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

Discussion Questions 1. What experience have you had with a neighborhood like Capitol View? 2. What do you think about the “hot dogs and prayers” idea? Have you heard of, or been involved in, similar outreaches? 3. What did you find particularly disturbing about Rita’s story? 4. How is Paris’s story different from Rita’s? How is it the same? 5. Wha

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. 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

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

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

He was following Jesus in a new way. That new way led Josh out of the church and into the city—out of the comfort zone and into the chaos zone where things are messy.

In fact, I’m starting to think that if our only motives for moving toward the mess are that we feel we should go or ought to go, maybe it would be better if we didn’t go at all. I believe Jesus alluded to this when he said it is better to be cold than lukewarm.

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