Community Guide

The Community Guide below is based on Sunday’s teaching for the Matthew Series. As your whole Community gathers (online or socially distanced), use the Community Guide below to give shape to your night together.

Begin by Practicing the Lord’s Supper Together (5 minutes)

Begin your night by partaking of the bread and the cup together. Have each person bring their own Communion elements. To facilitate your time, you can either ask a member of your Community to come ready with a short prayer, liturgy, or scripture reading, or assign someone to read the scripture we’ve provided below and spend a moment in silence before continuing.

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15v50-58

Emotional Health Check-in (20-30 Minutes)

We want to continue to create space for checking in on each other, but doing so in a shorter amount of time. Take a few minutes to do an emotional health check-in with your Community, creating space for each person to answer the question below:

  • What has resting looked like for you over the last month? What is one thing you would like to incorporate into your rhythm of rest?

If the need arises, spend a few minutes praying for one another, asking God to meet needs and help each person carry what feels heavy right now.

Read this Overview (5 Mins)

The story has been told a thousand times with different characters or plot points: the villain laughs as the hero dies, only to begin shaking in fear when the hero emerges to life again. Each of these stories find their origin in the story of Jesus. The greatest story ever told involves Jesus not simply dying, but being raised back to life, triumphant over the only thing that possibly could have taken him down. Jesus’ death allowed us to live; but Jesus’ resurrection allowed us to live forever as wholly new creations.

Debrief this Sunday’s Teaching (20 Minutes)

With that in mind, work through the following discussion questions as a Community:

  1. What new thoughts/realizations did you have about the resurrection as you heard the teaching?
  2. In what ways did you feel challenged by the teaching? How did you feel inspired or encouraged into greater faith?
  3. Identify two ways that you could live without fear in light of the resurrection?

Practice For The Week Ahead: Celebrate (5 Minutes)

In light of the resurrection, take some time this week to give thanks and celebrate. Go outside, enjoy the sunshine, sing to worship music, eat some ice cream — do something that makes you come alive in celebration.

Prayer (20 Minutes)

Spend a few minutes praying for God’s grace over each other, that we would become a people of the resurrection, who live each day renewed to follow after Jesus and his in-breaking Kingdom.