassion Team

    • Starting a Mission Team

  • Share in our Common Fund

  • Be part of the Leadership Team

  • Plant another congregation

  • Represent us in movements beyond Circle of Hope

    • Mennonite Central Committee

    • Brethren in Christ USA

    • Jesus Collective

    • Kingdom Builders Network

Read and Listen

Water-oriented books and audiovisuals

Link to pastors’ Goodreads Water page

Some of our best writing to help you SWIM in grace

Core teaching for having a life of deep meaning and service

• • Hell is more Greek than Christian

  • What about justice? — a few answers and one-liners

  • Romans Bible study on Justice from Doing Theology

  • Practical Thinking About Drugs

  • Elections: Constantine, Trump, etc.

  • Are we visible enough?

  • The climate crisis: It will take more than a good idea for the church to respond

From our Pastors' blogs:

• • Jonny Rashid -- More than Self-expression

    • The tension of liberation and reconciliation

  • Rod White -- Development

    • Adult prayer: Two invitations that might be hard to see

    • The second half of life: Encouragement for creative suffering

    • Our evangelism nightmare: Hypermodern voices take over the airwaves

    • Is Circle of Hope Too Political?

    • A spiritual midwife: God's helpers in birthing new life

    • Cynthia Bourgeualt on Mystical Hope

Gifts for Growing

[each section is linked to the schedule of offerings]