This Week's Message Questions

Hi leaders,
Take advantage of the "generic" questions posted that are alwys on the blog for this week's message from Steve as you plan and prepare for your group's discussion this week. We are so thankful for you and the time and effort you give to your group members and to your meetings each week. Continue to lead well.

Based on the content of the teaching/message:
What were the key points for you?
What was the "one thing" you took away?
What surprised you?
What bothered you? Why?
Have you ever heard or come across a similar teaching or idea? Have you ever been taught something that was contradictory?
What is/was already part of your thinking on this subject?
What did I learn that was new to you?
*About God?
*About yourself?
*About others?
What changes of thought are necessary in light of what you learned?
What changes of action are needed?
How would life be different if you/we applied this teaching fully?
What are the hindrances, and what do we do about those?

Click on this Title

Hey leaders

Just a reminder that if you ever need to go to the leader site itself (verses just the emails in your inbox that you get with each posting), just click on the title (typically in bold blue at the top) and it takes you right to it. Once there, you will find various forms, tools and resources to help you lead.

Steve

Transformed thinking. Transformed living.

This Sunday, Jonathan will walk us through a deeply significant principle that helps us better understand what it means to change. So many of us have the transformation that's being offered to us out of order and based on views Jesus did not have in mind. The results are frustratingly out of character for someone pursuing Christ, yet many of us have no idea what it is that continues to go wrong.

Thaw

• What was the most life-changing period of your life? Why?
  
• What's an example of something you thought or believed being changed very suddenly?

Read

• Romans 12:1-2
  
• Thoughts?

• Why would Paul guide his readers to be changed internally first, rather than the obvious behavioral changes that were needed?

• Why would he call this a spiritual act, or a reasonable exercise in worshiping God?

• How is this different than getting all your beliefs worked out intellectually before you act on them?

Leader note: We discuss often as a community that Jesus calls us into the journey before we get everything mentally handled. We are invited to bring our doubts, wonder and unanswered questions with us, along the way. But what Paul is talking about is actually being changed inside, paradigmatically. This may not equal answered questions and feeling of assurance. But it does equal the mental discipline of forcing yourself to see your world in accordance with who jesus is, rather than by who you used to be. This is certainly not easy at first. You have to train yourself to think this way, evaluating the old, habitual thought patterns as they arise. It is in this difficulty that we honor God. In that it's hard, it's a sacrifice. That's worship.

Read 

• Matthew 12:33-34
  
• Thoughts?
  
• What does this passage say about the importance of what we allow into our minds?
• Jesus said that if we hate or lust, we are then guilty of murder and adultery. Do you see a connection between this teaching and his words about fruit revealing the tree? What is that connection?

Discuss

• Jonathan discussed the principle of paradigms, strategies, actions and results in the message. With the paradigm that others owe you in place, what will your strategy be for dealing with people?
  
• With that strategy prepared, what actions and results will you see in your relationships?
  
• How would you define friends and enemies when you start with the "others owe me" paradigm?
  

Read

• Romans 15:7
  
• How does this shift in paradigm play itself out in strategy, actions and results?
  
• Why or why isn't this realistic in some of your more challenging relational circumstances?
  

Discuss

• What is an example of a person, or even a group of people, that you do not relate well to?
  
• Spend a minute or so and see if you can uncover what your paradigm is with this person or persons. Are you starting with them as having failed you somehow? They've disappointed you? They've caused harm? What does it mean  to change your paradigm from what they owe you (or even owe someone you love) to acceptance, forgiveness, grace and love?
  

Read

• Luke 17:12-19
  
• Thoughts?
  
• Respond as a group to this quote: "Unexpressed gratitude communicates ingratitude".

• Would you be considered a grateful person by feeling grateful alone?
  
• If this were your paradigm, describe the likely strategy, actions and results.

Leader note: It may look something like Paradigm: I think I am grateful because I feel that way. Strategy: I assume people know how I feel. Action: I don’t take the time to express it. Results: End up alienating people, communicating rejection.

Apply

• Are there other paradigms that the members of this group need to air because they feel like they are unhealthy or unrealistic, and are consistently producing bad results?
• How can this group help the individual paradigms that need renewing?
  
• Each member write down a single phrase that represents a paradigm that needs shifting. As you live out this next week, especially as you interact with family members for the holidays, see if God brings it to mind to help you allow Him internal access so that your behaviors and words (results) are better aligned with Christ.

