Group Discussion Questions
Q1. Who have been your best teachers?
Q2. What environments have you grown the most?
Q3. What can you adapt/apply from your answers to the above in how you allow yourself to be discipled and disciple others?
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Q4. What would the equivalent of a ridiculously extravagant sower be in your area of industry?
Q5. Verse 12 - what does it mean?
Q6. Verse 17 - what does it mean?
Q7. Worries, Wealth, Wants that crowd out the word, what does that look like for you and in the lives of those you disciple?
Q8. Look at Tim Keller’s description of how people lose their faith, does this resonate with you?
Thanks for the great discussion around how modern people lose faith in Christianity. Here’s my take:
Human knowledge has
(1) a rational/intellectual aspect,
(2) an experiential/intuitive aspect,
(3) and a social/pragmatic aspect.
That is, we come to ‘know’ something when:
(1) there are good reasons for it,
(2) when it fits with our inward experience,
(3) and when we find a trustworthy community that holds it too.
When I talk to individuals leaving the faith, it's usually because of #3, which is why I ask them about #1.
The way I’ve come to believe Jesus bodily rose from the dead is:
(1) I’ve looked at the historical evidence which is surprisingly…
(2) powerful, I’ve sensed Jesus’ actual presence in my life and on my heart repeatedly over the years in ways I can’t explain away, even during stretches when he seems absent,
(3) and I’ve been in many great Christian communities that believed in and lived out Jesus’ resurrection in remarkable ways.
Because of these three ‘strands’ of my knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection, it would not break my faith (as it has for some) if under #3 I discovered a significant body of hypocritical and abusive Christians (which I have, by the way!).
My conclusion is that at least some folks--who go from “firm, active believers” to “complete disbelievers” through disillusionment with the church—had rested their belief in Jesus’ resurrection almost completely in the #3 social aspect.
So that’s my theory, and I’m sure it doesn’t fit everyone—so don’t be too upset with me--I know there will always be individual outliers. Still, I think it does explain some people’s pilgrimage.
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Q9. God has planted you. Where are you sown?What is the soil like?
