This week we are practicing what Jesus modeled in Mark 14—sharing both our joys and our sorrows in community.

Step 1 – Gather for a Meal

• Share food together (potluck style, ordered in, or something simple).

• Remember: the meal doesn’t have to be fancy—the point is being together.

Step 2 – Put Jesus at the Center

• Begin with prayer or reading a short scripture.

• This week you might use Acts 2:42–47 or John 15:11 (“That my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete”).

Step 3 – Share Your Highs & Lows

• Go around the table and let each person share a joy (high) and a sorrow (low) from their week.

• The goal is not to fix each other’s problems but to listen, encourage, and pray.

Optional Conversation Starters

If you need a way to break the ice before going deeper, here are some fun table conversation starter resources:

Start Small: Click here for “Start Small” questions

Go Deeper: Click here for “Go Deeper” questions

Discussion Questions (from the sermon)

Use these as time allows:

1. Dr. Lustig argues that our culture is addicted to chasing short-term pleasure (dopamine) rather than lasting happiness (serotonin). Where do you see that most in your own life or in the people around you?

2. Why do you think Jesus designed community life to center around the table? What does a meal around a table offer that other settings don’t?

3. Jesus modeled both joy (the Agape Feast, John 15:11) and sorrow (Garden of Gethsemane, Mark 14). Which is harder for you personally to share with others—your joys or your sorrows? Why?

4. Nehemiah said, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” How have you experienced joy giving you strength to endure hardship or resist temptation?

5. What do you think it will take for our group (or for you personally) to move from superficial conversations to sharing life—both joys and sorrows—around the table?

Opening Exercise: Share a Meal Together

We invite you to begin each session by sharing a meal together as the baseline for the remainder of the Practice of Community. You may already share a weekly meal with another group, such as a home community or small group. In that case, feel free to adapt this practice to your own life. But if at all possible, begin each of the next three sessions by sharing a meal together.

Tips for Planning Your Weekly Meal

1. Choose Your Place(s): Decide on the location(s) where you will host your dinners.

2. Set a Consistent Day and Time: Choose a specific day and time each week that works for everyone, ideally before each of the remaining sessions.

3. Organize a Potluck Style Meal: Have everyone sign up for specific elements (mains, desserts, drinks). Be mindful of any dietary restrictions in the group.

4. Encourage Contributions Beyond Food: Participants can also help with setting and cleaning up.

5. Start with Prayer: Begin your meal together by reading this prayer aloud:

O Triune God,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit — the joyful relationship at the center of the Universe.
Let us not be mistaken to think that the ordinary nature of this gathering means You are not here.
Meet us, O Lord, in every curious question, honest prayer, and offering of attention.
May we share in Your life as we now share in one another’s.
For some, the table brings memories of connection and plenty; for others, absence and lack.
Grant us compassion, O Lord.
May the table we set be wide enough for all these stories.
Open our hearts to love today, knowing that in receiving our brother, our sister, we are surely receiving You.
Amen.

Table Conversations & Discussion Starters

• Start Small: Click here for “Start Small” questions

• Go Deeper: Click here for “Go Deeper” questions

Reflection Questions – Practicing Community

Use these questions to reflect on the Practice of Community as a whole. Encourage conversation, story-sharing, and honesty:

1. What drew you to gather around this table tonight?

   • How does sharing a meal together feel different from other gatherings in your life?

2. What do you notice about yourself as you sit in this group?

   • Are there thoughts, feelings, or habits that come to light when you’re in close community?

3. Where have you experienced the gift of community before, and where has it been hard?

   • How have relationships shaped your life, both positively and in challenging ways?

4. What does it mean to you to ‘practice community’ in the Way of Jesus?

   • How does this idea stretch, inspire, or challenge your current way of living?

5. How might you take one step this week to engage more deeply in community?

   • What is one small action—sharing a meal, reaching out, listening—that you could try?

Closing Thought

Community is not about perfection—it’s about showing up, listening, and being present with one another. This week, your invitation is simple: set the table. Share a meal, open conversation, and practice being together. Small steps, repeated over time, create the rhythm of love, encouragement, and growth that Jesus calls us into.

1. Reflect and Recap:
   What stood out to you from this message? Was there something about Jesus’ descent to the dead that was new or surprising to you?

2. Facing Mortality with Faith:
   The Chapel of Bones says, “We bones here, for yours await.” How often do you reflect on your own mortality? How might remembering that you will die actually help you live more fully for Jesus?

3. Fear Not:
   Jesus has the keys to death and Hades. He has conquered the grave. Where in your life are you still living in fear? How can the reality of Jesus’ victory over death change your posture in those areas?

4. Living Resurrection Now:
   If we truly believed that death is not the end and that resurrection life awaits us, how might that shape our generosity, our courage, or our compassion?

