Read an Excerpt
Forward Leader Guide
A Small Group Journey Toward a Full Life in Christ
By Nick Cunningham Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5018-3747-0
CHAPTER 1
Session 1
Goodness
PREPARATION
As you prepare for your first session, read through the session plan and descriptions of each activity and discussion to familiarize yourself with them. You might wish to mark the pages in the participant book that are referenced, to help you find them quickly. View the video for this session in advance as well, noting any key ideas that you want to be sure to point out.
Gather the following materials and have them on hand for your group meeting: First, each member of your group will need a copy of the Forward participant book. If everyone does not already have a copy, bring enough copies for each person. They will take these home and bring them back to each session. It may also be a good idea to have one or two extra copies on hand in case someone forgets his or her participant book.
Second, bring enough pens or pencils for each person in your group to have one. They should respond to the questions in the participant book before you meet, but having some on hand will allow them to make notes during your discussion. And everyone will need to write their Forward Goals at the end of your group meeting.
Third, have a few Bibles available in case you need to look something up. Usually, the passages that you discuss will be printed in the Forward participant book, but you may discover that you'd like to look up others as well.
Fourth, set up a DVD player or computer with a TV or projector and screen for viewing the video. Come to your meeting space early enough to set this up before your fellow group members arrive, so that you can greet them as they get there.
The Three Questions
(15 minutes)
Introduce the Three Questions.
Say: At the beginning of each session, we're each going to answer one of three questions:
1. What are you grateful for?
2. What are you anxious about?
3. What are you learning?
Say: These questions are designed to help us talk to one another about our spiritual lives. They push us to identify areas of our lives where we experience blessing or see God; areas where we feel stress, tension, or fear; and areas where we are growing and changing. These are not intended as ice-breakers or small talk. Rather, they are opportunities for us to get to know one another more deeply. Here is a brief description from author Nick Cunningham about the role of the three questions:
Read aloud this short explanation of the questions from the One study, or invite a fellow group member to read it out loud:
A Word About Those Three Questions
Jesus' prayer in John 17 wasn't that his followers would spend an hour and some change sitting shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of strangers, but that we would be brought to complete unity. What Jesus had in mind wasn't some distanced association based on proximity but a oneness that is the result of sharing our lives with one another.
I have to wonder: How prepared are you to do that? Not in terms of your willingness (we will get to that later), but more so in your awareness. You can't share what you don't know. How aware are you of your life — namely where God is and what God is up to in you, around you, and through you?
That's what these questions are here for. Asking them of yourself on a regular basis is one way in which you can grow in your awareness of the work God is doing and the work God still needs to do in you.
I want to encourage you not just to wrestle with them once a week when you are asked to answer them, but to ruminate on them daily. This isn't about answering a question correctly on a pop quiz. It is about developing a practice of awareness, growing in intimacy with God, and opening ourselves up to one another.
I also want to challenge you to move past vague generalities. If you are grateful for your job, be more specific. What is it about your job you are grateful for? Dig a little deeper. The goal is to open our eyes to the presence of a very real God and to become more and more aware of the life that we are living. One of the ways this happens is by doing the hard work of looking for the answers to these questions in the details of our everyday lives.
During this session, ask everyone to answer one of the Three Questions, and then move on to the next person. Spend no more than fifteen minutes on these questions.
Watch the Video
(10 minutes)
After everyone has answered one of the Three Questions, play the video for this session titled "Goodness." Invite your group members to summarize what they saw, ask questions, and identify key ideas that stood out to them. Explain that they should keep the video as well as the chapter from the participant book in mind throughout the discussions in the rest of your meeting.
Study 2 Peter 1:3-11
(15 minutes)
Typically, we will reserve a good bit of time for you and the group to come up with Forward Goals, but for this session we will spend more time up front setting up how the rest of the study will work.
Invite everyone to turn to pages 12–13 in the Forward participant book and find the Scripture passage 2 Peter 1:3-11. Ask group members to read through the passage at least twice on their own, answering the questions that are provided in the participant book. Allow time for individuals to work on this, then spend the rest of your time sharing your responses with one another.
Spend approximately fifteen minutes total on this activity.
Group Discussion
(20 minutes)
Spend twenty minutes discussing the questions below, asking your fellow group members to draw upon the responses they've written in the Forward participant book. In the upcoming weeks, it will be important to save enough time at the end to establish Forward Goals. But for this week identifying your maturity gaps is an important action step, and these discussion questions are designed to help you do that.
