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

This month we will be talking to, walking with, eating, meeting, and being blessed by Jesus our Wild Messiah!

Jesus defied expectations in the first century — refusing to be boxed in. His family, his friends, the establishment, the ruling regime, his loyal followers — all attempted to set limits on Jesus. And, this uncanny storyteller, teacher, and lover of food sidestepped all their attempts. In the 21st century people still try to box Jesus in and — just like in the first century — it’s sometimes his most devoted followers that are doing it.

Sometimes we try to put Jesus in a box and only take him out every Sunday to wrap him up again afterwards…

But you can’t box Jesus. You can’t box God. The love at the heart of universe doesn’t come with packaging. There is no gift-wrap option. So this Easter, having leapt after God, leapt with one another and 4 Bible leapers, we want to land our leap next to Jesus. The real Jesus. The wild Jesus. The Jesus who helps people see potential in themselves and their world that they thought was written off.

Like many wild things in the world — the wild sea, and the wild wind, the wild roots and wild flowers — Jesus brings transformation and new life.

Let’s meet the real Jesus. The Jesus that re-wilds our hearts!

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

Wild Jesus!

Wild Jesus! Beyond expectations, outside limits, without constraints! We begin our theme talking to Jesus as we relive the wonder of resurrection — our uncontainable, unlimited saviour’s return. What are our questions for Jesus about this wild story? And how can this wildness of the resurrection — of a love so wild even the tomb couldn’t hold it — inspire us to live today?

Seeds to sow: How can we be part of new life and re-wilding this week?

Read Luke 24: 1-12

Wild Jesus, Uncontainable!

The disciples dismissed the tale as wild gossip. But this wild gossip was true!

What questions do you have for Jesus about this moment?

Read John 20: 18-23 

Wild Jesus, Unlimited! 

Locked doors, and nerves rattling with fear, are not able to hold Jesus back.

What situations this week could we invite Jesus and his words of peace into?

Read Matthew 8: 18-22

Wild Messiah

What does it mean to us that we have such a wild messiah? One who back then couldn’t be contained by a building, and who still can’t be constrained by walls or a roof today!

Jesus, we want to know what your wild life means for ours!

How wild is our faith?

Week Two

Wild Walking

This week we will take a walk with Jesus, joining Cleopas and his friend as they head to Emmaus… and unexpected revelation. There are things that we learn from talking to Jesus, to coming to Jesus in prayer, and there are other things we learn as we journey beside Jesus — going somewhere together. If last week we were face to face with Jesus, here we are side by side looking out at the wild open road ahead together.

SEEDS TO SOW: What walks could you have with Jesus this week?

Read Luke 24: 13-27

A Wild Saviour by our side.

This story catches us off guard, what is Jesus up to, why is he holding back?

Jesus’s first action here is simply to fall into step with the disciples in their grief and confusion and walk with them in that. And then he throws Cleopas and his pal a curveball. The takeaway: walks with Jesus can get wild…

What do you notice in this story? What’s been your experience of Jesus walking along the road with you?

Read  Isaiah 61

A Wild Saviour, bringing transformation.

Here we interrupt the walk to hear a reference from Isaiah, perhaps part of the Scripture Jesus was discussing on the road to Emmaus.

Righteousness and praise springing up like wild flowers!

Looking at our world and the societies, and communities we live in — what dusty dry roads do you see the world travelling in? Where do we see places in need of renewal and transformation?

What would it look like for Jesus to transform arid, parched land (both literally and figuratively) in our neighbourhoods, into meadows of wild flowers? Vibrant praise springing up!

You could stop and pray about it as a group just now.

Read Luke 24: 28-32

A Wild Moment!

After all the words on the road, it is an ordinary action, a simple gesture — which opens their eyes in a sudden wild moment of revelation. Are there certain revelations of Jesus that are only possible to glimpse when we have walked a little way with him?

Week Three

Wild Eating

This week we are eating with Jesus on the beach, reflecting on what it means to catch on to his mission while we munch! Food is not incidental to life with Jesus, it’s a hugely important part of it!

SEEDS TO SOW: How can we eat with Jesus today?

