It Takes a Village Week 1
Welcome to Week 1 of It Takes a Village! Pastor Josh opened the series by challenging us how we can be an influence of hope in whatever “Village” that we live in. We’ll kick off the series with initial questions about past experiences and how we spend our time “now” so we can begin to start thinking how the Lord may want use some of our time going forward:
– Do you have memories of a time when the neighborhood you lived in helped and looked out for each other? How did that play out?
– It’s Friday night after a terribly busy week, how do you spend it?
– Are there people on your street or neighborhood or apartment complex that when you see them, you think, I need to introduce myself to that person?
Read Psalm 33 together as a group. Pastor Josh on Sunday described the entire Psalm as a “community cry”.
– (vv1-9) These verses see God as the creator of the earth, his role with its inhabitants and the inhabitant’s role with God. How can it bring hope to a community to have individuals worship the creator of the world? And how might John 12:32 play into it?
***For Leaders – Examples: 1) Some grocery stores play worship music in their stores. 2) Pastor Michael just heard testimony this week from an electrical contractor (owner) who plays worship music on job sites with his crew. Another worker on-site heard the music and came up to him to tell him how he used to follow God and doesn’t anymore. The owner followed up with him and that young man is now back in church with his wife and kids regularly and trying to make lifestyle changes. Worshipping the creator of the world in community brought a man back to God.
– What ways can we try to openly invite the person on our street or neighborhood or apartment complex to worship God with us?
***For Leaders – Examples: 1) This can be putting up a yard sign or a window sign that we attend Lakeland Church. 2) This can be walking up to that person in our neighborhood that we think the Lord wants us to introduce ourselves to and say, “Something in me keeps saying that I should ask you if you need prayer for anything.” 3) It can be providing literature to someone you already know about C.R. or Mental Health groups here if you know they are having a problem. 4) It can be just asking them if they would like to go to church with you sometime.
– In what ways do people see themselves as too insignificant to make a difference in the life of a stranger?
***For Leaders – Answers will vary here, but we can ultimately talk ourselves out of reaching out to someone because we are afraid that they will think we’re bothering them and what we have to say is not something that they will be interested in.
– How does our view of our own time affect our motivation to be an influence of hope?
Closing Prayer
Take time to pray for the Group for a deeper understanding of the impact that hope brings when we worship God in a community, when we reach out to a stranger and when we are deliberate to give God some of our time to do so.