Cell group leader notes w/b 27.11.11

Watching and waiting

Welcome: Have you ever been on the inside of a “best kept secret”? (Obviously, the confidentiality will need to have expired for you to be able to share this, but anyway...) Have you ever been the recipient of a well kept secret?

Word:Read the whole of Mark 13

• How do you think this chat with JC would have made Peter, James, John and Andrew feel? How does this passage make you feel?

• Geoff spoke about the “What and When” of the Day of the Lord...

What is the what? (24-31)

When is the when? (32-7)

• What does being “alert” or “on guard” (33) mean for you/your group? What about your “assigned task”? (34) What would it mean to carry that out consistently?

Worship:

• Mark 13:31 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

This is a remarkable statement. Even more so, because we are contemplating it from about 1980 years distance!

The words of Jesus are eternal. They are more enduring and dependable than the earth itself.

Let's give thanks to the one who is committed to fulfilling his promises to us.

Give yourselves time and space (and contemplative musical accompaniment?) to consider this phrase.

Let it flow into thanksgiving.

Let it flow into prayers based on Jesus's promises.

Witness:

• This is a real “insider” passage... it is after all spoken by Jesus to the best mates, not even the whole 12 disciples... What can we take of this into the outside world?

Week's Time:

• Next week is prayer central time... see separate sheet, take some time to pool ideas whilst you are together.

• This “phase” of cell life is approaching its end... After New Year we will shoogle things around to create 5 groups and incorporate those who have been patiently waiting for the experimental stuff to finish. Can you try to include this in the prayer time? In terms of thanksgiving? In terms of prayer for the new groups?

Cell group leader notes w/b 20.11.11

Sheep or goat?

Welcome: Judgement seat: Pass judgement (briskly), as a group, on one, some, all of the following...

I'm a Celebrity, get me out of here!

The song, “Shine, Jesus, Shine”

The NHS

The film, “The King's Speech”

Word:Read Matthew 25:31-46

• Why is it that we insist on working out who are the sheep and who are the goats?

• Have you been on the receiving end of any sheeplike behaviour lately? How so?

• How do we pray for “the nations” in light of this passage? (It's ok if this leads into prayer)

• As prep for the worship bit... The last seven days... are you more of a sheep or a goat?

Worship:

• Use compline (overleaf) with or without a bit of (fairly reflective) music of your choice

Witness:

• OK, so you want all those non-Christian good guys that you know and love to be sheep, not goats. How are you modelling ovine behaviour to them? Do you make it easy for them to love the Lord Jesus through you? What needs to change?

Cell group leader notes w/b 13.11.11

The truth about those who have died

Welcome: Describe something you find it difficult to do

Word:  1 thess 4:13-18 and 5:1-11(GNB below)

¹³ Our friends, we want you to know the truth about those who have died, so that you will not be sad, as are those who have no hope.¹⁴ We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him.

 ¹⁵ What we are teaching you now is the Lord's teaching: we who are alive on the day the Lord comes will not go ahead of those who have died.¹⁶ There will be the shout of command, the archangel's voice, the sound of God's trumpet, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven. Those who have died believing in Christ will rise to life first;¹⁷ then we who are living at that time will be gathered up along with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.¹⁸ So then, encourage one another with these words.

Be Ready for the Lord's Coming

 ¹ There is no need to write you, friends, about the times and occasions when these things will happen.² For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night.³ When people say, 
         Everything is quiet and safe, then suddenly destruction will hit them! It will come as suddenly as the pains that come upon a woman in labour, and people will not escape.⁴ But you, friends, are not in the darkness, and the Day should not take you by surprise like a thief.⁵ All of you are people who belong to the light, who belong to the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.⁶ So then, we should not be sleeping like the others; we should be awake and sober.⁷ It is at night when people sleep; it is at night when they get drunk.⁸ But we belong to the day, and we should be sober. We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.⁹ God did not choose us to suffer his anger, but to possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,¹⁰ who died for us in order that we might live together with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes.¹¹ And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

• How would Paul’s words have encouraged the Thessalonian church? (What do you find encouraging about them?)

• Do Paul’s words about Christ coming “as a thief in the night” (at an unknown time) calm you or stir up fear? Does the night and day/light and dark stuff help?

• Of all the places you live, (home, work, church, etc) where do you feel the need for more faith, more hope and more love?

Worship:

• Let the answers to the questions above (esp the last) lead the group into prayer for one another.

• Pray for those who are close to death at this time

Witness:

• To whom have you resolved to show/bring/act with more faith, more hope, more love this week? How will the group assist with this?