When the church gathers, it is participating in an alternative imagination. Walter Brueggemann Church Disassembled Small Group Discussion Guide
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 Christian Church [Buckhead]
The following excerpt is from Luke Timothy Johnson s book, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters. He highlights the truth that church is something we to together, and not alone. The communal and tribal nature of the gathering, seen here in his explanation of the creeds, is what God has designed for our good, particularly in times of doubt and faith confusion. First, we believe says that in the creed we profess the convictions that bind us together as a community. We stand together and recite them in public. The creed in this form is a political statement: we declare that we are the people defined by these words. Second, even as we say we believe, we must acknowledge the different ways each of us actually believes. Each of us understands the statements of the creed in slightly different ways. Each of us holds it with different levels of intensity. Each of us lives by it with different degrees of integrity. On any given Sunday, I must admit that I am not sure how secure my conviction is that there is but one God, or (given my own tendency toward idolatry) how much my life reveals such a conviction. Third, we also acknowledge that no one of us individually believes as much or as well as all of us do communally. The church always believes more and better than any one of its members. Does this mean that we act hypocritically when we say together we believe? Not at all: it is rather that we want to believe as the church believes, that we choose to stand together under these truths, in the hope that our individual I believe someday approaches the strength of the church s we believe. Luke Timothy Johnson The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why it Matters [p.46]
Church Disassembled About the Series This group study was written to coincide with the sermon series Church Disassembled given during April 2013. The goal of the series was to move through the four main elements of our worship gatherings - singing, teaching, giving, and communion - and to answer the pressing question: Why do we do those things when we re together on Sundays? We think that s a good question that deserves a good answer! Those messages are available for download here: www.christianchurchbuckhead.com/media/current-series. Small Group Discussion Guide Over the next four weeks you and your group will discuss each of the above four Sunday morning church behaviors, learning a little history, theology, practicality, and, if you like, some trivia! About the Set-Up I have tried to build a framework for dialogue and not just Q&A. What you ll find in each session are the following: Links to articles, videos, or blog posts; discussion starters; quotes to process; historical & theological information; scriptural support; and as always, some pointed questions to work through. Each session comes with a front page of information (mostly background, theology, etc.) for you as the leader to use. The second page is the group session. Again, it s a menu! Choose what will work best for your group. Oh, and pay close attention to the session take-aways. Those are the wins! Circle Up, Derek Sweatman
Schedule Week One: Song Passage: Psalm 150 Take-Away: We sing to reset our hearts on the greatness of God. Week Two: Word Passage: 2 Timothy 3:16 Take-Away: We hear and learn from the scriptures because they are useful and practical in living the life God imagined for us. Week Three: Coin Passage: Leviticus 19:9-10; 2 Corinthians 9:7 Take-Away: We give as an act of partnership with God and His work in the world. Week Four: Table Passage: Mark 14:22-25 Take-Away: We celebrate the communion as reminder that history is going somewhere.
Week One Song Psalm 150 Take-Away: We sing to reset our hearts on the greatness of God. Shared Tension: Singing may be the strangest behavior we do on a Sunday morning, especially for anyone who is not yet a follower of Jesus. The lyrics are strange. The music isn t all that familiar. No one likes to sing out loud, particularly around people they don t know. The songs are filled with complicated ideas, imagery, and declarations about God, often ones that aren t agreed upon by everyone in the room. It s no wonder that many people stand and stare rather than stand and sing. Session Notes: Psalm 150 will be your base text for this session. The psalm itself basically says: Sing about the greatness of God, and use a really loud band. Singing is a way to reset our hearts on God s greatness. Sometimes we sing because we know of God s greatness. Sometimes we sing because we need to be reminded of God s greatness. When we sing we re announcing that there is a better and stronger ideal than our own. When we sing we re picking up on that truth, we re rediscovering what it means to be God s people in God s world, and we re rediscovering all of that together, in one voice, as one community.
