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January 11, 2010
Week 1: Partner with God
Sanctification involves a mysterious partnership with God.
Hello to all of you, and welcome to our next session of Dot Com(unity)! We will spend the next five weeks exploring a great Bible study called John Ortberg on Understanding God, and I am excited to get started. So let's do just that.
As a quick review, we are studying this material together as leaders in order to get the best handle on it possible in order to teach it to our groups. This is a place where you can share great ideas regarding this material, ask questions, and get anything else you need from a community of people in your same situation.
And if you haven't got a copy of the Ortberg study yet, you can use the coupon code DotComOrtberg to receive a 50 percent discount.
The Big Question
One of the things I like about John Ortberg as a teacher is that he keeps things very focused, and this study is no different. He asks a Big Question right off the bat: "Whose job is spiritual growth?" And we'll spend the rest of the study finding an answer.
(As an aside, I would recommend asking this question of your group before you get into any of the teaching points. Get their opinions and let them talk about it before you all see what Scripture has to say.)
There are a lot of Teaching Points in this study, and it's unlikely that your group will be able to get through all of them. So you will need to set priorities ahead of time on which material will be most helpful to your group members. Here are a couple recommendations from me:
- If your group members came to a consensus at the beginning of the study that God and us both have a stake in our spiritual growth, than you can probably skip the first Teaching Point.
- The second Teaching Point ("Spiritual formation is normative, not optional") would be an important point for new Christians to understand. It also contains an optional activity.
- The fourth Teaching Point ("Sanctification is empowered by God, not man") provides a great opportunity for confession.
The study ends with the following Action Point: "If you feel comfortable, ask those in your small group what they see in you that needs to change. Discuss the spiritual practices that are especially important for your growth and ask for prayer in the areas they mentioned." Obviously, this has the potential to be a transformational moment for your group, but only if you as the group leader have thick skin and are willing to hear what your group has to say. So tread carefully, and if you're not comfortable with the idea, don't do it.
Icebreakers and Activities
Here are a couple extra activities from SmallGroups.com that would fit well with this study:
Growing Up
Group members discuss how they've changed since junior high
Extreme MakeoverWhat part of your life needs a radical change?
A Recipe for Living
Here's a creative way to develop a plan for spiritual growth.
posted by Sam O'Neal on January 11, 2010 9:25 AM
