- Can you remember a time when you have been shown love in a really practical way by your church family?
- What did your non-Christian family/friends think of it?
Read John 13:33-35 and 1 John 4:7-12
- What are the similarities between these 2 passages?
- From the passages what are the big principles about love we are to learn?
- Who is the love for?
- What is the quality of the love like?
- What will the ‘world’ decide about us as we love one another?
Below is a collation of the feed back from Sunday.
What can we practically do to make our church a more loving community? (5 categories)
- Practical Help – sharing of gifts to help each other, DIY, gardening, cooking, childminding, driving, etc
- Our own attitude – be willing to ask for help, share needs and vulnerabilities, listen to people and pick up on needs, be sensitive, welcome people, be gentle with one another
- Structured church things – attend homegroup as a priority, speak to people on the fringes, welcome new people, be on time, attend community events and offer to help
- Hospitality – loads on this but will be dealt with as a priority in a few weeks. Feed each other, welcome people in to family life, watch TV together, spend time outside church activities together.
- Spiritual Life – Pray for one another regularly, send encouraging texts, ask about answers to prayer, remind each other about the truths of the gospel, challenge gently in the context of love and care.
- Cross-fertilisation – mixing unbelieving and Christian friends together, intentional relationships, invite to homegroup socials
- Spiritual life – pray for non-Christian friends, behave in a godly way, do for our non-Christian friends what we do for church family i.e. meals after a baby is born. Speak openly about Jesus,
- From the above where do you think your homegroup is strongest and where is it weakest?
- What practical steps can you implement to change things?
- When are you going to do it and how are you going to monitor it?
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