Hey gang. This is Kyle, not Paul. Tomorrow night we are finishing up our series on "Clique." We are continuing our look at Acceptance and Rejection. I am jumping off of Johnny's last thought two weeks ago regarding us being a set apart community. I loved how he said that we (Elevate) are the trendetters. What if the trend was that we were a radically accepting group of people? What if, all 250 of us students and leaders were passionate about accepting all people. What if we put our self-righteousness on the shelf and realized that we ALL are in need of a savior?
In my experience, we are taught that we must fight to protect ourselves. What if instead we made it our mission to include everyone? This is radical thinking to say the least. The only way to really break down cliques is to include more people. How realitic is this? What stands in our way? What if we just don't like someone? These questions lead me to think - is there ANYONE that Jesus doesn't like? I don't theologically have an answer for us, but I do feel that Jesus likes everyone, loves everyone. He does so much that he died for EVERYONE. As intense this is, I believe we are called and wired to reach out to people that we don't NATURALLY like. I think when we have that experience, it is the POWER of the Holy Spirit that leads us to a relationship with difficult people. Let us be passionate about all people in general and let's let that passion truly change our worlds.
Questions:
Follow Jesus:
1)Who did Jesus reach out to even though others wouldn't? (Lepers, sinning women, demoniacs)
2)How does the life of Jesus inspire you to follow him more?
Be For Each Other:
1)Who is someone in your life that you need to reahc out to more?
2)Who is someone NOT in your friend group that Jesus is asking you to seek out?
3) What keeps you from being FOR more people?
Look Beyond Ourselves:
1) How is reaching out to those outside of our comfort zone looking beyond ourselves?
2) How can our groups benefit from brining people outside our friendship groups in?
Reflections:
1) How was MEA?
2) When is time you felt accepted in the last two weeks? Rejected?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
No Elevate Wednesday October 17th
So dont show up!......unless you want to pretend your Johnny and Paul
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Click. Rejection. 10-10-07
Click. Rejection. 10-10-07
Hey gang, this is John.
I feel a bit unprepared. Usually I am well versed in the topics covered at Elevate. However, I have had to collect stories from people like John Eppel, Chris Moore, and Paddy Carroll about this week’s topic – rejection. Okay, I’m just kidding. All of us have experienced rejection at some point in our lives – and if you’re like me, it was extremely tough and discouraging.
I think this topic is all the more important when talking to students at Elevate because of their age and place in life. When I think about my own life, and a time when I was most likely the worst version of myself, it was middle school. Everyone is trying to etch out his or her identity, and typically for us dudes that means being the tough, funny, cool guy -which is usually done at the expense of others. I know this definitely goes on in high school, but middle school is such a formative and fragile time for these kids. We will talk much more about this during my message and in our small groups.
What we will be talking about the most next week is the undeniable worth of every human being. That as children of God we are royalty, and should treat each other as such. Paul touched on this at the end of his message last week, and we are really going to drive it home again when talking about rejection. For those of you who were around last year you know this is something I am very passionate about!
I know this won’t be a pleasant stroll down memory lane but nonetheless begin thinking of times when you were rejected. Be prepared to share those with your group. How that made you feel, etc…Be open and vulnerable. Again, we all have these stories and the more open you are the more open your group will be.
Be for each other.
1. Share a time when you were rejected. How did that make you feel?
2. Share a time when you rejected another person. Why did you do it? How did that make them feel? How did you feel about it after?
Look beyond ourselves
1. Why do we reject people?
2. What kinds of people usually get rejected?
3. What are the consequences of being rejected and rejecting others?
Follow Jesus
1. As Paul talked about Jesus was the ultimate “accepter” of people. Why do you think that is? If you think about it, he is the only person to walk the earth who actually was “better” than everyone else, yet he took the role of a servant and loved the people that society rejected.
2. Why is it so hard to accept people sometimes? Really, what do we have to loose?
3. How can we become more like Jesus in how we treat others?
Hey gang, this is John.
I feel a bit unprepared. Usually I am well versed in the topics covered at Elevate. However, I have had to collect stories from people like John Eppel, Chris Moore, and Paddy Carroll about this week’s topic – rejection. Okay, I’m just kidding. All of us have experienced rejection at some point in our lives – and if you’re like me, it was extremely tough and discouraging.
I think this topic is all the more important when talking to students at Elevate because of their age and place in life. When I think about my own life, and a time when I was most likely the worst version of myself, it was middle school. Everyone is trying to etch out his or her identity, and typically for us dudes that means being the tough, funny, cool guy -which is usually done at the expense of others. I know this definitely goes on in high school, but middle school is such a formative and fragile time for these kids. We will talk much more about this during my message and in our small groups.
What we will be talking about the most next week is the undeniable worth of every human being. That as children of God we are royalty, and should treat each other as such. Paul touched on this at the end of his message last week, and we are really going to drive it home again when talking about rejection. For those of you who were around last year you know this is something I am very passionate about!
I know this won’t be a pleasant stroll down memory lane but nonetheless begin thinking of times when you were rejected. Be prepared to share those with your group. How that made you feel, etc…Be open and vulnerable. Again, we all have these stories and the more open you are the more open your group will be.
Be for each other.
1. Share a time when you were rejected. How did that make you feel?
2. Share a time when you rejected another person. Why did you do it? How did that make them feel? How did you feel about it after?
Look beyond ourselves
1. Why do we reject people?
2. What kinds of people usually get rejected?
3. What are the consequences of being rejected and rejecting others?
Follow Jesus
1. As Paul talked about Jesus was the ultimate “accepter” of people. Why do you think that is? If you think about it, he is the only person to walk the earth who actually was “better” than everyone else, yet he took the role of a servant and loved the people that society rejected.
2. Why is it so hard to accept people sometimes? Really, what do we have to loose?
3. How can we become more like Jesus in how we treat others?
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