ST NICOLAS, NEWBURY
HOME GROUP QUESTIONS
PURPOSE-DRIVEN CHURCH - SESSION 3
INTRODUCTION
From God's point of view, the job of the church is to transform people so that they reflect the life of Jesus. I've found it helpful to think about this in five areas:
1) helping people connect with God to the point where they are able to say that 'God is my heavenly Father'; it's about helping people to become Christians.
2) helping people to worship - to place God at the centre of their lives and keep him there.
3) helping people to belong - to become a member of the Christian family, able both to give and to receive support as they take on the family likeness.
4) helping people to grow - to put down deep roots and become mature in their faith.
5) helping people to serve - to develop and use all their God-given gifts for the benefit of others so that the life of Jesus is reflected in his world.
These five areas of church life reflect the priorities set out in Rick Warren's 'The Purpose-Driven Church', a book which has proved very effective in helping churches all over the world. One of Rick's key points in all this is that a healthy church includes each of these five features held in balance: "Church growth is the natural result of church health. But church health can only occur when our message is biblical and our mission is balanced. Each of the five New Testament purposes of the church must be in equilibrium with the others for health to occur".
3: HELPING PEOPLE TO BELONG
This is the third in a series of five studies designed to help us look at each of these purposes of the church in turn.
1. Do you think of yourself as 'belonging' to St Nicolas? What have you found that this means for you in practice?
2. Read Romans 12:3-8. In the light of what Paul says here, how might you respond to someone who said that they preferred to be a Christian on their own without belonging to the church?
3. What differences are there between church 'attenders' and church 'members'?
4. Can you recall what it was that turned you from being someone who 'attended' St Nicolas into someone who now 'belongs' to St Nicolas? What do you think helped? What hindered?
5. Do you think your sense of belonging to St Nicolas could be strengthened? How?
6. What do you think we currently expect from someone who wants to be a member of St Nicolas? Is there any more (or less) that we should expect?
7. What do you think that those who belong to St Nicolas currently expect to get out of their membership of the church? Is there any more (or less) that they should expect?
8. It's often said that joining a small group or team is a good way to strengthen a person's sense of belonging to a church. Why do you think some people resist this? What could we do to help?
9. Rick Warren makes the observation that "people are not looking for a friendly church as much as they are looking for friends". What's the difference? How do people form friendships at St Nicolas?
10. Most of us know John 3:16. But what about 1 John 3:16? Have a look at this verse in John's first letter. What does it mean in practice for us to 'lay down our lives' for one another? Why is this something we 'ought' to do?
11. If you had to pick just a couple of things for us to start doing or seek to do better in the area of helping people to belong to St Nicolas, what would they be? Please make a note of your suggestions so that they can be passed to the SPEAR team.
12. Spend some time praying for this aspect of our life at St Nicolas and for the decisions we need to take about the future.
David Stone
20 May 2008