Rounds

Check-In Questions

One of the more valuable spaces we learned to create was the process of check-in.  It’s the fourth part of the protocol that allows us to take 5-10 minutes really processing where we are at before moving ahead. With the exception of the first one, the questions change over time to address the focus of the quarter. Check-in requires us to slow down and really listen to our heart.  It requires us to really listen to the mood or story we are bringing to the group as opposed to just rushing right in.

We usually pick two questions, how we are checking in, and one other one, to share out loud to the group, but no storytelling. We also provide an emotions chart with definitions, which allows us to really process what emotions we are experiencing at the moment.  It really helps become emotionally aware.

A large part of spiritual formation is the process of becoming self-aware and learning to really listen to the heart, as opposed to just the head.  So much of the pain in life calls us to shut down the heart.  This process helps open it back up.

The round usually leads to some insight into each person that we didn’t know.  It allows us to seek what is at the heart level and if something really needs to come out in the work round.

Here is a sample of the check in questions. The workbooks have space to answer the question each week.

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3.02 - Reflection Questions

Instructions: Spend five to ten minutes reflecting on your own life and answer the following questions as honestly as you can.

1. How am I checking in?  Try to identify the story or mood that I am bringing to the group meeting.  How do I feel right now?  What emotion comes up (ex: happy, fearful, anxiety, angry, content)?  Briefly explain why.

2. How did I experience God this week?

3. How is God speaking to me?  Am I listening?

4. If I were to reflect on something in my life that is frustrating or not quite right I would look at (fill in answer).

5. What is one way I can begin to let God love me?

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The Work Round

One of the things that makes Thrive groups unique is the work round.  It’s a specific period of time during the night where someone can work on a specific issue in a safe space amidst a trusted community.  We need these spaces in our lives.  We need a space to engage the work of the heart.

The work round allows each participant the time to process the stuff that is just not quite right.  This could include a fear, a lie, a sense of confusion, what it means to trust in a specific area, what it means to listen to God’s voice.  Most of these issues have to do with relationships.  The list of possibilities is endless.  But the goal is the same, to engage healing in our lives.

At first the work round can seem daunting, or even intimidating.  What would it really mean to be honest with our junk?  What would it mean to admit we don’t have it all together?  What would it mean to really follow in the footsteps of Jesus and practice love, to engage forgiveness, to reconcile the deep wounds of our lives?  What would it mean to leave shame and guilt behind? And what would it mean to let go of the

The simple fact is Jesus came to restore our lives.  He came to reveal the new humanity and the life we were designed to live.  To step into that takes work.  It means practicing restoration in ways that we are not used to.  It means tearing down the obstacles that hinder our growth. It means facing our own ego that keeps us locked in an arrested state of development.

But when we do, when we really step into the space of work, we become like the blind man who can see.  We get to be the ones that experience the restoration.  We see the power of the lies that have created terrible obstacles in our lives crumble.  The weeds gets pulled and the garden begins to grow.

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