Lent Week 3

Texts: Deuteronomy 30:11-20, Matthew 7:13-14

1. When have you experienced God move you through the process of accepting the next step in your discipleship journey?

1. What were the implications of accepting this next step?

2. Would you consider yourself currently looking for the next challenge on the path of discipleship or sitting in the same place?

1. What might that challenge be?  How can Trinity as a community help you in that challenge?

3. Where have you witnessed God walking with others in hills and valleys of life?

1. How has that experience shaped your discipleship journey?

4. How does it make you feel to hear that discipleship is more about your next step than your previous one?

5. Can you see this push of discipleship advancement in scripture? Where? How?

6. Was there anything in this weeks sermon with which you agreed/disagreed substantially?

MARKed

For many of us, the stories of Jesus found in the Gospels can feel like old news. We’ve heard them
time and time again in Sunday School, in sermons, and books. While they are regarded as holding the timeless truths of our faith, they can also feel stale. In part, this is the result of the stories being separated from each other and taken apart from the larger narrative.

We aim to bring those stories back together with this study. We are intentionally weaving the individual stories together to give insight into the intent of the author to create a compelling witness of God’s in-breaking kingdom.

We are excited about working through the gospel of Mark together with all of you.  We will be using the attached participants guide along with the sermon audio for our conversations.

Some of you already discussed the first week material back in October so we have a supplied more discussion questions below.

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Week 1 Participant's Guide Supplemental

1. What in your life would you most like to change?

2. Do you feel like you need saving?

3. How does acknowledging that "Jesus is Lord" change how we interact with Jesus and his teaching?

4. Why do you think God entrusts the spreading of the good news to us?

   1. How do you feel about that?

5. What are the “nets” that you find most difficult to leave behind?

6. How can you bring the sacred into the secular?

Advent 2015

We have our plans, our time, and ideas about how this holiday season should work. However, Advent changes all of that. The arrival of this season shifts our focus and gives us a greater expectation than day-in-day-out living. Advent interrupts our schedule and points us toward a new hope. It brings the blessing of an unplanned arrival. God seeks to stir within us so we may turn our faces toward something new.

This is why Advent is the “new year” in the calendar of the church. The year is made new by Christ’s coming. This expectation has two senses: it is the waiting for Christ’s return and it is the waiting for the Christ child to be born. In the first sense, Advent is a time for preparing for Christ’s arrival. It is getting our priorities in order so that we can properly greet the Prince of Peace. The second sense is not only the remembrance of the stories in the Gospels, but it is the realization that God is birthing something new in us.

The purpose of Advent is to make us pregnant with hope. For many, the holiday season is not filled with joy, family, and gifts, but anxiety, stress, and despair. Advent seeks to reframe our experiences with new expectations, expectations that will not disappoint. It is the expectancy that new life will start to grow within all of us. However, we must be willing to make room for an interruption. Can we make that space to receive this gift?

If you are a Life Group Leader please click below to access the 2015 Advent Life Group series.

Discussion Guide for "Give Thanks in all Circumstances" 11/22/15

1. How has 2015 been for you?

2. How much is thankfulness a part of your life?

3. What would you say to President Nebuchadnezzar?  It's just stone, right...

4. There was a time when most Mennonites received a copy of Martyr's Mirror as a wedding present.  What do you think of Martyr's Mirror as a wedding present?

5. How easy or hard is it for you to believe "God is able" when it comes to specific issues in your life?

6. What is your natural "posture reaction" to trying situations?

Discussion Guide for "One Step Closer" 11/15/15

1.  Where have you witnessed love transform a person?  How dramatic was the transformation?  What were the bumps along the way?

2. What are your experiences with the pain associated with love?  In those experiences, was love worth the risk?  Why or why not?

3. Have you ever considered the possibility that love is a gift meant more to make us holy than happy?

4. Read 1 John 4:7-21.  What does this passage tell us about the power of love to transform to be more like Jesus?

5. Read through 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.  Have you experienced the kind of love described in those verses?  Do you think that any one person is able to exhibit all those traits through love?  How about a community?

6. Did anything in particular stand out in today’s service?  Was there anything that resonated deeply with you or anything with which you disagreed?

Discussion Guide for "Faithing" 11/08/15

1. What are your thoughts on the comparison between Thomas and Peter?  Do you think Thomas was justified for not believing the apostles?  What do you think about Peter not having faith evenwith all the evidence?
2. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  Given what you heard today during the service, how might you explain this verse to someone who thinks Christianity calls for “blind faith?”
3. Where have you experienced God bring you from pain to healing?  How has this shaped your faith?  Have you witnessed God using that experience for your benefit and his mission?
4. In 2 Corinthians we are called ambassadors for Christ.  How does it make you feel knowing that Jesus has given us the responsibility of representing God’s kingdom to the world?  
5. Our’s is a faith built upon generations of devoted witnesses.  How can the stories of Anabaptist martyrs help shape and guide our faith through difficult times? 
   • Resource for information on Anabaptist martyrs - http://www.homecomers.org/mirror/contents.htm
6. Did anything in particular stand out in today’s service?  Was there anything that resonated deeply with you or anything with which you disagreed?

Discussion Guide for "Blessed Are Those Who Mourn" 11/1/2015

Summary:

The Sermon on the Mount has inspired many great people, but it says some hard things so many people don't think of it as practical.

We are looking at hope in the Sermon on the Mount. Eschatology is "the study of end times." It is generally taken from the apocalyptic literature in the Bible, which is usually a word of hope for tomorrow to a group of people in trying circumstances. While many take it to be prophecy, it is better to see it as a description of brokenness in the world combined with the assertion that in the end it will all work out through the power of God.

Seen this way, it is a statement about how the world is supposed to be. And that is something that doesn't just apply to the future; it applies to here and now. It becomes a call to allow God to "re-create" us into who we are meant to be and to participate in that process for the rest of the world.

Yet in the end, death takes us all. But Christianity has always been a message of hope rooted in resurrection and the Resurrection. This belief is what drove the apostles, even to their deaths. The world is broken, people aren't supposed to die, but there is hope.

While we see the Sermon on the Mount as being ethical in describing who we are to be, it also describes the world as it is supposed to be. It opens with the beatitudes; a statement that God is with those who suffer but also that God will heal our suffering. Blessed are those who mourn. But the blessing is not in the mourning, it's in the hope.

We serve a risen God and while there is still pain and suffering, death has lost its sting. We celebrate those we still have and the goodness of God, a God who weeps with us, a God who will make it all right. This is why we are blessed.

Discussion Questions:

1.    Does it surprise you that even non-Christians are inspired by the Sermon on the Mount?

2.    How does the resurrection play into your every day life?

3.    How have you seen the Book of Revelation in the past?

4.    Does it matter to you whether or not it is prophecy?

5.    Does the suffering of the Apostles give you confidence in their message?

6.    In what ways do you see hope in the Sermon on the Mount?

7.    How does the Sermon on the Mount provide care for the suffering?

8.    How does God comfort you?