THE WHY PROJECT, week I

For the next couple weeks "church," the Body of Christ in the world, will take center stage on Sundays. Crosspointe will dream, plan, pray and commit to the role our church gets to play as THE WHY PROJECT unfolds. These are exciting times!

As a LifeGroup leader, create space for the members to discuss the goings-on in their lives and create an atmosphere that fosters better and better connections between all of you. There are always stories happening, always growth and awakening taking place. Don't miss that. As it pertains to the YMCA and your group time this week, there are several options for your LifeGroup time:


Pray.

• Pray for the members of Crosspointe to be leaning in, to be stepping up to the opportunity God has given this community.
• Pray for the surrounding community, for the many people we've yet to meet who will benefit forever from the faith and dedication of the people of Crosspointe.
• Pray for the YMCA, and the specific people and leaders who will represent Crosspointe's ministry partners to the local community and to the world for a long time to come.
• Pray for the leaders at Crosspointe and the YMCA and the Town of Cary who have worked for years to create a collaboration that will impact lives in ways we can only now imagine.
• Pray about your group's and its members' role in THE WHY PROJECT.

Get up to speed.

• You can go to thewhyproject.net and see Jonathan Bow, Lead Pastor and TJ Terry, Lead Strategist present the entire project as they've done for hundreds of members of Crosspointe.
• You can see Tracy Howe, COO for the YMCA discuss what effect this collaboration will have on the community.
• You can see Jonathan Bow's 4+ minute presentation to the Town of Cary about the vision we're all part of.

The Why before The Y (Happy Birthday Crosspointe)

Happy Birthday Crosspointe. 
It all began 17 years ago this weekend. And here we are, beginning some more.

We are getting ready to embark on a bit of history. I'm sure you've heard. For the next few weeks we'll discuss what that looks like. It's not hyperbole to refer to this as a game changer for our Church, for our community and even for how church is done around the world. And we get to be part of it.

Today, before we get into all this in coming weeks, talk as a group about church. Not simply a rah rah over Crosspointe, but a reminder that Christ all those years ago seemed to think it was a good idea to leave communities of people, imbued with his Spirit, at the helm of love and rescue. Talk about that, and what it means today. Because you're part of it. There's really no call like the call for imperfect people to follow this Christ, to be his people for the sake of the world. 


Thaw

• Rake or leaf-blower? Go.
• How long have you been going to Crosspointe, and how did you find the church? 

Leader note: You may have already dealt with this question, especially if you are in a BETA Group. You might want to put "What makes a good church?" in its place.

• What most impacted you from Sunday?

Read

• John 13:34-35
• Thoughts?
• What do you think it means for a church, a gathering of people who are putting more and more of their confidence in the Christ and Christ's way, to be known by something like love?
• What would you say people know followers of Christ for these days, generally?
• How might Crosspointe and the YMCA's partnership address your answer to the previous question, as well as Christ's words in John 13?

Read

The Epistle to Diognetes, c. AD 130

"... Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word -- what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world."

• Thoughts?

Read

From the Apology of Tertullian, AD 197 (a letter explaining Christianity to Roman citizens)

"It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. "See," they say, "how they love one another," for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. "See," they say about us, "how they are ready even to die for one another," for they themselves would sooner kill.

• Thoughts?

Read

• Romans 12:1-5
• Ephesians 5:1
• 1 Corinthians 12:27
• Thoughts?
• Consider Christ's values and agenda in the world. What does it mean to be the body of this Christ, mimickers of this Christ, connected to the other body parts and mimickers of this Christ?

Discuss

• Do you consider yourself part of the body of Christ, or something else? Explain?
• If you do not consider yourself part of the body of Christ, how might this group help you feel like you were?

Leader note: The reasoning they share here might have to do with a resistance to being conformed to the ideology of his or her parents or others they don't respect. It might have to do with past wounds caused at church. It might have to do with a sense of shame and therefore a self-inflicted distance (banishment). As much as is appropriate, try and help each member understand that we are not part of this by our perfection, but by our faith that there's something stronger than our errors. Forgiveness of course isn't mere tolerance, but inclusion in Christ's work. No matter who we are, we are forgiven AND THEN hired for work, incorporated into Christ's loving service to the world.


Prayer

• In coming weeks, Crosspointe will officially link arms by way of finances, prayer and more in The Why Project campaign. Pray as a group, and continue doing so, as we move into this next chapter together. Pray for the leadership of the Triangle YMCA. Pray for the leadership of Crosspointe. Pray for all who call Crosspointe home. Pray for all the details meticulously crafted over the last three years, such as the lease, the financial elements, the architectural designs, civil engineering, the timeline. Pray for the thousands upon thousands of children, young adults, men and women from every sort of background, whom we've not met yet but will get to serve in a way we otherwise never could have. And very significantly, pray for your LifeGroup and the dozens of others who meet throughout the triangle- for the commitment it will require of all of us, those who comprise Christ's body in this area.

