The Lifestyle
MyFriends Journey helps you and your friends builds stronger bonds with each other and with God.
The journey builds on foundation of:
- Caring about your friends. Get to know what is really going on in your friend's world. This involves moving beyond "How are you?" and knowing the answer to "How are you really?"
- Showing Love . In MyFriends we don't mean the sentimental or romantic ideas you see on TV. Love means putting the needs of your friends above your own needs. It is acting in their best interests, even when that is inconvenient.
- Prayer. Prayer is the way we connect with God. Many of our problems are too big for us to solve on our own. To see lasting change we need to see God change attitudes or circumstances.
If God is important to you here are four actions you might want to take. These things may be new to you. That is OK. This is a journey and on the journey you will get better with these actions.
If you feel God is very distant from you or you don't think He is doing anything in your life, you can pass on this set. Maybe one of your friends will be sharing with you what God is doing in their life. Listen. Ask questions. Remember they are your friend. You don't have to agree with everything they say.
- Share what God is doing in your life. Be specific. Share your stories that have something in common with your friends' experiences and which they will find easy to identify with. Your friends will follow your story better if include comments about your emotions.
- Let your friends experience God. When they have needs, ask if you can pray for them. Keep your eyes open when you pray. Use everyday words that everyone will understand. Pray in Jesus' name. If the situation allows, let your friend pray after you. Then ask them if they saw God do anything response to the prayer.
- Connect your friend to God. Help them understand that He is not far away and that God is waiting for them to connect with Him. You may want to tell them how you became a follower of Jesus. If they are wanting to learn how to become a friend of God, you may find this outline helpful.
- Release . Encourage your friend to tell their friends how they can become a friend of God.
Once two or more of your friends want to discover God's story together:
- Form a group. Ask your friends if they want to get together on a regular basis to talk about God. You might meet weekly, fortnightly or for special events. We suggest using the outlines for Life Principles .
- Talk about the Basics . Once you have a group of three to seven people who want to go through God’s story together, you can begin going through The Basics.
- Celebrate . Important decisions in our lives are celebrated with the people who are matter to us. The decision to follow Jesus is celebrated in baptism. Here are some ideas on how to organise a baptism party where you can invite your family, friends and community.
- Living Community. Faith is best lived out doing life together with friends who are sharing the same journey. Here is an outline that you can follow with any Bible passage once you have completed Journey One.