Life Teams
A commitment to relationships
The American culture values rugged individuality. This value of individuality has crept into our Christian churches to the point that many Christians neglect building meaningful relationships. Churches talk a lot about fellowship and community but the practice of most churches is impersonal worship gatherings, online worship services, teachings, podcasts and consumer focused programing that only build surface relationships. The COVID pandemic has heightened our isolation from each other and pushed our faith journey to an even more individual experience.
Faith does require individual choice but to focus exclusively on an individual’s experience of God is to misunderstand the interdependent nature of the body of Christ. Every part has value when it functions in sync with the other parts of the body. To encourage an individualistic Christianity, i.e. how I experience God, how I worship, how I pray, how I serve God, undermines the very design of the body. Each part has a dependency on the other parts. We need each other in order to have a wholistic experience of God. The body of Christ is the beautiful, collective, interdependent, visible, tangible, physical expression of God on earth. People loving people. People giving, supporting, encouraging, serving, helping, and empowering one another. We are the living expression of God to one another. God does not inhabit the sky, the mountains or even our beautiful sanctuaries of worship but rather we are the habitation of God on earth. If we want to experience God and grow in our faith we must be in relationship with God’s human expression on earth.
Author Richard Rohr reminds us that “before the Christian church was a centrally organized set of common practices and beliefs, It was a living organism that communicated the Gospel primarily through relationships. The church was what we might call an energy field and a set of relationships inside of which people lived with integrity. Today’s support or recovery groups are good examples of these relationships.”
We need a shift in thinking about how we experience God. Rather than an individualistic approach we need to experience God in each other. If each individual is a living expression of God, then the best way to build my relationship with God is to be in relationship with one another. We need to design ways of being together, sharing together, working together, serving, supporting, listening, giving and loving each other.
In a focused effort to create this togethering, matterchatter has created LIFE Teams. LIFE teams are teams of people who meet on a regular basis (online or in person) to empower one another to love. Designed similar to a support group structure, Life Teams members focus on encouraging one another to love God, love self and love neighbor.
LIFE Teams Four Fold purpose:
1. L = Love To prioritize loving as the purpose and goal of life.
-To love and be loved are the most important actions of life. To love is to give of oneself for the benefit of another. The act of loving is a choice that requires some level of sacrifice. The LIFE Team template focuses on understanding the deeper aspects of loving and developing our ability to love. Participants are encouraged to love one another through acts of attention, acceptance, appreciation and allowing.
2. I = Intentional To intentionally work at personal growth and development.
-Intentionality reflects a concerted effort to grow in faith, hope and love. Our greatest potential and our highest self is not reached by accident, intentionality is required. Embracing and working through the process and journey toward Christlikenss is an intentional choice.
3. F = Faith To integrate faith into the daily flow of life.
-Faith is a dependence on the Spirit of God within us.
Rather than just having random spiritual experiences, i.e. Sunday worship, our relationship with God becomes a daily interaction with God’s Spirit within us. Rather than looking for God outside of ourselves we seek to connect and listen to God’s voice within us. We make the shift from merely gaining knowledge of God to being expressions of God’s love, light, hope, peace, etc., in the world.
4. E = Empowerment To empower others to reach their full potential.
-Empowerment of others reflects our mission in life. We not only receive the love of God but we learn to pass it on to others. We find the love, light, hope, peace, beauty, etc. of God in others and encourage its expression.
A Commitment To Relationships
Each Life team decides how they will meet. Life teams can meet online or in-person, or both, for 90 minutes once a week or twice a month for a total of 12 meetings.
Teams stay together for two seasons (one year). At the end of one year together teams disband in order to encourage each team member to start their own LIFE Team.
Teams have 8-15 members and can be mixed gender.
Life teams follow the LIFE Team Template as an outline for their meetings
LIFE Team Template (LTT)
Season #1 (First 12 meetings)
Prioritizing Love
Jesus said; “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.” Matt. 22:37-39
(Remember that knowledge is not the goal but it is a guide to encourage connections & growth)
Defining Love
Clarifying what love is not
Unpacking our experience of love
Understanding loves effect on identity
Embracing love as our purpose
Overcoming the barriers to love
Studying examples of love
Healing the wounds from a lack of love
Abiding in the source of love
Developing loving habits
Setting goals to love
Empowering love in each other
Expressing Love
Season #2 (Second 12 meetings)
Defining our purpose
Embracing our unique Identity
Giving Acceptance to one another
Giving Attention to one another
Giving Appreciation to one another
Giving Affection to one another
Giving out of fullness, doing self-care
Celebrating diversity
Working at unity, equity and justice
Developing a teamwork approach to loving
Multiplying love: Mentoring
Reviewing our journey and Envisioning our future