Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Hello and welcome again to the Life Group Leader podcast. We are so excited to be with you.
I am Kirby Wood, your host and groups pastor here at Mariners Church. And today I have with me, my colleague and friend, Dallas Viva. Hello, life group leaders. Yes, we are so glad to be together with you.
Dallas, how are you doing? How is singles and young adults doing right now? They're great. We are seeing so many people get plugged into groups.
Oh, awesome. Yes. We are growing in groups. And I believe that's where true community is found.
So one of our goals is we want every single person in our ministry to be a part of a group of some way, shape or form. I love that. I love that. And I hope that you guys, if there are spots available in your group that you'd let us, as us, your ministry team, as well as your coaches know, because we always have people looking to find a way of the root of grads that are amongst us hoping to get plugged in.
So Dallas leads so many and helps coach and equip so many coaches for all the singles ministry, as well as our 20s, 30s, and young adults. And actually college too. Dallas has quite the burden on his shoulders. But we're really grateful for his efforts to support the groups.
And we hope that today by the two of us in the conversations that we've actually had with a lot of you that we can help equip you for today's discussion. We're right here. We're getting to the end week seven of this Galatians Invitation to Rest Study. And I have absolutely loved this.
Have you been walking through this at all with your group? Or what does that look like for you in the season? Yeah, it's been super good. I've just loved sitting in service.
And I just take notes like crazy. Yes. These books are so great for that. Yeah.
It's been wild. I've read this before. But there's just something different when we have our great teachers teaching us through it. And I find myself every Sunday getting there excited, ready to learn, ready.
God, what do you have for me? Yes. And this past weekend with Chris Kane, I mean, wow. That was so incredible.
Even getting to hear her in perspective again, especially with her personal testimony and story of adoption, it really made the text come alive. It was incredible. It was really good. She just led with vulnerability, put a whole different spin on it, like using her story, just the words, I saw them in a new way.
Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I love the discussion that we're going to get into today, because I think even as I was looking at some of the content today, it was a temptation for me to want to go, OK, so now I'm a believer. So what am I going to do with that?
But instead, the text today, as well as the message that you'll hear this weekend and the discussion we're equipping you for, is called, Freed to be Free. And that's to say that at first and foremost, our identity and our understanding of our freeness is actually a big part of our spiritual walk and our realization and the freedom from strongholds and our ability to walk as a believer is first understanding that we are free from the law, which is such a gift, such a gift. Especially if you realize the law held its place for a certain time. And that's it.
And there's so much joy to be had living in freedom. Absolutely. Absolutely. So you guys, as we kind of walk through these discussion questions, I hope that you have your books open.
And we hope that you will help your group see the joy and freedom that they can stand in now that we are all believers. And that's how we know that we're Christians, is that we are free. And we're walking in our true identity, which is that we are Christ, that Christ is living in us, and that grace has covered us. So I love this leading question, because we're trying to help our group unpack.
OK, where in my life where I might not actually be living up to this free, this free identity that I have, this question is really good. What do you see here, Dallas? Yeah. I feel seen in this because I'm such a rule follower that I care more about the rules than living in the moment.
And my wife will roll her eyes at me and say, you are such a rule follower. And so this is probably a really fun question for the group to see, OK, who's a rule follower? Like, who isn't a rule follower? And where do you follow the rules so much where you miss out on the experience?
I can simplify the question. Well, it's funny because I'm definitely more of the rebel type, right? Rules don't apply to me kind of thing. But I still find myself falling into this trap sometimes with specific things, maybe with work, where I kind of am like, OK, wow, I really wanted it to be a very specific way.
And I was missing out on the experience. So I love that this question actually can apply to all. But it's definitely going to come alive a little bit quicker for those rule followers in the group. Absolutely.
I feel seen. Yeah, it took me a minute on that one. I was like, huh, where do I really? But then I think about those times I really put my foot down.
I'm like, OK, those stubborn moments are definitely those. So that's really good. I hope that kind of gets the conversation going for you guys. There's a couple.