Read John 21: 1-14

Catching on!

If you were on that boat, how would you feel? You’ve been out all night and some distant figure on the shore suggests you just try the other side!

How do you respond to Jesus offering you breakfast on the beach?

And also it’s important to remember that sometimes in life we don’t catch a thing.

Imagine this chapter ended at verse 3. Sometimes a given chapter in our lives ends at verse 3. Before rushing on to the miraculous catch let’s remember the empty nets and weary arms hauling them. Let’s remember empty cupboards and empty shelves. Jesus joins us in our eating, but also in our hunger, knowing himself keenly what it is to hunger and thirst.

How can we remember those with empty nets an empty cupboards this week?

Read John 21: 15-19

Catching a break!

You could say Peter catches a break. Three times he denied Jesus and now he gets three times to return to him. And note, all this happens after breakfast. Jesus ate with Peter and the rest before this encounter. Jesus cares about feeding us body and soul.

Jesus used food here intentionally. How could you use food to bless others this week?

Read Isaiah 55: 1-7 

Catching a bargain…

Free food! Eating is not simply a metaphor in the Bible — it is a central part of restoration and revival. Our Wild Jesus wants to eat with us — for nourishment is at the heart of the central message of God’s grace!

What’s the good news here you would share with others?

Week Four

Wild Encounters

Meeting with Jesus 2,000 years ago — and meeting with him today— can lead to wild outcomes! Jesus crossed social boundaries and brought disparate people together. Jesus bust out of all the boxes people tried to put him in. And while we might feel smug, feeling like we know Jesus better, are we not sometimes guilty of putting Jesus in a box too? Of limiting who we think Jesus meets with, and how they meet? Are we only comfortable with a Jesus on our terms, who never surprises us or stretches us? Or are we up for meeting the real Jesus, the wild Jesus, who loves so compassionately and deeply?

SEEDS TO SOW: Are there any ways we have been surprised by Jesus in our lives?

Read Matthew 9: 10-13

Wild Dining!

Here we see those on the margins able to get comfy while those in the establishment start feeling uncomfortable.

What do we learn from God here? What do we see God doing? How comfortable are we sitting alongside those on the margins?

Read Luke 5: 12-26

Wild Healing.

Jesus’s acts of compassionate healing — helping others physically and spiritually — caused consternation and uproar.

What’s your thoughts about the healing in this passage?

Read Luke 19: 1-10

Wild Hospitality.

Jesus breaks protocol! He invites himself round to the house of an unpopular and unloved citizen — and in that very gesture Zacchaeus’s life is transformed.

As a church we are called to be disrupters and stand up for those who are excluded. How do we find our voice challenging unfair and ungodly systems?

Week Five

Wild Blessing

In this our final week we conclude by looking up to the glorious wildness of heaven and asking Jesus for his blessing. His blessing to appreciate this life and this world given to us. His blessing to know him and grow with him — like the irrepressible wild flowers we are called to be.

Read  Luke 24: 50-53

Wild Blessing!

“…he lifted up his hands and blessed them.” The wildness of Jesus is not the wildness of chaos, or whirlwind or wreckage. It is the wildness at the heart of real vibrant, peace and blessing.

Our Wild Jesus is not volatile, or erratic, or unstable. He is wild like a tree is wild — constant, steady, providing nourishment and shelter for others.

So, let’s unpack this moment. How come the disciples are praising God when Jesus has just left them? What does this tell us about the blessing of Jesus?

Read Acts 1: 1-11

Go wild!

“What you hanging around here for!? Why are you looking at where Jesus has been, rather than where Jesus is now?”

Do we sometimes need the same nudge? Are we sometimes inclined to look to where we last saw Jesus rather than to the new place Jesus might be calling us? If so, how can we ‘re-wild’ our imaginations to see where Jesus is leading us next?

Read Acts 1: 12-14

Wild party!

A new type of community forms around Wild Jesus! People of different backgrounds drawn together through his wild legacy. You can bet there was food and partying as the ragtag bunch set about changing the world. How can we rediscover this spirit of Godly and gentle wildness?