By John Cole

Exercise 2:

Discovering my personal world

The aim of this exercise is to produce a 'wiring diagram' showing all the connections that I have in my life - through people, places, organisations, special interests etc.

Even though it is theologically wrong, this means starting with myself at the centre, and then plotting round that central point all the significant individuals, groups, organisations and concerns that contribute to my life. Whatever has the strongest influence (job, home/family, church?) will be closest and may generate its own spurs to much else which is also part of my life but less directly.

Once we have called to mind the different aspects of our lives and our various circles of acquaintance, we can then look for evidence of the 'tribal' nature of many of our relationships. Can we recognise, for example, among a particular cluster of groups or individuals any distinctive common features? It might show up in how we dress in that company, what we talk about, even the language we use in our conversation. The uniting feature might be our body language or a shared boundary within which the group guards its privacy.

Strong bonds between us will owe less to our material needs than to our sense that others share our feelings and attitudes. However, the strongest bonds of all may be within a group (or between just two people) where there is a mutual appreciation that we are individually enriched by feelings and attitudes that we do not have in common.

In groups, people can compare what they have drawn. Insights might include:

1. We only tend to know each other where our world and theirs overlap - often only in church. Hence we get pre-occupied with a churchy agenda.

2. Mission, witness and evangelism are likely to happen in the non-churchy bits of our world!

3. What we do in church may really be about equipping us to be distinctively 'people of God' as we engage with our world outside the church context.

4. We now have a massive new intercessions list - and (most likely) personal contacts in every corner of the globe!