REVIVE CONFERENCE 2024: AWAKE MY SOUL
REFERENCE SUMMARY AND NOTES
TL;DR
- Regnare Project: all about how to put into practice everything we’re learning from Jesus about living the good life of his kingdom. https://regnareproject.com/about
THE REGNARE TRELLIS
What’s a trellis? It’s a wooden frame that helps vines grow, making them more fruitful than they would be if they never got up off the ground. We’ve tried lots of different versions of this over the last few years or so, but here is the foundational shape that we’ve found very helpful in this process of ongoing transformation and training.
It has four components:
- Capture Method
- Morning Prime
- Evening Compline
- Weekly Renaissance
Capture Method: have something you carry with you everywhere that you can capture those moments during your day when something leaps to mind that you think might be nudge from God. Maybe this is a note app on your smartphone, a small notebook, even a stack of 4×6 notecards and a binder clip. The form doesn’t matter. That you always have this nearby is what matters. When you catch God saying something to you, you’ll have a place to write it down. Keeping these things all in your head makes it much harder to stay with them and to give them the attention they deserve. Specifically, here are the kinds of things you would write down: something struck you from your Bible reading; something challenges or inspires or convicts you from a Sunday sermon; you are reading a book, praying, talking in small group, and something strikes you—I think God wants me to pay attention to this. Jot it down. This isn’t journaling, don’t write a paragraph. Just enough so you remember what you heard, a sentence or a couple of bullets, something that your future self will read and know what you’re talking about. That’s it. Capture Method. Commit to carrying it with you everywhere.
Morning Prime: Some of you may already have a morning devotional practice, so this may be familiar to you. It’s just starting the day with prayer and Scripture, no matter how brief or small. If you’re new to it, start really small, five minutes or so. If you’re pressed for time, say the Lord’s Prayer and read the verse of the day on the Youversion app. Short and sweet is fine. But here’s the twist. After the prayer and scripture, take a look at what’s current this week in your Capture Method. Just a quick glance. This is your jolt to stay awake and sober, taking seriously what God is doing in you, to pay attention to those things and to stay with them. If there’s something concrete you should do in response to one of those little nudges today, then put it in your schedule and do it as soon as you can. Paraphrasing Jesus when he summarizes his greatest sermon in Matthew: seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and the rest of the day will take care of itself. So Morning Prime. Every day but Saturday. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Evening Compline: This one might be new to you. For this framework, we end the day with prayer, as well. After you put your phone away for the night, after the kids are in bed, after you’re done getting ready for bed, pause for a minute somewhere quiet. Let the peace of God and his unshakably great love for you settle into your soul. Run through a quick playback of the day in your mind, ask for forgiveness as appropriate and give thanks as appropriate. Then ask yourself, is there anything I noticed that God is trying to show me from today? If so, jot it in your Capture Method. Then push every other concern into the capable hands of God for the night. As you head to bed and drift off to sleep, trust God to bring about new life in you even as you drift into his protection for the night. Again, once you get the hang of it, this whole process can take as little as five minutes.
The fourth practice is a kind of one-two punch. We call it the Weekly Renaissance.
Weekly Renaissance: What does Renaissance mean? Rebirth, that’s right. And before rebirth can happen, we need to let the old ways go. So for the three previous practices, do these every day except a Sabbath on Saturday every week. On that day, rest from your disciplines and trust in the God who sustains you. Don’t worry about your Capture Method. Sleep in a little extra, let your evening be one of peace rather than disciplined prayer. Remember that Sabbath is the little death of all our striving and efforts, and this includes our disciplines. And, in true sacramental fashion, the little death then leads to miraculous new life.
The rebirth happens on Sunday, maybe before church on Sunday morning or Sunday evening before you begin your bedtime routine. It doesn’t matter, whatever works for your schedule. Give yourself about ten minutes to do this well. It’s meant to be a time of review and then renewal and revival. During that time, say a short prayer for the coming week and receive all God’s grace to begin anew. Take up the new life that Jesus pours into you. Let this be a new beginning for your pursuit of the good life of God’s kingdom. The early church called Sunday “the eighth day” for just this reason.
And here’s the twist on this practice. Get out your Capture Method and prayerfully review what you snagged in the last week. Is there a pattern you’re noticing? Something God has been drawing your attention to? A theme in the interactions you had with people or in your Bible reading? If so, summarize it for your Morning Prime glance each day for the coming week. Remember, just a couple of bullets. Don’t pull forward something from last week unless you really sense God’s leading to do so. Don’t overwhelm your future self. If there’s anything else you need to schedule for next week to obey what you’re hearing from God, put it in your calendar. This is also when you trim and maintain your trellis. Is what you’re doing for rhythms and practices working? Do you need to adjust when or how your disciplines are working? Does it seem like you’re bearing fruit and walking with God during the week? Do you need help or prayer? Make a plan to ask for it. Then, archive all the stuff you captured from the previous week and move confidently into God’s new creation.