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MISSION POSSIBLE: Welcome, Part 1

 

Deep Dive Weekly Small Group Study 2

Text:  Romans 12:9-13, Hebrews 13:1-3

Message: “Mission Possible: Welcome Pt. 1”

Week of September 21, 2009  (Allow some getting to know you time if you have new members)

QUICK REFLECT:   Looking back on this week’s message, was there anything that particularly caught your attention, challenged or confused you?

OPENING:  Share two stories each: one when you felt unwelcomed and one where you felt welcomed.  (Doesn’t have to be a church story, but certainly can)

THOUGHTS:  There are few things as painful to me as witnessing our church fail at welcoming guests.  It does on occasion happen!  My bias is that the church should be the most welcoming place on earth.  Think how hard businesses work to make you feel welcome when all they want is to sell you a meal or a product.  Our goal is not to peddle a product, but to help people connect their lives intimately to the One who is the deepest longing of their soul.  If we repel someone with our lack of welcome, we could keep them from weeks, months, or years without God as the center of their life. 

 

What are ways we repel people who come our way seeking a connection to God?

 

What are things we can do to make sure guests feel welcomed?

 

What can be learned about hospitality from its Greek roots?  Philoxenia – brotherly love for a stranger

 

Which of the three points from the message represents where you are with hospitality?

Begin by practicing hospitality to one another

Extend Hospitality to strangers

People don’t care what we know until they know we care

 

That’s  what HE Said:      Read: Matthew 25:31-40

1.        What is the context in which Jesus shares this teaching?

2.       Why does how we treat people matter to Jesus?

3.       What does this passage have to do with hospitality?

4.       Who are the “least of these” in your life (vs. 40)?

 

Read Matthew Romans 12:9-13; Hebrew 13:1-3

 

With strangers or newcomers do you seek to “really love them,” or do you “just pretend”?

 

Are you always “eager to practice hospitality”?

 

How are love and hospitality interconnected?  Can you do one without the other?

 

 

Is entertaining angels related to loving other Christians or showing hospitality to strangers?  Why do you think this is so?

 

 

What are some ways you can show hospitality this week?

 

CLOSE:  Read aloud Hebrews 13:2

 

Share Prayer Concerns

 

Have each person offer a one sentence, “Lord, open my eyes to . . .”

 

Close with the Lord’s Prayer