Right Between Us. The Chair Game.

Thaw

• Have the heaters been turned on yet or not? What's your threshold?
• What most stuck with you from Sunday?

Watch
"I walked on the moon"

• Thoughts?

Read

• Luke 14:1-11
• Thoughts?
• What drives the behavior Jesus was addressing?
• How do you see it playing out in your own life?

Leader note: Keep in mind the previous question is asking about the group member's life, not others' behavior. Make sure this part of the discussion doesn't become recognizing other people's Chair Game playing and not our own!

Discuss

• What's the difference between healthy ambition and the Chair Game?
• What allow Jesus to wash feet and stay out of the pecking order, and how is what what allows Jesus to do this available to us?

Read

• Proverbs 25:6-7
• Proverbs 27: 2
• 1 Peter 5:5-7
• Thoughts?
• Why is this hard?

Respond as a group to this quote from Sunday:

"There is no higher echelon or rank at home, at work, at school, at church, or anywhere, than 'at peace right where you're at.'"

Apply

• How can this group be a place where the broken ego is put to rest, and the Chair Game is replaced with service and love of others?
• What stands in your way and how can that be addressed?

The Waiting. 5.

Have you taken a step?

Have you cut off (the etymology of the word "decision") the excuses, the fear, misery of ignoring what overwhelms? 

A big thing and a little thing, have you decided to do it later?

Your group members may very well need your group to be able to begin taking actions they have put off. Discuss the topic of procrastinating, knowing that clarity often comes in the context of community, and that we are all looking to each other to feel like we are living life more fully. 

Thaw

• How has the rain over the last two weeks affected you and others?
• What has stuck with you most from Sunday?

Read

• Proverbs 26:13
• Thoughts?
• What is it about later, after the 'lions' pass that seems so real to us emotionally?
• What are the lions you are afraid of when it comes to taking some step on a project, or a conversation, etc?

Read

• Proverbs 15:22
• Thoughts?
• What does this proverb say to your sense of overwhelm or confusion about what to do next on some project or idea?

Discuss

• What is something you wish you could do, but have learned to think of it happening at some distant point in the future?

Leader note: this could require incredible vulnerability  There are times when business men finally admit to having always wanted to be a dancer, shy women confessing they'd always dreamed of opening an ice cream shop, etc, etc. But they have all the reasons in the world why that probably is something to try at another time. Not right now. Create a space that's safe and patient, where people can reveal big dreams, ideas and fantasies of any shape, dreams or duties that God may have very well planted within them, and see what comes of the group compassionately turning it into smaller chunks to finally take on.

• What is a big thing and a little thing that comes to mind when challenged to take steps relationally, vocationally, recreationally, etc?

Apply

• In what ways do words like "lazy" or "useless" get said around you in response to what you are now seeing as a fearful response to pain, disappointment and powerlessness? What can you do about this?
• How can this group help one another to stop procrastinating on a couple of really important fronts? 
• How will you circle back and ask about all this later?