God in Five Minutes!

Small Group Questions

1) What is the most expensive or coolest thing you ever won?

2) What does religious pride look like? What does humble faith look like?

3) What are ways we could re-tell the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector in today’s language?

4) Why do you think it is so hard for people to believe God’s salvation is a free gift?

5) What does it look like to live lives of gratitude?

Small Group Questions

1) What kind of activity gives you a rush? (e.g. sports, concerts, etc.).

2) If feeling your faith is on one end of a spectrum and thinking about your faith is on the other end, where do you fall on the spectrum: toward feeling your faith, toward thinking about your faith, or in the middle? Would you say you are all the way over on one side?

3) Pastor George used the analogy of stepping out on ice to show you believe it will hold you up. Can you think of a biblical person who stepped out on faith?

4) Was there a time you stepped out and took a risk? What was that like?

5) In what way is God calling you to step now a little further out and trust?

Small Group Questions

1) Right now, is your life: a) busy; b) very busy; c) super busy; d) off the scale!

2) What one thing or activity brings rest and restoration to your mind, body, and soul?

3) Pastor George indicated the people were too busy with religion to see Jesus. Is there a way to be so religious you can’t see Jesus?

4) What do you think it means that springs of living water will well up within us? What does that look like?

5) Moses was a liberator, Mohammed was a warrior, and Jesus is depicted as suffering and dying on a cross. Jesus seems out of place in this trio: a suffering God. Why do you think this difference is significant?

Small Group Questions

1) Did you play on sports teams or in the band, or a similar group when you were in school (at any age)? Describe.

2) Have you ever been on a team when everyone had a role or position to play except one person who seemed not to be able to contribute to the team? Has that ever been you? What do you think that would feel like?

3) The Bible says every one of us has a spiritual gift(s). Do you have any sense of what yours might be?

4) When Pastor George says his job is to coach and enable the gifts of the people of the church and not do ministry for the church, which of these is most true?

a) He’s trying to get out of work;

b) Yeah, but we pay him and the staff to do our jobs for us!

c) It’s a nice idea but probably won’t work.

d) I’d love to see the staff enable the gifts of more people.

5) How long do you think Bill Belichick would last if he started as the quarterback at the next New England Patriots game? What is the point Pastor George is making

Small Group Questions

1) When you were young, did you have a crush on someone?

2) How would you say the marriage covenant and the covenant between God and us are similar? Different?

3) Sometimes the Church historically seems to have made romantic love feel wrong or bad. Why do you think?

4) Often, in a marriage covenant, romantic love goes down over time. In a best-case scenario, what replaces it? Do you think there is a parallel to this experience between people and our covenant with God?

5) What do you think Pastor George meant when he said, “When was the last time you went on a date with God and got reacquainted?”

Small Group Questions

1) Growing up, did you live by a body of water? Did you fish in it, swim, skim rocks, swing over it on a rope and drop in, or other? Describe it.

2) Not everyone grew up having those idyllic dreams Pastor George mentioned, and some didn’t come to faith until later in life. For you, did you have an early idea of life as sweet and safe, or was it always a dangerous place?

3) It is said we often bring our beautiful selves to present to God, but not our ugliness. What does that mean and is it the best way to pray?

4) This message describes how God works through our wounds and vulnerabilities to receive and share new Life -- it seems to be a form of wisdom. Why can’t wisdom like this be taught and thereby the wounds avoided?

5) What are practical ways we might become conduits of this Living Water to places around us?

Small Group Questions

1) What is the most refreshing water experience you ever had? (Examples: swimming in a lake, drinking from a spring, etc).

 2) Describe the first church you ever attended. Was it a good experience? Did it help you grow in your faith? What was positive about it? Negative?

 3) Have you ever done a mission trip or community service project or some way to benefit the community? What did you do? How did it make you feel?

 4) Why do you imagine it is difficult (or not) for churches to engage in meaningful community-transforming (impactful) experiences? What would be the challenges and how could they be overcome?

 5) Someone once said, “If you’ve done a mission trip for a few days, and did meaningful things that inspired you and made a difference in a community, then why not see your life every day as a mission trip?” What do you think this means? Would this be hard to do?

Small Group Questions based on John 4

1) What is your favorite restaurant? Describe why. What is your favorite meal there?

2) Pastor George suggests that Living Water is meaning and purpose in the Lord. Do you think that’s true? What else, or in addition to this, could it be?

3) Pastor George hopes that the tasting of Living Water by the villagers resulted in changed behavior toward the Samaritan woman, including her in their new community. If we truly taste of the Living Water, how would our lives be different? Our church? [OK to send Pastor George your ideas to [email protected]].

4) If the Israelites collected more manna than they needed, it turned to worms. What do you think the signs are of a church that keeps Living Water for itself only?

Small Group Questions

1) Describe the culture of the town or neighborhood you grew up in (e.g. farm town, etc.).

2) Did you grow up in a religious community? If so, did it reflect the culture you were a part of or was it more diverse? If more diverse, how do you think that happened?

3) Pastor George said he wondered if a church is racially diverse but the same culturally, does that make it inclusive? How so? How not so?

4) If different church cultures create defining walls as described in the podcast (through music, location, type of cars, etc.), is it possible for a church to become more “well-ish” and less “wall-ish”. If so, how?

5) Some say that white churches trying to diversify seem to do so on their own terms, and to make themselves feel better, but sincere engagement seems lacking. Reflect on this statement as a group. If your church is not a white church, how would you dialogue with a white church attempting to establish a relationship with yours? What would "authentic" engagement look like?

Small Group Questions

1) Who do you know whom you would call courageous? What did you observe to consider this person courageous?

2) Have you ever been in a meeting or a social gathering where you were arguing an unpopular viewpoint? What was that like?

3) What do you think the difference is between standing up courageously for what you believe, and being arrogant about your viewpoint? Is there a way to communicate your contrarian view without being superior to others or thinking they are ridiculous?

4) Why do you think Álvar Cabeza de Vaca was so successful at winning the hearts of the people of cultures that were so different from his?

5) Pastor Prashan said that Christianity grows when persecuted. Why do you think that’s true?