5. Jesus, the Rescuer:
   The sermon described Jesus as the heroic diver, plunging into the deep to bring us up. Where in your life do you need to be reminded that Jesus comes for you—that He’s with you even in the dark?

6. Proclaiming Victory with Our Lives:
   Jesus proclaimed his victory to every realm—heaven, earth, and under the earth. What does it look like for us to proclaim that same victory in our homes, neighborhoods, and relationships?

Bonus Question

Has everyone in our group personally said “yes” to Jesus and been baptized as a public declaration of faith? If not, we would love to take that step with you at our August 24 River Baptism.
If everyone in your group has already taken that step, who do you know—friend, family, co-worker—who hasn’t yet? How can your group pray intentionally for them this summer?

Warm-up:

• What did your practice of generosity look like this week?

• How did it feel to invite God into your current framework of generosity? Did anything shift in your mindset or actions?

• Where did you notice the influence of greed—subtle or obvious—in your life this week?

• What internal or external obstacles are you currently facing when it comes to living with simplicity and generosity?

Dive Deeper:

• As you reflect on Jesus’ parable of the faithful and wise manager (Luke 12:42–48), what emotions surface in you? How does this parable encourage you? How does it challenge you?

• In your family of origin, what were the views and emotional dispositions toward money? How do you see those early experiences shaping your current relationship with money?

• Can you share a time when you asked God about a financial decision and tried to listen for His direction? What was the outcome?

• How might the truth that everything ultimately belongs to God free you to live with a greater sense of generosity and trust?

The Invitation to Practice:

The invitation this week is to begin actively listening to God about money and generosity. Carve out intentional time—perhaps in solitude or through journaling—to ask God where He is inviting you to grow. Be specific in your questions and open in your listening.

How could this group support you as you take this step?

Closing:

Take time to pray for one another—asking for ears to hear God’s voice, freedom from fear or control, and faith to live as joyful, faithful stewards of all God has entrusted to you.

Warm-up:

• What spontaneous act of generosity did you practice this week, and how did it go?

• Were you able to feel the joy of God in your practice?

• What challenges did you face—emotionally, spiritually, or practically?

• What new ideas about generosity have been growing in you this last week?

Dive Deeper:

• If you were to measure your level of contentment on a scale of 1 to 10—where 1 is feeling the anxiety of greed and desire for more, and 10 is feeling non-anxious and satisfied with what you have—where would you plot yourself right now? Why?

• Where are you currently experiencing a lack of margin in your life—relationally, financially, or in your schedule?

• What is one area of your life you sense Jesus might be inviting you to simplify—your calendar, your possessions, your spending, or something else?

• Name a few of the best things in your life right now. What are you most grateful for?

• The invitation to practice this week is to sell one of our possessions and give the money to someone in need - or simply to give that item to a person in need.  How are you feeling about this and how could the group encourage you?

Closing:

Take a few moments to pray for one another—asking for a deeper contentment in Jesus, courage to simplify where needed, and wisdom to create healthy margin in your lives.

Warm-up:

• How have you engaged with this week's invitational practice of generosity? What has that experience been like for you so far?

Dive Deeper:

1. How were money and generosity handled in your family growing up?

2. What is your primary feeling about money today — fear, desire for more, shame, ambivalence, or something else?

3. How do you see generosity as a part of your apprenticeship to Jesus?

4. Whether you were the giver or the recipient, share about a time when you experienced the joy of generosity.

5. What fears or desires tend to keep you from being generous? (Examples: scarcity mindset, a need for security, greed, etc.)

6. How do you think your life would be different if you were free from the fear of not having enough?

7. What is one simple act of generosity you can do this week to counter the fear you may carry?

Closing:

• Take a few moments to pray for one another — for freedom from fear, a deeper trust in God’s provision, and a growing joy in generosity.

SABBATH WORSHIP REFLECTION:

1. Reflecting on 'ish':

   • "What are some ways you’ve noticed Sabbath becoming ‘Sabb-ish’ in your life? How do you think we can avoid turning it into just another day off, instead of a day set apart for God?"

2. Exploring the concept of Sabbath as a holy day:

   • "How do you understand the idea of Sabbath as a 'holy day'—a day set apart for God? What might it look like for us to truly make room for God on this day, and how does this challenge our current rhythms?"

3. Rest and renewal:

   • "The practice of Sabbath is meant to bring physical, emotional, and spiritual renewal. In what areas of your life do you feel the need for this kind of rest? What’s one step you could take this week to cultivate rest in your life?"

4. Worship as the heart of Sabbath:

   • "When you think of worship during Sabbath, what comes to mind? How can you engage in worship during this time, not just through music but in ways that bring you closer to God and reorder your heart?"