It's a little wordy that question. But we hope that you guys will see really clearly. It's just where are you focused on the rules rather than the experience? And that will really help you guys start to shape and open up today's discussion around grace and freedom.
I love, of course, Dallas actually did this really well the last time you're on the podcast talking about the importance of looking down and reading aloud God's word. And that's a great part that I love. And I love what you had to say about that. Yeah.
And this is a bit. This is a lot of passage, a lot of scripture to read. And I mean, you could even break it up. Right.
Hey, why don't you read this section? Then you read this section, you know, all my anxieties of middle school coming to life. But popcorn, but just splitting it up, I think there's just something so important about hearing God's word out loud. And I know the way my brain works, if someone just reads it out loud, I kind of struggle with it.
But if I'm reading it alongside, like it's totally different. So if you just tell people, it's also the opposite. If you just tell people, hey, read it on your own, there's going to be some people missing out on not audibly hearing it. So true.
So true. All different. I love that. So hitting it from all the angles, right?
I love that. And I think one of this first question, as you look at the text, glacial 48531, and it's all on pages 102 and 103 in the book, I love this first question. What examples? Any questions that are going to help different people see different things in the text will really help everybody understand that, yes, we all can interpret and read God's word and hear from him uniquely.
And that's just kind of pulling out of the discussion really quick. That's the purpose of these flow questions is one of the main things that we hope that people learn is you don't have to have a teacher on a video screen to help you interpret or learn or read God's word. You are able to listen to God, look down, look in, and look out. And that helps you have a deeper relationship with the Lord as well as your own personal discipline of reading God's word.
So those kind of questions, one example is this Paul Give. That's a great way we can say, OK, there's a lot of different answers that people are going to pick out of this. A lot of different things that are going to jump out off the page for different people in the group. Yeah.
And one of the things that I've learned just as a leader, especially when I'm using scripture, is instead of just saying, oh, yeah, in the Bible, the Bible tells us. I think this is a really good example of, hey, in verse 10, it says this, like helping our people be able to see scripture and point people back to the exact passage instead of, oh, yeah, well, the Bible says this. Show me. Tell me.
Yeah, absolutely. And then it's not like this instruction manual, but it's something that's alive and moving and speaks differently to us. I love that. And even that last part of the question, what sobering reminder does it provide churches and families and small groups?
OK, so how can I start to already kind of where could this possibly apply to me or are the people in my own life? Yeah, make it bigger. Absolutely. And what are your questions?
Do you see here, Dallas, that you're really liking? Yeah, there's a in that first section, that second question is going to be a little challenging where you're inviting theological illustration. So make sure you read that, read some commentary on that. Sure.
If that's the question you're going to ask, like, have a firepower behind it. Yeah. I think that five verse one is such a summary statement. Yeah.
I wouldn't hit that. That's tying it all in. I'm thinking memory verse, right? Let's memorize that one.
That's good. That is the verse we want. Yeah. Is yoke is easy.
So when you think about yoke, imagine like two ox back in the day plowing a field. You have one season veteran ox and then you got one new ox. The season veteran ox does all the work, pulls it, pulls weight for both of them and the younger ox learns. And so Jesus says, take my yoke.
My yoke is easy. My yoke gives you rest. It's an invitation to rest. So when you hear that word yoke, it's so beautiful.
I think it's a Matthew where Jesus talks about that. So understanding yoke, I think that could be really cool too. So true. Teacher group, like what a yoke really is.
That's so good. Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh. I mean, I hope that you guys were able to kind of dive into that this week.
That would be incredible. And then as we kind of turn towards look in applying God's word to our lives, it's going to be a great way to do it. And you'll see the progression of these three questions. I actually would highly encourage you guys to do hit all three of these questions.
They're leading into more of a deeper opportunity for you to possibly practice the rhythm in rooted of repentance, which is formerly known as strongholds. But we kind of saw it as an exercise. We call it breaking strongholds as an action. And then obviously the spiritual discipline is repentance.
