Kingdom Come: A Devotional for a Gospel Heritage

By Dena Rosko

The Kingdom Come Trilogy arrived in time to support a vision for the gospel as a shared heritage of the family of God. This book, the devotional workbook for the Trilogy, is an accessible read for caregivers, ministers, community leaders, educators, seminary learners, people of faith, and anyone who desires to learn what a gospel heritage means to them and their organizations, families, and communities.

This devotional invites dialogue about basic needs, safe love, and continuing expressed in the Trilogy. Each chapter asks questions for individual or group work for heritage and dialogue circles to reflect on the spiritual rhythm of heritage formation, theology, and care.

Insights gained can encourage readers to cultivate conversations and practices for a gospel heritage. Together we can engage the joy of flourishing life and neighborly love now to eternity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dogwood Group
• Release date: Nov 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781792349799

Book preview

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to thank God, Graem, and neighbor Grandma Pae-Pae for walking with us, Good job! Good job! through perinatal and peripartum to craft meaning in this work.

I want to thank my son for napping like a boss so I could draft the early work, for sharing me on evenings for group nights to pilot the work, and for teaching me childlike faith through your joy, enthusiasm, diligence, and that your favorite colors are dark green, light blue, rainbow, and brown. Thank you, Graem, for inspiring me with your bright light and faithful love. Guess what? I love you forever and ever all ways always, and all the ages you ever will be no matter what.

I want to thank Mom and Dad, Dan and Maria, for your prayers, affection, hospitality, and support of my writing and ministries, and Mom for having fun with the project, especially my fondness for gardening with native plants.

I want to thank my niece Uriah for your sweet spirit, thoughtfulness, beauty, and gracious and generous support of my coaching, motherhood, and for loving me and G.

I want to thank my late Grandmas Adeline and Kitty, and Thelma, Martha, Bill S. and Janet B., Frank and Jacqueline O., and my childhood church and neighbors for a circle of community and family style faith.

I want to thank Pastor Churilla, Jensen, Scott, and Bishop Zachary K. Bruce, Sr. and families for being forever family.

I want to thank Aunties Dora M. and Darlene G.-C. for encouraging me to write a devotional twenty years ago, and for being proud of, and for celebrating with me, when I did.

I want to thank Aunt Laura and Uncle Pat for sharing your faith, family, and humor with me from start to finish.

I want to thank Aunt Vonnie and Uncle Alan for your cards with stickers, bringing pie postpartum, and prayers.

I want to thank Cousins Mike and Claudia for your generosity to me and Graem, Mike for driving all the way from Arizona to celebrate Graem's birthday, and Claudia for your prayer calls and passionate witness for prophecy.

I want to thank my sister Nicole for your laugh.

I want to thank Ronal and Jessica, Dave L., Dick W., Dwayne and Carol M., Dan and Darlene W., Steve and Vicky O., Jeremy and Heather P., Nathan and Annie P., Randy and Kezia C., Angela and Tim B., Tim and Teresa W., Alaine I., Donna M., the late Luther and Iva R., the O's, and Dorothy C. for your faithfulness and kindness as a congregation.

I want to thank Gail P. for your sterling clarity, advice, influence and hospitality during my teenage years, early visits, walks and hikes with Graem and me.

I want to thank Mary M. for your encouragement, elation, and enthusiasm for my writing and studies.

I want to thank Jim, Sharon, and Daniel K. for your hospitality, laughs, New Year parties, BBQs, and friendship.

I want to thank Courtney, Emily, Corinne, Sandy, Ed, Babette, and Julie for your prayers, and Courtney for friendship, committed prayers, and for keeping it real.

I want to thank Angela D. and Kim D. for the gift of your friendship, genuine faith, and for loving me as a sister.

I want to thank Sydney G. for your early support of this work and ministry, and Susy, I., and L. for art playdates.

I want to thank Ashley L. for reminding me to write not as a task, goal, or chore, but as God gives us gifts to enjoy with respect to our limitations and personal beauty as much as God gives us spiritual gifts and talents to work and to share.

I want to thank Zack for reading some of the early devotional content. I want to thank Brooke C. for your time to meet with me about budget and coaching practices, for sharing office space for me to pilot a circle group for this work, and to Brooke and Kristina for scheduling space for me.

I want to thank the moms who joined the early pilot group in 2018-2019, and those who join heritage circles, who reminded me to appreciate early beginnings.

