SMALL GROUP STUDY GUIDE 

Your journey to experience deep, life-giving relationships starts here. Do you have someone who encourages you? Prays for you? Or holds you accountable? It’s time to reclaim what it means to be the church and live in biblical community. This 8 week study will walk through eight one another’s of Scripture. These verses aren't suggestions; these are commands that will help us grow in meaningful relationships.

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BIBLE READING PLAN 

If you’re not used to reading the Bible daily, you can start by reading one chapter a day. This will take about five minutes. Over the next two months, you will read through six books from the New Testament as you dive into six letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the early church.

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WEEKLY MESSAGE 

If you miss the sermon, we encourage you to listen or watch online prior to attending your small group. This will help you come prepared and ready to participate with your group as you press the truth of God's Word into every day life. 
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

WEEK 1: Show Hospitality

  1. Who is the most hospitable person you know? What makes them good at hospitality? What excuses do you make to avoid practicing hospitality? Why?
  2. How do you view your home? Are you more prone to view your home as a place of retreat and entertainment or a center for care and healing?
  3. Hospitality is more than opening your home. As Christians, we’re called to open our lives and reveal our true selves. What holds you back from sharing your life with others? What is one way you can grow in this area with your small group? 
  4. Romans 15:7 says we have been welcomed boldly, generously and unconditionally. Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. How does the example of Christ serve as the primary motivation for hospitality? As Christians, why is this important? 
  5. Look at your calendar. What occasions could you turn into a means of practicing hospitality? Think about holidays, birthday parties, anniversaries or special events. What can you do to infuse one of these events with purpose and gospel intentionality? 
  6. Hospitality is less about entertaining and more about engaging. How can you share your life and be a blessing to others? What is your next step to practice biblical hospitality? Be specific.

WEEK 2: Bear Burdens

  1. Has God ever dropped a rock on your life? Have you ever experienced a difficult season that felt crushing or had to carry something that weighed you down?
  2. God sees your struggles. He knows your pain. God is not distant from suffering–He’s with you. How can the hope of the gospel lighten or remove your burdens?
  3. What have you learned about yourself as you’ve tried to carry your own burdens? Why is it hard to invite people into your life or allow others to help you? 
  4. Jesus describes Himself as “gently and lowly”. This is who He is. Tender. Open. Welcoming. Accommodating. Understanding. Willing. How does this image of Jesus change the way you relate to others who are struggling through life?
  5. Read 2 Corinthians 1:3–7. How can God use your pain to comfort others? Who is someone in your circle of influence that you can come alongside and encourage?
  6. What excuses do you make to avoid or distance yourself from the burdens of others? Why?

Want to Go Deeper?

Week 1 - Show Hospitality

Deep down, every Christian wants to make a difference. But for many, the years come and go and not much changes. Biblical hospitality is an easy way to make the leap. Since many would sooner enter a living room than a church, it's a natural and effective way to build relationships for Christ. 

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Week 2 - Bear the Burdens

Christians know what Jesus has done––but who is he? What is his deepest heart for his people, weary and faltering on their journey toward heaven? Jesus said he is "gentle and lowly in heart." This book reflects on these words and who Jesus is for sinners and suffers today.

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Week 3 - Pray for

A Praying Life is a prayer guide that has encouraged thousands of Christians to pursue a vibrant prayer life full of joy and power and has helped them learn how to pray faithfully and courageously. This book reminds readers that prayer is simply making conversation with God a rhythm of daily Christian life.

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Week 4 - Sing with

The first half of this book explores what it means to grow as a private worshiper through the Psalms to help readers worship God on their own. The second half of this book looks at corporate worship by exploring the glorious gatherings in heaven, as described in the book of Revelation.

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Week 5 - Be Humble

A battle rages within every one of us every day. It’s the clash between our sense of stubborn self-sufficiency and God’s call to recognize that we’re nothing without Him. God clearly states that He is drawn to the humble. He's also clear that He opposes the proud. Humility and pride cannot coexist. Where on is fostered, the other is defeated.

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Week 6 - Forgive

Have you ever felt stuck in a cycle of unresolved pain, playing offenses over and over in your mind? You know you can't go on like this, but you don't know what to do next. In surprising ways, Lysa TerKeurst has discovered how to let go of bound-up resentment and overcome the resistance to forgiving people who aren’t willing to make things right.

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Week 7 - Stir Up

Written out of the conviction that friends are the best helpers, this book will equip believers to share their burdens with one another through gentle words of wisdom and kind acts of love. This book is written for those eager to see God use ordinary relationships and conversations to work extraordinary miracles in the lives of his people.

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Week 8 - Be at Peace

In The Peacemaker, Ken Sande presents a comprehensive and practical theology for conflict resolution designed to bring about not only a cease-fire but also unity and harmony. Sande takes readers beyond resolving conflicts to true, life-changing reconciliation with family members, coworkers and fellow believers.

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