Community Mixtape: How to Disagree in Community (10.14.19)
Opening Prayer of Examen
Shifting your focus to today’s time of seeking God and practicing the way of Jesus, spend 5 minutes prayerfully examining your own heart and feelings on the following:
- Jesus, what are some of the things you’ve taught me in church in the last few months that you really want me to remember?
- Jesus, what were the biggest challenges to being committed to my community in the past few months? How did I see you show up in those situations?
- Jesus, what are the unresolved or disconnected pieces of church community life for me that you want to bring hope to?
After reflecting and praying, allow room for a few people in your group to share anything that stood out or surprised them about their time of prayer.
Respond to Sunday’s Teaching
Reflect on this Sunday’s teaching by briefly summarizing the main points of the teaching in your own words, and then discuss as a group.
- What surprised or challenged you in Sunday’s teaching?
- How does your Community Group handle disagreements? (Or, if disagreements never come up, what keeps them from coming up?)
- What do you think your group would look like if you were able to disagree with one another while remaining ruggedly committed to one another?
Disagreement Exercise
Time permitting, go for a short walk around the block of your neighborhood (if it’s safe out at this time). Or, split into pairs in different parts of the home where you’re meeting.
Pair off with people in your group with whom you have had a disagreement, whether they know about it or not. If you have no clear disagreements with anyone, be available for others to connect with you, call someone in your life with whom you have a disagreement, or take time to pray for your neighborhood.
As you talk, keep in mind the guidelines of how to disagree well, which Dave shared on Sunday:
- Stay and accept disagreements as a part of being in God’s new family.
- Listen and make sure you understand where the other person is coming from.
- Start with agreement and then move on from what you have in common, possibly exposing the antagonism at work.
- Make observations and ask questions that reveal contradictions at work.
- Do not set out to humiliate or defeat the other person.
Not everything must be resolved during this conversation. The point is simply to move toward one another in connection, even in the midst of disagreement.
Group Intercession
Intercede in prayer for one another, for those in your lives you know who need prayer, and for God’s will to be done in our city.