Frequently Asked Questions

What is lyfe?

Lyfe is about helping people to explore and discover a richer, deeper relationship with God through the Bible and experiencing spiritual challenges. Lyfe introduces a wealth of material developed by Renovaré and others around spiritual practices to help us discover a life with God, a sustainable spirituality and a faith integrated with everyday life.

Who are Renovaré?

Renovaré is a nonprofit Christian organisation, active worldwide but with it's headquarters in Colorado, USA. Renovaré seek to resource, fuel, model, and advocate more intentional living and spiritual formation among Christians and those wanting a deeper connection with God. A foundational presence in the spiritual formation movement for over 20 years, Renovaré is Christian in commitment, ecumenical in breadth, and international in scope.

www.renovarelife.org (Renovaré Britain & Ireland) www.renovare.us (Renovaré USA)

How do I start lyfe?

It’s easy to get going!

1. We suggest you find three or four other people interested in lyfe.
2. Find a cool place to meet – a pub or favourite coffee shop. You could also meet in someone’s home.
3. Then access the sessions from the lyfe website.

How can I find a group?

We do not introduce people to other lyfe groups – we ask people to start their own. You might find others to meet with you at church, through friendship groups or work colleagues. Be creative about where and when you meet – perhaps a café during the lunch hour, in the pub one evening, in the sports club or gym on Saturday morning?

Make the group fit as easily and as naturally as possible into your rhythm of life.

You might be able to locate others to form a group through our Facebook page.

Perhaps a lunch-time group where you work would be best for you – you could try posting your details on Facebook to see if anyone else works near you and could join you to form a group?

What size should our lyfe group be?

We suggest 4 - 5 people is ideal – especially if meeting in public – it’s easier to find a table to sit round in the pub! Also this size group is ideal to create the right atmosphere, inclusivity and accountability.

How often should we meet?

If possible, aim to meet weekly, or fortnightly if you can’t. Aim to meet for 1 – 1.5hrs at the most.

Do we have to meet in a public place?

No. If you would prefer to meet in a home to start with, that’s fine – but do aim to meet publicly at some point in the future. We prefer lyfe groups to meet in pubs or coffee shops because it helps to strengthen the connection with everyday life.

Who leads the lyfe group?

We prefer not to have ‘leaders’ – we’re all in this together, learning from each other. However, in reality the group may benefit from a ‘facilitator’ to keep the group focussed and organised. It is helpful if everyone uses the lyfe website and takes responsibility to print off the sessions – rather than one person providing materials for the group.

How long does lyfe last?

The initial time period is six sessions (to get an overview of the six zones), plus a session to review your progress. If you decide to continue, we suggest that you re-visit each of the zones in more detail using the four extra sessions in each of the zones.

The Six Zones

The six zones represent different aspects of the spiritual life that can clearly be seen in the life of Jesus. He prayed, knew the Scriptures, was empowered by the Spirit, was full of compassion, led a holy life and lived an incarnational life.

The zones can also be seen as specific movements throughout the history of the church. It is important to see that these zones are not separate, but linked. For example, to develop a life of holiness requires empowerment by the Spirit, time with God in prayer, reading of the Scriptures etc. Within the lyfe group, some will be more naturally drawn to some of the zones and will find others more of a challenge. Extroverts may find challenges around prayer and silence more difficult. Introverts may find compassion or engagement with the world more challenging. If you find a zone challenging – then take this as a good sign that you may need to grow and develop this area.

Accessing the sessions

We suggest that you begin with the ‘introduction’ sessions in each of the zones (Still lyfe - Introduction / Real lyfe – Introduction etc) to give yourself an overview of the six different zones. After that you go back through the zones in more detail by working through the four extra sessions in each of the zones – you can work through the zones in any order you like.

On each session page, you will find an introduction to the session and a sample of the material. Just click the ‘Full Session PDF’ button to access the session material and print off.

How To Use The Sessions

In each session, there is a four-step process – Review / Read / Reflect / Respond (except for Still lyfe introduction).

Review – Begin the session by reviewing the experience of the challenge since you last met. If someone was not able to try the challenge, you could ask the second question in the review section. If you found the challenge helpful – that’s great share it. If not – don’t worry, just move on. Some challenges will be great and others less so – that’s fine, it’s about finding new ways to connect with God, us and everyday life.

Read – each person reads the passage of Scripture to themselves two or three times. As you read, look for a word, phrase or something that really impacts you. Setting the Scene provides some background information about the passage.

Reflect – use the questions to help you as a group to reflect and discuss what you have read and especially what impacted you about the Scriptures.

Respond – this is about practically applying the theme of the session to our lives. Here we ask you as a group to create a challenge (spiritual practice) to experience throughout the next few days. It may help to keep it simple, practical and specific. Don’t try to be too heroic – e.g. pray at 3am every day this week! Small steps are fine.

If you struggle for inspiration, you can use or adapt one of our suggestions.

The group may chose different challenges, or decide to all do the same one. It would be helpful to use a journal / notebook / phone notes to keep a record of your experience of the challenge so you can accurately report back to the group next time you meet.

Facebook / Text / Twitter

Social networking is an excellent way for your lyfe group to connect with other groups (and individuals) across the UK. If you come up with a great challenge – then do post it up on our Facebook page to encourage and inspire other groups. We would encourage you to use text / twitter to keep in touch with your group throughout the week – to encourage, inspire and remind each other about the challenges you are experimenting with.

The Further Resources

Apart from the sessions that you download, there are further resources to read or view in each of the zones. Each zone has:

• video interviews to watch
• articles to read
• lyfe story's biographies of key Christians from recent years and how they link into each of the zones.

This is all helpful material to help you develop your understanding of the zones.