What Are Connect Groups?

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.

Introduction

Introduction

As 2024 rolls around it’s time to take to the skies and shine like stars! This month we ask: what does it mean to reflect the light of God in the lives around about us? We begin by taking time to sit in the transforming quiet with God. What do we see when we find a place to sit in wonder and lift our eyes to the Lord?

In that divine space we consider how we are tuning in to what God is telling as at the start of this new year. We think about what it means to be the eager questioning children that Jesus welcomes to come to him. Then, after looking up to God and down into our hearts we look out and reflect on our role as stars in the glittering constellations of God’s love shining for the world to see.

Overview

Starting on Hogmanay, week one has us doing a deep dive on Psalm 27, an ancient poem of longing, faith and hope. In the second week we turn to Paul’s timeless invitation to shine like stars in Philippians 2: 14-18, and look up to the source of our light. In week three we move from looking to listening, as we reflect on tuning in to what God is telling us at the start of this year. In the fourth week we take some time simply to be, to rediscover a childlike wonder in our relationship with God and in the final week our gaze is turned outwards as we emerge, renewed to shine in our generation.

SEEDS TO SOW: We have a 'Seeds to Sow' phrase at the beginning of each section. These are open-ended and optional and are designed for people wanting to develop their own ideas/resources in response to the material. Perhaps if using this material as a group you could use these prompts to inspire a time of prayer, or drawing, or creative writing? They are intended to be short and sweet, simply a starting off place for you and your imagination, be encouraged to tailor/develop as suits your group.

Download the Discussion Questions as a PDF

These discussion questions adapt our monthly theme for small Connect Groups or personal Bible study. The questions are divided into 5 parts to correspond with the 5weeks 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 how to get involved: Connect group Blog

Week One

Sitting Down

We launch in to this new year and our first action is... to sit down! Let’s take time to pause, to breathe, to take stock, to find ourselves again. Let’s make a space to create a ‘tent of meeting’ where we can spend some intentional time with God (you can find a tent of meeting in Exodus 33: 7-11). We could even set aside a literal physical place where we can come before our wondrous creator, star-maker God. With awe and humility, gratitude and wonder — and all the other emotions that make us the humans we were born to be. This week we will use Psalm 27 to contemplate what it means to really take the time to sit with God, to enter that place of transforming quiet.

Seeds to sow: Does where you pray affect how you pray?

Read Psalm 27: 1-3

The psalm begins with taking shelter in God and taking comfort from an inner peace even when external factors are overwhelming.

As you shelter with God at the start of this year what are you sitting with? And how is God able to be your light in the midwinter dark?

Read Psalm 27: 11-12

Before going on a long journey we often sit, like the psalmist, and make preparations; consulting routes, finding a way, and seeking good paths.

As we hope to set off into this new year on a level path of our own what can we gain from exploring this metaphor of route planning.

If 2024 was not a year, but an epic pilgrimage, what would we need to be preparing? Where would be looking for help? How would we map out the months?

Read Psalm 27: 13-14

Sitting, waiting, wondering. Like the psalmist here (and like the wisemen all those years ago who went on their epic journey from the east to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem) we come before God in hope and expectation, longing and wonder.

In the week ahead, in our daily lives, where are we going to look for God with expectant wonder?

Week Two

Looking Up

Last week we focused on finding a place of contemplation with God. Now that we are sitting comfortably... it’s time to look up! In this theme we are reflecting on Paul’s timeless invitation to ‘shine like stars in our generation’ (see Philippians 2: 14-18), so let’s take a moment to look up to the star maker — our Father God — the source of our light! The sparks we carry in our daily interactions in the world are a reflection of God’s divine love that shines everlasting through the universe. This week we will think about how looking up helps us to shine out!

SEEDS TO SOW: How do you feel when you look up at the vast night sky?

Read Isaiah 40: 26

All those stars numbered and named! It’s just mindboggling.

We begin our looking up by marvelling at the incredible detail of our universe. The cosmos is not some CGI special effect that only works if you look at it from one particular angle. It’s a phenomenally detailed place that we get to learn more and more about the closer we look.

What does this tell us about God?

Read Job 38: 31-33

This reading is part of a metaphysical 'reality check’ for Job as he gets a glimpse from God of just how much he doesn’t know, can’t possibly fathom, of the incredible difference of scale between our star making God and us. And yet we know that the star-maker cares for each of us individually and has a role for us to play.

In the context of our call to shine like stars from Paul, this reading is a reminder that we are not the source of the light we carry — that pressure’s not on us. Instead we reflect that light to one another.

How would these words have made Job feel? How do they make you feel? Does this perspective change how we see God, the source of our light?

