Introducing The Presence Project
Two Sentences
The Presence Project is simple. At its heart are two sentences:
Surely God is in this place.
Help me notice.
We're hoping that this affirmation-prayer becomes a normal, regular, and felt part of your life. If you're part of a faith community, we hope it shapes its culture, both when it is gathered together in one place and when it is scattered into many places.
This is a process, not a program.
It is about deepening the things we are already doing, not adding more to them.
One of The United Church of Canada's belief statements is A New Creed. It ends with this:
We are not alone.
God is with us.
Thanks be to God.
The Presence Project builds on this celebration of God's Presence. It grows our attentiveness to God’s Presence in our moment-by-moment experiences of life.
Running in the Background
You could compare the Presence Project to the software that's running on my computer. I'm writing this using web design software. At the very same time, other programs are running in the background (operating system, virus scanner, keyboard driver, etc.). Rarely am I aware of them (except when something goes wrong!) Still, they are vital to making my computer work right.
Using this metaphor, the Presence Project is about modifying our "operating system." At the beginning, we pay attention to installing it. Once installed, however, it runs in "the background." We keep doing our day-to-day things. Yet they are changed, because we are aware, available, and attentive to God's Presence.
Three Postures
Awareness, Availability, and Attentiveness . . . The Presence Project invites us into these foundation postures that open us to God’s Presence. It's helpful to think of them in order, but that's not how they necessarily happen. How God chooses to manifest God’s Presence is not ours to systematize or control. Still, this general pattern can prepare us to receive God’s Presence.
Surely God is Present!
We become increasingly aware that God is really present with us, and we can experience God’s presence, and God wants us to experience it, and these experiences can happen everywhere and anywhere.
Help me notice!
In our “gathered” times within the church-community we learn practices that help us be more available to how God might choose to manifest God’s Presence. These practices come to characterize our life together. (Our gathered times can include worship services, board meetings, prayer groups, fellowship times, small groups, shared meals, dish-washing, pastoral care visits, fixing the plumbing, and so on.)
These learned practices then become part of our day-to-day lives. God “deploys” us as Jesus’ people into the many places (our “many neighbourhoods”) we go.
Sense, Savour and Share
We adopt a posture of attentiveness, keeping ourselves open so we can “see,” enjoy and celebrate God’s Presence however God chooses to show it (or not). Again, we often learn this attentiveness within the gathered church-community. We then become what we might call “ambassadors of God’s Presence.” We make ourselves available to how God might be showing God’s presence in a place, circumstance, or relationship. We can join in what God is doing there, and invite others to experience and join too.
Jacob's Great Awakening
Surely God is Present!
A formative story for God’s people is the encounter Jacob had with God at Bethel. Picture the scene . . . Jacob is on the run. He is a fugitive from his vengeful brother, beginning to bear the consequences of his own deceptions and greed. He is vulnerable and alone. Then, during a fitful night’s sleep in the open countryside, God blesses Jacob with a vision. He sees God’s presence and hears God’s promise. When he awakes, he is newly-aware:
“Surely GOD is in this place, and I did not know it.” (Gen 28:16)
Seeking this newly-received awareness . . . this is the heart of The Presence Project.
God is always with us, but most of the time we do not realize it. Many factors within us and surrounding us blind us to God’s Presence.
Further, God’s Presence itself is elusive. God is not at our beck-and-call. We cannot conjure up authentic experiences of God. We receive awareness of God’s Presence within our relationship with The Divine. This relationship is one we cannot manage or create. It is purely God’s gift, an outpouring of God’s love. God’s love and grace always surprise us. All we can do is receive God’s gift and enjoy God’s mysterious presence.
The Presence Project is about helping us remove barriers to knowing God’s Presence, and forming us to be receptive to God’s Presence when it is manifested.
Brother Lawrence
What was Brother Lawrence’s secret? He just did it. His approach has been called a “methodless method.” He found some simple, regularly repeated actions that brought his mind back to awareness of the Presence of God. This is simple, but not easy. His approach was humane, gentle and forgiving. He often spoke of his difficulties, distractions and failures.
Brother Lawrence’s spirituality is for regular people like us. He encourages us to cultivate a constant awareness of being in God’s Presence, in all our activities and the different places we are. He himself did it while doing things like stirring soup or stitching a shoe’s sole.
The Presence Project adopts Brother Lawrence’s approach. We too can practice being in the Presence of God.
