LiSTeNeRs w/ Time

If there are new people, you might want to review the covenant.

7:00-7:20
Connect: Can you think of an instance where the value of time was known to you? Or how have you come to view the idea of “time?”

Example: As a teen, I turned the clocks back an hour b/c I didn’t like my curfew time and wanted an extra hour.

Perhaps others will have stories about something taking a long time or short time. Stories about a watch or other time piece, stories about daylight savings, time zone changes, being on time or late.

This produced great discussion in Sunday’s group with people sharing what time means to them and reflecting back in life on why they view time the way they do.

7:20-7:35
Surrender: In John 11:1-7, Jesus was confronted with a crisis (death of Lazarus). What situations are you currently dealing with that need to be viewed as opportunities for "God's Son [to] be glorified through it" (v. 5)?

After hearing people’s concerns, this is a good time to break up into groups and pray for one another inviting God into these situations and the group meeting.

7:35-8:05
Grow:

1. After listening again to the story of Jesus and Lazarus in John 11:1-7, what differences do you see in the way you respond to "crisis" situations and the way Jesus responded?

2. Go around the room and discuss how people in your group deal with the time constraints on their lives?

How are people doing in "standing out" from the world around them regarding their use of time?

3. When Jesus invited His followers to "Come with [Him] by themselves to a quiet place and get some rest" (Mk 6:31) -- how do you respond to His invitation to the same in your life today?

Which is the hardest for you…
Being alone?
Being quiet?
Or resting?

How can this situation be confronted?

4. God commands us to a Sabbath rest (on of the 10 "commandments"). Why is this one commandment so easy to ignore?

How might we re-capture God's heart for the Sabbath in our lives? (Discuss practical things here -- not fluffy, ideas).

5. How does 1 Peter 4:4-5 challenge you regarding the way you use the time God has given you?

8:05-8:15
Develop/Share:

Are there elements of the meeting you would like to delegate?

Has someone in the group been blessed by someone else? Ask them to share this.

OUTREACH PROJECT
This would be a good week to begin a brainstorming session on what your group could do to reach out together.

The only request I have, at this point, is that you focus their attention on personal type outreach (something that will touch people personally as opposed to impersonally).

Example: Instead of just collecting books for the local hospital waiting room, ask if you could host a story time when the room is full of anxious children waiting for a doctor’s visit. Instead of just raking leaves for the elderly, ask if you could throw a party for them too.

Brainstorming: Ask people to throw out ideas, and write them on a whiteboard or poster board. DO NOT evaluate whether or not the idea is a good one, just write it down. Ask them to think outside the box. You can come back next week and evaluate which ideas make the most sense for the group. People will come up with better ideas if they know no one is going to judge it on the spot.

If you don’t have time to do the brainstorming, you can do it next week. But time is running out (we only have around 5 weeks left).

LiSTeNeRs w/ Money

Great work last week. We had over 60 people in LIFE Groups.

Here is a suggested order for our meetings this week. I used these questions (written by Bruce) with the group on Sunday and they generated great discussion. If you come up with some creative ideas, comment here on the blog so that we all can benefit from your ideas.

Suggested LIFE Group Leader meetings: Sunday 5/6 @ 3pm and Sunday 6/3 @ 3pm. Let me know if those will work for you. They will be around 90 minutes long.

7:00-7:20
Connect: We only have 15 minutes set aside for this portion, so in less than a minute, tell us about one of your earliest experiences with money/possessions or the lack thereof.

7:20-7:30
Surrender:
Read over Luke 12:16-21 together as a group. Ask the group to pray out loud about ways we can break the hold that money has on us. And ways in which we can be rich toward God…
rich toward God in our marriages,
rich toward God in our perspective toward work,
rich toward sharing our faith, etc.
(You can break up into groups for this if you think it appropriate)

7:30-8:10
Grow:

Remember: anyone of these questions could generate great discipleship discussion, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t get to all of them. Choose the ones you feel are best suited for your group.

1. A recent national survey found…

• materialism,
• balance of work and family,
• and financial pressures are among the top issues confronting Christians today.

Are any (or all) of these true for you?

Would you add any other issue to the list pertaining to money/possessions?

2. Knowing that Jesus talked about money more than any other part of our lives and knowing some of His admonitions regarding its use…

• where your treasure is, there your heart will be
• it is hard for a rich [person] to enter Heaven
• You can't serve both God and money etc...,

how does your life come in line with God's perspective?


3. Discuss together circumstances when people find themselves tempted to think "more money would fix everything".

As a LiSTeNeR, what are some practical steps we can take to battle the temptation to believe this?

Or how might we help one another with this?

4. In Luke 12:16-21 why, specifically, does God call this "rich man" a "fool"?

What are some of the thoughts and practical applications that people in this group have received regarding what it means to be "rich toward God"?

5. Based on the different N.T. stories told about how 1st century Christians viewed their possessions (see 2 Cor 8:2-4 or Acts 2:42-46) how do different people in your group go about deciding how much of their income is set aside for God's work?

Are there ways in which anyone's thinking has been challenged in this area?

8:10-8:15
Develop:
One group created a group roster last week by passing around a sheet of paper and asking people to put their contact info on it. Someone will type it up and give it out at group this week. People can contact each other for prayer and get-to-gethers during the week.

You may have a sense that someone in the group would be able to help with a certain component (connect, surrender, grow) next week. This would be a good time to ask them.

8:15-8:30
Share:
Break up into groups of 2-3. Have them pray about people with whom they would like to share their faith. Pray that God would reveal an outreach type event for the group to do.

