Working for the Kingdom

Working for the Kingdom

Week of February 4, 2018

Proverbs 11:10, Colossians 3:23, Luke 12:13-21, 32-34 

Connect

This is the last week of our series Me? Called?  It has been a fun one for me to develop as a pastor and have continued conversation with people in between the weeks.  Next week will be Transfiguration Sunday and then we begin Lent with a series about communion called “This is my body and blood.” 

As your group gathers, invite them to consider this question together:

How do you understand your calling differently after this series?

Pray

The Measure of being a disciple who is Active is extremely apropos for this week.  This measure asks the question: “How Am I Engaged with God’s work?” 

Rather than being a question that asks how you are involved in church activities, this question seeks a deeper response about God’s Kingdom work.  Encourage your group to each reflect on this question together, and then pray together for the work that you each are called to in this season.

Reflect

In her book Kingdom Calling, Amy Sherman writes:

“A central premise of this book is that the average middle-class (or wealthier) Christian in America has been blessed with much from God—skills, wealth, opportunity, vocational position, education, influence, networks.  We are, in short, the prospering.  The purpose of all these blessings is simple to state and difficult to live: we are blessed to be a blessing….it is possible to be the prospering without being the [righteous] (45).”

-Discuss this quotation, along with the idea that “to whom much is given, much is required.” 

A lot of Sunday’s sermon contrasted the idea of the “gospel” as typically presented—one that is only about individual salvation—with the idea of a gospel of the Kingdom.  Two great Christian thinkers share their perspectives on the problems with a smaller gospel when compared to the good news that Jesus invites us into:

Ron Sider: “…too many believers think they can simply accept the gospel and then ‘go on living the same adulterous, materialistic, racist life’ that they lived before” (70).

Dallas Willard: “ ‘I make bold to say, the gospel of the entire New Testament is that you can have a new life now in the kingdom of God if you will trust Jesus Christ” (70).

*Have your group share their responses and thoughts about these quotes and how the idea about a “bigger gospel” helps them understand the place of their work.

Amy Sherman writes:

“ ‘Vocation is first of all about serving God through serving the neighbor.’  This does not mean…that God is indifferent to our joy at work.  Nor does it mean that it is illegitimate to explore how God has uniquely made us as we choose a career.  It does mean that we are called to resist the modern assumption that personal happiness and satisfaction are the highest and most important criteria when considering vocational decisions” (48).

-How are you being nudged to consider your vocational spark at this time?  How is God moving in your life?

Encourage your group to talk to one another, to you as a facilitator, or to me if they have questions or want to talk more about their vocation.