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Fall 2023 Missional Community Calendar

Emphasis: Being With Jesus

Week of:page1image2052603872

8/27-9/2:  MC Fall Calendar/Planning

9/3-9/8:  Labor Day Weekend – MC Optional

9/10-9/16:  Lord’s Prayer 1: Big Group

9/17-9/23:  Lord’s Prayer 1: Breakouts

9/24-9/30:  Serving: Ironman (9/24) – MC Optional

10/1-10/7:  Lord’s Prayer 2: Big Group – Men’s Fellowship (10/6)

10/8-10/14:  Lord’s Prayer 2: Breakouts

10/15-10/21:  Lord’s Prayer 3: Big Group

10/22-10/28: Serving: Trick or Treat on Broad Street (10/28) – MC Optional

10/29-11/4: Serving: Augusta Handmade Fair (11/3-11/4) – MC Optional

11/5-11/11: Lord’s Prayer 3: Breakouts

11/12-11/18:  Lord’s Prayer 4: Big Group

11/19-11/25:  Deck the Halls (11/19 4-8pm) – Thanksgiving NO MC Gathering

11/26-12/2:  Lord’s Prayer 4: Breakouts

12/3-12/9:  Advent Sermon Discussions – Advent Begins (12/3).  Ladies Christmas Tea (12/3)

12/10-12/16:  MC Christmas Parties

12/17-12/23:  No MC Gathering

12/24-12/30:  No MC Gathering – Christmas Service (12/24)

FALL OVERVIEW:

Investing in and prioritizing prayer is an essential part of our discipleship to Jesus. Why? Because prayer is the medium through which we commune and communicate with God. This Fall our missional communities will be praying through the Lord’s Prayer together. Weeks in bold are weeks where our missional communities will be hanging out, eating dinner and praying through the Lord’s Prayer together. The only difference between “Big Group” vs. “Breakout” is whether we are praying as a large group or breaking into smaller groups to pray together.

MC OPTIONAL WEEKS Typically groups will work together at the beginning of a season to determine which of the “Optional” dates makes sense for their group.

MC List

Olde Town MC – Meets Tuesdays at 6pm
Vineland MC – Meets Wednesdays at 6pm
Central MC – Meets Sundays at 5:30pm
North Augusta MC – Meets Tuesdays at 5:30pm
Evans MC – Meets Wednesdays at 6pm

*PDF includes MC Location & Contact Info

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Sermon Discussion Guide

SERMON DISCUSSION FORMAT

RECAP & CATCH UP (10 Minutes)

Each discussion leader should begin with a brief recap of the content and conversation from the previous week. This is a good time to check back in and follow up if needed.

INTRODUCE (5 Minutes)

After catching up, the discussion leader will want to take a few minutes to introduce the discussion topic, pray for the time together and read the passage of scripture for the week.

DISCUSS THE SCRIPTURE & QUESTIONS (20 Minutes)

Questions will be provided for the group to discuss. Don’t feel pressured to cover everything. If you are having trouble getting the conversation going, consider asking one or more of the following:

● What was new or significant for you? Helpful?

● What did you find helpful?

● Were you surprised by anything?

● Was anything confusing?

● What questions were raised for you?

● Anything that specifically connected with your life?

ENGAGE & PRAYER (25 min)

Engage: We want to make sure we make space for and prioritize connecting through meaningful personal conversation and prayer. The discussion questions will be set up to move groups from conceptual discussion to more application discussion. As this comes to a natural close, let the group know you want to open up the conversation beyond the discussion to check in and hear how people are doing and what’s going on in their lives.

Pray: Don’t skimp here. We want this to be as valued by each group as the discussion time. Pray for one another, celebrate together, thank God, ask of God, etc…

CLOSE (3 min)

Let people know what’s coming up next week in your MC and the life of the church and then close the meeting.

OTHER HELPFUL INFO: TIPS FOR LEADING DISCUSSION

It is important for the discussion leader to spend some time preparing for the discussion.