Discussion Guide Before You Begin Take some time to read through the material, make personal notes, watch any clips, and read any articles that have been provided. To do this justice, set aside an hour. Pray for your group prior to the session, asking God to lead and guide your community. TAKE-AWAY: WE SING TO RESET OUR HEARTS ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. Getting Started What was your first concert? How old were you? What do you remember about that experience? Who is your favorite singer or band? What songwriter seems to speak to you the most? Do you have a favorite movie soundtrack? What do you like about singing on Sundays? What do you not like? Why do you think we do it? How does singing on Sundays benefit you? How does it benefit the whole church community? The Text: Read Psalm 150 What is this psalm asking us to do, and why? Why is it important to announce God s greatness, particularly as a community? What does that do for us? When it is hard for you to sing about the greatness of God? When you ve had a rough week, is the singing portion of the service harder or easier for you? Have you ever walked in on a Sunday feeling low, and then left feeling better? Share! Quotable Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible. C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms [p.94] Links Mr. Bean sings in church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6a75bdojqg A post on what it means to do these things together: http:// dereksweatman.tumblr.com/post/39600629087/stay-together
Week Two Word 2 Timothy 3:16 Take-Away: We hear and learn from the scriptures because they are useful and practical in living the life God imagined for us. Shared Tension:The bible is old, it s hard to understand, and for many, it s not fully believable. So when the teacher takes the stage and explains the words of Jesus, there are a lot of things in the room to overcome. Doubt. Misunderstanding. Spiritual injury. Relevance. The list is long. Session Notes: Second Timothy 3:16 is the base text for this session. In the broader passage we Paul was instructing his friend Timothy on how to best lead his church. And when it came to preaching and teaching, his guidance was simple: the scriptures are the very words of God, they are divine (theopneustos), and should be wrestled with accordingly. But they are also useful (ophelimos). They are practical and meant to be applied to everyday. We ll talk about the importance of practical teaching, and the promise that God s word, when put into practice, is useful and relevant to life. And because we do it together on a Sunday, it s an act of tribal participation. We huddle to hear from the same text.
Discussion Guide Before You Begin Take some time to read through the material, make personal notes, watch any clips, and read any articles that have been provided. To do this justice, set aside an hour. Pray for your group prior to the session, asking God to lead and guide your community. TAKE-AWAY: WE HEAR AND LEARN FROM THE SCRIPTURES BECAUSE THEY ARE USEFUL AND PRACTICAL TO LIVING THE LIFE GOD HAS IMAGINED FOR US. Getting Started Have you ever fallen asleep during a sermon? If you went to church as a kid, what things did you do to stay awake during the sermon? When did the sermon start becoming interesting to you? At what point in your life did you start getting something out of the sermon? For you, what makes for a good sermon? What makes for a bad one? Are there certain things you hope to get out of the message? The Text: Read 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul, the writer, describes scripture as both divine and useful. If those two things are true, how does that change the way you listen? Is it hard for you to see scripture as useful and practical? How so? On Sunday Derek said, It s important to enter the building on Sundays with a genuine expectation that God will speak. What are your thoughts on that? How have you experienced this in your own life? Have there been Sundays when something spoke directly to you? What is your process for hearing and then doing? In other words, how do you take steps in the direction of what you hear from God? Quotable Yes, the world s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow. [Herman Melville, Moby Dick]
Week Three Coin Leviticus 19:9-10 & 2 Corinthians 9:7 Take-Away: We give as an act of partnership with God and His work in the world. Shared Tension: No matter how you frame it, teaching on money is not often received well. One of the last things we let go of is our over-dependance on our money. And when this subject comes up in a church setting, there are added tensions, as many people have gone through negative church experiences dealing with money. And yet, all of us are drawn to the good of generosity and what it can do in the lives of others. Discussion Notes: The two primary scriptures for this discussion are Leviticus 19:9-10 and 2 Corinthians 9:7. Both have to do with generosity as a way of meeting the needs of others. When talking about giving, the tithe (10%) is the normal go-to on the subject. However, the tithe in the Old Testament is a very confusing issue. Jewish scholars will tell you that the tithe is one of the biggest mysteries in the Torah. There isn t really any clear consensus on the spiritual behavior of tithing. That being said, what we do know from the scriptures, both old and new testaments, is that giving (generosity) is something God calls us to do in order to help him meet the needs in the areas of greatest concern to him: the poor, and those who are unable to help themselves. As for the local congregation? Well, that seems to be up to the individual person. There is no new testament that requires the believer to tithe to his local congregation. However, giving to your local church is a logical means of supporting its work and mission in the community. In the sermon connected to this discussion, Derek said, If CCB is your church home, then you should support it financially at some level, and on a consistent basis. The rest? Give it to the poor in our city.
