FAITH5 – Faith Acts in the Home (and Church)
My hope is that by now you have heard mention of FAITH5, a simple devotional practice put together by Faith Inkubators. I wrote about it in the February issue of The Leaflet, and if you were able to join us for a night of delicious pancakes on Shrove Tuesday you had the opportunity to take home a few resources centered on FAITH5. Perhaps your family has already tried walking through the five steps together, or maybe you’re still unfamiliar with the process. Either way, I wanted to share a few more thoughts with you about this faith practice and why I thought it would be a benefit to our congregation this Lenten season.
FAITH5 is a great tool because it’s simple, yet powerful. The entire process fits on the back of a bookmark (which we have available at church – pick one up next time you’re here). It doesn’t take any preparatory work, and it’s as easy to follow the first time you use it as it is the fiftieth. Here is a quick look at the five steps:
- SHARE your highs and lows
- READ a Bible verse or story
- TALK about how the Bible reading might relate to your highs and lows
- PRAY for one another’s highs and lows
- BLESS one another
Could something so simple really have any sort of profound impact on our families? Dr. Rich Melheim, founder of Faith Inkubators, answers with an emphatic “yes”! On the website, faith5.org, Dr. Melheim shares story after story of the changes that families have seen in themselves after regularly practicing FAITH5. A young girl comforted her big sister after a nightmare with one of the Bible verses they learned together as a family. A toddler reached out to make the sign of the cross on her parent’s forehead before bedtime. Teenagers who couldn’t come up with lows of their own turned to looking in the newspaper to connect with the larger lows facing their community. All of these are powerful examples of families drawing closer to one another, and their neighbor, as they draw closer to God. I would love to hear stories like these from our church families on Easter day. But that’s not the only reason I wanted to share this resource with our congregation.
I believe in the benefits of this practice for families. But Dr. Melheim has suggested that it can be of great benefit for churches as well. What would it look like if we began each of our board meetings with five minutes of sharing highs and lows? Would connecting with each other a bit more personally better equip us for leading our church body corporately? What would it look like if each of our Sunday School classes ended with a time of sharing blessings with one another? Would our kids see that they have the power and opportunity to be a blessing in other areas of life? Would we all sleep better at night if we left each meeting at church having been prayed for by the people we met with?
I’m not suggesting we restructure all our meetings, classes, and times of fellowship here at Beautiful Savior. But I am encouraging you to find little moments, here or there, where you can incorporate these simple practices into both your home and church life. It’s certainly not the only way, but it’s a simple way to invite the power of God further into our lives.
Blessings to you and your family as you experience God’s power throughout Lent and every day after.
Categories: DCE Jackie's Blog