I want to thank Jennifer C., Jennifer C., Carrie S., Kevin A. and Debbie A., and friends and neighbors too numerous to name for your community, prayers, support, and kindnesses.

I want to thank Corey H.C.L. for reminding me that God's love sustained me through the back story that brought me to this place, and the difficult message that rainbows are transitory, but remind us that God is there.

I want to thank Beth M. for your support with healing.

I want to thank mentors, instructors, ministers, and staff of numerous ministry and nonprofit organizations for your leadership and keeping me in good company.

I want to acknowledge carers of children and elders, and all children. Adults may seem powerful, but kindness and gentleness show true strength. We learn from you. We welcome you to the playmat of your and our heritage, and I thank God for your brilliance, imagination, curiosity, play, humor, openness, resilience, bravery, beauty, and courage.

I want to thank all translations for goodwill and gratis use permissions of translations included, and grace for formatting stylings of this publication.

I want to thank Jesus for his courage, empathy, and grace a little baby born in a common house and swaddled in a manger in the floor who grew up to show us the way of truth and life, and his persistence to love me and us in a world that didn't esteem him (Isa. 53; Lk. 1-3; Matt. 1).

Thank you Holy Spirit for keeping us in your stead and truth (Jn. 10-17). Thank you God for sending me this word to heal me (Gal. 4:4-7; Psa. 107:20). Be glorified!

You all have influenced and raised me as a person, mother, and minister of faith and heritage.

Any names, organizations, or affiliations herein besides my own are not responsible for the content. Any who have supported me yet I missed, I thank you from my heart.

May we be wise enough to learn such strokes of love, hope for wholeness, and continue on with childlike imagination and wonder now to kingdom come.

Kindly,

Dena Michele Rosko, Ph.D., M.A., C.L.C.M.

www.denamichelerosko.com

[e-mail]

www.dogwoodgroup.io

[e-mail]

Dogwood Group

Renton, Wash.

January 1, 2024

FOREWORD

Kingdom Come provides a phenomenal devotional to practice restorative circles within a variety of communities. As a restorative circle-keeper, connecting faith, social issues, and humanity can be challenging when synthesizing a cohesive process for transformation and healing. The material in Kingdom Come can be extremely beneficial to frame unique and focused structures to yield beneficial outcomes.

This material can benefit any Christian ministry intent on building trust and relationships while addressing at times challenging topics that impact the fabric of society. The power of Scriptures and the prompting questions connect in a complimentary way to circle keeping because the community can use Scripture as a foundation to build trusting relationships for faith and healing. 

In my work, I find that restorative practices offer a collectivist process that focuses primarily on engaging relationships and trust first before even addressing the issues of concern. The ability to integrate humanity and the truth comprises part of the internal and natural conflict with the self and others as in, For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would (Gal. 5:17 KJV).

Restorative circles come from indigenous practices that have been around for centuries. Restorative circles practice collectivism in process in contrast to the eurocentric individualism that makes up the dominant fabric of functionality and thought. Individualism as a social way often fosters hierarchical thought, actions, and results that can hinder inclusive communications and true acknowledgement of the harm done to individuals and communities. Addressing harm needs ingenuity and genuineness in many scenarios to bring transformation and wholeness.

Restorative practices have been used in schools, prisons, and a host of other areas. It is nimble and adaptable. I have used it in response to gun fire on sites where children and staff dealt with trauma. It is a true transformative process.

The Bible extols that Life and death are in the power of the tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof (Prov. 18:21 KJV). Life can be spoken to places and spaces through restorative circles practices. Within these contexts, application of the material in Kingdom Come can powerfully, along with professional guidance of medical and psychological disciplines when needed, engage communities to build trusting relationships, and to untangle areas of pain, sorrow, and disconnect to form true inner peace.

I look forward to integrating some of the principles in Kingdom Come into Community Connections Seattle Unlimited’s circle practices in the future.

Angela M. Davis

Community Connections Seattle Unlimited, Founder

Seattle, Wash.

February 16, 2024

PREFACE

Welcome! I encourage and inspire people to develop cultures of heritage in their ministries, partnerships, and organizations by writing, publishing, and training creative content about heritage theology, formation, and care across multiple genres, by facilitating groups, workshops, and retreats with dialogue and heritage circles, and by consulting and coaching leaders, advocates, carers, and families. The gospel promises a beautiful story of a shared heritage together in Christ that can brighten and bless the world!

