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How to Bless

The Blessing Strategy

Our mission to go and make disciples of all the nations (Matt 28:18-20) finds its roots in the original mission to go and be a blessing to others (Gen 12:1-3). This means that blessing others and seeing people come to know, love and serve Jesus are linked together!

If you do at least one of these BLESS practices every day, you will not only look more like Jesus, but you will help others find Jesus too!

BEGIN with prayer
LISTEN
EAT
SERVE
STORY

Begin with prayer. I will pray for the people in my life and the places that I’m in.

“God, may your kingdom come and will be done. Please provide me with an opportunity today to bless someone or someplace. Help me be aware of your presence and your leading today.”

Praying for people: Who do you live, work, and play with that is far from God? Pray that God would create spiritual curiosity in them, and then spend time with them.

Praying for places: Where does pain exist here? Pray for healing. Who makes the decisions here? Pray for integrity. Who throws the parties here? Pray for community. Where are the pennies spent here? Pray for provision.

Listen – I will listen to and discover the needs of others and the places where God is at work.

“God, how do you want me to bless the world today? Help me to listen to and discover the needs of others and where you’re at work.”

Before you can help others find Jesus, you need to listen to them first – their hopes, pains, challenges and dreams.

In your interactions with others today, take the posture of a learner. Lay down your assumptions, and practice being present.

Pay attention to the local news and ask God how you can meet those needs

Eat – I will share meals and spend time with people in my life.

You eat 21 meals a week. Who will you share them with? Eating is one of the fastest ways to move a relationship from acquaintance to friendship.

Who can you eat with (or have a coffee with) that is far from God? A co-worker over lunch? A neighbour during the day? A friend or family member over the weekend?

Is there a place that you regularly visit (coffee shop, gym, etc.)? Ask God to grant you opportunities to eat with people.

Serve – I will respond to the needs of others and help them in practical ways.

Before jumping into serving, have you taken the time to pray for, listen to and eat with these people? Doing these things first helps you discover the way that you really need to serve them.

Who can you serve this week? Who do you know that has a practical need? Ask them how you can help them.

Story – I will share the story of Jesus and what He is doing in my life with others.

You can’t spell BLESS without the second S. In other words, sharing the story of God with others is necessary to participate in God’s mission (Matt 28:18-20).

Here are some tips on how to share the story of God with others:

Start by sharing how God has blessed you and made a difference in your life.
Share your story in such a way that demonstrates that God is also at work in their life.
Don’t feel like you have to tell your life story at once. Think “bite-size” stories.

How to Have More, and Better, Gospel Conversations

I want to have more, and better gospel conversations. A gospel conversation is just what it sounds like, a conversation where the gospel is proclaimed. I hope these conversations happen naturally, with supernatural power.

Because we have all had enough of conversations that feel like forced and stilted sales pitches, here are four suggestions to have more, and better, gospel conversations:

Four Keys To Better Gospel Conversations

Pray – Sometimes the only reason we are not having more conversations about the gospel is that we are not praying about it. How then should we pray?
- Pray for motivation – Ask God to give you the right motivation. The right motivation to have more gospel conversations is simply to love and obey Jesus.
- Pray for more love for people – Ask God to help you love people the way He loves people.
- Pray for specific opportunities – Ask God to grant you specific opportunities to have gospel conversations. Ask Him to help you recognize them when they occur. Ask that you will have the necessary wisdom and courage to make the most of the opportunities He gives.
Ask for help – We cannot do this alone!
- The Holy Spirit is at work in the world right now. He is drawing people to the Father and testifying about Jesus.
- Instead of rushing out on our own and then asking the Holy Spirit to help, we should ask the Lord to show us where, how, and with whom He is already working so we can join Him on mission.
Ask good questions – This allows the other person to share their heart and puts us in the position to practice listening.
- In every conversation, I should expect to ask a minimum of 3 to 5 questions. This can be done in less than ten minutes.
- What are good questions?
  - Tell me about your relationships with your parents growing up?
  - What was your relationship like with your siblings? What does it look like now?
  - How was your school experience? Middle school or high school or college?
  - What did you do with your free time growing up? What extracurricular were you involved in?
  - When you were growing up, what did you dream of becoming?
  - Tell me about the neighbourhood you grew up in? How did that area shape you?
  - Who were some of the most important influences in your life growing up?
  - Tell me about your kids?
  - What do you like about your job?
Share your story –
- As we listen to the answers someone gives to the questions we ask, consider elements of your story that are similar to theirs.
- Consider sharing what brought you peace, hope, or comfort when you faced a similar challenge.

