Bethany Community Church

Teachers:
9am: Pastor Megan Dobrasz
11am: Shonnie Scott
5pm: Scott Sund

Teacher: Pastor Nick Steinloski, December 20, 2009.

Christ’s blessing can never be purchased; it can only be received as a gift, which requires our own emptiness as the only precondition.

Teacher:  Joe Springer, Director of Small Groups, December 13, 2009.

Teacher: Pastor Phil Maulding, December 6, 2009.

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25, 57-80.

Teacher: Joe Springer, Director of Small Groups, November 29,2009.

Today marks not only the beginning of the Advent season, but also the beginning of what is known as the Church year. Advent is the four-week season (ending on Christmas Eve) when we celebrate God’s coming to Earth in the person of Jesus Christ. This is a season for both remembering God’s coming, and also for anticipating His future coming.

Teacher: Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, November 25, 2009.

Teacher:  Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, November 22, 2009.

Discussion Questions:

Nancy Eckardt

1.      Paul conveyed in word and action that “I am not my own.”  How are you moving toward this in your life?  How have you allowed negative circumstances to further expand the gospel?

2.      Can you think of a time when you sensed God telling you to do something?  How did you respond? What did you learn from the experience?

3.      Jesus taught his disciples to pray, saying, “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What does the now and the not yet look like to you?  How do you see this in your life and experience?  How do you bring the kingdom into the present?

4.      How does the analogy of the kingdom of God as a mustard seed impact your understanding of God’s rule in and through you?

5.      Can you think of someone who is older than you who has continued to grow rather than growing stagnant?  How is that reflected in their life?

6.      Can you think of an example of transformation in your life?  In what area of your life might God be encouraging you to grow?

7.      How do you see yourself continuing to serve and grow as long as you have life?  What steps are you taking now to finish well?

8.      “The proving ground of our faith is our capacity to love.”  How do you respond to this?

9.      What might you need to die to, in order to live into what God has for you?  What is the promise of dying to it?  What keeps you from dying to it?

Teacher:  Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, November 15, 2009.

Paul’s most significant ministry occurred outside the boundaries of his strategies. God had appointments for him that arose in d the midst of trials, unjust treatment, and boring circumstances. It was in these margin spaces of his life that he demonstrated four qualities that would testify to the reality of his message.

Discussion Questions:
Nancy Eckartd

1. What have you continued to think about from last week regarding your prison?  How has your attitude in the midst of your prison been?  How would a change in your attitude impact your perspective?

2. How do you see a hierarchical perspective in your life?  How does it impact you or those around you?

3. How have your plans not unfolded the way you wanted them to?  What has your response been?

4. How has  your intimacy with Jesus allowed you to handle difficult circumstances?  What wisdom could you share with others who are facing difficulties?

5. Can you think of a time when you have been courageous?  Cowardly?  What made the difference?

6. Can you think of a time when God has given you the words to say in a very difficult situation?

7. What are you fearful of?  How do you encourage others in the midst of their fears?

8. What do you need to ask God to protect you from right now?  How easy is it for you to ask God for protection?

9. How do you handle it when God doesn’t answer your prayer?  How does it impact your ability or desire to continue asking?

10. What allows us to be a blessing in other people’s lives?  What keeps us from that?

11. How are you an agent of God’s blessing to others in your life?  What barriers might there be that keeps this from happening?

12. Who is an unexpected blessing in your life?

Teacher: Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, November 8, 2011.

In Paul’s movement from trial to trial, before Felix, Festus, nt Agrippa, and then Rome, all notions that Christianity is a pathway to upward mobility are vaporized. Instead, we see that Paul’s particular unfolding of the truth that, “all who desire to live in Christ will suffer.” Each of us must learn to live as people of hope, right in the midst of our own prisons.

Discussion Questions:
Nancy Eckardt

Each of us must learn to live as people of hope, right in the midst of our own prison.

1. Can you think of an example when you have felt stuck between a rock and hard place? How did you handle it? How did it turn out for your “rock” and “hard place?”

2. How do you respond to the reality that followers of God are often prisoners of injustice? How do you reconcile the presence of God in the world with the reality of injustice?

3. How does the presence of evil impact your relationship with God?

4. Who is someone you know or have read about who responded well to difficulty and injustice in their life?

5. Richard mentions in his sermon that the last freedom we have is to choose our response to a situation. How does that apply to difficulties that you might be in right now?

6. How can you move toward being a person of hope, and away from a person of bitterness?

7. How do you find hope in the promise that we are “more than conquerors”?

8. How have you been a “prisoner of incessant delays”? How do you respond to waiting and uncertainty?

9. What is your context for declaring Christ right now?

From the bulletin, a response to the sermon:

1. What is your prison?

2. What is your prayer regarding your prison?

Teacher: Pastor Richard Dahlstrom, November 1, 2009.

You can choose which forces will prevail in moving you. You can be moved toward this world’s priorities, values, and choices, or you can be transformed—by allowing yourself to be moved by God’s thoughts and heart. In Acts 22 and 23, we see Paul being moved along in the stream of God’s activity. The kind of movement that occurs in Paul is the kind of movement that occurs in all of us.

Discussion Questions:
Nancy Eckardt

You will be changed; what you can decide is what forces will influence the change in you.

1. What is your testimony of change?

2. How have you experienced resistance in your process of change? From within? From external influences?

3. Acts 22:12ff. Paul’s testimony to change under the influence of God. It was not what he expected. How did he come to realize it was what God had planned for him?

4. How has God used you in surprising ways? How did he make it clear even though it wasn’t the obvious path?

5. What elements of your comfort zone make it the hardest to surrender to God’s will?

6. How might God be speaking to you at this time? What forces are you allowing to change you?