Lakeside Church

What if we're trying really hard but we still feel stuck? This week, Robyn Elliott challenges us to look beyond simply trying harder to experiencing real transformation. It isn't about what we do, but about what God does in us as we create space for transformation at the deepest levels. It’s about who we're becoming as individuals and as a people gathered around Christ’s Table for the sake of the world. The Table is a place of recreation -- a space for God to recreate us into a new people that embodies the Jesus way.

Discussion Questions:

1. Robyn asked the question, "Have you ever tried to try harder?" At what point does trying harder become an obstacle to allowing God to transform us?

2. Jesus says that out of the abundance of the mouth the heart speaks (Luke 6:45). When we say something hurtful, impatient, judgmental, or unkind, is that simply a momentary lapse in judgment - or does it reveal something deeper about our hearts

3. What is the difference between trying to act like Jesus and actually becoming more like Jesus? Are there any spiritual practices that have genuinely changed you? Not only your behaviour, but your attitude, instincts, or reactions?

4. This message describes the practice of The Table not simply as something we receive but as something that forms us into a different kind of people. If The Table is intended to shape how we live with one another, what should be different about us when we leave The Table?

5. What is the difference between attending a church, belonging to a church, and actually being the Church?

6. Robyn said, "We grow together or not much at all." Do you agree? Can someone grow spiritually without meaningful involvement in community?

7. Robyn said, "The world doesn’t need the church to tell it that another way is possible - it needs to see another way made visible.” If someone knew nothing about Christianity and observed only how we treat people, what would they conclude about Jesus?

Sometimes we’re so focused on whether a spiritual practice is “working” that we miss what’s happening inside us. In this message from Kathleen Elliott, we explore journaling as a way of slowing down, paying attention, and engaging with Scripture, prayer, and the Spirit - and consider whether we might be growing in ways we simply haven’t learned to notice yet.

1.Have you ever practiced something spiritually - praying, reading Scripture, worshiping, journaling, being in community, spending time in nature, serving, creating, etc. - without feeling like anything was happening? Looking back, is it possible something was happening that you simply didn’t recognize at the time?

2.John says, “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.” What is the difference between knowing about God and learning to recognize or notice God? Can you think of a time when that distinction became real for you?

3. Which of the three ways of journaling Kathleen talked about interests you most right now: writing Scripture, writing down what you think God might be saying, or writing prayers? Why do you think you’re drawn to that one?

4. If you were to write down what you think God might be saying to you, how would you discern whether what you’re hearing is the Spirit, your own thoughts, your desires, or something else? What might help us practice listening without assuming that every thought is automatically from God?

5. What might change if you stopped asking, “What spiritual practices am I supposed to be doing?” and started asking, “What helps me become more attentive to God, more receptive to love, more aware of beauty, and more present to other people?” Is there a practice you might explore as a result? What would that be?

6. We often evaluate spiritual practices by asking whether they “worked” - whether we felt something, learned something, became more motivated, or had some kind of breakthrough. What other evidence might suggest that a spiritual practice is shaping us? How might we recognize slow or invisible transformation?

Have you ever desperately wanted to change? To be more loving, patient, generous - more like Jesus - but keep finding yourself falling back into the same old patterns? In this message from Robyn Elliott, we explore why trying harder isn’t always the path to becoming like Jesus, and how practices of wonder, attention, and reverence can create space for God to meet us, reshape us, and change us from the inside out. What if feeling stuck isn’t a sign that you’re failing spiritually, but an invitation to grow in a different way?

Discussion Questions

1. Robyn suggests that spiritual growth begins not with guilt, but with desire - and that desire itself may need to be cultivated. What do you genuinely want when it comes to your relationship with God? Is there a difference between what you think you should want and what you actually desire?

2. Paul describes wanting to do what is right but finding himself unable to do it. Why do you think knowing what is right so often fails to produce the change we want? Where have you experienced that gap between knowing and doing?

3. What role does wonder play in your spiritual life? When have you recently been genuinely awestruck - by nature, another person, beauty, God, or something you couldn’t fully explain - and what effect did that experience have on you?

