Together We Will Gather
When you attend a Juniper Formation Gathering, you are an active participant in yours and others’ faith formation and spiritual life. Every time we gather, we are building faithful relationships with one another and God.
As a “priesthood of all believers” our faith community is made up of movement leaders and people in ministry of all kinds, whether lay or ordained—yes, this includes you if you are or are interested in actively living out your faith in the world.
We gather every two weeks (twice a month) on Zoom, for two different purposes:
Gathering for Communion & Prayer
2nd Monday of the month, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time
Zoom link & Registration Page
Gathering for Scripture & Reflection
4th Wednesday of the month, 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time
Zoom link & Registration Page
Why will we gather?
The purpose of regularly gathering is to:
- Build relationships with one another and with God;
- Strengthen our faith; and
- Co-create an active faith community that prophetically reimagines Church for ourselves and with others.
What will happen when we gather?
This is the fun part. We get to co-create our gathering time together.
We are starting with the following outline for each gathering and have the freedom to make adjustments as we go so that we can co-create meaningful gatherings and reimagine Church together.
Gathering for Scripture & Reflection:
This gathering is focused on a Spirit-led experience and relational engagement with scripture. The purpose of this gathering is to reimagine and liberate scripture in ways that help us embody our faith so that our diverse selves and contexts become a living part of the radical love and justice of the Gospel.
Our time together will include:
- Gathering Song: Music to gather and center us into our time and purpose together
- Divine Reading (Lectio Divina): A Spirit-led, meditative scripture reading using multiple different interpretations and/or Gospel versions of the day’s scripture to deepen our living understanding of the scripture, its interpretations, and meaning for us today.
- One-to-one Relational Reflection: We’ll use Zoom Breakout rooms to pair off for time to reflect on the day’s scripture together and engage provided reflection questions as a way of integrating the living scripture into our lives, relationships, contexts, and faith community.
- Integrative Reflection: We will gather back as a large group to share reflections from our one-to-ones, which will be facilitated and framed by a brief wrap-up message from the day’s Integrative reflection leader.
- Sending Song: Music to send us forth and bless us in our ministries of lived faith.
Gathering for Communion & Prayer
This gathering is focused on sharing a communion meal and ministering to one another through prayer, ritual, and blessing. The purpose of this gathering is to ritually embody our faith life and community as ministers to and with one another.
Our time together will include:
- Gathering Song: Music to gather and center us into our time and purpose together
- Communion: A time to commune over a small meal with one another, with music, and sharing in the Creator’s Prayer.
- One-to-One Prayer & Blessing: Using Zoom Breakout rooms we will pair off for time to pray with and for one another. Prayer prompts will be provided and you are invited to share prayers that are on your heart and mind in the moment with your prayer partner and offer one another blessings.
- Closing Ritual: An interactive ritual practice that connects us to our faith tradition and reimagines new ways of embodying our faith with one another by offering a shared blessing as we go forth in our ministries of lived faith.
Who will lead these Gatherings?
Our Gatherings will be spaces for shared leadership from the Juniper Formation congregation and our friends and partners.
Our Gatherings Ministry Team currently includes: Rev. Javon Bracy, Spencer LaJoye, and Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher.
If you are interested in leading part of one of our Gatherings, let us know. You can reach us at: Jenny@juniperformation.org & Spencer@juniperformation.org
We invite you to make an offering today. An offering is a way we share with one another in support of the whole, and as a loving act of co-creating a new way of being together and with God as we prophetically reimagine the Church.
For all of the ways you give your spirit, heart, gifts, talents, and resources, we thank you.