I write about heritage across multiple genres to encourage people to develop cultures of heritage in their organizations and lives. I chose to start with the gospel with theology and formation to better root the gospel in my life as a mother, and to scale the work to minister to people who patch and stitch the quilt of heritage, an heirloom befitting generations, of support to new parents and carers of children and elders. The result provided a compelling model of heritage theology, formation, and care of whole systems that validates people via organizational anthropology, ecuministry, coaching, teaching, advocacy, and publishing.

I wrote this devotional to condense and improve access to heritage theology and formation for communities so that leaders can develop cultures of heritage in groups and organizations, and folks can reflect on what heritage through the gospel for a vision of kingdom come means to them.

I also want to validate carers to individually, or with other carers, contemplate their transitions to parenting or eldercare with principles of heritage, to feel encouraged by a gospel of faith, hope, and love for a future heritage, and to be supported by their circles as they discuss these chapters. This devotional includes journaling for people who might have pressure and limits around their time, yet want to engage.

I adapted this work book to companion the trilogy, Kingdom Come, and prayer book after a sixth read and listen through of the Holy Bible throughout the writing, revising, proofreading, citing, and editing stages. I began this labor of love on a tatami mat on the nursery floor questing for the word kingdom and stories related to heritage.

Each chapter begins with a brief reflection followed by Scriptures, readings, and questions. The chapter topics comprise the model that I expressed in the trilogy. In the field, I adapt this model to align with the needs, strategies, and values of clients. In the devotional workbook and companion prayer book, I organized content by chapter, or advent, slow, shelter, water, food, rest, and outdoors (Part I: Basic Needs of Heritage); physical, mental, emotional, social, cultural, institutional, and political (Part II: Safe Love for Heritage); and, spiritual, community, compassion, validation, healing, kingdom, heritage, and epilogue (Part III: Heritage for the Future). The epilogue includes prompts for journaling and drawing. This devotional bookends discussion to dialogue themes of gospel, heritage, and kingdom with questions:

Each chapter ends with a commitment of prayer and action for bringing the topic to life daily.

These questions emerge from this devotional:

Readers can, as the trilogy, individually or as a group read straight through over time, or choose chapters and sections that relate to them at a given moment of time.

Story sharing and dialogue in circle groups, ecourses, workshops, retreats, and personal reflection facilitate responses to these questions. We can return to each day and our organizations with clarity, comprehension, and cohesion to compel solutions to rekey conversations, and to reframe dynamic challenges as opportunities to facilitate heritage.

Such storied systems design can support carers, ministry, community, and civic leaders, health workers, researchers, theologians, policy designers, and families about the piqued concern around essential transitions to life cycles. This effort can engage conversations around a word oft misused in practice: heritage. The gospel redirects us away from ostracism, and to a shared heritage as kith and kin of Christ.

Sharing stories and dialoguing heritage comes by following decent and caring neighborly guidelines. A variety of people can use this workbook, such as seminary learners, mothers, fathers, guardians, individuals, groups, partnerships, and congregations to name a few. Guidelines for circle work in groups or partnerships can involve paused judgment, active listening, share bravely, and edify others.

Sometimes sharing touches trauma. Rules of engagement for validation can improve safety for sharing, especially when people feel motivated to support each other, or feel passionate about the topic. The stories stay in the circle, and do not leave in gossip or to hurt each other, but to empower.

This book does not take the place of advice from medical, therapeutic, or legal disciplines. This devotional accompanies the Kingdom Come trilogy, portals to the prayer book, and invites us to practice what a gospel heritage means to us, how we imagine kingdom come, and how the vision of these can bless and guide us in the sacral labors of heritage. Together these culminate in the Kingdom Come series.

The trilogy, devotional, and prayer book build from my research that designs partnerships of faith as compassionate community around ideals for a future that continues well for generations to come. This work addressed one locale's answer to the human and social service realties of human suffering when people lack access to continuous basic needs and companioned safe love. Local churches championed this effort by joining hands with other churches and agencies.

I offer facilitator training, dialogue and heritage circles, visioning and story coaching, and retreats. Training involves reading the Kingdom Come trilogy, devotional, prayer book, project or service learning, cohort engagement, and virtual conversations with me. As an organizational anthropologist of systems, I nuance language and practice to encourage a We story of heritage as children of God by spiritual principles that builds heritage-friendly practices and organizations by validating the bookend generations and their carers with the story of our lives together kingdom come. We do well to integrate the bookend generations with our daily lives, and to cherish a gospel heritage for a future kingdom