4. Richard Foster describes spiritual formation as divine love becoming so deeply rooted in us that certain ways of living begin to happen almost naturally. What would it look like if kindness, patience, generosity, forgiveness, or love became less of something you had to force and more of something that flowed from who you are?

5. If you believed that “every minute is a gateway to the divine if we’re paying attention,” how might that change the way you move through an ordinary week? What is one ordinary thing you could pay attention to differently this week? (See below for opportunities to pay attention and practice wonder this week)

This Week: Practice Noticing

Choose one of these simple practices this week:

- Look up at the stars. Stop and look at the night sky three times this week. We see the stars so often that we forget how extraordinary they are. Imagine if they only appeared once every thousand years - everyone would stop and look. Can you stop and look three times?

- Notice a tree. Pick one tree and really pay attention to it. Notice its colours, texture, shape, movement, and the way the light falls on it. Allow yourself to be caught up in its beauty.

- Notice people. As you go about your day, let yourself wonder about the people around you. Not by staring, but by remembering that each person has a story. See them as someone who is loved, someone who may be carrying things you know nothing about, and wonder what might be happening in their life today.

- Choose the human checkout. Instead of automatically choosing self-checkout, choose a checkout staffed by a person. Have a genuine human moment with someone you may never see again. Notice them. Ask how their day is going. Be present.

- Savour your food. Slow down and really taste what you’re eating. Notice the flavours, textures, and smells. Let an ordinary meal become an opportunity to experience gratitude.

What does it look like for us as followers of Jesus to truly love our Indigenous neighbours? In this message from Adam Norton, we explore why history matters, how listening and learning can reshape the way we understand others and ourselves, and what it might look like to move toward a deeper relationship with First Nations, Metis, and Inuit neighbours.

Discussion Questions:

1. Jesus calls us to love our neighbour, but what changes when we recognize that loving our neighbour requires us to actually know and understand their story? What makes understanding someone an important part of loving them?

2. Adam suggests that “we cannot love what we refuse to understand.” Do you agree with that statement? Where might there be a difference between loving someone well and simply having good intentions toward them?

3. History matters because people carry stories. How do the stories we inherit - from our families, churches, schools, communities, or culture - shape the way we see other people without us realizing it?

4. What is the difference between feeling sorry for someone, feeling guilty about something, and developing genuine compassion that leads to relationship and action? How might those three responses look different in practice?

5. Why do you think challenging stereotypes can feel threatening or uncomfortable? What does it require of us to hold onto the dignity and uniqueness of another person or culture without reducing them to a stereotype or treating them as a representative of an entire group?

6. Adam suggests we need to listen, learn, and build relationship. Which of those comes most naturally to you, and which is most difficult? What would it look like to take one concrete step in the next month?

7. If following Jesus means learning to love our neighbours - including our First Nations, Metis, and Inuit neighbours - what responsibilities might that create for us as individuals and as a church community? Where should that responsibility begin?

What do you do when you’re asking God for a miracle, and the miracle doesn’t look anything like what you expected? In this message, Melody Dekorte shares the deeply personal story of raising her daughter through Rett syndrome, seizures, uncertainty, and grief, while discovering that God’s presence can show up in unexpected ways through provision, community, resilience, and hope. Her story invites us to keep asking God for good things while also learning to recognize the miracles that may already be happening right in front of us.

Discussion Questions:

1. When you hear the word miracle, what do you instinctively picture and where do you think that definition comes from?

2. At the beginning, Scarlett shared that she’s “just like you.” How did you feel hearing her share that? And why are we sometimes uncomfortable around people with disabilities? Did this message change anything for you in the way you might interact with someone different from you?

3. Melody’s story challenges the idea that a miracle must mean the removal of a problem. What “problems” might you have in your life that you’ve been looking for God to remove, and where might you look at those problems differently?

4. If you knew you might never receive the particular answer you’ve been praying for, what would it look like for you to keep asking boldly while also learning to notice the smaller trails of light and joy along the way?