  • Pray: Pray for your group and your time together.
  • Prepare: Get ready for each discussion by listening to the sermon, taking notes, thinking through the questions, etc…
  • Modify: Every group is different. Feel free to tailor some of the questions to fit your group,
  • Focus: Try to keep the session and discussion tightly focused. Use the recap and intro to focus the group but don’t get stuck here, try to get to the discussion and relational component within the time suggested.
  • Conversation: As a leader, facilitating conversation is a big part of your role. You do not have to have all the answers, but rather help people engage and wrestle with their questions. Life is complex and so is living out God’s story, so avoid easy answers.
  • Questions: You do not have to cover all the questions for each session. Feel free to follow people’s curiosity and the questions that naturally emerge.
  • Listen: Every good conversation involves listening. Guide the discussion and help participants listen well to one another. Remind the participants that they are all encouraged to contribute each week.
  • Hospitality: Make sure you are making space for people to comfortably gather, connect, discuss, reflect, and take breaks. We really encourage groups to share a meal together and to find times to connect outside of the group meeting time.
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Summer 2023 Missional Community Calendar

Emphasis: Doing Things Jesus Does

Week of:page1image2052603872

5/6:  Serving at the Augusta Handmade Fair

5/7-5/13:  MC Summer Calendar/Planning

5/14-5/20:  Reframe #8

5/21-5/27:  Reframe #9

5/28-6/3: MC Optional: Memorial Day Weekend

6/4-6/10:  Reframe #10 + Church Work Day (June 10)

6/11-6/17:  Reframe Debrief

6/18-6/24: Sermon Discussion/Prayer

6/25-7/1: Sermon Discussion/Prayer

7/8:  Dinner for Ten

7/15: Dinner for Ten

7/22:  Dinner for Ten

8/5: Church Lake Day

8/13: Baby Dedications

8/20: Members Meeting (4pm)

8/20-8/26:  MC Parties

8/27-9/2:  MC Fall Calendar/Planning

OVERVIEW

We believe that the story of Scripture is relevant to all of our life: our jobs, our responsibilities, our relationships, and our world. But the truth is that many of us experience a frustrating and confusing disconnect between the story of Scripture and the story of our own lives. Throughout the Spring and Summer we are intentionally making space for our Missional Communities to journey through the “Reframe Course”, an interactive 10-session course that explores how we connect Jesus with the complexity of our own stories, vocations, and culture.

Part 1 (Spring): The Story We Find Ourselves In: Sessions 1-2 introduce Reframe and our cultural context.

Part 2 (Spring): The Story of Scripture: Sessions 3-7 focus on knowing the biblical story and how it reframes our perspective of God and ourselves.

Part 3 (Summer): The Ongoing Story: Sessions 8-10 focus on how God calls us to respond to the biblical story in the midst of our own stories and invite us to be ambassadors to the culture around us.

DIGITAL ACCESS Video & Participant Guide Access: https://www.reframecourse.com

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Spring 2023 Practices

 

1/29-2/4: Practice 1: The Reframing Story

ReFrame aims to help you live out faith in everyday life, encouraging you to encounter Jesus afresh and allowing his story to shape your own. This first session explores how a fragmented and complex world can tempt Christians to either withdraw from or assimilate to the culture around them. However, the true story of Jesus enables Christians to resist these temptations and live integrated and faithful lives.

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2/5-2/11:  Practice 2: Cultural Stories

As Christians, the story of Scripture and the person of Jesus shape the whole of who we are. Still, we often experience tensions within our culture that provide alternate answers to this question. We are told we must choose who we want to be rather than receive our identity as a gift given by God. This session discusses some of the ways our culture shapes us and why this so often leads to a crisis of identity.
2/26-3/4: Practice 3: Creation & Fall

This session starts at the beginning with the account of the creation and fall. Genesis tells us why God created the world and humanity and his purposes for both. God’s creation was good, but this goodness was catastrophically marred through the fall. Nevertheless, as image-bearers of God, we are called to cultivate this original goodness in our relationships with God, others, and creation.

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3/5-3/11:  Practice 4: Israel’s Calling

This session focuses on God’s faithfulness to the people of Israel and how Israel’s story is part of our family history as Christians. The story of Israel helps us see how our faith makes a difference in a complex and messy world. We learn that God calls ordinary people to trust him and blesses them so they might be a blessing to others. God is with us in our failures and our faithfulness, and he continues to work through us to redeem this broken world.

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3/19-3/25: Practice 5: Jesus is King

This session focuses on Jesus Christ as the climax of the story and the fulfillment of all the Old Testament scriptures. He is the true image of God, the true Israelite, who redeems humanity through his person, work, and words. Jesus is both Saviour and Lord, and his redemptive work affects everything. This gives meaning to all of life and culture, including our ordinary activities. The gospel is therefore more than personal salvation; it is the invitation to participate in a renewed life for a renewed world.

