COMMUNITY FOCUS John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. NOTE FOR LEADERS This document is a series discussion guide, and thus will eventually be comprised of three parts. With each week, another section will be added. This allows groups to go back and reflect on the first few weeks material instead of skipping it. This document is intended to be used as a discussion guide, rather than a curriculum. As small group leaders, please feel free to lead through the topic as most appropriate for your group. HOUSEKEEPING Things going at the moment: Upcoming Prayer and Response Nights: o Community: Wednesday 10 May 7:00pm o Mission: Wednesday 7 June 7:00pm Membership Information Sessions: Starting 30 April after church for 3 consecutive weeks Tri-Church Summit Weekend: 26-28 May Registration & Payment Due May 7
A NEW SEASON Our genuine and prayerful hope is that this series would be a powerful time of refocussing on and recommitting to a central vision as a church. Because we have so many new faces in our family, we feel we need to re-lay the foundations and develop this new shared commitment and vision. We picture this as being a Bible-open, Elder-lead yet collaborative process, which is hugely interactive and cooperative, and which encourages the whole church to participate through using and developing their individual gifts and passions. We hope to cultivate this with an emphasis on: praying for one another; praying and dreaming for the future of EBC together; confessing our own weakness, fear and sin; and worshipping and giving thanks to God We have developed the basic direction and structure which has been drawn from the unmissable biblical testimony for what the church is. The first conviction is that we are Gospel-Centred: Jesus Changes Lives. The three themes that hang from this first one are: Discipleship: Life with Jesus Community: Life with Others Discipleship: Life with Jesus Gospel- Centred: Mission: Life with Purpose You will have noticed the emphasis on response after the sermons, with a number of response spaces around our building. These are to help our individual reflection on personal application and Community: Life with Others Jesus Changes Lives Mission: Life with Purpose response to God. It will help us consider questions like: What does this look like for me? What does it look like for me to commit to this part of God s plan at Enoggera? What opportunities do we have here together? What is God leading us into? We will also be asking you to share testimonies in our worship services of what this means for you through the process. Finally, we are also be holding extra evening prayer and worship sessions, to provide another space to pray for one another, and to dream, pray and brainstorm for the future together. We are incredibly excited for this new season and eager to see what God is going to do in our midst. Please consider what it might look like for you to join in listening to God s voice as part of our church body, and committing to our future together.
#1 FELLOWSHIP REFLECT This is a time to generate some discussion by reflecting on the ideas in this week s message. Some ideas include: Ask the group to debrief for those who have missed the sermons on Sunday What stood out? Do you have any questions? Were there any special moments of clarity where God spoke to you clearly? DISCUSSION Let s continue with some focused discussion around the big ideas of this week s topic. Why do you think our culture does community so poorly? What makes a gospel-centred community look so different? What are some of the fundamental differences? DIG INTO THE WORD Let s dig a little deeper. Use the biblical text to discover what God reveals to us in his Word. A DISTINCTIVE KIND OF LOVE The health and vibrancy of our church community needs to take high priority for us because of its importance given by Jesus himself. John 13:33-35 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, Where I am going you cannot come. 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Jesus, speaking to his disciples, says love one another as I have loved you. How is it exactly that he loved them? He would show them the very next day as he hung from the cross, praying for his enemies: Father forgive them! The cross teaches us about what true love looks like. Our character then is to be modelled on Jesus. We forgive one another, we bear one another s burdens, and we serve one another. We sacrifice for one another, we submit to one another, and we do not hold our sin against one another. We do all of these because he first loved us. SHARE: What aspects of Jesus character do you think we must need to grow in as a church community?
APPLY: What about you personally? How can we practically forgive, bear one another s burdens, serve, and sacrifice for one another? DREAM: What would it look like if we all actively sought to live out the love of Jesus towards one another? What would change? A DISTINCTIVE KIND OF COMMUNITY We are built for community. Just try and be faithful to the commands of scripture to love and serve without being in a community and you will see how fundamental it is. We are saved from our sin and brought into the community of faith a distinctive kind of community driven by faith in God that releases us to serve each other. Paul in Romans for example writes this: Romans 12:1-8 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads ] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness. Paul here, as in three other letters he writes, uses the analogy of the church as a body with various parts. And just as body parts cannot exist on their own, so too believers need to be joined to the body. This is both for the building up of the whole and for the flourishing of the individual member. Indeed, this is God s plan for the growing Christian life. APPLY: What about you personally? Are you a functioning member of the body? What does it look like for you to join in the work of the body in a meaningful way? APPLY: How might we encourage others in this? AN OPEN AND HONEST COMMUNITY Because of the gospel, we can be vulnerable, weak and honest with one another, not fearing judgement and condemnation, but grace and gentleness. We can be honest about our sin, struggles and weaknesses, and invite one another into those hard spaces in our lives because we don t need to pretend to be better than we are. True fellowship drops the pretence of having everything together, gets below the shallow exterior, and goes deep into one another s lives.