5. Melody mentioned feelings of grief, despair, anger, and disappointment. Why do we sometimes interpret difficult emotions as evidence of weak faith? Where have you experienced this?

What happens when the God we think we understand doesn’t seem to match the world we’re actually living in? In this message from Robyn Elliott, we look at Job and discover a story not simply about suffering, but about certainty, honest questions, flawed theology, and the danger of reducing God to a system we can explain.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think suffering tends to reveal about what we actually believe about God? Can you think of a time when your experience challenged something you thought you knew?

2. Job’s friends begin with compassion but eventually become certain that they understand why Job is suffering. Why do you think certainty can feel safer than saying, “I don’t know?” Where might certainty about God become a way of controlling what we can’t control?

3. Job’s friends operate from a transactional view of God: good people receive good things; bad people receive bad things. Where do you see this assumption - explicitly or subtly - today? What are some ways it can shape how we view ourselves or other people?

4. Is there a difference between having faith in God and being certain that we understand God? What might that difference look like in practice?

5. Job challenges God, demands an explanation, and refuses to accept his friends’ answers. When does questioning God become an expression of faith rather than a rejection of faith? What do you think Job still believes about God underneath all his anger and confusion?

6. The book of Job never gives Job the explanation he wants. What does that tell us about the kind of book Job is? And about the kind of God the book is trying to reveal? Why might Scripture leave some questions unresolved rather than giving us a neat theological answer?

7. Have you ever had an idea about God that worked in theory but became harder to believe when life got complicated? What happened to that belief? Did you abandon it, deepen it, or discover that it was too small?

8. God ultimately doesn't vindicate Job by giving him an explanation; He reveals Himself in a way that expands Job's vision of who God is. What is the difference between knowing about God and knowing God? And how might that distinction challenge the way we approach theology, doubt, suffering, or faith?

What happens when we stop romanticizing the people in the Bible and start paying attention to power, harm, repentance, and redemption? In this message from Robyn Elliott, we take a second look at David and Bathsheba, asking what the story reveals when we stop blaming Bathsheba, confront David’s abuse of power, and consider why David can still be called “a man after God’s own heart.” How we read these stories matters, because how we understand power, failure, repentance, and redemption shapes how we live.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is the first word or image that comes to mind when you hear the name David? Where do you think that image came from - Scripture, church teaching, art, popular culture, or somewhere else?

2. We are often shaped by stereotypes about biblical characters before we ever look closely at the text. What assumptions about David or Bathsheba did you bring into this story, and did anything in the passage challenge those assumptions?

3. What changes when we pay attention to the fact that David is the one who stays home, sends for Bathsheba, and “takes” her? How does the story feel different when we read it primarily through the lens of power rather than sexual temptation?

4. Why do you think people are often more comfortable describing David’s actions as a “momentary lapse of judgment” than naming the abuse of power in the story? What might that reveal about the way we think about powerful or admired people?

5. Robyn suggests that one way to read Scripture more carefully is to ask, “Who has the power here?” and “Who gets named?” How do those questions change the way we interpret other biblical stories, or even the stories we encounter in our own culture?

6. David’s repentance appears to be part of what makes him a “man after God’s own heart.” What is the difference between genuine repentance and simply feeling bad, apologizing, or accepting consequences? What would genuine repentance have to look like when someone has harmed another person?

7. How should we hold together two truths: that David was deeply loved and used by God, and that David did something profoundly evil? What happens when we emphasize only one of those truths?

8. Robyn said, “in their failures we see our own failures, and in their redemption we see our own redemption.” What does that mean for you personally? Where might you need the humility to name something honestly rather than protecting an image of yourself or someone you admire?

John Kowtecky shares a deeply honest story of alcoholism, recovery, spiritual awakening, and the long journey from fear and control toward freedom and trust in Jesus. His story reminds us that God never gives up, is able to meet us in the darkest places, and that faith can make room for both conviction and honest questions as we continue to become who God is calling us to be.

Discussion Questions:

1. As you listened to John‘s story, where did you see yourself? What parts of his experience felt familiar to you, and why?

