Related Message
It has been said that, "Thoughts disentangle themselves through the lips and the fingertips." That's the spirit of this weekly post, to provide the kinds of questions—the conversation starters—that can help us delve more deeply into the ideas and implications of our Sunday conversations. Use these questions to stimulate your own personal reflections, or use them to start a conversation with your family, friends and especially your Life Group, to walk with each other into becoming more fully devoted followers of Jesus, individually and as a community. You've experienced the service, now it's time to Talk.
1. As you think back over the various series since September—Eternity Matters, Jonah, unChristian, 13Thirteen—how has your level of intentionality about "evangelism" (being a spiritual influence on those who don't know Jesus) changed?
- If you are new to exploring faith in Jesus, what is it that got you interested in this spiritual journey? How open have you been in sharing your journey with others?
- If you have been following Jesus for a while, how intentional had you been, prior to these conversations, about being a spiritual influence on those who don't know Jesus? Where are you now?
- What's changed in your thinking and/or living so far this year? What would you still like to change about your thinking and/or living?
- Which series has had the greatest impact on your thinking and living evangelistically? Why?
2. Read John 4:1-8. Think about the taboos that Jesus was willing to ignore, and boundaries he was willing to cross, to reach these Samaritans.
- Why do so many followers of Jesus find it so hard to intentionally connect with people who are not part of their tribe, faith, class, or social status or who do not share their moral values? What creates that internal or external resistance?
- How much do you intentionally live your life within reach of those who don't know Jesus? If you think about your life and interests, where are your places of closest contact? How could you be in more and better contact with people who don't know Jesus?
- Read John 4:39-42. Who is in your life, right now, that doesn't know or love Jesus? Of those people, who do you think could be most interested in conversations about spiritual things? What could you do to open yourself to more opportunities to talk?
- If you can, share an experience where being "in the right place at the right time" gave you the opportunity to share the love of Christ with someone.
3. Read Colossians 4:5. In John 4, it says that Jesus was able to stay two days in Sychar to take advantage of the opportunity with which he was presented.
- Does your current lifestyle and/or pace of life encourage or discourage you from recognizing, and capitalizing on, opportunities to connect others to God? Why?
- To the extent that busyness keeps you from being in contact with those who don't know Jesus, or taking advantage of evangelistic opportunities, what would have to change in how you organize your life for you to live more intentionally in this regard?
- How hard would it be to make real changes to your life so that you can "make the most of every opportunity"? Why are we so reluctant to make these changes?
- What is one lifestyle choice you could make right now, or in the near future, to give you the chance to make the most of every opportunity to share Christ with someone?
4. Read Colossians 4:2-4. Paul goes out of his way to connect prayer directly to his ability to be a spiritual influence on those who don't know or love Jesus.
- How central is prayer to your evangelistic intensity? How regularly do you pray for opportunities to connect people to God? How regularly do you pray, by name, for the people in your life who do not know or love Jesus? Why?
- In John 4, a simple question about a drink of water led to a spiritual conversation (and the salvation of this woman and her village). If you can, share about a time when a simple, innocent question or comment led to a deep spiritual conversation.
- Why are followers of Jesus generally reluctant to talk about faith, despite the power of simple conversations? How can we become more open to talking about faith?
- What can you do to be more open to simple conversations that could lead to substantial discussions of faith? How can you be better prepared for those moments?
5. As a group, spend some time in Colossians 4-type prayer.
- Pray for opportunities to share the love of Jesus with someone this week. Pray for the wisdom and courage to speak up in those situations.
- Pray for the courage to make the changes to your lifestyle that need to be made to free you up to be better able to make the most of every opportunity.
- Pray for the wisdom to see ways in which you could more intentionally live in contact with those who don't know Jesus.
- Pray, by name, for those in your life who don't know Jesus and ask God to give you real opportunities to share Christ with them.