PRAY SHARE: What fears do you have in response to the call or an honest and open community? GOSPELISE: How does the gospel directly address those fears? Make sure you spend some time on this to thoroughly break down those barriers. APPLY: How can we foster an open and honest community in our small group? What steps might we take even today? Pray through the three areas we have set up in our church auditorium. Redemption: Pray repentance as a group seek forgiveness where we have not reflected the love of God well to the world in our love for one another. Thank Jesus for his provision for our failures in his grace. Needs: Pray for the needs of each other. Thank Jesus for all that he has done in each other s lives recently. Pray for the resources to live our this distinctive gospel community well for his glory. Hope: Pray for a renewed vision of Him and His gospel at the centre of our lives and our community. Pray for the future of our church in grasping these things. HELPFUL NOTES NOTES ON THE PASSAGES (FROM ESV STUDY BIBLE) Rom. 12:1 15:13 God s Righteousness in Everyday Life. The gift of God s saving righteousness leads to a new life. In this section Paul works out some of the practical implications of God s saving mercy. Rom. 12:1 2 Paradigm for Exhortations: Total Dedication to God. These verses summarize the response to God s grace and serve as the introduction for all of 12:1 15:13. They encapsulate what it means to live in a way that pleases God. Rom. 12:1 Therefore points back to the entire argument from 1:18 11:36. mercies of God. Christians are to give themselves entirely to God because of his saving grace, as shown in 3:21 11:36. Sacrificial language from the OT is used to denote the new life of Christians, and this means that the word bodies here refers to Christians as whole persons, for both body and soul belong to God. They are a living sacrifice, meaning that they are alive from the dead since they enjoy new life with Christ (6:4). Living also means that they will not be put to death as OT animal sacrifices were (see notes on sacrifices in Leviticus 1 7), for Christ has fulfilled what was predicted by those sacrifices. Whereas OT worship focused on offering animal sacrifices in the temple, Paul says that spiritual worship in a broad sense now includes offering one s whole life to God (cf. Heb. 13:15 16). Elsewhere, however, the NT can also use the word worship in a narrower sense, to speak of specific acts of adoration and praise (Matt. 2:2; John 4:20; Acts 13:2; 1 Cor. 14:25; Heb. 12:28; Rev. 11:1). Rom. 12:2 The present evil age still threatens those who belong to Christ, so they must resist its pressure. Their lives are changed as their minds are made new (contrast 1:28), so that they are able
to discern God s will. By testing you may discern translates Greek dokimazō, which often has the sense of finding out the worth of something by putting it to use or testing it in actual practice (cf. Luke 14:19; 1 Cor. 3:13; 2 Cor. 8:22; 1 Tim. 3:10). Rom. 12:3 13:14 Marks of the Christian Community. The new life of believers is described in this section. Rom. 12:3 God has granted a differing measure of faith to each of his children, and Paul calls upon each to assess himself or herself realistically. Rom. 12:4 5 The diversity and unity of the church is illustrated by comparison to the human body. Just as the human body is one with many members (lit., body parts, limbs), so the church is united though it is composed of many members. On the theme of the church as the body of Christ, see also 1 Corinthians 12 and Eph. 4:4, 12 16. Rom. 12:6 The variety of the body is evident from the various gifts God has given the church. in proportion to our faith. Paul instructs prophets to speak only when they have faith or confidence that the Holy Spirit is truly revealing something to them, and not to exceed the faith that God has given them by trying to impress others. Rom. 12:7 8 Christians should concentrate upon and give their energies to the gifts God has given them, whether in serving others, teaching God s Word patiently, or in exhortation and encouragement in the things of God. Thus Paul spotlights three attitudes necessary in exercising particular gifts: (1) those who have a special gift of helping others financially should never give grudgingly but always generously; (2) those who lead often have no one to whom they are accountable, and hence they must beware of laziness; (3) those who show mercy to the hurting must not grow weary but continue to minister with gladness.