the    sides

Who are some people who continually encourage you? Why do you think they do that?
Who are some people that you try to encourage?
Is it harder or easier for you to see past faults to potential? How come?

Which of the disciples (or women) do you most resonate with and their reactions to Jesus’ arrest?
I talked about the ‘dark places’ - ever had one of those times? Was the description accurate? What would you add?

What encouragment do you think Jesus is trying to communicate to you right now?
What makes that hard to hear?

Grant talked about the 2 obstacles to exercising the gift of encouragement - our personal stories and our maturity level. Which of the two do you struggle with most?

Does your faith need a ‘retro-fitting?’ Where or why?

Grant listed out some shifts - react to them….

When we look at how Jesus did discipleship, we see him make some value decisions that challenge us:

He chose transformational over educational,
interaction over instruction,
risk over caution,

He left his followers with more questions than answers.
He expanded the understanding and practice of worship and education to include the experiential.

Jesus chose authentic community over protective isolation.
He chose impacting and engaging the world around him over incubation and isolation.

We see Jesus embrace authenticity and transparency over protecting his image.