Yesterday’s sermon explored the spiritual practice of “meditation.” For those looking for some guidance about how to engage in this spiritual practice, here’s a short summary of one way I learned how to meditate from our founding pastor, Tim Keller (in italics below). Tim’s simple and clear guidance has been a great help to me over the years, and I trust it can be for you, too.
To begin, choose a short passage of the Bible you’d like to meditate on. Read the passage once or twice. Then, in reliance on the Holy Spirit, consider these questions:
· Teaching: What is the basic truth or teaching this conveys?
· Adoration: How can I adore God for this? What attribute of God does it show?
· Confession: What wrong thoughts, feelings, behaviors happen when this is forgotten?
· Thanksgiving: How is Jesus the ultimate revelation of this attribute and/or the ultimate answer to this sin? How is this sin being caused by an inordinate hope for someone or something to give me the satisfaction that only Jesus can really give me?
· Supplication: What do I need from God if I am to realize this truth in my life?
Now that you’ve carefully meditated on God’s word, speak back to him the things that are surfacing in your heart.
· Pray adoration back to him. Tell him what you love and adore about him. Visualize how the world would be different if everyone saw this glory. Yearn for it.
· Pray confession back to him. Admit what you have done, what you are. Visualize: what would you be like if this truth were explosively present in your life? Yearn for it.
· Pray thanksgiving back to him. Remember some narrative from the life of Christ where he exhibited the trait you are thanking him for. Thank him for what he’s done.
· Pray supplication back to him. Ask him for what you need to be and what you need to do that this truth points to. Now move on to more general kingdom prayer—asking for the “kingdom to come” in your own life, in the lives of people you know and love, in the needs of the city and the world.
“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (Psalm 119:97). Praise God for the gift of his word to us.
In Christ,
Pastor Bijan
Take the Church-Wide Survey
We invite you to take our brief, anonymous RWS Annual Congregational Survey—just five minutes of your time can make a lasting difference. We are near the end of our fifth year living out our renewed vision and values. This past year, our focus has been to help each other know God more deeply. Through the kind of community we build and the spiritual practices we embrace, we want to move from simply learning about God to living with God in every aspect of life.
How well did we meet our expectations for this area of focus and other core aspects of our church? Your voice matters. Each year, your feedback has helped shape our ministries, refine our priorities, and enable us to respond more faithfully to the needs of our church and city.
The survey will close on Wednesday, June 17. Please take a moment to share your thoughts today by clicking here.
Nominations for Elected Leaders are Open Now
As the church continues to grow, so does our need for leaders to serve as ruling elders or, in the mercy ministry, as deacons and deaconesses (affectionately known as “deeks”). So each year, we invite the church to pray for nominees, and for church members to submit their nominations online. This year, we have moved the nomination period to begin before the summer in order to accommodate an updated training and discernment process. Nominations for elders will be accepted during the month of June. Nominations for deacons and deaconesses will be accepted from June 1 through September 30.
Upcoming
- June 9 | VBS Preparation Party
- June 11 | W83 Opening Reception | “The Gilded Hours”
- June 11 | Grief & Loss Support
- June 12 | Registration Deadline for 9th & 10th Grade Backpacking Trip
- June 12 | Coffee Clubs
- June 14 | Spiritual Practices Workshop: Worship
- June 14 | All Angels’ Community Meal Volunteering
- June 21 | Mandarin Speaking Community Group
- June 28 | Prayer Walk
Get Involved
| RWS Job Opening: Director of Youth Ministry RWS Job Opening: Youth Ministry High School Manager Volunteer with WS Youth on Friday nights this fall. Apply to serve with West Side Kids! Listen to sermons on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more. Serve at our welcome table for one Sunday a month at RWS. Subscribe to our Neighborhood Engagement Newsletter. HFNY: Find a place to volunteer this summer. Visit Hope For New York’s volunteer page to find a list of opportunities to serve across the five boroughs. |
