Happy New Year! I’m excited about the possibilities 2018 has in store for us as a Church. This year’s focus is Building Unity in Community. We want to strengthen the unity we have as a Church community so that we can be a blessing to the community around us. We want to build bridges of unity with our neighbors as we strengthen our community in 2018.
I really enjoyed gathering around small tables this past Sunday with Brothers and Sisters to take the Lord’s Supper together as a Family. This is the center of who we are. We are people who are identified as those who participate in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. This New Life we receive comes with a New Family. Everyone in a family has something to give and also has needs to be fulfilled. We don’t walk alone with Christ. We walk as a Family. How will you get more involved in the Family this year?
What does it mean to be a community? Why does a community exist? Who does it serve? What about a community within a community?
This Sunday, I want to set the focus for the year by looking at Romans 12 together. I suggest reading the whole chapter all at once each day and then focusing on each section.
Romans 12:1-2
- What is true and proper worship?
- What does “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” look like?
- How do you renew your mind? Read Philippians 2:5-11. How does this connect?
- What is your mind being renewed from?
- How will you know the will of God?
Romans 12:3-8
- What gifts have you been given? How can they be used at Queen City?
- Write down 3-5 people and the gifts you see them using at Queen City. Take a moment to pray for them.
- Are there people whom you do not know what their gifts are? Pray that God will open your eyes to the role they play in the body.
- What does this passage say about the need for community?
Romans 12:9-21
- What might change in your life if you committed this passage to memory?
- Which of these commands do you struggle with most?
- This passage looks at love in action. The call of the gospel is not to love better than the world does. We are called to love differently. How does our ability to love one another in the community affect our ability to love our neighbor? How is this love a witness to the world around us?