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4/16-4/22:  Practice 6: New Heavens & New Earth

This session looks at how God promises to transform all of creation in the new heavens and new earth through the resurrection of Christ. As citizens of this promise, Christians are called to live as a sign, a holy foretaste of this final act of redemption.

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4/30-5/6: Practice 7: The Church & The Spirit

How do we enter into the story? In this final session about the Scriptural story we see how God gives the Holy Spirit to empower the church at Pentecost. It is not enough to simply know the story; we must also livethe story. The Holy Spirit empowers us to participate in the story and God’s work of redemption in the world.

 

 

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Spring 2023 Missional Community Calendar

Emphasis: Becoming Like Jesus

Week of:page1image2052603872

1/1-1/7:  No MC Gathering (New Years)

1/8-1/14:  Hangout + Dinner

1/15-1/21: Spring Calendaring + Hangout

1/22-1/28:  Church Wide Annual Family Dinner (No MC Gathering)

1/29-2/4: Practice 1: The Reframing Story

2/5-2/11:  Practice 2: Cultural Stories

2/12-2/18:  MC Super Bowl Parties

2/19-2/25: MC Optional (President’s Day)

2/26-3/4: Practice 3: Creation & Fall

3/5-3/11:  Practice 4: Israel’s Calling

3/12-3/18: Recreation/Outing

3/19-3/25: Practice 5: Jesus is King

3/26-4/1: Dinner + Hangout

4/2-4/8: MC Off (Masters Week)

4/9-4/15:  MC Optional (Easter)

4/16-4/22:  Practice 6: New Heavens & New Earth

4/23-4/29: Hangout + Dinner

4/30-5/6: Practice 7: The Church & The Spirit (5/6 Handmade Fair)

PRACTICE WEEKS: Weeks labeled “Practice” Will consist of video-driven discussion and a take-home prompt. Some groups arrange childcare for these weeks. This Spring each group will be going through “Reframe”:  (1) The Reframing Story; (2) Cultural Stories; (3) Creation & Fall; (4) Israel’s Calling;

MC OPTIONAL WEEKS: Typically groups will work together at the beginning of a season to determine which of the “Optional” dates makes sense for their group.

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Practice 6: 11/6-11/12

HEARING GOD AS A LIFE

      1. What did this week’s practice look like for you?
      2. What about this week’s practice was valuable or difficult for you?

DISCUSSION:

1. When was a time that you were living the “with-God life”?

2. Dallas describes the church as the “continuing incarnation.” What are the implications of this image for living a with-God life?

3. John Ortberg quotes Frank Laubach that a mystic is simply someone who believes that if they talk to God he might answer back. What do you believe happens when you talk to God? Has this changed over the last few weeks?

THE PRACTICE PROMPT:

Each practice week, we will be providing a practice prompt for everyone to do on their own throughout the week. We want to invite and encourage each of us to make space to read, reflect, and use each passage as a journaling/written prayer prompt before our next practice week. You could choose to go through these passages individually or in one sitting a couple times.

1. John 10:7-18: The sheep know His voice

2. Ephesians 2:1-9: God made us alive and together

3. John 15:1-11: Abide in Jesus

4. Matthew 6:9-13: The Lord’s Prayer

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Practice 5: 10/16-10/22

HEARING GOD IN THE
CONTEXT OF THE KINGDOM

      1. What did this week’s practice look like for you?
      2. What about this week’s practice was valuable or difficult for you?

DISCUSSION:

Read Psalm 127:1-2

  1. How’s your sleep? How is your sleep related to seeking life in the kingdom of God?
  2. Dallas speaks on seeking the Kingdom of God as looking for what God is doing. Where are places that you can seek the Kingdom of God? Are you curious about where God is moving in your life, your city, your work?
  3. Dallas said that “Crucifixion [taking up our own cross] is the great door of liberation; it takes you off your kingdom.” What are things in your life that keep you in your own kingdom? 

THE PRACTICE PROMPT:

Each practice week, we will be providing a practice prompt for everyone to do on their own throughout the week. We want to invite and encourage each of us to make space to read, reflect, and use each passage as a journaling/written prayer prompt before our next practice week. You could choose to go through these passages individually or in one sitting a couple times. 

