Community Details

BLESS ^noun 1 : a community of Christians who voluntarily practice five daily / weekly BLESS practices 2: a community of Christians who participate in an online community accessed through the FUMC website

Online participation will be at the weekly convenience of the participant; there will not be a set time to gather online as a whole community. Online participation can be in the form of a prayer, prayer request, story of insight or success from one of the BLESS practices, a word of encouragement, etc. Since this is an online community, participants do not have to be in Flushing to participate.

BLESS ^verb 1 : to practice habits that nurture our soul and our relationship with God through Jesus Christ 2 : to practice habits to help us witness our faith through personal outreach 3 : to practice habits that keep us in community with other Christ-followers by encouraging and praying for each other

The five bless practices

1. Bless – Extend God’s grace to someone by blessing at least two people each

day by doing something kind and unsolicited for them, examples are:

1. Send a note of encouragement through the mail, email or by texting

2. Tip people in the service industry an extra 10%

2. Listen – Spend a minimum of ten minutes a day in silent, listening prayer, listening for the prompting of the Holy Spirit

3. Examine – Use the self-examination resource, found online at BLESS, for personal self-reflection once each week

4. Study – Become better acquainted with Jesus by reading one chapter a day from the gospel of your choice

5. Share – Share a faith story from your personal experience with someone you know at least once a week

The online BLESS community will be active during the months of January, March, July and October. The first of each of these months will start a new community, so participants may choose to participate for one, two, three or four months. Participants will covenant to pray for each other during the month, to practice the BLESS practices and to participate weekly in the online community. Access to the online BLESS community will be with a secure password through the FUMC church website.