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

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. What role has guilt played in your life? 2. Have you encountered legalistic teaching before? What effect did it have on you? 3. Do you agree with the author’s comparison between guilt and physical pain? Why or why not? 4. Have you ever “inoculated” yourself by allowing a diluted experience to discourage you from the real thi

We Christians are in the mess. This is vitally important. Not much good will happen when we move toward the mess if we don’t get this right. We don’t need to drive across town to find it. We don’t need to visit our unchurched neighbors across the street to encounter it. We need only look at our own hearts, our own families, our own lives. If we dec

For years I was completely upside down about guilt. The crazy thing is that while this was going on I could give you a detailed, theologically accurate account of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. I sang songs about the love of God. I wrote songs about the love of God. I even went to seminary and wrote papers on salvation by grace. But when all w

Discussion Questions 1. When you think of Pakistan, what comes to mind? What kind of country do you envision? 2. Do you feel as if we Western Christians have a fair and balanced view of the Muslim world? Why or why not? 3. Do you know anyone who lives in a place where it’s dangerous to be a Christian? What’s his or her story? 4. Most Muslims consid

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. Do you sense that boredom is prevalent in your church? Why or why not? 2. Has spiritual boredom been a struggle for you? If not, how have you avoided it? If so, why do you think that’s the case? 3. Why do you think boredom was not a problem for the Christians we read about in the New Testament? 4. The author suggests that bo

There are two reasons why this is a bad idea. First of all, Jesus never used guilt to motivate people. As a result, people in the New Testament never followed Jesus out of a sense of guilt. You’ll never find a verse that says, “And Peter looked upon the Lord and felt guilty and began to follow him.” The people who followed Jesus were motivated by w