We invite you to ponder the week’s Bible passage and listen to the sermon (posts Sun. afternoon), then use the ideas below to help you and your group apply what the Lord is teaching you.

Icebreaker idea: What’s one important ingredient in addressing conflict constructively?

A way to pray: Pray for those in our lives who don’t know the Lord – ask Him to set them free from Satan's trap. Ask God to remind us how we’ve been set free from that same trap, and to use our stories and our changing lives to point people to Him as we seek to see 2,000 people by 2022 baptized and growing in relationship with Jesus through the Word, prayer, and community.

Talk It Over:

• Treasuring God: In what ways has “cutting [God’s word] straight” helped me love Him more? How might “crooked cutting” show that I treasure myself most?

• Being Transformed: Do I tend to conform the Word to my desires or seek to be transformed by it? Do I ask “What does it mean to me?” or “What is it saying?”

• Loving Others: How often do I remind myself that I used to be caught in Satan’s trap? How does seeing others as “trapped” help me love them more?

• Pursuing Unity: How do I typically interact with “opponents”? How can my Grow Group help me grow in kindness, patience, and gentleness?

We invite you to ponder the week’s Bible passage and listen to the sermon (posts Sun. afternoon), then use the ideas below to help you and your group apply what the Lord is teaching you.

Icebreaker idea: Which of these words/phrases do you like best (and why) – endurance, focus, self-discipline, following the rules, hard work?

A way to pray: Ask the Lord to help us pursue His mission – that we’d encourage and equip each other to follow Him and take His good news into our homes, workplaces, communities, and world. Pray that we’ll see 2,000 people by 2022 baptized and growing in relationship with Jesus through the Word, prayer, and community.

Talk It Over:

• Treasuring God: What beautiful qualities of God can I meditate on to increase my love for Him and my fervor for seeing others following Him?

• Being Transformed: What are my greatest efforts going toward? What distracts me from the mission God calls us to as believers? What needs to change?

• Loving Others: How does Christ’s trustworthy promise to remain faithful even if we are faithless impact how I live out what it means to genuinely love others?

• Pursuing Unity: In what specific ways has Jesus shown me grace? How does recalling His unmerited favor in my own life encourage me to pursue harmony with others?

We invite you to ponder the week’s Bible passage and listen to the sermon (posts Sun. afternoon), then use the ideas below to help you and your group apply what the Lord is teaching you.

Icebreaker idea: What’s something you enjoy (a favorite restaurant, band or song, book or author, etc.) that it’s easy for you to talk about with others?

A way to pray: Pray for boldness to suffer for the gospel (esp. in the areas that come up through the group discussion below) as we seek to see 2,000 people by 2022 baptized and growing in relationship with Jesus through the Word, prayer, and community.

Talk It Over:

• Treasuring God: In what ways does our willingness (or unwillingness) to suffer for the gospel demonstrate how much we truly treasure God?

• Being Transformed: In what situations is it hard for me to share boldly about the Lord? What needs to change for me to be courageous and unashamed?

• Loving Others: What are some ways that our fear of sharing the gospel can translate into a failure to love others well?

• Pursuing Unity: How well do I balance guarding the content of the gospel with preserving unity? What makes a “hill” worth “dying on”?

We invite you to ponder the week’s Bible passage and listen to the sermon (posts Sun. afternoon), then use the ideas below to help you and your group apply what the Lord is teaching you.

Icebreaker idea: What is one relationship that has had a profound impact on your life (and why)?

A way to pray: Based on what’s shared through the group discussion, ask the Lord to help us fight fear and grow our faith, so that we can be a courageous and clear witness for Him as we seek to see 2,000 people by 2022 baptized and growing in relationship with Jesus through the Word, prayer, and community.

Talk It Over:

• Treasuring God: In what ways has God recently shown grace, mercy, and peace to me, His beloved child? How does remembering this help me treasure Him more?

• Being Transformed: Knowing we all stumble, how can we still show genuine faith? Where do I need God’s transforming power to have faith “without hypocrisy”?

• Loving Others: In what ways am I tempted to have a spirit of fear rather than love toward people outside the church?

• Pursuing Unity: In what specific ways do I, or could I, use my giftedness to build up the body of Christ? What does it look like to “fan my gifts into flame”?