Home Church Guide, 1.10.21 | The Other Jesus

Jan 9, 2021 | Blog, This Week

HOME CHURCH GUIDE

In this season where our Church is unable to gather as a whole family for worship, we’re seeking to equip our Restoration family for God’s work among them – right where they are. That’s what Home Church is all about: giving you tools to gather with community groups or other believers (*safely* in person or online) for a shared experience of worship with the whole Restoration family. Below, you’ll find three movements of worship together: Worship (praise and prayer), Word (opening the Scriptures), and Witness (talking it out and living it out. So whether with a community group or a friend or two, let’s worship together!

FAMILY WORSHIP GUIDE

As we make our way through the story of God, we are prioritizing the discipleship of our children through our Family Worship Guide each week! Each week, you’ll find questions, activitives, and other fun stuff that follows along with the same passages as the adults. Join us!

Family Worship Guide:
Click Here!

 

WORSHIP: PRAISE AND PRAYER

Worship is the continual process of orienting our hearts around that which we value most. Each Sunday, we worship in song and prayer to offer our hearts and allegience to Jesus, who alone is worthy of our praise. In your Home Churches, we encourage worship through the use of the video below or by worship in person. If you cannot participate through song in your group, spend time answering this question:

 

What do I have to praise God for this week?

Prayer for the week:

God of mercy and comfort, we come before you weary and confused. Mindful of human frailty and need, we are struggling to find meaning in the face of suffering.
Where tempers flare and a spirit of deeply-rooted injustice provokes new hostility, raise up patient daughters and sons, and anoint them to lead radically.
Where indifference allows crisis to deepen and suffering to go without relief, awaken deliverers who have zeal and strength.
Direct all governments in the way of peace and justice, that your will may be known and done among the nations. Deliver us from the sins which lead to war and conflict, to white supremacy and hatred, and strengthen within us the will to establish righteousness and justice on the earth.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer. In this season of Epiphany we desperately seek the light of Christ to be made ever more visible to us all. Amen.
(Body and excerpts partially adapted from the Moravian Book of Worship and from Betsy Miller)

WORD: OPENING THE SCRIPTURES

Listen to the Podcast: iTunes | Spotify

WITNESS: TALK AND LIVE IT OUT

This Week’s Scripture: John 18:28-40

Whether among your community group or a few friends over Zoom, we want to challenge you to move beyond just knowledge and information and into practicing the way of Jesus in your everyday life! But we do this together. Below you’ll find some questions to discuss, as well as next steps for living it out!

Studying The Scriptures Together

  1. As you read the John 18 passage, how does Jesus’ response to Pilate and those in power reveal his understanding of his own power in the world? How does this impact his followers? 
  2. Jesus Barabbas was a Zealot – an insurrectionist who believed the kingdom of God could only come through power and force. As a common mentality in our own day, why do you think this way of thinking has been so appealing for Christians throughout the centuries?  
  3. Read Matthew 20:25-28. Jesus says the way we lead others should look different from the world around them. What does this kind of sacrificial, servant leadership look like for our world today?
  4. Our biggest response to our national crisis is to be a Christ-shaped Church of sacrificial love. What are some of the ways that we, together, can model a better way of being the people of God for a country that’s lost it’s way? 

Please take some time in your Home Churches to specifically and intentionally pray:

Pray for our national leaders to guide us with wisdom, humility, and truth in the coming days. Pray for the incoming administration to lead us to justice and peace.
(1 Timothy 2:1-2)

Pray for your political and cultural enemies. Ask God to meet them where they are with a transformative love that changes hearts and lives from the inside out. (Matthew 5:43-48)

Pray for truth and justice to bring us closer to reconciliation and healing in our nation.
(Amos 5:21-24)

Pray for our Church – that God would give us opportunities to tear down walls and build tables of reconciliation and peace.
(Ephesians 2:14-18)