SERIES REFLECTIONS:

1. Sabbath as a transformative practice:

   • "Looking back over the past few weeks, how has your understanding of Sabbath changed? What’s one thing that stood out to you the most about how Sabbath can transform our lives?"

2. Stop, Rest, Delight, Worship:

   • "As we’ve explored the four key movements of Sabbath (stop, rest, delight, worship), which movement have you found the most challenging, and which one has been the most life-giving? Why?"

3. Sabbath and community:

   • "How do we continue to engage with this practice together?  How do we actually embed this into our 'Rule of Life' and not just check the box of having 'talked' about it?

1. Restlessness & Desire

   • Where in your life do you feel the pull of "more, more, more"? How does it affect your sense of satisfaction or rest?

   • How have you experienced the "wheel of suffering" (craving and aversion) in your own life? What are some examples where pursuing desires or escaping fears hasn’t brought you peace or rest?

2. The Resistance of Sabbath

   • What are the external resistances (cultural forces, societal pressures) that make practicing Sabbath difficult for you?

   • Reflecting on the idea that "Sabbath is an act of resistance," what does it mean to resist the patterns of work, consumerism, and distraction in our culture?

   • Have you ever experienced internal resistance (such as reluctance or a push-pull dynamic) when trying to practice rest or Sabbath? What might God be inviting you to surrender in those moments?

3. Sabbath as Freedom

   • What does it mean to you that through Sabbath, we are reminded, "You are not a slave anymore"?

   • In what ways can Sabbath practice help you embrace the freedom you have in Christ, especially in relation to working, consuming, and performing?

4. Practical Reflection on the Sabbath

   • What areas of your life do you find hardest to “rest” from (work, chores, digital distractions, etc.)?

   • Have you considered creating space for joy, delight, and intentional worship during your Sabbath? What could that look like for you?

Reflection Questions from the End of the Message

1. Where are you most tired? Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. What is the greatest drain on your energies?

2. What is the strongest force of resistance in your life, external or internal, that attempts to keep you from Sabbath rest?

1. As we begin the Practice of Sabbath this week – we want to invite you to spend some time talking about what you are thinking and feelings as we lean into this practice:

-         What's your current understanding of the Sabbath? 

-         Is the Sabbath a part of your life currently or not? 

-         What thoughts and feelings do you have going into the Sabbath practice? 

-         What obstacles seem to stand in the way of us experiencing the type of sabbath rest that God desires for us?

2. Jesus invites those who are "weary and burdened" to find rest in Him. Do you feel weary in any areas of your life? How could Sabbath and following Jesus' rhythms of grace bring peace to your soul?

3. What does the idea of Sabbath being a "way of being" rather than just a day of rest mean to you? How could you bring that spirit of restfulness into the other days of the week?

4. Sabbath is an opportunity to remember that we are loved by God, not defined by our work. How might the practice of Sabbath help you reframe your identity?

5. As a group, how can we encourage one another to adopt the practice of Sabbath this week? What practical steps can we take to create space for God’s presence in our lives?

  Week 1 Invitations:

- Pick a time to Sabbath and give it a try.

- Pick a beginning and ending ritual. 

- Pick 1 to 3 Sabbath activities

6. Each week, we encourage you to reflect on these 3 questions as you 'try on' the practice of Sabbath...(may or may not be appropriate this week - depending on when your group meets)

- Where did I feel resistance?

- Where did I feel delight?

- Where did I most experience God's nearness?

1. As we begin the Practice of Sabbath this week – we want to invite you to spend some time talking about what you are thinking and feelings as we lean into this practice:

-         What's your current understanding of the Sabbath? 

-         Is the Sabbath a part of your life currently or not? 

-         What thoughts and feelings do you have going into the Sabbath practice? 

-         What obstacles seem to stand in the way of us experiencing the type of sabbath rest that God desires for us?

2. Jesus invites those who are "weary and burdened" to find rest in Him. Do you feel weary in any areas of your life? How could Sabbath and following Jesus' rhythms of grace bring peace to your soul?

3. What does the idea of Sabbath being a "way of being" rather than just a day of rest mean to you? How could you bring that spirit of restfulness into the other days of the week?

4. Sabbath is an opportunity to remember that we are loved by God, not defined by our work. How might the practice of Sabbath help you reframe your identity?

5. As a group, how can we encourage one another to adopt the practice of Sabbath this week? What practical steps can we take to create space for God’s presence in our lives?

  Week 1 Invitations:

- Pick a time to Sabbath and give it a try.

- Pick a beginning and ending ritual. 

- Pick 1 to 3 Sabbath activities

6. Each week, we encourage you to reflect on these 3 questions as you 'try on' the practice of Sabbath...(may or may not be appropriate this week - depending on when your group meets)

- Where did I feel resistance?

- Where did I feel delight?

- Where did I most experience God's nearness?