Service

service.mp4

PRAY:

Have someone read 1 Peter 4:8 aloud. After you read it, spend a minute or two silently reflecting on the passage. Then spend some time praying as a group for anything that 1 Peter 4:8 draws to your mind or stirs up in your heart.

ONE ANOTHERING:

Try to think of some practical needs you can share to give others the opportunity to step up and love you. It's okay if it takes some time to get comfortable with this. It takes time and practice to be vulnerable with one another... but amazing things happen when we are. Remember that the Benevolence Ministry is a resource for our comGroups.

  • How can we love or serve one another this week?

SHARE:

  • Read and reflect together on Mark 10:35-45.
  • Reflect on your own workplace or somewhere you have worked in the past. What does servant leadership look like? How do you see the power grabbing of James and John at play? Which behavior is more consistently noticed and rewarded?
  • Dig deep. What do you think was motivating the brothers’ request? What are the various reasons that we humans crave power? How does Jesus’ call to be a slave heal and transform this craving?
  • Read Romans 12:1-2 in The Message paraphrase (below). Reflect: where in your “everyday, ordinary life” do you have an untapped opportunity to serve?

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:1-2, MSG)


  • Read and reflect on Luke 10:38-42. How does the story about the two sisters complement the story about the two brothers?
  • With Mary and Martha in mind, attempt an answer to Sunday’s big question: what does service look like in the unhurried life? What are its marks?
  • The faith journey might be described as going from James and John (power politics) to Martha (distracted service) to Mary (contented contemplation). Do you resonate with that? What are some of the “many things” that trouble you? How would you articulate the “one thing” that Jesus requires (v.41-42)?

PRAY:

End your time by having someone read Matthew 22:37-39 aloud. Spend some time silently reflecting on this passage before you close in prayer.