Above all, proclaim Jesus!

As we pray, ask for help, ask questions, and share our story, we are looking for opportunities to proclaim Jesus. I pray that as we practice these four steps we will discover many opportunities to have gospel conversations so that many people will hear the good news about Jesus.

DNA Group Questions

DNA groups are the primary vehicle for discipleship at Living Faith. A DNA group starts with just two people of the same gender and never grows past 4. The groups are intentionally small so that everyone can be heard, and no one can hide.

The three things a DNA group does are:

Discover – sharing what we are learning from the Bible,
Nurture – asking one another accountability questions to keep our hearts sensitive to the Lord,
Act – praying for those in our community who are not in right relationship with the Lord.

As a group forms and gets to know each other they will likely develop a particular set of accountability questions that work for them. To facilitate a group getting started we provide a set of questions as a starting point in our DNA group brochure. They are as follows:

How has your anger or fear or anxiety or addiction shown up this week? How does that reveal what you’re trusting in besides God?
How have you wasted time?
How have you felt yourself resisting obeying God this week: in your mission to the lost? In your sacrificial love for the community?
In light of God’s love toward you, do you need to reconcile with somebody? Are you subconsciously holding a grudge?
How have you battled sexual or intimacy temptation and how are you preparing to deal with it next week?
How has the Holy Spirit been testing and growing you this week? Did you respond in faith or grumbling?
Is anything (school, work, technology, etc.) isolating you from important relationships?
__________________________ (Your personalized question)

You may notice that each of the above questions is open-ended. Most of them begin with the word, “how.” This can be a great starting point for most people. We have found that some of us need more direct questions to get our hearts engaged. Here is a list of accountability questions that are more direct:

Have you been a testimony this week to the greatness of Jesus Christ with both your words and actions?
Have you been exposed to sexually alluring material or allowed your mind to entertain inappropriate sexual thoughts about another person this week?
Have you lacked any integrity in your financial dealings this week, or coveted something that does not belong to you?
Have you been honoring, understanding, and generous in your important relationships this past week?
Have you damaged another person by your words, either behind his/her back or face-to-face?
Have you given in to an addictive behavior this week? Explain.
Have you continued to remain angry toward another?
Have you secretly wished for another’s misfortune so that you might excel?
Did you finish your reading this week and hear from the Lord? What are you going to do about it?
Have you been completely honest with me?

Whichever list you use, remember that the goal is transparency, purity, and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. We are not on a fault-finding mission. We are simply wanting to help one another walk uprightly with the Lord, sensitive to His Spirit, and powerfully engaged in His mission.

Small is the New Big

I have been to some really big events. I’ve been to stadiums filled with thousands of people singing along with the latest worship band. I’ve been to churches that could seat more people than the entire population of some towns I’ve lived in. These large events can help us capture a glimpse of God’s greatness that small gatherings cannot.

Big events and large gatherings are very useful for the large impact they can have. For some reason, there seem to be things that get through to us in a stadium that fail to register with us around a small table. At the same time, there are things a get together of 2 or 3 people can accomplish that a crowd of 2 or 3 thousand, or even 2 or 3 hundred, never will.

For too long Christians have relied solely on the large group meetings to accomplish God’s mission to make disciples. Disciples need to be able to ask questions, confess sins, receive personal encouragement, and pray with and for others. There is simply no way for all of this to happen in a crowd. A group of three people is the perfect size for growing healthy disciples.

This is where DNA groups come in at Living Faith Christian Church. A DNA group is two or three people of the same gender who meet together once a week for about an hour. Together the group will Discover the truths of the Bible, Nurture gospel accountability, and Act on their faith by praying for the lost. Starting a DNA group requires no special training and no curriculum other than the Bible. You can learn more about DNA groups by downloading the free brochure. The link is at the bottom of this post.

You can learn more about DNA groups by downloading the free brochure. The link is at the bottom of this post. The DNA format is a simple tool you can put to use immediately that will help you grow as an individual, it will help you grow as a disciple maker, and it will help you grow as a leader in ways a large group gathering never could. Download this free brochure, recruit a friend to join you, and see what God can do

DNA Group Brochure PDF

An Hour of Prayer

Prayer is a high priority to us at Living Faith. In our Basics of Prayer resource, we outline 12 practices of prayer. Anyone can put these principles into practice and gain greater confidence in the practice of prayer. In fact, if you were to spend just five minutes on each of these habits of prayer you would have invested one hour into a Biblical pattern of prayer. The video below does exactly that, it walks through an hour of prayer using each of the twelve habits.

Below is an audio version you can also use:

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