Coming out of Sunday January 31’s teaching, “The Church Defined: A Covenant Community”, spend some time in prayerful reflection and dialogue with your Home Church/Friends/Family around any combination of these questions:
Read Acts 2:42-47 before starting. Pray and ask God to speak.
- Reflect back to Sunday’s message. How did God speak to you through the sermon?
- Jeff talked about an ‘aversion to commitmen’t that seems to be quite prevalent in our culture. How do you see this impacting local churches?
- What is your reaction to the concept of seeing the local church as a “covenant community”? What’s significant about the word “covenant”?
- Jeff said that “Commitment is the glue that holds the local church together.” What do you think about that?
- Read Romans 12:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 1:10. What jumps out at you from these passages regarding the theme of “commitment to the church”?
- How do you react to the words of Paul in Romans 12 when he says that “we (as the body/Church) all belong to each other.” What do you think this means? What’s so counter-cultural about this statement?
- How do you react to the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians when he says to the church to, “Live in harmony with each other… let there be no divisions in the church… be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” What are some things that sometimes divide churches? What are some unhealthy things that people sometimes do in response to these divisions/disagreements/discord in the church? What are some healthier ways to navigate divisions/disagreements/discord in the church?
- When is leaving a local church something that God might bless? When is it something he might not bless? Why should ‘leaving’ usually be the last step for people/families? What are some things God can do when we ‘stay’, even when it’s hard and we are tempted to give up on our church community?
- Reflect back on Acts 2:42-47 where Luke (the author) describes the early church’s lifestyle and activities. What’s significant about the word “devoted” in verse 42? What are some things the early church devoted themselves to? What did God do as a result? What might it look like for us to devote ourselves (as a church community) to these same things today?
- Jeff talked about “Three Cultural Realities to Resist” as it relates to commitment in a local church:
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Busyness – “I’m too busy to connect/serve/attend.”
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Individualism – “I don’t need a local church to follow Jesus. I’m a Lone Ranger Christian.”
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Consumerism – “The church exists to entertain/encourage me and meet me and my families needs.”
- What are the dangers of each of these cultural realities as it relates to the church? How do you see these realities impacting the church today? What does it look like to ‘resist’ each one?
- Which one(s) do you think you personally need to resist the most? Why?
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- Jeff said “Our commitment to the church flows out of the commitment that God has made with us in Christ.” What’s significant about this?
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Jeff ended with the question: “What’s your next step in “committing” to your local church, The Gathering?” How do/would you answer that question?
