LIFE TOGETHER
Gather & Eat
Eat, talk, hangout, have fun.
Pray
Discuss
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.
Hopefully everybody had a chance to listen to the message for this week.
Use these questions to help guide your discussion as a large group:
1. What did you think of the sermon?
2. Have you scheduled/attended the salvation army community dinner together yet? If so, how was it?
Learn
Individuals who have recently become unhoused in Los Angeles often spend their first nights of homelessness on the streets of Santa Monica, with dozens of men and women also sleeping on Santa Monica beach every night. In this highly vulnerable period, hygiene kits along with basic nutrition not only offer a critical lifeline, but also restore dignity and self esteem where this has been lost. Finding a job and taking positive steps in recovery without a stable home is an incredibly challenging task, made more daunting when contending with poor hygiene. Access to hygiene kits is an essential part of the journey to employment and housing for our unhoused neighbors..
The hygiene kits you put together are given to the Salvation Army before going directly to our unhoused neighbors in Santa Monica. Whenever requested, these packs are handed out at our weekly Thursday Outreach dinners alongside fresh-cooked food. They are also distributed through partner organizations to those waking up on the beach every morning!
Thank you for helping to end the cycle of homelessness in our local community, and for reminding our neighbors that they are loved
Practice
Spend the next 45 minutes (or longer if you need to!) to make care packages for the Salvation Army. As you work discuss these questions together.
Jesus calls us to be a blessing to those in need and on the fringes of society. How can the Church be a blessing to the marginalized in Los Angeles?
What is the role of smaller communities (like this one) in achieving that mission?
What are the difficulties in that mission? How can those difficulties be overcome rather than paralyzing us into inaction?
Who do you know who embodies the mission of loving and caring for the least the last and the lost the most? What do they do differently than most people?
Pray
Take some time to pray for those in our city who are on the outskirts of society.