Unnoticed Joy - Connect Groups
We invite you to follow along with us as we explore our new theme Unnoticed Joy. You can use this material for group discussion or personal Bible study. Check out each week's section, watch the introductory video to each week's sub theme and read and reflect your way through this month's passages.
Our Lenten Daily Worship has been divided into two parts. Part two 'Unnoticed Joy' invites us to consider God’s new thing! (Check out March's theme Restless Souls). The eternal cost borne by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirt to redeem humanity. In seeking to bring peace to our restless souls God has displayed his amazing love for us. During the month of April we trace the journey that God the Son has made in becoming one of us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We reflect upon the joy that sustained his ministry, through the presence of God the Holy Spirit and the love of God the Father.
During Holy Week as we read and enter the story of our redemption, the road of sorrow, shame and betrayal he chose to travel for us, we find ourselves broken at the foot of the cross. It is there in our brokenness that somehow we get a glimpse of the joy that awaits us in our healing. Evil can never outdo the power of the cross to redeem the restless hearts of a lost and broken humanity or a broken individual.
Let’s take time to notice the joy.
Download the Discussion Questions as a PDF
These discussion questions adapt our monthly themes for small Connect Groups or personal Bible study (look up the Unnoticed Joy Resource Pack PDF for more information on this month's theme). The questions are divided into 4 parts to correspond with the 4 weeks of the Daily Worship theme. They are offered as a guideline and there is no need to go through all the given questions in a single session, or in the following sequence. Feel free to pick and choose, or adapt to what interests you or your group.
Find out more on this month's theme: Unnoticed Joy
What are Connect Groups?
‘Connect Groups’ is the name we give to small informal gatherings who decide to meet together to explore the Bible alongside our monthly themes. These groups are independent and folk can simply set up their own Connect Group themselves, meeting together with friends and family on their own basis. In this time of Lockdowns when people can’t get together physically this material can still be used to meet together online.
Each month we produce a range of questions to adapt our themes for group discussion. The material is offered as a starting point and there is no need to go through all the questions.You can pick and choose, tailoring it to suit the needs and interests of your group. Each ‘Part’ could form the basis of a weekly roughly 90 minute meeting but you could break it up differently. Let us know if you would like to find out more about Connect Groups and different ways of linking into the Sanctuary First community.
We all come to the Bible with our own questions, insights and barriers. The guiding principle we have in writing these is to ask questions we don’t already know the answer to! Our hope is to facilitate open-ended discussions. Often the most valuable parts of group chats are the bits that go off on bizarre tangents. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Jesus knows a thing or two about bizarre tangents…
Need some advice on starting your own Connect Group? Get in touch.