Consecration Period

January 1st - February 29th

Consecration means setting something apart for God and it can mean a time of preparation for work and worship. We are discerning what new things God has for us individually and corporately to accomplish God's vision for us. Check out the information below to develop your own consecration plan and connect with what's going on during this important time.

The Leadership Team has five recommendations/invitations for this time:

1. Pray and fast for River of Life

2. Create a personal consecration plan (up, in, out)

3. Share your plan with the Leadership Team

4. Share what you are learning and doing with the church family

5. Whatever you do, do it with others :)

Click the recommendation above or scroll down this page to discover more about each of these.

Discover all the events via this google calendar (click to add)

Calendar

Pray and Fast

1. Pray and fast for ROL

Regular Prayer

We prayed regularly via zoom for January and now in February we are encouraging you to pray individually or organize something with some other ROL folks to intercede together and seek the Lord.

Check the calendar to see when other prayer events are happening and to get the zoom link to join in

Personal Fasting

We encourage you to discern with the Lord when and how would be the best time for you to fast and pray.

Here is a resource on fasting that can help you understand it and enter in as God leads you

Fasting Resource

Stay Tuned

for possible additional prayer events

personal plan

2. Create a personal consecration plan (up, in, out)

We will be meeting corporately on January 5th and February 2nd. There will be a variety of other events going on but really you have the freedom to pursue all that God is leading you to do!

We suggest you pray and reflect on how God wants you to grow in relationship with him? With others at River of Life? With those who don't gather with us?

What are the specific changes he is asking you to make? Write them down for each area and then do them!

An example for "out" is having a neighbor over for dinner or going out to a movie or event together. Or maybe going to a community event and asking “How would Jesus enter into these spaces? is he already here?”

Here is the link to a guide that was put together to help you discern what God wants you to do! It is pretty involved so use what is helpful and skip the rest!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11NfKetrYFGL0Td9o0Ic8GfzlD_C1P6g36vH1eKvtm7w/edit?usp=sharing

Check out below for some helpful resources in each of these areas.

Up - with God

Try a new bible reading plan, discover how you best connect with God using your sacred pathway (and do it!), see the Bible in a new light with The Bible Project, or try a traditional practice like Lectio Divina.

In - with us

There is a lot more information in this area under 4. Share what you are doing and learning with the church family. Click here to jump to it.

Out - with those who don't gather with us

-Consider your friends, neighbors, co-workers, or people of similar interests, who does God want you to connect with?

-Check out local events.

-There are so many great books and resources out there - on neighboring, on spiritual conversations, how God is mobilizing people today, and research on faith in a digitally challenging environment.

Share your plan

3. Share your plan with the leadership team

The Leadership Team would love to know what God is leading you to do during this consecration period and how it is going. We want to be of support for you. We want to help encourage you in seeking God and taking tangible steps of obedience and pursuing God. This period is laying a foundation for our transition and for you as we move into a new decade and a new level of staying in step with the Spirit. There are several ways to connect with us.

1. Set up a meeting, phone call, or zoom.

2. Send us an email.

3. Submit a plan via this google form, which can also be used to help you organize your thoughts.

If we don't hear from you in some way by January 19th then we are planning on reaching out to you and encouraging you to develop one.

Share what you learn/do

4. Share what you are learning and doing with the church

Sharing what we are learning and doing is critical to us caring for each other and discerning God's path for us looking forward. So please call people up, email them, meet, and share with Andrew to get the word out to the congregation.

Here are some important mediums/methods for you to share

1. Slack channel - share text, video, and more on various topics and learn how to do it if you haven't used it before.

You can access Slack via this link.

You can access a training video right here.

2. ROL Update - email info@rolcboston.org if you want to have something you did or learned sent out to the congregation.

3. Brainstorming sessions - we benefit from getting creative about ideas for the church. What are the functions of the church? What are the essentials of River of Life? What is God already doing in our midst? How can we cultivate those things? What does a multi-staff structure look like? How would radical change integrate into ROL? How can we reimagine Sundays to serve the functions we need? Or what other ideas do you have? Contact Andrew at fassett.andrew@gmail.com to get help in organizing a session or to get the word out.

We are trying to organize spaces for people to engage around important questions and share their perspectives in a way that helps discern God's desire and plan for us moving forward.

4. Learning from the past - What have we tried before and what can we learn from it? We would like to know that before moving into the future. Share your ideas and get involved in some of these sessions. Contact Andrew to find out more.

5. Youth discussion - What does the next generation have to say? Let's find out by listening well and asking good questions.

6. Mid Consecration Service - The February 2nd service will be a time of sharing how we have encountered God and what we have learned and done. Come ready to share.

7. If this seems like a lot. It is because it is. But don't feel like you have to do more than God wants you to. Also, the calendar can be helpful in keeping track of everything and picking what is of interest.

Whateve you do

5. Whatever you do, do it with others

There are many scriptures that communicate the message of working together to accomplish God's purposes. Here is a sampling of them to reinforce the idea: "Don't go it alone!"

Hebrews 10:24-25 - And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

Also remembering how Jesus sent out his disciples

Luke 10:1 - After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

And we are one body in Christ,

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 - For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.