The church is to live and lead by example in areas of racial diversity and reconciliation, because God has made the church a reconciling community. Why is it, then, the church is better known as a segregated community than a reconciled community? What are you learning as you listen to the experiences of people of color in our nation? And what must we do to pursue racial reconciliation to be the multi-cultural, multi-racial church made up of people from every nation and tribe and people and language?

QUESTIONS:

• Where have you experienced or witnessed racism personally? How did you feel about it (not just think about it)?

• What are the challenges you see in the church moving from being a segregated community to a reconciled community? What can our church do to pursue racial reconciliation better?

• What have you done to educate yourself about racism, implicit bias, and the effects it has had in the lives of people of color? What will you do going forward to carry out the church’s ministry of reconciliation?

Grace Students Ministry Pastor, Jeff Skinner, shares the message.

The Christmas story teaches us the way of Christ is the way of peace—peace with God, peace with others. We choose to walk in the way of peace and we work for peace to those living in darkness. This virtue, recognized by many in the culture during the Christmas season, is the normal practice of Christ-followers every day of the year.

Is waiting something you enjoy or dread? Maybe you’ve been waiting for something for so long you wonder if it will ever get here. If God is all-good and all-powerful, why doesn’t he help us more quickly? In the nativity story of Simeon waiting to see the Lord’s salvation in baby Jesus, we learn that God’s timing is perfect…and purposeful. What does it mean to allow God to order our time this Christmas season?

QUESTIONS:
• What is something you have a hard time waiting for?
• Have you been waiting for something for so long it is hard to believe God will ever answer your prayer? What good things have come out of your patience in waiting?
• Do you sometimes have a hard time trusting God to keep his promises, or to care about your prayers?
• How has the story of Simeon or Anna impacted you when it comes to your time? Waiting?

What are your priorities during the Christmas season? Buying gifts, family pictures, asking for time off for vacation, getting the food ready—the list can go on and on. The question we must ask is if we are prioritizing the wrong things? In the story of Jesus’ Nativity, Joseph had some priorities that had to be re-prioritized once he learned God had other plans. What priorities might you need to adjust to tackle God-sized purposes?

QUESTIONS:
• Are you a Lists person? If so, what’s on your Christmas season preparation list?
• Can you tell about a time when your priorities and plans got disrupted by something more important, and you had to re-prioritize?
• Name 3 priorities you have in common with God’s priorities. How are you fulfilling those in your life/with your time?
• What might God be asking you to prioritize on your Christmas season preparation list that is on His List? In other words, what are 2 or 3 “God Priorities” you are being challenged to put into practice? (One of the Virtues?)

In the Christmas season people seem to be more open to be thinking of others. Yet Christ-followers are taught to do this every day of the year, even the least likely individuals. The story of the Nativity presents some characters who open our eyes to God’s care for others, even to those we least expect to be open to the things of God. For God is doing something in Jesus that is for the whole world!

Jesus’ message centers on loving God by obediently following his Spirit, so he can lead us to love others in a new way—that only passes life to life. God restores the Masterpiece in us through others, and he calls us to lovingly invest in restoring the Masterpiece in others so that one life at a time, he changes the world! Invest in the few, like Jesus did, and you will make a huge difference in the world for eternity.

In a generation devoid of much knowledge of God or the Bible it usually takes 6 months to 2 years for a person to find faith. And the process requires community and a “come as you are” environment. But what is the gospel—the good news? What is the kingdom Jesus announced? There is good news about God and Life, good news about Jesus, and good news about our part.

Everyone hurts; not everyone cares. But Jesus cares when you hurt. He suffers when you suffer. He became our wounded healer. The question is: Do I listen for people’s hurts and needs? Do I demonstrate God’s heart for hurting people? That’s how we become Jesus-with-skin-on to others.