Community Group Outline
- Welcome and Greeting // (10 Minutes)
- Catch Up – Highs and Lows, Peaks and Pits, or Icebreaker // (30 Minutes)
- Share Your Story: Check with your facilitator about scheduling // (20 Minutes)
- PRAYER EXPERIENCE
Tonight we will have the opportunity to pray into our next 52 days (or less depending on when you are meeting). On Sunday, Pastor Isaac said,
“Let’s think again about 52 days from now:
Consider your apprenticeship to Jesus. You and I aren’t in charge of fruit or outcomes, but we are in charge of our postures and our decisions to continue abiding in Jesus. Think about May 5. What do you want to say about your apprenticeship to Jesus? Today, we are going to be challenged to live as exiles, to be courageous, to be gritty and to be dedicated to prayer. If we will live up to this call, we will continue to become the people that Zechariah prophesied about:
23 “This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: In those days ten men from different nations and languages of the world will clutch at the sleeve of one Jew. And they will say, ‘Please let us walk with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”
Zechariah 8:23 (NLT)
Jesus will bear fruit through our lives. He wants to strengthen us from the inside out. Nehemiah and his crew built walls to keep the enemy out. And, I believe that God wants to strengthen all of us so that more people will say, “God is with you…can we walk with you?”“
As we move throughout our time, we will participate in 4 movements of prayer. You will be divided into triads (or small groups) in order to share your responses to the invitations on Sunday, as well as to receive prayer for your commitments.
Movement 1: Apprentices of Jesus are EXILES in whatever land they are in.
SCRIPTURE:
Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.
1 Peter 2:11 (NLT)
PROMPTS:
- Exiles worship God regularly in a land that does not. How many times will you be present on Sunday to worship with your brothers and sisters?
- Exiles do not expect the ways of the land to fit us, but expect the community of faith to contrast the way of the world. What plank in your own eye needs to be removed over the next 52 days?
MOVEMENT 2: Apprentices of Jesus expect to be COURAGEOUS.
SCRIPTURE:
…In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33b (NASB)
PROMPT:
- What courageous decision are you making for the next 52 days (Tithing, Baptism, etc.)
MOVEMENT 3: Apprentices of Jesus develop GRIT in the face of challenges
SCRIPTURE:
2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
James 1:2–4 (NLT)
PROMPT:
- What area of your life are you struggling with endurance? How can your group pray for you?
MOVEMENT 4: Apprentices of Jesus PRAY before anything else.
SCRIPTURE:
13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. 14 Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. 16 Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. 17 Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! 18 Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops.
James 5:13–18 (NLT)
PROMPT:
- Who will you be praying for for the next 52 days? How are you wanting God to intervene?