Ask: What from this chapter resonated with you? What challenged you, and what encouraged you? As you ask this question, remind everyone about the importance of being both challenged and encouraged, as described on page 25 of the Forward participant book.
Ask a volunteer to read the following quotation from pages 16-17 of Forward:
You see, the gospel doesn't begin as something that we do. Of course, it does involve what we do, but it doesn't start as something that we do. The gospel begins as a life-giving announcement about what God has already done. In light of this we ought to be in the habit of preaching the gospel to ourselves every single day, a thousand times a day if need be. In a way, moving forward actually begins with regularly going backward: back to the cross, back to the gospel, back to the saving love of God and the life-altering truth of what Jesus has made available to us. Of course we are called to move forward, to grow, to become more than we have been. But if we aren't living from the inside out and if we aren't constantly grounding ourselves in the gospel, then we will never make it because whatever power is moving us forward will turn out to be something other than the gospel. Whether that power is willpower or maybe self-righteousness, no matter what it is, it's something less than the gospel and we will never make it.
Invite someone to summarize the meaning of that quotation in his or her own words.
Ask: Why is it so important for our journey forward to begin with faith?
Invite the group to turn to pages 17–18 of Forward, and ask a volunteer to read the quotation on that page out loud:
I think that one of the biggest reasons why many of us struggle to experience the reality of our salvation — to move forward — isn't because we don't have a big enough sense of who God is. Instead, it's because we don't have a big enough sense of who God thinks we can be. It's not that we don't have a high enough view of divinity — it's that we have too low a view of humanity.
Ask: Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
Ask: What does this idea have to do with faith?
Now transition to a discussion of the two questions that I asked at the end of this chapter (page 30): When it comes to goodness, to arête: Do you want this? And do you believe it? (Remember that whole bleed first thing we talked about in the introduction, where you as the group leader will have to take the first step toward being vulnerable? This would be a good place for that to happen.)
Ask: Do you want goodness, moral excellence? Even though this is an offer to us in Jesus, how have you settled for less?
Ask: Do you believe it? Do you believe that it is possible, in Jesus, to live a life of goodness? Why or why not? What makes it so hard for us to actually believe that?
There is real power in being able to name what is holding us back. This isn't necessarily about our hang-ups or bad habits; it's about naming what keeps us from believing things can change. For some, it's living with a fear that they are going to be just like their parents. For others, it may be that they are living with some sense that they have to pay penance their whole life for something they did. Or it may be something else entirely. Once you and your fellow group members have named these things, spend some time confronting whatever it is with the truth of the gospel. In Jesus, it really is possible!
Say: In the introduction and in this chapter, we talked about the maturity gap, the distance between our ideal and our real, who we long to be and who we currently are.
Ask: What is in your gap? What are some specific things that are keeping you from being who God wants you to be?
You may find that this is something you and your group will want to work on even after your time together in this session. Don't rush this. Perhaps this week you get the ball rolling, and then revisit it next week before you watch the next video. Identifying your maturity gaps will help each of you see where and how you might move forward.
On the following page you will find instructions for developing your Forward Goals for this first session. Your group's discussion about your maturity gaps can help you shape these goals for this first session, as well as for subsequent sessions.
Forward Goals
(15 minutes)
Conclude your discussion by introducing the idea of Forward Goals, which will help you take some crucial steps toward spiritual maturity. Keep in mind: This week it may be a bit difficult to come up with a Forward Goal, but see what happens with your group. More than anything, spend some time in prayer together, asking God to give you the courage to do the hard work of introspection as you begin this journey forward.
Say: Over the next several chapters, we are going to develop some goals for how we might move forward with respect to the virtues that we see in Second Peter. We are going to help one another out, so that through mutual support we will begin to address some of the things in our maturity gaps. We are going to push one another forward. Each week we're going to challenge one another to come up with some "Forward Goals," and we are going to hold one another accountable to them. These goals will be specific, action-oriented, and practical. Together we'll find out how God is leading us, trusting that Jesus Christ has given us the power to move forward.
Ask: What goals might we establish for our group that will help us move toward goodness?
Lead the group in identifying these goals, and ask them to write the goals down on page 32 of the Forward participant book. Use the remainder of your meeting time for this exercise, approximately fifteen minutes. In subsequent sessions, you'll spend about twenty-five minutes working on these goals. Remember to identify not just the goals themselves, but the ways in which you will hold one another accountable to them.
