Greet our brothers and sisters in Laodicea, especially Nympha and the church that meets in her house. (Col. 4:15, GW)
COVID-19 got you “stuck” at home on the Lord’s Day? You can still have church using the outline below. (Option: use this outline to supplement the sermon shared on the church’s Facebook Live post. Choose a/the passage used during the sermon.) Do it with your family, with others over the phone, or using apps like Zoom, Skype, or WhatsApp. You don’t have to be a teacher to do this. Let the Holy Spirit use the Scriptures to teach you as you pay attention to the passage before you. Allow time for people to answer the questions. Stay on the passage itself. Avoid quoting preacher or author so and so. You’ll be surprised how much the Spirit enables you to “hear” from the passage.
LOOK BACK: Check up and Review (First third of your time together)
Facilitator asks:
For what are you thankful? Are you struggling or burdened with anything?
Did you share God’s story with anyone last week?
How have you obeyed/followed through what you learned at last week’s meeting?
Pray together for each other
Vision/Inspiration: Give opportunity for participants to share a verse or a personal story, or song to celebrate what God is doing and encourage one another to love God, love others, and make disciples. Sing a hymn or chorus to two together.
LOOK UP : Read and Discuss (Second third of your time together)
Choose a Bible passage to study together. Pray and ask God to teach you today’s passage. (Never skip.)
Have someone read the passage aloud.
Optional: After the first reading, allow the group to silently read the passage.
1 – What do you like about this passage?
2 – What do you find difficult about this passage?
(Never skip.) Have someone reread or retell the passage.
3 – What does this passage teach us about people?
4 – What does this passage teach us about God?
LOOK FORWARD : OBEY and SHARE (Third third of your time together)
Never Skip: PAUSE and PRAY for the Spirit to guide you in answering the following questions:
5 – How will you concretely obey this passage?
6 – With whom will you share your story, God’s story or this passage?
Never skip: Ask each person to WRITE everyone’s commitments in their notebook to pray about throughout the week. You’ll refer back to this during the “Look Back” portion when you meet next week.
Have the Lord’s’ Supper together.
Pray for each other