This breakthrough practice helps you discern where the Holy Spirit is at work in your neighborhood–simply by making time regularly to pay attention to your neighbors.
WHO
This practice helps you begin to pay attention what God is doing in your neighborhood and community. It can be especially effective for lay members who are just beginning to reimagine church as a community that equips disciples to move outward.
WHY
Discerning God’s presence from a lawn chair is an excellent way to:
- Engage a regular practice of attention and noticing
- Ask the question, Where is God at work, right here, right now?
- Re-shape imaginations about how and where the Spirit moves
- Shift from an inward focus to an outward focus
HOW
- Set up some lawn chairs in front of wherever you live and commit to sitting in those chairs on a regular basis.
- Pay attention to what is going on around you. Who’s outside? What’s the neighborhood like? Get a feel for the rhythms of neighbors coming and going.
- Ask the question: What might God be doing in the neighborhood right now? Where might I notice the movement of the Holy Spirit right here?
- Try other variations of this practice: spend time regularly at a coffee shop, library, park, or bar and just observe what’s going on around you, and where God might be showing up.
RESOURCES
Download a PDF of this infographic that walks you through the entire practice.
