A Quick Read...

Just wanted to pass along an encouraging article by John Ortberg in the fall edition of Digizine (new from smallgroups.com). It’s called “No, You’re Not Crazy—John Ortberg explains why leading a small group is more than worth the trouble.”

http://christianitytoday.imirus.com/Mpowered/imirus.jsp?volume=smgr10&issue=1&page=1

Enjoy!

Jenny

Things I keep.....My Resources

Discuss as a group what the mindset it is within each member for purchases, for receiving pay, giving, etc. Really dig into how it's viewed, the associated emotions and why God might make such a big deal out of our possessions, money and all we have.

Key passages

• Gen 2:15

(Discuss the good and the bad of "work" and why we do. Uncover whether within your group, work is seen as inherently evil-as in a result of the curse- or inherently good)

• 1 Peter 4:10
• Matthew 6:19-21
• Philippians 2:1-5

Based on the content of the 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 you 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?

What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Things I keep.....My Own Life

There are a million invitations a day to act on our desire to have someone else's life. That other girl's skin. That guy's car. That family's house. That companies bottom line. Most of our existence is viewed as compared to another's, and what is clearly envy, covetousness and a longing after our neighbor's "stuff" is thought to be a benign way of life. But it's not. It's one of the key toxins in our world, and it poisons our mind, our relationships and reduces us to immature babies crying, "what about him!".

As a group, try and find a few key areas where envy and coveting are a reality and explore ways that happiness might be laying underneath.

Thaw

• What most impacted you from the message?
• Are there areas you sense God has been trying to get you to notice with regard to envy before?
• How has this message reinforced what God has already been dealing with you about?

Read

• Proverbs 14:30
• Thoughts?

Leader note: The world tranquil is more commonly translated "whole" or "healthy" or "healed". This may affect the sense that your group gets in reading this passage.

Read

• James 4:1-4
• Thoughts?
• 
  
• What does it mean, specific to the context that James is discussing, to be a friend of the world?

Leader note: Some people are confused about "the world" and how God views it. Bear in mind that "God so loved the world" (John 3:16) and that we're called to love people/enemies/strangers. Friendship with the world means running its race and getting caught up in its ways. It says nothing about living isolated from it and judging it like so many Christians have taken to doing in the name of "not befriending the world".

• Why does he use the world "adulteresses"?
• Other times in the Bible, idolatry is called adultery. What's the connection with envy or coveting?

Read

• Deut 5:7, Deut 5:21
• Thoughts?
• What is the connection between these two commands (these being numbers 1 and 10)?
• Why would God care about our longings for other people's life?
• What does it tell us about God that envy made the "top ten"?

• Respond as a group to this quote:

Be a first rate version of your self, rather than a second rate version of somebody else -Judy Garland

Apply

• What areas of your day-to-day existence are tainted with envy over someone else's life?
• How does the success of others affect you? Be specific about the areas of success that come to mind.
• How is envy slavery?
• How is envy and coveting distracted you from God?
• In what ways do you wish to be envied?
• How is this a toxin in your relationships?
• Do you envy anyone in this group, and are you willing to confess how it has served as a wall, if even very small, between the two of you and in your freedom with God?

Prayer

• As a group, pray that the grip of coveting and envy would lose it's strength, and that happiness and fulfillment can be found in trying not to find it in someone else's life. Pray that the members of the group would take responsibility for their own responsibilities, and that they would each follow Christ and not worry about the affairs, belongings and experiences of others.

Things I Keep #3

The “General Discussion Maker Questions” from the Resource Site will serve you and your group well if you are currently discussing the Sunday messages. These should prompt some very good discussion for the Andy Stanley message, Guardrails, which we viewed on Sunday.

Enjoy!

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 you 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?

What role can this group play to help you take steps this week and beyond?

Things I keep.....The Faith

You may or may not have that person(s) in your group that thinks that this whole faith thing is for someone else closer to God. There background and subsequent theology/worldview is rooted in an idea that God is to be achieved in increments, and those increments are based on schooling, ordaining, and gradually becoming more spiritual. Until then, they are laity, while others are....something more.

What if everyone in your group embraced the gift of access to God through nothing other than Jesus Christ?

What if your group began to function, as a whole and as the individuals that comprise it, as the church?

What goes on in your own heart as leaders when you entertain that? Thoughts of worth? Ability? A lack of time to be "that" in?

This week, really go after how you see what it means to take responsibility for this faith, and to destroy every unbiblical stronghold that has you and your group somehow on the outside of the center of what God is up to in His Kingdom.

You may want to use this discussion as a springboard for communion if you haven't celebrated the death burial and resurrection as a group before.

Thaw

• When is a time that you felt like you were part of something that really mattered?
• What has really stuck with you from the message on Sunday?
• What specific areas has God been brining to mind?
• How did the message, overall, resonate or contradict how you think about faith?

Read

• Ephesians 2
• Thoughts?

Leader note: Some key themes include the fact that God does all the work, bringing us near, making us alive, raising us up, destroying the barrier (which refers to the very well studied dividing wall within the temple that kept out Gentiles, with a sign that essentially read, "go beyond this sign and you will be put to death"), joining us together, etc. There are no qualifiers or limits put on some. The whole thing is for all of us equally, with the net result being access to God, and peace.

• What are some ideas in this passage that you would consider contradictory to how you have learned faith?
• What ideas have been neglected, somehow?

Read

• 1 Timothy 2:3-5 (Memory tool: One Timothy, Two, Three, Four, Five.)
• Thoughts?
• Would you say that you live your life as though this verse were true, or do you live as though you haven't gotten the unmediated access Paul is describing?
• Explain how this plays out, either way?

