What is the Renovate Challenge?
The Renovate Challenge is taking God up on his promise to renovate our hearts. God’s promise is that if we follow Christ he will write his laws on our hearts and minds (Hebrews 10:16). God wants to make us like Christ inside so that we naturally obey him on the outside.
Why don’t we experience this life automatically when we put our faith in Jesus? Because God has designed that we will experience the life of Jesus only as we adopt the life-style of Jesus. That’s what Jesus means when he says “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)
Jesus’ lifestyle was full of practices that shaped who he was inside. He trained himself into a godly character. We believe that as we follow Jesus in his practices we will experience his character forming in us. God renovates us inside when we consistently apply Jesus practices in our days and weeks.
These are the practices we will follow Jesus in for the renovate challenge:
· Silence and Solitude
· Scripture memorization
· Fasting
· Prayer
· Service
· Worship
· Witness
· Confession
· Sabbath
The challenge is to do one of the above practices every day, and each of them once a month for 90 days.
But we will start slowly and gradually and we will provide support and help along the way!
We will be preaching on each of these practices for 10 weeks (starting Jan 28th). For each of the 10 weeks we will add in a new practice that you can try once during the week. By Easter 2021, we will be ready to do one of the Jesus’ practices every day, and each of them once a month for 90 days.
Here on our website you can watch the sermons on each practice, and we will give you suggestions on how you can experiment with each one. You can start simple and easy, and customize as you go.
How to take on the Renovate Challenge
Introduce one new practice into your week over the next 10 weeks. By Easter 2021, do one practice every day, each practice once a month. Keep it up for 90 days. Here is how to succeed at the renovate challenge:
1) Accept the challenge
- Hit “I accept the challenge” on the website
2) Join a support group
a. Ask one or two people to join you in a renovate group
OR
b. Hit the ‘join a renovate group’ button and we will connect you to a 3 person group
3) Begin implementing the practices (adding a new practice every week for 10 weeks until Easter 2021. After Easter you and your group will engage one practice every day, and each practice once a month for 90 days.) Click here to see the practices we have added so far.
4) Connect once a week for at least 10 minutes with your renovate group (phone, zoom, or walk)
a. Ask each other the following weekly support questions:
- Did you do the practices we planned last week?
- What did you experience through the practices?
- What will you do this coming week?
Don’t worry if you don’t do this all perfectly! You can miss some days and that’s ok. Just keep plugging along. The point isn’t to implement perfectly – it’s to connect with God more and allow him to renovate your heart. As we go along you’ll get to hear testimonies of what God is doing in people in our community!
