STOP GOING TO CHURCH: Week 7 – Challenges to Living Your Faith & How to Solve Them
Stop Going To Church
Beyond the Teaching
There are 168 hours in each week, and we get to spend ONE of those learning and worshipping together as a community, but we want to give you the tools to carry this into your daily life.
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Use the following guide to dive deeper into the text Ryan taught from and have discussion with those you do life with. You can do that all week in a Growth Group or Mission Team, with your Few, or over in our Digital Community (https://www.facebook.com/groups/OLHendo).
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Miss the teaching? Check it out HERE: https://youtu.be/UaNa4crQQXM
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Dive in!
Open:
- Think about what it means to be a member of YOUR specific family..everyone’s is unique. How does this impact how you interact with the world and people around you?
Read the Key Passage:
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
- Observe: What does it say?
- Interpret: What does it mean?
- Apply: What am I supposed to do with it?
Read the Support Passage:
Read the story of Joseph in Genesis Chapters 37-50.
- Observe: What does it say?
- Interpret: What does it mean?
- Apply: What am I supposed to do with it?
Learn the Context:
Check out these resources to learn some additional context on the story of Joseph:
- Genesis Part 2: https://youtu.be/VpbWbyx1008
- Genesis Part 2 Overview: https://youtu.be/F4isSyennFo
Unpacking the Passage:
- After exploring the tools above, what stands out about each of these passages?
- Even though Joseph predates Jesus, what can you learn from his story about how to be an ambassador for Jesus?
- What does it look like for you to be God’s “appeal” to others as his ambassador?
Unpacking the Teaching:
- Think back to our opening question about your family. What does this look like in terms of being an ambassador for Jesus? How does (or should) this impact how you interact with the world and people around you?
- Ambassadors for Jesus approach EVERYTHING in their lives differently. As a follower of, and ambassador for, Jesus, how should you approach the following ideas?
- Work
- Character
- Forgiveness
- Suffering
- Prosperity
- What would it take to approach all of these things appropriately in your daily life–168 hours each week?
- What are the biggest challenges you encounter as a follower of Jesus?
- The two challenges Ryan mention are: a) faith doesn’t deliver on its promise, and b) we overcorrect. Do these challenges resonate with you?
- Considering the “overcorrection” challenge, do you tend to lean toward RUN or EARN?
- How can you be intentional about making GOD the goal of your faith, and not just the things he promises you?
- At the beginning of the series, we defined the Church as a “people of the Gospel of Jesus. What does this mean to you today? How has this changed over the course of the series?
- Breaking through all the church “clichés” we’ve been addressing, what does it mean to you to “stop going to church?”
CHALLENGE:
STOP going to church, and BECOME ambassadors for Jesus everywhere you go through YOUR unique Made For This. Try to complete this week’s challenge, and let us know you are moving beyond the ONE hour in the church building!
- Step into authentic relationship…both with God and with others. You can do that at home, work, school, or wherever you find yourself. You can also do that by taking a “Next Step” with us. Find your “Next Step” here: https://bit.ly/olhpath Don’t let it be an “eventually” thing, though. Take the step now, wherever you are. You’ll be glad you did!