Move Toward the Mess

Discussion Questions 1. Have you ever found a serving opportunity that you were really excited about? What was it? Did you create a sustainable pace for your work? 2. As you reflect on the seven signs of burnout, how do you measure up? Are you in trouble or are you doing pretty well? Explain your answer. 3. Have you been through burnout before? Wha

One last thing about being a change agent: We are only the agents of change. It is God who does the changing. We are just the people through whom he moves. Apparently, he’s not picky about whom he chooses. One time he used a prostitute named Rahab. Another time he used a murderer and adulterer named David. One time he actually used a donkey (see Nu

Discussion Questions 1. Has discovering God’s will for your life typically been easy or hard for you? Why is that? 2. Which question resonates more deeply with you: “Where’s the energy?” or “What breaks your heart?” 3. Where is the energy for you? What does break your heart? 4. How has prayer helped you in the past when you were trying to find dire

Watch for these signs: Bad attitude. This is self-explanatory. Unfulfilled. Serving ceases to be satisfying. Reactionary rather than proactive. You sit around waiting to be told what to do. Noncommunicative. You stop returning people’s emails. Overly stressed. It’s the feeling that you’re carrying the world on your shoulders. Unmotivated. It’s not

I know what you might be thinking: What about that reference to the cross? How is that taking good care of myself? I don’t believe the point of the metaphor has to do with physical suffering; it has to do with the fact that consistently letting God be in control of our lives is hard and often painful. We will be religious. We will go to church. We

Discussion Questions 1. Have you ever thought about quitting your job and going into church or nonprofit work? What did you decide? Why did you make that decision? 2. Why do people often think full-time ministry is a more godly vocation than most other jobs? Are they right? Why or why not? 3. What sorts of messes exist where you work? Is it easy or

For those of you who might prefer something other than the dice method, we can talk about the age-old principle called “follow the energy.” This is based on the idea that God sometimes directs us through our desires. It suggests that if he wants you to get involved with special-needs kids, he will get you excited about special-needs kids.

Some psychologists suggest that an experience always consists of two parts: the actual experience and the processing of the experience. Make sure you do both. Here are five questions you can use to assist your group as it processes its experience: How did our experience compare with what you anticipated? Were there any surprises? Were there any dis

Discussion Questions 1. Are you surprised at where and when Young Life started? Why or why not? 2. How do you think the members of the church received the news that Jim Rayburn’s boss suggested he focus on the local high school instead of the “church kids”? 3. What do you think the kids at the local high school thought when Jim Rayburn started hang