Of Forests and Trees. Wine.

It's a strange little story.
But it has big implications for the small, day-to-day life of faith we live.

Use this discussion time to see if you can uncover the depths of faith and trust in the mundane, in the ordinary and where we'd been taught was beneath Almighty God.



Thaw

• What most stuck with you from Sunday?
• What is a big thing you are currently praying about?
• What is a small thing(s) you are currently praying about?

Read

• John 2:1-11
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• How important have you found "tone" to be in reading the words of Christ.
• How important have you found tone in how you communicate with others?
• How important is tone when others are speaking with you?
• How can rehearing tone be a way that we give others the benefit of the doubt, and try to assume good intentions?

• What tone do you default to most from this list?
• Skeptical
• Boring
• Harsh
• Pleading
• Authoritative, but not to you
• Disinterested
• Other

Read

• John 2:5
• Based on the scene, what might Mary be referring to besides the obvious upcoming instructions about what to do with the water?

Leader note: help the group recognize that Jesus was sensitive to timing, to making sure he didn't steal the spotlight, to blessing others in a time of need, even though that need wasn't desperate or life/death. "Doing whatever Jesus says" has more to do with his literal instructions, which is important, but to do things how he does them. See if the group can make some discoveries about this, and make attributions to this being what John considered the "revealing of his glory."

• Respond as a group to this sentence, as response to verse 11, while thinking of your own background with Christian faith:

The disciples followed Jesus as much for his humility and his interest in doing right by others, as he was followed for his supernatural ability.

Discuss

• Going back to the big and little prayers you are offering lately, explain your understanding of God's interest in the details of your life?
• Do you believe we can bother God? Where did you get your answer to this?
• Can God be interested in things we're not desperate about? What does your answer tell you about whether we can bring our regular lives before God?
• How risky does it feel for you to ask God to take special interest in the details of your life, since it has the potential to show God as perhaps not at work unless you keep your prayers broad and general?

Apply

• How can this group grow to be even more a place where the members share the details of their day-to-day with one another, and with God- not just itemized requests, but all thoughts and concerns?
• What might this accomplish?

Of Forests and Trees. Pharisees.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

-Carl Jung

Our resistance to identifying ourselves in the other is a major hurdle to both out ability to see ourselves, as well as out ability to really love people as they are. 

Use this group time to discover, at least in some small measure, the ways we distance ourselves from others in the name of all sorts of justifications; holiness, morality, right and wrong, truth, purity, etc. While there may be truth in some of it, a lack of thinking about it can have us participating on one side or the other of condemnation. Yet, "In the way of Christ there isn't anymore of that!" (Romans 8:1, Steve Daugherty Translation [SDT] )

Thaw

• What most stuck with you from Sunday morning?
• On what basis do children shame, condemn and distance from other children?
• How is this different from how adults do it?

Read

• John 8:1-11
• Thoughts?

Read 

• Matthew 7:1-5
• Thoughts?

Read

• Galatians 6:1-3
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• Why is consideration of self, even as the sins of others seem clear, so critically important to the way of Christ?
• Have you ever found yourself doing something you swore you would never do? How do you think you got the place where you behaved in a way that a previous version of yourself would have judged, shunned or condemned? 
• Were you brought up to seriously consider context and background when making a judgment on someone else's life, or were you taught primarily to judge others' behavior?

Read

• John 8:57-59
• Thoughts?

Discuss

• What are the implications to you of God in Christ, the incarnation of the Great I AM, leaving the woman at the beginning of the chapter gently confronted but not condemned. 
• What are the implications to you of Jesus having only harsh words for the religious leaders, but not the sinners?

Leader note: Play with the idea, if you have time, about a possible difference between "righteous sinners" and "unrighteous sinners." The former being those who follow the letter of the law, but don't understand what God really wants. The latter being of the exact same value and merit, who are also sinners, who have failed the letter of the law, but often at least have the humility to admit it.

Apply

• If we won't assess ourselves soberly, or work to see our own lives in light of those we condemn, we cannot have compassion. Much less, can we do the work of Christ in being loving, kind and inclusive to all. How can this group be a way that we become people who do the work of seeing ourselves on the other?
• There's a flip side. We may have the temptation to demand people who are condemning or judging us stop and consider themselves. Even angrily. Especially when their condemnation of us is misguided, or hypocritical. But we can still live the way of Christ when being on the receiving end of condemnation. What are some examples of working to see ourselves in our accusers?
• What stones might we need to drop this week so that we might identify with the other, loving them more, seeing ourself more?