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.