Bridging the gap between faith & footsteps

Last week, I noticed people's tendency to depersonalize the questions we asked them. We asked them what resonated with them in the passage and most people answered the question without answering it. They talked about the passage, but didn't really answer the question. It is much easier to talk about the passage then to let the passage talk to us. Please gently nudge people away from depersonalization and toward answering the question. One way to do this is to give people hooks. Examples: does the downcast faces of the disciples resonate with you? Does the fact that Jesus didn't reveal Himself at first resonate with you? Does the trip back to Jerusalem to tell the good news resonate with you?

There are three levels of bible study 1. what does it say? 2. what does it mean? (Bruce does a great job of covering these for us) and 3. what is God saying to me (this is where we ought to spend most of our time). If we allow the group to depersonalize every question, we will never get to the third level, which is the goal of our groups.

7:00-7:25
Connection: Create a covenant. What do you value in a small group experience? What boundaries would you suggest we adopt as a group for the next 8 weeks? (if you want to warm up to this question, you could ask people to share one of the first Christian small group experiences they can recall).

7:25-7:35
Surrender:
Read over Romans 12:1-2 together as a group. If you have different Bible translations available, read from 2 or 3 different translations. As you listen to these words once again, what thoughts or questions come to your mind about Paul's challenge? Invite God to do His will with your group.

7:35-8:10
Grow:
1. If it is true for you that "you are the most attentive to God when you are the most desperate", what does it say about "trials" and "difficult times" in our lives?

2. As we strive to put "footsteps to our faith", what sort of inspiration (if any) do you draw from God's promise of rewards (eg. Jer. 17:10; 1 Cor 4:5 etc...)?

Warning: some people may ask if Jer. 17:10 is suggesting a works salvation. This verse confused a couple of people in the Sunday group. You could explain the different between works for salvation (which won't work) and works as a result of the fact that we are saved (which does work).

3. Which element of the Christian life do you find yourself having the greatest trouble with....

• Preparing for Installation (being honest in our self-evaluation)
• Removing old components (letting go of the "junk" from our past)
• Installing power source (living in the power of the Spirit)
• Mounting securely (living in faith that your salvation is secure)
• Customize (knowing and practicing your unique spiritual gift)
• Troubleshooting (knowing and relying on God's network of support for us in the event of trouble - eg. Scripture, spiritual friends, etc...)

5. Most Christians really want to "know God's will" for their lives. What do you think the difference might be between "knowing it" and "testing and approving" it (Rom 12:2)?

8:10-820 Develop: You could ask if anyone wants to say something encouraging about someone else. You could enlist people to help with various components (food, fun, outreach project).

8:20-8:30 Share: This might be a good time to introduce the idea of an outreach project/event and pray for God to open your eyes to the needs of people around you that you could meet. This is a good time to subgroup. In the coming weeks, I will suggest a brainstorming session for your group on this outreach event thing.

Surprised by the Savior

1^st week * 4.9.07 * Surprised by the Savior

7:00-7:20

Connect: Tell us your name and a time when you were really surprised by something. You answer the question first to model that sharing should be kept to a paragraph or two.

7:20-7:25

Surrender: To encourage self reflection, try Ignatius’contemplation. Through Ignatius’ contemplation, you put yourself into the story. Have someone read Luke 24:13-35, and direct the group to, “Imagine you are a disciple walking the road to Emmaus. You are barefooted. You are tired. The events of the last few days have filled you with emotion. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? What of the disciples’ experience most resonates with you?

7:25-8:05

Grow: What of the disciples’ experience most resonates with you? You could stay here for most of the time, but in case you need more ideas…

• Cleopas and the other man (t.o.m.) didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Have you (or someone close to you) had an experience lately where Jesus was present but you didn’t recognize it at first?

• Why do you suppose these disciples were kept from recognizing Christ at first?

• Cloepas & t.o.m. “had hoped” that Jesus would redeem Israel by military might, but God’s plan was to redeem the entire world through the death of Christ. When you first came to Jesus, what unrealistic expectations did you have? Do you have any today?

• What parts of your backstory (life story) might be overwhelming your ability to understand the things that Jesus wants to teach you today? Examples: sinful patterns, pain, hurt, grief, family of origin, etc.

• Is there a part of your backstory (way back or recent) that you have not taken the time to process with Jesus? Remember, Jesus can handle your backstory.
  

• Cleopas & t.o.m. traveled back 7 miles to share the “good news” that Jesus was alive. If you were one of these disciples, to whom would you be traveling back to share the news?

8:05-8:15

Explain how a typical LIFE Group will run:

• connection (icebreaker),

• surrender (slow down and focus on God),

• grow (discussion time reflecting on scripture/sermon application from previous Sunday)

• develop (time of encouragement, involving them in the process, finding ways to serve each other and the church)

• share (praying for and strategizing about how to reach our friends with the message of the good news). Each group will organize an outreach type event during the 8 weeks.

Explain that the group will meet next week to create a covenant and will meet for 8 weeks and then recovenant as to how the group wants to interact during the summer months.

8:15-8:30

Housekeeping stuff (where are we meeting next week, who is bringing refreshments/meal, etc.). Ask people to let you know after the meeting whether or not they would like to join the group for the next 8 weeks.

Remind the ladies of the progressive dinner on Saturday from 4-8 (still time to sign up; call church office).

Homework: for those who plan to come back next week, ask them “What values do you expect to be present in the group?” You will use their answers next week to create a covenant. Examples: honesty, caring, acceptance, fun, etc.

For group leaders only…

What is your favorite alternate title to Sunday’s message?

• A walk with two regular Joes

• Holy Heartburn

• Jesus reports, you decide

• Fully “getting” Easter (as in understanding the real meaning).