Life Maps - a great tool for sharing stories
About a month ago, my groups director introduced a group of us community group leaders to a tool, called "lifemaps", that we are using to tell our life story within our community groups. I'll admit, I freaked out a little when I first saw it because this was a.) much more homework than just spilling my regular testimony to a group, and b.) required me to think about how things impacted me (and then go communicate it).
But since then, I have shared mine with my new community group and we are using lifemaps to share our stories with one another. After telling mine, and hearing a couple more stories (both in my mentor group where I've yet to go and in my community group where I led by being the guinea pig) I am a huge proponent of lifemaps. For two reasons:
1.) It really gets us thinking about what life events shaped us, and allows us to make sense of some of the things that we may see as just "randomness." At the end of the day, you look back at your lifemap and can have an internal (or external) dialogue of "what is the message that my life has told up to this point?"
2.) It really helps with transparency and authenticity within a group. For this to happen, small group has to be a safe place (which in a Northpoint small group is the case because there is a covenant of "what's said here stays here" explicitly communicated and understood.). The -10 to +10 assessments really create some dialogue beyond, "that was really cool" or "man, that really stunk." to understanding how we can relate to our brothers in our group.
It's really great.
So - if you're wondering what "it" is and how to use "it," a lifemap is basically what you see below (simplified and genericized of course). On the "Y" axis is a -10 to +10 scale, which is your assessment of whether that life event impacted you positively (and to what degree) or negatively (and to what degree). On the "X" axis is the years of your life (I was about to say "days" but I really didn't want any snarky soap opera references in the blog comments).
Once the lifemap is completed, it becomes a communication tool to guide the "tell your story" time in your group. For example, the lifemap below's story may be.
But since then, I have shared mine with my new community group and we are using lifemaps to share our stories with one another. After telling mine, and hearing a couple more stories (both in my mentor group where I've yet to go and in my community group where I led by being the guinea pig) I am a huge proponent of lifemaps. For two reasons:
1.) It really gets us thinking about what life events shaped us, and allows us to make sense of some of the things that we may see as just "randomness." At the end of the day, you look back at your lifemap and can have an internal (or external) dialogue of "what is the message that my life has told up to this point?"
2.) It really helps with transparency and authenticity within a group. For this to happen, small group has to be a safe place (which in a Northpoint small group is the case because there is a covenant of "what's said here stays here" explicitly communicated and understood.). The -10 to +10 assessments really create some dialogue beyond, "that was really cool" or "man, that really stunk." to understanding how we can relate to our brothers in our group.
It's really great.
So - if you're wondering what "it" is and how to use "it," a lifemap is basically what you see below (simplified and genericized of course). On the "Y" axis is a -10 to +10 scale, which is your assessment of whether that life event impacted you positively (and to what degree) or negatively (and to what degree). On the "X" axis is the years of your life (I was about to say "days" but I really didn't want any snarky soap opera references in the blog comments).
Once the lifemap is completed, it becomes a communication tool to guide the "tell your story" time in your group. For example, the lifemap below's story may be.
- I was raised in a good family... I was taught great values and felt loved.
- But then middle school was very awkward (duh!), and I started to question who I was and the things I accepted as true in my home.
- Through a friend, who invited me in 8th grade to their middle school youth meeting (he said I would meet girls there), I heard for the first time that I can have a relationship with Jesus. I was attracted to this message of God accepting me totally by grace and not having to jump through hoops to make him happy. I trusted Jesus and it was life changing (again, duh!).
- Got accepted to college. Yay!
- Once in college, I dated a girl for 2 years and thought we would get married. All of my church friends thought we were the "perfect couple" and I thought "for sure she is the one!" However, when she went on a summer mission project she met this cute guy (so she told me) and broke up with me over text from her mission project. Huh? I was devastated.
- And yeah, I was depressed for a while. However, a set of friends in my church, small group, and high school got around me and spoke truth into me about my worth in Christ, and I recommitted my life to Him. This was great and I realized that God was all I needed and I am now fully satisfied in Him.
Pretty simple story and bow at the end (I just made it up), but you get the point.
If you have any questions about using it in your group, feel free to comment or message me (I have a FB and Twitter account). I think you will find that your group (and you) will gain dividends from using it :-)
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