Leader note: You may want to help by giving an example. Someone may need to write for their broken paradigm "Judgmental people deserve no patience". If they carry this into a family situation where they have judgmental family members, they are set up for Christ-unlikeness. In this case, that phrase needs to be front of mind so that when they interact with the judgmental person, they can allow God to transform them in patience, seeking to understand where their view cam from. Now they can live in the Spirit of Christ, watching peace and love and gentleness work better as a strategy than the impatience (and the ensuing holiday awkwardness) that's showed up every other year!

Christmas Eve Heads-Up!

Hi leaders

Remember when, as a kid, if you heard that Christmas Eve was a month away, it felt like you had another decade? Those were the days. Now it feels like I may not have time to shower by then. Only a month?  Yikes.

Showered or not- it's coming. And we are, hygiene issues aside, very excited about it. And so, as the absolutely mission-essential people that you are as LifeGroup leaders, and as it's the biggest visitor attended event we do, we wanted to give you a heads up about what Christmas Eve services would look like this year at Crosspointe.

We will be providing 5 identical Christmas Eve services. One on Monday, the 22nd at 7pm. Four on Wednesday, the 24th, at 1, 3, 5 and 7pm.

Like the Easter services this year, we will provide tickets ahead of time for each service. 500 for each (2,500 total). This helps us disperse the large numbers of people over all the services, helping each one not either be under-attended, or grossly over-attended (last year we found ourselves with one service spiking to well over 700 people, requiring the chaotic addition of chairs as the service was already underway.) This doesn't mean that once we have 500 ticket holding people show up, we lock the door. It's simply helps those of us already in the Crosspointe community be more intentional and on mission about which service to come to ahead of time- making it easier and more comfortable for visitors to show up whenever they choose.

We will announce this on Sunday morning, Dec 7th, making tickets available each Sunday starting then. You can discuss this with your group members to strategically plan to get tickets for the same service (if possible and desired), as well as choose to ahead of time to attend the services less likely to have visitors (such as the 7pm and 1pm on the 24th, respectively).

Finally, it will take a host of great smiles and hard workers to pull off such an important day. If your group is able to help on Monday or Wednesday in any of the first impression areas, please contact Nicole Brady at nbrady@crosspointe.org. She can also answer any of your questions as you decide.

I am so excited to see what God is going to do in people's lives with the incredible news we get to celebrate; Immanuel. I am honored to get to celebrate it with you, for the world!

Steve

Recap from DRM

This comes from a member of a LifeGroup that just went and served dinner at the Good Samaritan Inn. Great job!

The Dorr Life Group had a very meaningful “Serve Day” at the Good Samaritan Inn 11/6.  Meena did an amazing job gathering, preparing, and transporting the food for our Taco Bar.  She and Allen got to work at the GSI kitchen several hours early to cook.  So the preparations went fairly smooth.  (There was some talk about burnt rice, but never mind that.)  Many more of us showed up around 4:00 to help with desert, drinks, and heating up tortillas.  The kids were there also, to lend a helping hand, and make fun of men in hairnets.  With a full Life Group crew, dinner was served at 5:00.  We almost made it look like we had prior training on a buffet service line.
 
When the lineup was finished, well, we ate too, and had a chance to sit and chat with everyone.  We talked about kids, school, forgotten homework (woops), and the chocolate chip brownies.  Soon it was cleanup time.  Everyone pitched in and got that taken care of.  The women were pleased with Jeff and Kurt’s dishwashing abilities.
 
The kitchen staff were a pleasure to work with.  Joyce, who runs the kitchen, was so very helpful.  She had solutions for everything.  Which pan for this, which utensil for that, where can I dispose of burnt rice?  Some of the women from the home were also there to help get dinner ready, and clean up after.  We found that this is part of the program for many women at GSI, as they take an active part in the success of the overall mission.
 
Later Anastasia took us on a tour of the home, where we learned some about the daily routine there.  We've known for years the Rescue Mission was doing great work, but seeing GSI up close really adds to that appreciation.   We were happy for the opportunity to serve with these wonderful folks. 

This Sunday

Hey leaders

This Sunday we will enjoy a teaching by Andy Stanley. He does a great job (as always) with a very basic idea that a lot of people get hung up on before they give themselves to Christ, or early in their faith when they wonder if they have made the right and logical decision in the midst of so much mystery and unanswered questions.

As he recaps the previous message, he will talk about how it's about a person, The Person, more than it's about the issues, important as they may be. That's how it is with all relationships. Then, he begins to talk about the terms we set for God to win us over. As though he is going to cater to our demand s on what he must do or explain before we will submit. We need reminded that the terms are his, and that's the way we need it to be, if He's any sort of "god" at all!

Thaw

• What's something going on in your life right now that you sense may be God, and you aren't sure what you're supposed to do about it? Share it with the group.
  
