Transition Announcement (Discussion Guide)

This Guide is available as a .pdf here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, April 21, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn & Scott Powell

Remember, this Guide is not intended as an exhaustive list of what can be discussed, but is best used as a guide to help your Group process what God is teaching them. Read through the discussion points below and 

prayerfully consider what the Holy Spirit would have you work through.

------------------------------------------------------

 Be sure to pray for, encourage each other, 

and share the victories God is giving your Group.

This week:

As you know, this week, we ‘paused’ our Great Grace series in order to have a conversation as a church family. Use this Guide as a way to direct your conversation as a Group:

It was clearly communicated that Pastor Shawn’s resignation was not a decision on his part, but discerning the will of God: An act of obedience.

What is the difference between decision and discernment? How is one done in our own strength while the other the act of a disciple?

Read Proverbs 16:9

It’s easy to see how this might apply to Pastor Shawn and his family, but how does this apply to your life? How do you think this applies to Sandy Lake Wesleyan as we lean into the future?

How can your Group members position each other to discern and obey rather than to make decisions which may not reflect God’s design?

“We can’t grow without change. We can’t change without letting go. We can’t let go without some loss, and that brings grief… Grief is the tunnel of growth.” ~ Rick Warren

What are your thoughts on this? How are you processing this? How can you help each other ‘walk through the tunnel of grief’ during this time?

Pastor Shawn shared the following stages of grief in the life of a believer:

:: Denial

:: Anger

:: Bargaining

:: Depression

:: Acceptance

:: Hope 

What is our call to each other during these stages of grief in sending the Cossins to their next assignment?  How is their beauty and meaning in this process? 

During this season of transition, there will be opportunity for spiritual battle in which the enemy uses the ‘D’s’--doubt, discouragement, despair, deception--to push us into fear, isolation, victim mentality. 

How do we avoid being stuck in this cycle? How do we speak truth and hope into others? How can you position yourself as one who leans forward into what God is doing and calls other people into more? What does it look like to resist the enemy; how can we help others resist him?

What is the hope in this time? What are the truths of Scripture you will choose to meditate on in the current season? How will you ensure you are positioned to embark on what is next for you and SLW?

Great Grace | Receive (Discussion Guide)

Note: This Guide is also available as a .pdf here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, April 14, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn

Great Grace | Receive (Week 2)

Remember, this Guide is not intended as an exhaustive list of what can be discussed, but is best used as a guide to help your Group process what God is teaching them. Read through the discussion points below and 

prayerfully consider what the Holy Spirit would have you work through.

------------------------------------------------------

 Be sure to pray for, encourage each other, 

and share the victories God is giving your Group.

From Last Week (Great Grace, wk 1 | Know)

Read Philippians 3:7-11

Why is Paul’s insistence that everything he had worked for is ‘garbage’ significant?

What role does the power of the resurrection seem to play in this assertion?

What does it mean to ‘know know the power of the resurrection and participation in his sufferings?’ How is knowing the power of the resurrection and participation in the suffering of Jesus connected?

Read Philippians 3:12-13

What is significant about Paul’s ‘forward-leaning’ posture here?

How can we lay hold of the goal of new life and continue to pursue Jesus?

How do we avoid the pitfall of making our ‘pursuit’ one of more legalism?

Read Ephesians 2:3-5

What do we see as the hope of great grace in this passage?

Why is there the reminder “it is by grace you have been saved?”

Read 1 Corinthians 15:22

What does it mean that ‘in Adam all died?’ How is understanding this vital to how we live in the light of Jesus’s resurrection?

Pastor Jeremiah repeated this statement a couple times: There is nothing you have ever done which cannot be forgiven. Nothing you have ever done which must define you. No part of you which God cannot make new in the power of the resurrection.

What was your initial thought about this?

How do we move this from being something that is simple ‘head knowledge’ to allowing it to penetrate our heart.

What do you think the further ripple of this truth might be?

Our “So What? Now What?” next steps were to, over the rest of this series:

:: Ask God to teach you what you don’t yet know about grace (ask him to move you from having a definition to knowing the meaning of great grace).

:: Ask God to show you where you need to experience his great grace.

