God in Five Minutes!

Small Group Questions

1) Describe the most humble person you’ve ever known. What does humility look like?

2) Why is it so difficult to be humble?

3) Does humble mean weak? How does one be humble yet confident? Is that possible?

4) What spiritual practices or other things help you approach humility?

Small Group Questions

1) What does hospitality mean to you?

2) Do you tend to be stingier with your hospitality or outgoing?

3) Describe a person in your life, past or present, who models hospitality.

4) Look at the parable in Luke 14:15-24, what is this Great Banquet?

5) Who do the main characters in the parable represent: the host, those who give excuses, and the crippled and poor? Who are these characters today? Which one is you?

Questions for Small Groups

1) Have you ever been told it was inappropriate to ask questions? What did that feel like?

2) Some say it is hard to ask questions in various environments because the people in charge will view you as a rebel. Do you think this is true? Have you been in this situation? How did you handle it?

3) How has faith and reason played a role in your own belief?

4) One of the hardest questions both Christians and non-Christians ask is, “Why does God allow suffering?” Another way to put this is, “How can I believe in a God who allows suffering?” Dostoyevsky implies in The Brothers Karamazov that God is actually found in the midst of suffering where acts of mercy and love are so profound. One of his characters finds God not through reason (another of his characters tries that and becomes cynical), but by the care given to those in their pain, an imitation of what Christ did for us on the cross. Do you think Dostoyevsky “answers” this age-old question? If so, how does he answer it, or at least partially answer it – through reason? Another way of asking and answering questions?

Small Group Questions

1) Has anyone in the group ever played a character on the stage or in a drama? Was it hard to be someone else – to be “in character”?

2) We all have various personas we live out in the world. Can you think of how these can be useful or harmless? Is there something “good” or at least “not bad” about having different versions of your true identity as Child of God?

3) When does it cross the line from living different personas (e.g. husband, executive, baseball coach) to being a hypocrite? What does that look like?

4) Have you ever been exposed as a hypocrite or dishonest? What did that feel like?

5) Why do you think it is so hard to be honest with one’s self, God and others about who we truly are? 

6) How does being a Christian set you free from hypocrisy and dishonesty?

Good resource book: My Heart, Christ's Home by Robert Munger, Intervarsity Press.

Small Group Questions

1) Do you love a good debate, or do you basically avoid conflict?

2) What approaches or tactics to sharing faith appall you?

3) Have you ever shared your faith? What was the experience like?

4) If you were to design an evangelism program, would be its key components?

Study Questions

1) What is the best service you’ve ever had at a restaurant? Describe it.

2) Pastor George mentioned three stages of serving. Do you think there are more than three?

3) When it comes to stages of serving, where are you?

4) What would it look like if we were to see each day as a mission trip? Have you ever tried this?

Study Questions

1) Do you have a favorite blessing over a meal?

2) Do you ever feel addicted to food? How does the food industry make food that we can’t stop eating? Any ideas on how to control that?

3) What makes sharing a meal with another so special? What is that dynamic?

Study Questions for Small Groups for sermon preached Aug. 15, 2021. HRMW.

 1) In Exodus 3:7, God said to Moses, “I have heard them [the Hebrews in Egypt] crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.”

Describe a time when someone really heard you. How did you know that you were heard?

Describe an experience when you were not heard.

2) When you listen to another person, are more apt to pick up on the emotion in the conversation or the facts?

3) Do you find it hard to bring up some aspect of your faith in natural conversation? Do you have any tips on that?

4) What advice do you have for those times when it feels like God isn’t listening? How do you get through it?

Small Group Study Questions

1) What is the best planner – digital or paper – for you?

2) Do you have much “white space” (empty space) in your daily calendar? Do you schedule rest or time to recharge?

3) Have you ever prayed while you walked? Describe the experience.

4) Do you have a story to tell about engaging a neighbor in conversation, perhaps even one about God?

Some discussion questions now for Small Groups:

1) Have you moved from a faith that is only about your needs to a larger faith more centered around Jesus?

2) Do you sense God calling you to a Higher Purpose and do you have an idea of what that is? How has the Lord gifted you for that purpose?

And 3), What do you think it means to deny yourself for a Higher Purpose?