Discuss

• What is the difference between someone living their faith in direct connection to Christ, and one who lives it through the authority of some other person or entity?

Leader note: At this point, you may or may not have members of your group who are articulating a certain perceived arrogance in thinking everyone can access God the same. Especially with more formal expressions of Christianity, the thought is that there needs to be a qualified man, or woman, to officiate the worship and the approach to God. Where ritual and tradition have their place, ritual and tradition are not the same as relating to Jesus. Those things are pictures that point us to God, and tap us into the ancient stream we are part of. But bear in mind that Jesus said he would be with us ("us" wasn't qualified in Matthew 28 beyond those that are willing to follow the risen Lord) to the end of the age and that without a mediator but him, our faith has no gatekeeper in human beings or ritual. This isn't meant to communicate access to God as trivial. It should communicate a level of responsibility many of us have neglected to embrace!

Apply

• If there have been any "aha's", whether in the message or in this discussion, what do they affect in day-to-day life?
• How does this affect prayer?
• How does this affect how we see a life of serving?
• How does this affect how we see our role in our family?
• How does this affect how we go about choosing and working our education, careers, etc?

Prayer

Leader note: Create some space where everyone can pray aloud. Set it up as a chance to equally access God through Christ. Acknowledge the awkwardness that some may feel, that some may choose not to, but to take a few moments and allow each that is willing to thank God and say want they are wanting to say in whatever words they choose. Offer to close the time once everyone (that is going to) has prayed.

Things I keep.....My Mind

This week, as much as a discussion about anything else, is a discussion about the lies we have settled for. underneath the "paint" of our out presentation is all the junk that God wants to redeem, restore and completely renew. But he does not force his way in.
As a group, this week may serve as a huge step forward in communal trust and transparency. But you must also remain aware that each member has a different level of maturity and cannot face everything "rotten" beneath the paint at once. Our goal as leaders is to help people take steps regarding the areas they are mature enough to recognize.
You may also notice through this week and the series that offline conversations will be necessary and more effective at giving people an opportunity to be real. If the group time doesn't seem to be drawing out what you sense to be the deeper realities, continue the challenging conversations, but also follow up (and encourage the members to do the same) in other ways and places.

Thaw

• Have you ever lied or exaggerated in an interview? DO TELL!
• What is the difference between the person who answered the preceding question with "no", and the person who said something like "of course, everybody does a little in interviews, it's understood..."?

• What was most impactful from the message Sunday?
• What do you sense is one of the main things God is working on in you?
• What do you sense God is working on in our church?

Read

• James 1:1-8
• Thoughts?
• James, the brother of Jesus, begins with acknowledging their hardships. The followers are scattered, against their will, throughout the whole region and away from their homes.Why do you think he does that?
• Why is perseverance, steadfastness or endurance so important?
• Why is James talking about them asking God for wisdom?

• Leader note: help the group understand that James is helping his readers face their real problems, and not to segment their lives. Asking God for wisdom in light of their very difficult circumstances is important. "God, how do I actually deal with all thats really going on around me and how I feel about it?"

• James talks about coming to God in faith, and without doubting, and that coming with a double mind shouldn't make you expect much. Why?

Leader note: the word for double mind is "di-psychos". This isn't about doubts about God in our modern sense. James is presenting to his readers a way of going to God in ritual, ceremony and in doing and saying what we're supposed to. In doing this, we're tossed by waves, or pushed around by the perceptions of others and the obligations we perceive. Rather than going to God and trying to guess what he cares about, James says go in faith, and bring to him the very real stuff going on within you. Go in faith, not doubting God's level of concern or involvement in what you have determined isn't spiritual, but is just life stuff...don't expect anything from God when you pray about things you don't care about because you think you're supposed to care about it. WHy would you want him to respond to prayers you don't mean? Pray about what's real!

• What does being double minded mean?

Read

• Romans 12:1-2
• Thoughts?

• In light of the word renewal being the same root word as John vision of a "new heaven and a new earth", how would you describe what God is trying to do in our minds?
• What is the difference between "be transformed" and "transform".

Leader note: the idea is the passive tense that Paul uses, where we make ourselves available for something God leads in, and then us doing it all ourselves, such as our culture teaches through self-help and will power.

Discuss

• When is it appropriate to focus on behaviors?
• Why do people prefer to focus on behaviors, their own and others'?
• What do people choose instead of allowing God to deal with them internally?
• What changes when we realize that God loves us with full awareness of our inner worlds, our pasts, and everything that we hide beneath the paint?
• Why is realizing God's love not enough to get us to be real? WHy is the approval and disapproval of human beings so important?

Leader note: You may find people looking for an opportunity to share that they believe more in the impressions of people than of God, that being why even though the truth "God loves me" is a beautiful idea, people are what's most real. You may want to even suggest that the group get real about this and admit, safely, that the reason we would go on hiding our insides and our brokenness after finding our the truth of Romans 5:6-8 is that people won't still love us if we stop performing.

Apply

• What is off limits to this group?
• Are there people in this group that you sense haven't been real with the group in some way?
• What are you fears when you contemplate discussing this with this person?
• Are there ways in which you haven't been real with the group?
• What steps can this group of followers of the Way of Jesus take right now?
• If spouses, friends, family, co-workers got real and it created difficulty and even pain, could you walk all the way through that difficulty, counting it joy, as James said in James chapter 1?

Prayer

• Have members pray, using specific words about what they have concealed from God and others. If they lie, they should refer to themselves as liars, and so on. Not in a fakey, self-condemning way. This is merely an exercise in reality.