ST NICOLAS, NEWBURY
HOME GROUP QUESTIONS
PURPOSE-DRIVEN CHURCH - SESSION 5
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".
5: HELPING PEOPLE TO SERVE
This is the last in a series of five studies designed to help us look at each of these purposes of the church in turn.
1. In the church, what do 'ministers' do? Would you say that you are among them? Why or why not?
2. Have a look at 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 27-31; Romans 12:3-8; 1 Peter 4:7-11. Can you find yourselves in any of these passages?
3. What do you make of Paul's statement in Romans 12:5 that 'each member belongs to all the others'? How do you think this works out in practice?
4. What do you think clergy, licensed ministers and other members of the church staff are for?
5. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul seems to take it for granted that every member of the church will be given 'the manifestation of the Spirit' (verse 7). What does he mean? How do we discover what 'shape' our particular 'manifestation' is?
6. Read Ephesians 2:10. Which particular 'good works' do you think God might have in mind for you to do? How do you know?
7. Rick Warren comments that "Our culture's preoccupation with individualism and independence must be replaced with the biblical concepts of interdependence and mutuality". Why is this so important? How might the rest of us support you more in your answer to question 6?
8. Are you aware of anything you're passionate about for the life of the church which isn't happening? Or any gifts you have which aren't being used properly? Why is this? What could be done about it?
9. 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 serve more effectively, what would they be? Please make a note of your suggestions so that they can be passed to the SPEAR team.
10. 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
22 May 2008