Close the Session
(2 minutes)
Before you end your session, remind everyone about the logistics (when, where, and anything else) for your next meeting. Also remind the group to do the reading and answer the questions in the next chapter of Forward, coming to your next session prepared for a lively discussion.
Ask a volunteer to close with prayer.
CHAPTER 2
Session 2
Knowledge
PREPARATION
Read session 2 of the Forward participant book, making note of the key ideas and marking the pages you want to reference during your group meeting. Read through the plan for this session to familiarize yourself with the discussion questions and activities. You may also want to write down some supplemental questions for the Group Discussion based on the needs of your group and what you saw as key points in the Forward participant book. Finally, view the video for this session, "Knowledge," in advance, and make note of important points that you'll want to discuss with the group.
Gather pens or pencils, extra copies of the participant book if necessary, and Bibles to have on hand to assist you in the discussion.
Arrive at the meeting area early to set up the video for viewing, and be sure that you start your session on time.
The Three Questions
(15 minutes)
Open your session with a prayer, and then begin with the Three Questions:
1. What are you grateful for?
2. What are you anxious about?
3. What are you learning?
Read the Three Questions out loud, and ask each person to respond to one of them. Encourage group members to answer a different question than the one they answered the previous week. Spend no more than fifteen minutes on this.
Watch the Video
(10 minutes)
Follow-up from last time: Before you watch this week's video, you may need to share some more about your maturity gaps from the discussion in your last session. See if any group members have any more insight into the specific challenges that are keeping them back in their life with God.
After you've touched base with everyone about your last meeting, play the video for session 2 titled "Knowledge." Invite your group members to summarize what they saw, ask questions, and identify key ideas that stood out to them. Explain that they should keep the video as well as the chapter from the participant book in mind throughout the discussions in the rest of your meeting.
Group Discussion
(25 minutes)
Spend no more than twenty-five minutes on the discussion questions in this section so that you will have plenty of time to work on the Forward Goals together (see below).
Ask: What from this chapter resonated with you? How did it challenge you, and how did it encourage you? Remember the importance of naming and understanding our places of resistance, where we are challenged, as opportunities for growth. Be sure that you don't discuss only the encouraging parts!
Ask: What is the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge? What does it mean to add knowledge and goodness to our faith?
Ask: What role does knowledge play in dealing with our maturity gaps?
Invite a volunteer to read this quotation from page 38 of the Forward participant book:
What we see from Jesus is an unwavering trust in who he was and how God felt about him. I don't believe that this sort of posture was automatic for Jesus. Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus "learned obedience." I believe that his trust in what God had said was the result of rhythms and disciplines that were a part of his daily life, so that he came to know God's word as something that was ingrained deep within him.
Scripture tells us that from the time he was a little boy Jesus was a student of the word. In Luke 2, at the age of twelve, Jesus surprised the scholars at the Temple in Jerusalem with his understanding of the Scriptures (Luke 2:4152). Before his confrontation with the devil in wilderness, Jesus spent forty days and nights in prayer and fasting. Several times in the Gospels we are told how Jesus would withdraw to pray by himself, reconnecting with God.
We see in Jesus' example the importance of regularly reading and studying Scripture, of praying, of fasting. This is how we grow in knowledge — through these regular disciplines of learning, prayer, and self-denial. This is how we add or supplement our faith and goodness with knowledge.
Tell me, if Jesus himself had to practice these disciplines in order to stay grounded in the truth, who are we to think that we don't have to? Our tendency is to want what Jesus has, but without being willing to do what it takes to have it. Supplementing our faith with knowledge is a matter of deepening our understanding and confidence of our new identity in Christ and making the truth of the gospel real in our lives through the practice of rhythms and disciplines like Scripture reading, prayer, and fasting.
Invite another volunteer to summarize the meaning of this quotation in his or her own words.
Ask: Are you currently committed to any sort of intentional disciplines or practices? If so, share how they have strengthened your faith. If not, share what practices seem promising to help you grow in knowledge, and how they might shape your spiritual life.
Ask: What is the relationship between knowledge and spiritual discipline? How do regular practices and habits shape what we know? How do they move what we know in our heads only down into our hearts?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Forward Leader Guide by Nick Cunningham. Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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