This Week: (These questions will follow the rest of the series and should provide wide-ranging discussion for your Group on an ongoing basis. Be mindful of the opportunity to call each other and journey to ‘more’ as a Group. If the challenge to become more like Jesus isn’t felt in your Life Group, it’s probably not happening anywhere for your Group members.)

What Scripture/portion of Scripture resonated with you the most? 

What does the Holy Spirit seem to be saying to you through His Word?

Here are the Scriptures used this morning:

• Ephesians 2:8

• 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

• Hebrews 4:16

What aspect of grace came alive to you this week? 

What does it look like to take that and live it out in the week(s) ahead?

What did you hear/discover that was new or fresh for you this week? 

What is God calling you to do or be with what he has shown you?

What did you wish had been unpacked a little more in the message? Why? What insights does the Group have into those questions or areas you hoped to go deeper into?

What is currently your greatest challenge in knowing, receiving, embracing, and extending grace (these are the four themes of the current series)? 

Pray for each other as these challenges are identified. 

What was this week’s ‘prayer time’ opportunity (Hint: it involved repentance vs. apology; and moving into the way of grace)? 

How can you participate in it as a Group? 

How can your Group pray for you as you seek to do these things on your own?

Great Grace | Know (Discussion Guide)

This Guide is available as a .pdf here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, April 07, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Jeremiah

Great Grace | Know (Week 1)

Remember, this Guide is not intended as an exhaustive list of what can be discussed, but is best used as a guide to help your Group process what God is teaching them. Read through the discussion points below and 

prayerfully consider what the Holy Spirit would have you work through.

------------------------------------------------------

 Be sure to pray for, encourage each other, 

and share the victories God is giving your Group.

From Last Week (King Me, wk 4 | Jesus):

Pastor Shawn said, “We’re all looking for a king.” What do you think he meant by that? What are ways we can see the truth of this both in and around us?

Read Ephesians 2:1-3

How does this show the reality that ‘everybody gets lost, we all lose courage & live in fear, we were all created to be wise, it live foolishly?

Read John 1:9-13

What sticks out to you? 

What seems significant about Jesus’s interaction with those around him?

What is the great hope seen here. 

Read 1 Peter 1:3-4

How is the Resurrection of Jesus vital to our adoption?

What does Jesus’s resurrection do?

What do you think it does beyond what’s shown in this Scripture?

Read Ephesians 2:8-9

Why would the writer highlight the difference between ‘works’ and ‘grace’ here?

What is significant to us as we seek to live in the light of the resurrection?

This Week:

Have you ever tried to force some part of your life to take the shape or form of something else? What did that entail? What was the end result?

Read Philippians 3:7-11

Why is Paul’s insistence that everything he had worked for is ‘garbage’ significant?

What role does the power of the resurrection seem to play in this assertion?

What does it mean to ‘know know the power of the resurrection and participation in his sufferings?’ How is knowing the power of the resurrection and participation in the suffering of Jesus connected?

Read Philippians 3:12-13

What is significant about Paul’s ‘forward-leaning’ posture here?

How can we lay hold of the goal of new life and continue to pursue Jesus?

How do we avoid the pitfall of making our ‘pursuit’ one of more legalism?

Read Ephesians 2:3-5

What do we see as the hope of great grace in this passage?

Why is there the reminder “it is by grace you have been saved?”

Read 1 Corinthians 15:22

What does it mean that ‘in Adam all died?’ How is understanding this vital to how we live in the light of Jesus’s resurrection?

Pastor Jeremiah repeated this statement a couple times: There is nothing you have ever done which cannot be forgiven. Nothing you have ever done which must define you. No part of you which God cannot make new in the power of the resurrection.

What was your initial thought about this?

How do we move this from being something that is simple ‘head knowledge’ to allowing it to penetrate our heart.

What do you think the further ripple of this truth might be?

Our “So What? Now What?” next steps were to, over the rest of this series:

:: Ask God to teach you what you don’t yet know about grace (ask him to move you from having a definition to knowing the meaning of great grace).

:: Ask God to show you where you need to experience his great grace.

Take time as Group to pray for one another--that he would answer these questions for you and show you where he desires the power of resurrection to be seen and known in your life.

Continue to challenge each other to pray these things throughout the rest of the Great Grace series.