[Community-leaders] Ch. 4 Study - Jesus, moralists, and neighbors

[David Rapp]

Hey CG Leaders,

Heath created this listserve so that we Community Group leaders can
communicate and discuss things easily.

It sounds like all our groups are off to a good start and I hope you are
all encouraged by what God is doing in and through your group - both the
things you see and hear about, and the things taking place that are unseen.

I'm excited about Ch. 4 because the lawyer/Bible teacher that Jesus tells
the parable of the Good Samaritan to in Luke 10 is in the same place so
many people in our particular culture are.  They may not consider
themselves Bible experts, but so many in our Bible belt culture would
consider themselves decent people.  We've made God's Law manageable so that
people feel that if they vote Republican, don't let their kids watch
R-rated movies, don't cheat on their spouses, and aren't engaged in
homosexuality or abortion, they must be doing alright.

This will help us think through together how to communicate with people who
don't sense their need of grace.

I hope we will learn from the gentle and gracious approach Jesus takes with
this hard-hearted person.

I think we will have good discussions about what it really means to love
our neighbor and who our neighbors are.  I think we should take time to
really try to apply this after we understand it.  We can be encouraged by
hearing how people in our groups are loving neighbors and we can think
together about ways to do this more.

Who are we prone to exclude from our thinking about "neighbors"?

I hope we have good conversations about the process of evangelism - that it
often takes time, that God is ultimately in control and the one who does
the work of conversion (which doesn't mean we sit back and do nothing), and
that often the best approach with people is to ask good questions in the
context of ongoing, committed relationships, rather than "full frontal
assault" direct, confrontational witnessing to strangers.

Some of YOU are REALLY good at asking people GOOD questions!  In that, you
model what this looks like.  I'd encourage you to discuss with your groups
what kinds of questions are good to ask various people.  Learning to ask
good questions is HARD.  This is something we need to share and model to
help people grow in their ability to do it.

One of the reasons for this list is to give us the opportunity to discuss
together, ask questions, better understand the Scripture, and focus our
thoughts on the main points we hope to bring out in our discussion of the
chapter.  I am jealous of pastors in large churches with multiple pastors
who can meet and discuss a passage before they teach or preach on it.  Or
groups of pastors at multi-site churches who meet to discuss the passage
they will all be preaching on.  So I am thankful we have this opportunity.

So if you have thoughts, insights, questions, things you're excited about,
etc. - please share.

Have a great weekend and I'll look forward to seeing you Sunday.

David

-- 
Rev. David Rapp

Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Temple, TX

david at redeemerprestemple.org
254-760-4246

www.redeemerprestemple.org
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