GS-Primer-Leader-Guide-1
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:<strong>Leader</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />
26<br />
Personal<br />
Reflection<br />
and<br />
Discussion<br />
The following questions are meant to allow<br />
participants to reflect on this month’s reader<br />
in more depth. The nature of this conversation<br />
is quite personal, demonstrating and exposing<br />
the heart-orientation of your group. Often, when<br />
sharing with a small group we are all prone to<br />
angle the truth to make ourselves look better<br />
than we actually are. No one wants to admit<br />
that they are a part of an inwardly focused,<br />
collecting community, much less that it is their<br />
teaching and strategy that has created such a<br />
community in the first place, thus the need for a<br />
time for personal reflection. Ask the individuals<br />
to take some time to reflect on the following<br />
questions in their own journal. Remind them<br />
that the benefit of these conversations will only<br />
occur when they are honest and vulnerable with<br />
themselves and others.<br />
• nHow do you feel when other churches<br />
succeed?<br />
• nHow is your church currently sacrificing for<br />
The Church in your city?<br />
• nDoes the orientation of your church’s staff,<br />
programs, and teaching ministry demonstrate<br />
a desire to be a collecting community or a<br />
mobilizing community?<br />
• nWhat role have you personally played in<br />
creating this culture in your church?<br />
• nWhat changes would need to take place<br />
in order for your church to clearly and<br />
compellingly prioritize the Kingdom?<br />
After a time of personal reflection, allow the<br />
group to reflect on this exercise using one of two<br />
models of discussion. Choose the version that<br />
best fits the nature of your group. You might ask<br />
the participants to pair up with someone they<br />
know or with whom they have built a relationship<br />
in the previous weeks. Ask them to share with<br />
one other person the primary ways they were<br />
convicted and challenged by their answers. Or<br />
you might call the entire group back together<br />
and ask them to share their reflections with the<br />
group as a whole. The first method would likely<br />
work well with a larger group that does not know<br />
one another as well, while the second method<br />
would work well with a smaller group of friends.
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