• What can this group do to help you. Prayer? Ask about it from time to time? Help you investigate some hunches? Listen to you over coffee? Name it!

• What were your lasting impressions from the teaching Sunday?

Read

• Psalm 8

• First thoughts?
  
• How would you describe the attitude of the person (David) who wrote this Psalm?
  
• Why is this attitude toward God better than an attitude that demands God answer some questions?
  
• Why is it good for us to submit to God's terms, rather than Him submitting to ours?

Leader note: If you have parents in the room, ask the same question using a 3 year old and her mother, and see if that helps set the picture.

Read 

• John 8:31-32

• Who has heard "the truth will set you free" before?
  
• How is that phrase changed when you read verse 31 first?

Leader note: Help the group recognize that we don't "know" truths or have answers or get any kind of mental assurance before surrender. We get it as a result ( and perhaps decades later!) of submission to the terms of our Creator.

• Why would Jesus order it this way? 
• Why would we order it the other way, first the truth and the explanation and the answered questions and the intellectual safety- and THEN surrender and obedience?

Leader note: The latter is US in control of a predictable pattern. Yikes.

Apply

• What steps of surrender does any one in the group need to take, and how can the group support and encourage that?
  
• What's the one thing between your current spot on the journey, and where you feel God wants you to be?
  
• What are the costs (social, intellectual, physical, financial, recreational, etc...) to you acting immediately on God's terms?
  
• When will you submit to God's terms?
  

Leader note: Feel the group out before asking this one- but they may need a nudge such as this one to actually apply!

Important Update on Guides

Hello LifeGroup Leaders,

As you know, a year ago we instituted a layer of ministry in LifeGroup world called Guides. These people were put in place to create more access for our group leaders to prayerful support, as well as help for them in thinking and deciding through the week-to-week details that help keep our groups on mission. These individuals have been a great help for many of our groups and God has done some wonderful things through the interactions and relationships that have been formed.

We have, a year after of implementation and continued analysis, decided to take a different approach, and are ending the Guide ministry as it currently exists. The work of these Guides was extremely diligent and near flawless, but the structure, for our growing church, just isn't what's best for who we are.  As critical as our groups and their leadership are, we will always strive for what's best.

As the Guide Ministry is discontinued, we want to make sure that each of you leaders knows that you always have an open door with Jenny Rogers and myself to provide for your leadership needs. We look forward to being able to implement the next phase of leadership support and guidance, and will definitely keep you up to date on that. And, as always, we love getting feedback from you about how we can best serve you and come along side the important work you do week in and week out.

A very sincere thanks goes to Joey and Jeremy Hansen, Paul and Jacki Nickerson and Jan Kempe for their tireless efforts in Guiding and loving group leaders so well. They have been so great to work and dream with, and share our enthusiasm that we are going to be able to use all we've learned in the last year to take our LifeGroup ministry, and all the leaders involved, a lot further down the path God has created for our community. Thanks to each of them for laying the foundation for the next season of leadership care and development.

And thanks to you, LifeGroup leaders, for doing what you do so well.

Steve 

November Messages

Hello leaders

For those of you using the Sunday morning messages as fodder for group discussion, note that there have been slight alterations to the calendar of topics. This Sunday will be some more celebrating of what God is up to in our community in the year to come, and what's at stake. There will certainly be some good content to discuss as a community of people putting Christ and His way more at the center of their everything. Next Sunday, we will have a special teaching for which you can use the generic discussion guide in the lower right hand column of the Leader Site itself. We will close November with some thoughts on thankfulness and worship and being in awe of the life that God gives all creation. That brings us to December, where we will celebrate what it means for human beings when God becomes One.

Steve

Tuesday Night Groups...and the rest of us

Did you hear about the election thingy tomorrow?

Yeah....pretty big deal from what I understand. Supposed to go on all day...even during group time. 

In light of the fact that there is this large distraction running in the background all day tomorrow, the Tuesday night LifeGroup leaders need to help their groups focus. You might tell the group up front that you intend to put the TV on toward the end of your time together and that you can all get an election coverage update then. You may even want to email that out today so that people who are more passionate about up-to-the-minute updates (we all know they do exist!) can be assured that they can deepen their faith and friendships together, and then, as well, stay remain abreast about the next leader of the free world.

Wednesday groups, as well as all the other groups meeting in the weeks to come, remain mindful that there is much passion in this election, and you are bound to have people that are not only opinionated but, based on either outcome, also disappointed. Be sure and steer your group to engage in the political discussions with a view to the great Kingdom of God that supersedes the kingdoms of men. This isn't passivism- this is the hope to which we cling and live- regardless of who's sworn in this January!

Steve