LIFE TOGETHER
Gather & Eat
Eat, talk, hangout, have fun.
Pray
Gather together in a comfortable setting (around a table, on the couch, the floor of a living room, etc.). Have somebody lead a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to lead and guide your time together. Don’t be afraid to leave some space in the quiet to just listen and rest.
Discuss
Everybody hopefully had a chance to listen to the message for this week
Trinity + Hospitality // Gerald Griffin
Use these questions to help guide your discussion as a large group:
What impacted you from the teaching this week?
Do you feel like you have a good understanding of the Trinity?
Learn
The relationship between the Trinity (God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) have a relationship that is sometimes described as the Divine Dance (or in ancient Greek: perichoresis).
This is just a poetic way of trying to visualize the relationship of mutual deference and joyful intimacy, of each member of the trinity each continually pointing to the other rather than seeking glory for themselves. It is this relational dance where each member of the trinity seeks for the other persons to be glorified, celebrated, known, seen, and loved. This becomes not only a model for us as to how communities or people are supposed to exist but there is also an invitation for us to join the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - to join the Trinity - as God welcomes us into Himself so that we may join this divine dance where we continually point to God and give him glory as he keeps pointing back to us with how much he loves us.
Read this passage together (John 14:6-21) , and take notes on what stands out to you and what questions it brings up. Take about 10 minutes to do this. Take note of what feels confusing, what implications this has for how we live, and what about this is hardest to apply.
“6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”’
Share
Split into triads to share and go deeper as we apply this knowledge into our lives.
What insights or questions do you have from the passage we read?
If you begin to think about yourself being in God and God being in you does that begin to change how you think, feel, or act? Are there implications for your life and things that need to change?
How can this community live more like the trinity together, showing mutual deference and relational hospitality?
Pray
Make sure to take some time to pray as you close your group for the night. How can you pray for one another? Are there any practical needs we can meet?
Practice (90 mins)
Listen
Stretch Goal
Read Experiencing the Trinity by Daryl Johnson
Prepare for next week!
The structure for next week is a little different. Please read ahead into next week to make sure you are prepared - the big things to know are:
We will be sharing communion together! Make sure to bring some bread that you can tear apart and share (check with your community to see if gluten free bread is necessary) as well as some red wine (or red grape juice).
We will be participating in communion as part of our meal together. So make sure you check the flow of the evening: don’t eat together at the beginning but save your meal as the main portion of your night and that communion will be part of the meal (again, read ahead into next week to see what the plan is).