Discussion Guide Before You Begin Take some time to read through the material, make personal notes, watch any clips, and read any articles that have been provided. To do this justice, set aside an hour. Pray for your group prior to the session, asking God to lead and guide your community. TAKE-AWAY: WE GIVE AS AN ACT OF PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD AND HIS WORK IN THE WORLD. Getting Started Who is the most generous person you know, and why would you say they re generous? Have you ever been guilted into giving to the church? What was that like? How did it happen? How did it make you feel? What s the difference between being told to give and feeling compelled to give? The Text: Leviticus 19:9-10 This passage is about making money. Crops were money back then. Knowing that, what is God instructing the Israelites to do when they make money? How are they to view what they have? What is the main reason God doesn t want them to harvest the whole field? How is the command really an invitation into a partnership with God and his work in the world? Read 2 Corinthians 9:7. Share your thoughts on this one verse. What speaks most directly to you? Is the act of giving something that brings you joy? Quotable And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who serves the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. [Justin Martyr, C.E. 150, describing the giving portion of a church service.]
Week Four Table 1 Corinthians 11:26 Take-Away: We celebrate communion as a reminder that history is going somewhere. Shared Tension: Unless someone has grown up in a church tradition where this was done every Sunday, communion can be a confusing thing for many people. It s mysterious. It s participatory. It s ancient and hidden. It s weird. Discussion Notes: When take the communion, we re announcing our need for God s grace, and we are collectively thanking him for that. Paul s words in 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord s death until he comes. Communion is a reminder that history is going somewhere, that we are living between two comings, and that when we eat the bread and drink the cup, we are pointing back to history (this happened) and ahead to the future (this will happen). When you re leading your group through this brief discussion (see below), keep in mind that you re simply scraping the surface of an ancient behavior of the church. Plus, communion will carry varying degrees of significance for the individual depending life s currant status. If there are struggles in one s life, be them health related, work oriented, relationally driven, and so on, communion will carry a sense of forward momentum towards hope and redemption. When life is on point, communion reminds us of God s grace. Communion: I recommend celebrating communion as a group together at the close (or open) of this session.
Discussion Guide Before You Begin Take some time to read through the material, make personal notes, watch any clips, and read any articles that have been provided. To do this justice, set aside an hour. Pray for your group prior to the session, asking God to lead and guide your community. TAKE-AWAY: WE CELEBRATE COMMUNION AS A REMINDER THAT HISTORY IS GOING SOMEWHERE. Getting Started When you set personal goals for yourself, how do you keep the end result in front of you? How do you remind yourself of what you re trying to accomplish, particularly when you grow discouraged in your pursuit? What about in your faith? How do you keep moving forward in your faith, particularly when things aren t going so well? The Text: 1 Corinthians 11:26 In this verse Paul states that when we take communion, we re announcing that something happened (history), and that something will happen (future.) Have you ever thought about it this way before? Knowing this, how is taking communion an act of hope? For you, are there any meaningful elements to this ancient practice? What do you think about when you walking to the table, standing in line, and then taking the bread and juice? When do you find yourself needing communion the most? What sorts of life situations make it more meaningful? Quotable Taking Communion every Sunday is a creative act, and it makes no more sense than writing a poem, or, for that matter, reading one. It isn t going to get you anywhere in the world; it s not networking; it has no practical worth. Every creative act, Simone Weil said, is a folly of love. [Nora Gallagher, The Sacred Meal]