Each week we’re publishing some questions to think about based on the Sunday messages & Bible readings.
These can be used in home groups, with others or on your own, and are designed to help you engage in the passage and themes in more depth and reflect on how God might be speaking to you through them.
There wasn't a sermon this week, so instead we're building on some of the themes from the prayer time we had together.
Icebreaker
Think of a time when you arrived somewhere new and someone helped you feel that you belonged. What did they say or do that made a difference?
Opening Prayer
Lord thank you that in Jesus you came to find us.
You didn’t wait for us to find you.
Help us now as we gather round your word to hear your call of grace and hospitality to the world you love.
Make us more like Jesus we pray. Amen.
Reading & Questions
Read: Mark 10:13-16, 46-52 and John 4:5-29
- In the Gospels, Jesus welcomed people whom others tried to exclude or silence. Where do you notice this in the readings above?
- Which attitudes or actions of Jesus most challenge the way we respond to people who are different from us?
- The sermon suggested that church growth and greater inclusion will inevitably bring change—and may feel costly. What changes might we find difficult, and what could help us respond with grace rather than resistance?
- How could we, as a church, develop in the way we display genuine care and love for one another?
Praying Together
Pray for one another and for people you know or people groups who have traditionally not felt welcome in the Church.
Pray that as our church grows we would reflect ever more the diversity of God’s very good creation.
Pray that as our church grows we would reflect ever more the diversity of God’s very good creation.