Read Philippians 2: 14-18

Shining as stars! We shine out because we look up to the one who has shone down. Next week we begin thinking about tuning in to God, but today let’s bask in the light of God that illuminates us today — for all the world to see!

What are three things you can do this week to ‘let your light shine’ for others to see?

Week Three

Tuning In

Having focused on light and vision last week, we now turn our attention to different ways we can tune in and listen to God. How are we tuning in to what God is telling us at the start of this new year? In day to day life what is involved in actively listening to God? Does ‘comfortable silence’ fit into our relationship with God? As we are called to shine like stars, you could say we are also called to broadcast like them, sending out electromagnetic signals of grace!

SEEDS TO SOW: What does the phrase ‘listening to God’ mean to you?

Read John 9: 1-12

We start by tuning in to God in the squelch of mud! We spent last week stargazing but we begin this week crashing back down to earth, literally to the grassroots. Mud is very much a multi-sensory phenomenon — one of the thrills of childhood is squelching about in wellies through the mud.

But why does Jesus choose to use mud here? What sensory information is Jesus picking up on? How is he tuning in to the situation and the environment around him? And today when Jesus listens to us what is he hearing?

Read James 1: 19-27

Now we turn to thinking about how we can tune into God through active listening. In this reading, listening to God is not something passive, it requires our participation, to put what we hear into practice. Active listening requires us to pay close attention, engage with the person speaking, and ask follow up questions.

Listening to God is an ongoing process of being open, humble and sensitive — sensitive to tune into both God and the needs of others.

If we are listening without responding are we really listening? How can we be active listeners of God this week?

Read 1 Samuel 3: 1-20

We conclude by thinking about tuning into God in the middle of the night. In this reading Samuel is learning to recognise God’s voice.

What can we learn from Samuel about recognising God speaking in our lives?

Week Four

Being Ourselves

So far we have taken time to sit, to look up, to tune in, and before we ‘look out’ next week we take a moment to be. To simply be ourselves. To be the eager questioning children that Jesus welcomes to come to him. We are not staff recruited by God to carry out agendas and goals. We are beloved children who are invited to come sit at his feet, to tune into the voice that sung us into being. We are called to be ourselves — beloved of God.

SEEDS TO SOW: Imagine Jesus playing games with the children who came rushing towards him. Imagine what that would have been like.

Read Luke 18: 15-17

We are the children that Jesus doesn’t want stopped!

Are you rushing to Jesus in the same way as these children? Is there anything stopping you?

Read Zephaniah 3: 17

We are delightful to God! We are each worth God singing over! Isn’t that amazing?

What kinds of songs does God sing over us? What would God sing over you do you think?

Have you read ‘The Father’s Love Letter’? It’s rich in letting us know how God sees us. You can find it here.

Read Romans 12: 9-13

Young children tend do things very sincerely — acting wholeheartedly, not holding themselves back the way adults often do.

Paul here urges us not to be cynical and jaded but to keep working towards goodness and love. What can we learn from the earnest sincerity of children to help us with Paul’s instructions here? 'How are we getting on with approaching Jesus in a childlike, authentic way, are we ourselves in God’s presence?

Week Five

Sitting Down

Focused, intentional time spent with God — like we have been reflecting on this month — is precious. Reflecting on our ‘vertical’ relationship with God enriches our ‘horizontal’ relationships with one another. Engaging with others, being present in the lives of our fellow disciples, in turn enriches our time spent tuning in to God. Vertical and horizontal are of course shorthand terms, and there are in fact so many diagonals as our relationship with God interacts directly with our relationships with others.

A ‘tent of meeting’ (that we referred to back in week 1) is a temporary structure but the lived-experience of the meeting remains. In the same way a specific time of focused reflection with God can be a temporary thing that has an ongoing impact on us for the rest of our life. And when we leave that ‘tent’ our relationship with whom we met continues. We are always of course welcome to come to that quiet place with God and we are also able to turn our gaze outward, ready to shine like stars in our generation...

Seed to Sow: What is Jesus inviting us to look out at this week?

Read 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13

In this reading Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to go above and beyond in their behaviour, to not just think of how it impacts them but the ripple effect of their actions.

As stars glinting in the world how are we going above and beyond to look out for others? The example in the text is to do with food so perhaps we could think of examples that relate to the purchasing and preparing of food too. As a Connect group is there one action that you can all commit to that would benefit others this week?

Read Ephesians 2: 10

Looking out at the work to be done we read this timeless calling to serve, working for goodness and light!

How does this verse make you feel? How does it inspire you? Challenge you? Puzzle you? Enthuse you?

Read Hebrews 10: 24-25

As great constellations of stars — depicting God’s love in action for others to see — we are called to encourage one another star to star!

Let’s stop right now and encourage each other! What can you say to encourage one another right now?