Macedonia UMC Connect Groups

Priority: How Are My Finances Spiritual? Connect Your groups have been meeting for over a month, and hopefully they have a good rhythm going now.   As you gather this week, I invite you to consider a question together: What is the hardest thing for you to share? Pray The question of Trust is one that we have considered for multiple weeks. “Where does God rank?” is a key question to consider when we are thinking about our financial lives.   As your group holds one another accountable, invite them to pick one of the measures to wrestle with as you share and pray together: Passionate: Where did I see God today? Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships? Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family? Trusting: Where does God rank? Active: How am I engaged with God’s work? Reflect In some ways, this sermon was the most easy to understand. It may also be the most difficult one to put into practice.   Here’s a one-minute video...

Connect As you talk together and gather, consider this question: What have you encountered about yourself and your view of money most during this series?   Is there anything that is changing in you? Pray Last week we looked at the question of “Trusting” together—Where does God rank?   When we think about the question of abundance , I welcome you to continue on the question of Trusting, or invite the group to consider whatever measure they wish to share about this week.   Make sure you pray together and for one another: Passionate: Where did I see God today? Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships? Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family? Trusting: Where does God rank? Active: How am I engaged with God’s work? Reflect We could go in a variety of directions this week.   Perhaps these two frames of thought will help.   First, Pastor Kevin quoted David Zahl, who wrote a book called Seculosity .   In this ...

Connect As you connect with one another this week, encourage your group to break into pairs or threes and answer this question: Do you think God wants us to be rich? Pray Last week we focused on the idea of Trusting God by asking “where does God rank?”   Invite your group to share with one another how they are doing in that area of trusting in God.   Then, you can invite them to answer any of the five questions.   I have found that if the group is sizable, that it might work best to do this in pairs or threes: Passionate: Where did I see God today? Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships? Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family? Trusting: Where does God rank? Active: How am I engaged with God’s work? Make sure your group prays for one another at this time. Reflect This week, Pastor Kevin focused on this idea of prosperity.   Kate Bowler is someone he often quotes, and she is the foremost historian on the ...

Connect Hopefully your group has a new face or two along with the familiar faces.   If there are new folks, share the covenant that you made last week together so that everyone is on the same page.   Spend some time talking together, and then focus in on this discussion together: This week, Pastor Kevin shared an illustration of a shopping mall as a site of worship.   Think in your life—how did you grow into being a consumer?   With what aspect of consumerism do you struggle? Pray You’re encouraged to use the cards again to look at the 5 Measures and their corresponding questions: Passionate: Where did I see God today? Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships? Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family? Trusting: Where does God rank? Active: How am I engaged with God’s work? As you think about this week’s topic of consumerism, you might all try to answer the question about how you are doing at Trusting God by askin...

Connect Take time as a group getting to know one another.   Some of your groups have people who know one another well, but every group has new people.   Some have been in a group before, and others have not.   Explore a few things together as a group: -Structure of each Connect Group time: Connect: Opportunity at the beginning to touch base and intentionally socialize.   This time is usually wrapped up with a question or a prompt that draws everyone together. Pray: This is the heart of a solid Connect Group, and what sets it apart from other types of study groups.   Time is spent reflecting upon the Measures of Passionate, Accepting, Trusting, Invitational, and Active, and then the group prays for one another during this time. Reflect: This is the time where the group reflects upon Sunday’s sermon and worship.   Time may be spent studying one of the Scripture passages, reading a related article, or following up on an aspect that could not be...

Joseph’s Story in Genesis 37-50 Connect Your groups should have some good relationships being established by this point.   During this time, if your group needs to go over expectations or norms, you can do that.   Also, your group may want to talk about how long it will go.   Thursday group, will you finish before Easter?   Or just take a week off at Holy week and continue for a little?   Sunday group, since you started late, will you stretch into May?   Even though groups might be tempted to meet indefinitely, I would encourage you to find a time to stop before summer and then groups can re-launch and add new folks/multiply in the fall. As your group gathers, consider the following quote from Peter Scazzero from Sunday’s sermon: “1. The blessings and sins of our families going back two to three generations profoundly impact who we are today. 2. Discipleship requires putting off the sinful patterns of our family of origin and relearni...