Seek. Love. Walk. (Discussion Guide)

This Guide is also available as a .pdf here.

Seek. Love. Walk.

Life Group Discussion Guide

November 2013

Here’s the series description to help you frame conversation:

Seek. Love. Walk.

Imagine for a moment that you’ve been invited to take part in a great adventure—one that will require strength and courage, agility and determination—and that you’ve been given every resource you could possibly need to fully participate. Though the journey and outcome may not be clear at the outset, most of us would jump into the opportunity to know what it is to be fully alive as we take those steps of adventure.

When we respond to the invitation to follow Jesus, we say ‘yes’ to a life of this kind of epic experience…but it’s an adventure we can’t (and wouldn’t really want to) take alone: we need each other. We know that God has prepared Sandy Lake Wesleyan as a body to be a force of love, hope, and power in our region; and we’re convinced that a great adventure like no other awaits each of us as we lean into what it means to seek, love, and walk together.

Join with us as we discover more of what it looks like to live the life of purpose and adventure we can only find in Jesus…and how to live that purpose and adventure on a grand scale by intentionally living as an “SLW church.” 

What Scripture has God been pulling to the forefront of your mind from this series? 

What do you think He’s calling you to be or do through that Scripture?

How can your Life Group members help you lean into that? 

What part of following Jesus has seemed adventurous for you this week? 

What can you do to be positioned to experience more of this adventure?

If answering this question is a challenge for you, how can you be more sensitive to
opportunities for adventure in Jesus?

You’ve been hearing about some of what it seems God has for SLW in our next season—what roles do you think you, your family, your Life Group can have in some of the next-step opportunities?

What are specific ways you can Seek-Love-Walk at home/school/work tomorrow?
This week? 

Share with your Group and followup throughout the series—share stories of the
crazy-cool things God does as you take these steps.

Renovate! Discussion Guide

This Guide is also available as a .pdf here.

RENOVATE

Life Group Discussion Guide

October 2013

Here’s the description of this month’s message series:

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.  ~ Colossians 3:10, NLT

Anyone who's ever been through a renovation knows the process can be messy, dusty, and a little frustrating…but on the other side of all that activity it seems everything changes. Rooms, levels, even whole buildings can find new life and purpose, making the journey of renewal more than worth the wait and pain of remodeling.

One of the incredible things about God's great love for us is that when we encounter Him, He begins to renovate our lives. Things can get messy and a little challenging, but we find ourselves being made into what he designed us for all along.

Join us throughout the RENOVATE series where we'll examine what it looks like to ask God to look into each room of our lives as the master architect that He is, expecting Him to make us new from the inside out. Along the we way, we'll experience the incredible adventure of being re-formed by the Holy Spirit, released into new life and purpose we may never have known existed.

• What Scripture from the series’s messages has God been brining to mind? How has this been encouraging? Convicting? Perspective-changing?
  
• What specific aspect of ‘renovation’ was discussed this week? How did this resonate with you? What about this discussion was especially challenging or uncomfortable?
  
• What thoughts or ideas from the messages have stuck out to you the most?
  
• Have you ever experienced him renovating aspects of your life? How would you explain that process to others? What are the best parts of this renovation? The hardest?

• How is God revealing Himself as the architect of your life in this season?  Has he identified areas he would like to renovate right now? How can your Group members be praying for you in this?
  
• Based on what you’ve heard and discussed, what do you think God is calling you to do or become...
• ...as an individual?
• ...as part of community (family, workplace, neighborhood, etc.)?
• ...as a local church?
  
  What does it look like to start taking action on these things?

Great Grace | Extend (Discussion Guide)

This Guide is available for download here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, May 12, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn

Great Grace | Extend (Week 4)

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: (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:

• Matthew 18:21-35
• Matthew 6:14-15
• Philippians 3:7-8

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 or ‘So what? Now what?’ opportunity?  

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?

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO LET GRACE DEFINE US? TO BE A PEOPLE MARKED BY GRACE?

Great Grace | Embrace (Discussion Guide)

This Guide is available as a .pdf here.

Life Group Discussion Guide :: Sunday, May 05, 2013 (JXG) 

Sandy Lake Wesleyan :: Pastor Shawn

Great Grace | Embrace (Week 3)

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: (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:

• Romans 3:23-24

• Genesis 3:1-6

• Philippians 3:12-21

• Romans 8:1

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 or 'so what? now what?' opportunity? 

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?

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?