Kingdom Longings

Introduction

We all have longings, and we all meet them in different ways. What we may not realize is that some of these longings go much deeper than a simple desire to get a decent job, or find a partner. Our longings reflect the gap between our reality and the Kingdom of God to come. When we dig a little deeper, we can see our “Kingdom Longings,” which are the deep desires of our hearts that the Kingdom of God will one day fulfill. In every cycle of this material, our focus is not simply retaining cognitive information, but changing the lens in which we see the world. We will explore how longings are displayed in the Bible, our culture’s narratives, our own lives, and the world.

Module 1

Have you ever wondered why Jesus's response to questions sometimes doesn't seem to quite answer what was asked? Often times Jesus answers the question behind the question which is what the person was actually longing for. In this module, we will explore why people responded to Jesus the way that they did, why some for some, his message was such good news that it changed them forever, and for others, they walked away sad or even angry. The Kingdom Longing bible study method is an approach to studying the bible that seeks to humanize the people in the stories and puts us in their shoes. As they experience the good news, so can we!

Module 2

Good story telling has a unique ability to draw out of us even things that lay dormant. Longings that we have suppressed begin to seep out as we resonate with characters and situations. In this module, we will explore how movie directors are able to tap into different longings within us, and tell us stories in a way that draws us into wanting to be part of them. We are part of the greatest story in the world, we just need to learn how to tell it better. As we explore good story telling, we can learn to tell our story and God's story in a way that invites others to want to be part of it and experience God for themselves.

Module 3

We often think of our "testimony" as how we came to faith. As we follow Jesus though, we are continually transformed, and each of these moments or experiences of transformation formed into a story becomes a new micro-testimony. We may have stories of how God met us in our anxiety, self worth, safety, belonging or any of the myriad of longings we have. Over time we can develop a library of micro-testimonies, and as we engage others and listen to what they are longing for, we can share our micro-testimonies of how God has met us in similar longings freeing us up to be more of who we were created to be. 

Module 4

As the world becomes more polarized, discussions about things like politics, religion and the solutions to the world's biggest problems can become contentious. As we seek unity, it's important to start with empathy and understanding. In this module, we explore the current events, what longings led up to the event, or what longings are produced by the event and why people differ on how they understand the event and what should be done about it. Often what we find is that people on opposite sides have similar longings, but different solutions. The goal of this module is to learn to find the commonality of our longings as a starting point to conversations in hopes that we can combat the divisiveness in our culture.