  1. Psalm 127: The Lord gives His beloved sleep
  2. Psalm 121: Help comes from the Lord
  3. Matthew 6:9-13: The Lord’s Prayer

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Practice 4: 10/9-10/15

The Still Small Voice

  1. What did this week’s practice look like for you?
  2. What about this week’s practice was valuable or difficult for you?

DISCUSSION:

Read 1 Kings 19:9-13

  1. Check out the chart on the back. What are your thoughts about how God speaks?

Dallas Willard explained that the three lights (circumstances, impressions of the Spirit, and Scripture) were tools to understand what God is saying, but are limited.

  1. Have you heard of these three lights before today?
  2. What did you think about the limitations of the three lights Dallas mentioned (inadequate for conversational dynamic)?

Dallas Willard describes the three critical components of hearing from God as tone, spirit, content. 

  1. Which of these have you personally experienced to be true/of value?
  2. What are your thoughts on these three?

At the end of the discussion Richard Foster reads the following quote from Thomas Kelly, “Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is simple. It is serene. It is amazing. It is triumphant. It is radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time. And it makes our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. He is at the helm. And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.”

  1. What sorts of small shifts need to take place in your life rhythms to make space to listen for the still, small voice of God? 
  2. How can we pursue this and involve one another as a community in this?

THE PRACTICE PROMPT:

Each practice week, we will be providing a practice prompt for everyone to do on their own throughout the week. We want to invite and encourage each of us to make space to read, reflect, and use each passage as a journaling/written prayer prompt before our next practice week. Specifically starting this week, we want people to begin to take a few moments of silence at the end of their reading and prayer to invite God to speak. In the bonus video for this session (which you are welcome to watch!) Willard talks about how he goes about making space and aiming to hear from God. We have included those below the scriptures for the week. 

  1. John 10:27-30: The sheep know His voice
  2. Matthew 14:23: Jesus prays alone
  3. Matthew 6:9-13: The Lord’s Prayer

Willard’s Approach is:  1) asking God to speak, 2) watching for what happens over the next few days, 3) listening for a particular kind of thought, 4) if the thought is unclear, ask for clarity, 5) if it seems you are hearing nothing – ask if there is anything inside of you preventing you from hearing, 6) if nothing is heard at that point consider that the decision might be yours to make.

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Practice 3: 10/2-10/8

Trinitarian Fellowship

1. What did this week’s practice look like for you?

2. What about this week’s practice was valuable or difficult for you?

DISCUSSION:

Dallas Willard said, “You are invited to practice intimate fellowship with the Trinity.”

1. What do you think of this statement?

2. What are some places that you are keeping your distance from Jesus?

3. How might you practice a life with God?

THE PRACTICE PROMPT:

Each practice week, we will be providing a practice prompt for everyone to do on their own throughout the week. We want to invite and encourage each of us to make space to read, reflect, and use each passage as a journaling/written prayer prompt before our next practice week. You could choose to go through these passages individually or in one sitting a couple times.

1. John 17:3: The only place Jesus defines eternal life

2. John 17: 20-26: A prayer of Jesus for life together

3. Matthew 6:9-13: The Lord’s Prayer

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Practice 2: 9/18-9/24

What Hearing God is Not

1. What did this week’s practice look like for you?

2. What about this week’s practice was valuable or difficult for you?

DISCUSSION:

Dallas Willard said, “the desire for control is a primary reason we fail to hear God”.

1. What do you think he meant by this?

2. What are some places in your life that you might desire control over hearing God?

3. How might reading your Bible as part of an ongoing friendship with God differ from reading as a superstitious practice in trying to hear from God?

Read: Acts 17:26-28

1. What might change in your relationship with God if you truly believed that He was not far off?

THE PRACTICE PROMPT:

Each practice week, we will be providing a practice prompt for everyone to do on their own throughout the week. We want to invite and encourage each of us to make space to read, reflect, and use each passage as a journaling/written prayer prompt before our next practice week. You could choose to go through these passages individually or in one sitting a couple times.

1. 1 Samuel 3:6-10: Willingness to hear and obey God’s voice

2. 1 Kings 19:11-13: The still, small voice and its rivals

3. Matthew 25:14-30: The parable of the talents

4. Matthew 6:9-13: The Lord’s Prayer