2. John defines EGO as “easing God out.” What do you think it means to ease God out of our lives, especially when things are going well? And what areas might we be afraid to let God back in?

3. Is there an area of your life that you want to change and feel powerless over? What might it look like to invite Jesus into that? Can you begin to pray, asking Jesus to show you the next step?

4. John describes himself as someone who looked like he had his life together while privately living with fear, insecurity, and addiction. Where do you think the pressure to maintain a positive public image comes from, and what does that cost us?

5. John accepted a challenge to change the way he thought every day for six months. What might that look like for you? Are there areas you feel God prompting you to change the way you think?

6. When you reflect on your own story, what experiences, struggles, turning points, or moments of grace have shaped who you are today? Looking back, where do you see God’s fingerprints? Do you see any “God-incidences” - people or events that God brought into your life?

What if the thing exhausting you isn’t everything you’re doing, but the fact that you’ve forgotten why you’re doing it? In this message from Robyn Elliott, we revisit the story of Mary and Martha and discover that Jesus isn’t simply choosing one sister over the other; he’s inviting both women - and us - into freedom, presence, and a healthier way of serving. We sit with Jesus so we can go with Jesus, receiving from him so that we can give from the overflow.

Discussion Questions:

1. When you hear the story of Mary and Martha, which sister do you instinctively identify with and why? What might that instinct reveal about your current season of life?

2. Martha tells Jesus, essentially, “Don’t you care?” What do you think is underneath that accusation? Have you ever experienced a point where exhaustion, disappointment, or resentment began to distort how you understood God’s presence?

3. Jesus says Martha is worried and troubled by many things. What’s the difference between being genuinely responsible and being inwardly controlled by responsibility? How can we tell when healthy service has become unhealthy striving?

4. Jesus may not be establishing a rule - be more like Mary - but inviting us to pay attention and discern. Why is discernment harder than simply following a rule? What are some areas of life where you wish Jesus would just tell you exactly what to do?

5. If serving in this passage has a broader meaning than simply household chores, how does that change the way we understand Martha? What assumptions about gender, ministry, leadership, or spiritual maturity could we be bringing to this story without realizing it?

6. “Being with Jesus comes before serving Jesus.” What do you think that means practically? Can you think of ways that doing things for God can actually become a way of avoiding what God might be doing in us?

7. Robyn said, “We sit with Jesus so that we can go with Jesus.” If receiving and serving belong together, what happens when we emphasize only one side? What does spiritual formation look like if we deliberately practice both?

8. Martha later appears serving again, and Mary later pours out her perfume in an extravagant act of love. What does this suggest about the goal of discipleship? What if becoming more like Jesus isn't about becoming more like Mary or Martha, but becoming more fully the person God has made you to be? What might that look like for you?

9. Are you currently serving at Lakeside, and if so, does that serving feel life-giving, or are you finding yourself stretched and depleted? If you’re not currently serving, where might you see yourself contributing in a way that fits your gifts and brings you joy? What might Jesus be inviting you to receive, give, or reconsider in this season?

Rather than allowing us to dismiss Judas as simply a scoundrel, Robyn Elliott invites us to look more closely at Judas and how he may hold up a mirror to our own hearts. Can we be close to Jesus and yet still resist him? How easily can our motives become mixed, our hearts divided, and our desires pull us away? Ultimately, Judas's story is not just about the danger of betrayal; it's about the danger of being close to Jesus without allowing Jesus to transform us.

QUESTIONS

1. What insights have you gleaned on Judas and his possible reasons for betraying Jesus?

2. If the story of Judas challenges us in any way, it asks us to wonder in what ways am I further from the heart of Jesus than I imagined? Does my following live up to my believing?

3. Are there areas of Judas’ story that you can relate to or identify with?

4. If Jesus knew Judas would betray him and still welcome him to the table, what does that tell me about the kind of grace Jesus offers me?

5. What am I willing to trade Jesus for? Not thirty pieces of silver—but comfort, success, approval, security, ambition, control?

6. Am I becoming more like Jesus or simply becoming more familiar with Jesus?