One word: Fellowship

We’ve recently made the decision to centralize and unify the discussion time for our small groups.  What this means, without the three-sylabble words, is that we’re providing discussion questions.  Most are drawn from the sermon, though a few will be offered related to the stuff the kids’ are discussing. 

I’d be really interested to hear folks’ answers to these questions.  So I’m posting them partially to make them easily accesible to the small groups, partially because they might be relevant to those who haven’t taken the plunge into a small group but who listened to the sermon, and also because it’d be cool if folks replied here to the questions.  It’d be cool to start a discussion here, a virtual small group meeting in cyber space.

At anyrate, here are the questions:

Background Information:
This week Marty will begin a series of sermons on the proverbs.  The over all idea is that wisdom is not something that just happens to us.  Throught out the series, we’ll be referring to the idea that we should “Understand why, submit, and apply” in order to get the best out of life.
We’ll also be working with a metaphor, through out the series, that attaining wisdom is a bit like being in a shop.  This week, we focused on the idea that though a clerk might say “Can I help you” sometimes people don’t mean what they say and say what they mean.  Sometimes, people can lead us away from wisdom.
 
Questions & Activities for the sermon on Sunday August 10:

As a group, read the entirety of Proverbs, Chapter 1.

1.  What are some enticing sinners that you watch people struggle with: people, characertistics, or personality traits that lead to no good?
 
2.  Would anyone like to share some booby traps they’ve placed in their own lives?  Are there any that haven’t gone off yet that you fear some day will?
 
3.  What are some ways that we can find out if we are on a trail that leads away from wisdom.
 
4.  Jesus calls us to befriend the lost.  How do we balance this with Solomon’s counsel around not following the lost into pits of death?
5.  What is your biggest fear about where your life might end up?  What is your biggest hope?

As a group, read Psalm 23.

6.  How easy is it for you to accept the things we hear about God in in Psalm 23?
 
Big picture activity for the sermon series:
6.  One way of expressing how to approach wisdom is to ”Understand why, submit, and apply”  If you begin this activity last weekl locate the things people wrote down.  If you did not, you might wish to both last week’s and this week’s activity tonight.   Last week’s activity: Take a couple minutes to write down some truth that you’ve recently come to understand.  Where is an area that you have recently come to “understand why” in?  

This week, discuss the consequences of not understanding this truth.  In what ways do you set a booby trap for yourself by not knowing this truth? 
 
Some things to think about for next week:
7.  Who have been some influential people in your life?  What is the importance of other people in helping us find wisdom?
 
A few possible extensions from this weeks sermon:
A.  Discuss whether or not members of your group have been reading a proverb each day.  Are there any truths that stick out in members’ minds?  Any thing that they’ve been wrestling with, or anything that seems especially important?  If people think it’s a good idea to do this but simply haven’t (perhaps they have forfotten or been to busy) can you think of any ways that the group can help encourage each other to continue the readings?
 
B.  Do you know of anyone who is following “enticing sinners” down a destructive path?  Is there any way that your group might come together to help this person?

Connections to the kids’ classes

If you have many parents of kids in the older Sunday School class, it might be worthwhile to consider this question.  In the future, I will also try to feature connections to the issues being discussed in the younger kids’ class.

1.  The kids’ question on the refridgerator door card is “What are 3 things you can do tomorrow to honor Jesus with everything you’ve got”?  How would, you as adults, answer this question?  If your kids have trouble with coming up with an answer to this question on their own, what is a way you can help them answer it without “feeding” them the answer?  The day after you discuss the question, What are some non-judgemental ways you can follow up with kids and see if they actually did the 3 things they mentioned? 

2.  The parents Question is “Can actions, words, possessions, or skills really be used to honor Jesus?  How?”  How would you answer this question?  Is the opposite true: can actions, words, possessions and skills be used to dishonor Jesus?  Is there any connection between your answer to this question and the topic discussed in the sermon?