So where can we call people in our lives to feel safe, to really understand and analyze where in their life they might still be living to the law of the law or even their own sinful nature. And then we'll see if we can grasp through these questions. I can really see it come alive for many people in your group how God might be inviting them into more freedom in their identity in Christ. Yeah.
And our group did this like a month ago. We weren't planning on having a repentance time. It was not talked about. Not intervention time either.
Yeah. It just naturally went there. We all said, hey, what if we went around the room and we just said, what's the thing that we're struggling with right now? And then let's pray for one another.
And it turned into this super organic, beautiful time of repentance. And that's why I think your group could have. And you think it right now, you're thinking about it. Wow, that's really scary.
But the beauty on the other side of your group, our group is so much healthier because of that moment and we're so much more connected and bonded. So really encourage you, go in, dive in, have the conversation, let everybody go around, and then pray for one another. That's so good. And so it really starts well.
I like how you're kind of setting up the stage for this, but it starts well, where do you find yourself judging? Because oftentimes, right, we judge others or ourselves harshly over things that we are clearly held bondage to. And then even as Dallas was saying, what if you phrase the question that second one? Okay, everybody, I'd love everyone to share maybe where, like, for each person, where or what guilt and shame has been robbing you of the joy and your identity inheritance in Christ.
And if you had everybody share on that, that's like practically a strong holds exercise right there, right, repentance right there. And then the way to really solidify any repentance moment or any big, yeah, even vulnerable time is to read God's word over, read truth over ourselves and over those in your group to really, yeah, to really solidify the freedom that we have in Christ. Not the guilt and the shame because we just, we just shared all our guilt and shame. But what is true about us?
That's what we're held a bondage to. But this is where the freedom lies is in Christ and his truth and his hope for us. So it's really important that you reread that scripture over us so that we can stand in our authority of Christ. That's good.
And that last section, look out. Oh, absolutely. That final question, you know, related to the mother of repentance, you know, if you went through that breaking shingles, there's routines, environments, or relationships that you need to set healthy boundaries or even stay away from and sked quickly just understanding what is a healthy boundary. Healthy boundary is keeping yourself or others in your family emotionally or physically safe.
So helping people understand you can't just set a boundary and not tell, like if I set a boundary against you, I can't just say, oh, I have a boundary against you, but never tell you like it just do the boundary. Yeah. So helping people like, Hey, let's make sure you're praying this a great time as a leader to help your people. Are you praying about this boundary or you just are you just establishing it without prayer for it?
Make sure it is aligned with scripture and this is the moment as a leader we can rise up. We can challenge our people, call them out, not saying, Oh, that boundary is sinful, but just helping people. Hey, what's a healthy boundary? Have you prayed about this?
I encourage you all to pray about the boundaries that you have set up. And I just as an encouragement to you as a leader, God did not make a mistake when he puts you in leadership. Your rooted facilitator did not make a mistake. You are here for a reason.
You are a leader. You are called. You get to have those conversations. You have the relational equity to do so.
It's so true. Oh my gosh, Dallas, I love everything you just said. I feel like that's such a great like sending point right there is for you guys to feel confident to enter into the space because that's what God's called you to do. I've never thought that came to my mind as we're kind of looking out is just thinking about, okay, was this maybe a good opportunity to split maybe men and women, right?
I was just thinking about the different kinds of boundary conversations that might come up. If it makes sense, I mean, I wouldn't and it doesn't feel overly forced. I mean, it might be good opportunity to do women in one room or men in the other or what have you just to really create another level of vulnerability for your people. But yeah, I love the way that we can hold each other accountable to the things that we have asked each other to hold each other accountable to.
We can talk intentionally about those healthy rhythms that we can introduce into our lives. So if you guys have any questions about additional resources for enhanced care or support groups, if anything comes out that feels beyond the group's capacity, know that we're happy to help you guys find the right resources for your people. So we love you guys and we hope that you guys have a rich discussion this week all around freedom that you, just as much as the people in your group are free to be free. And we love you and we'll talk to you soon.
See you. See you. See you. See you.
See you. See you. See you. See you.
See you. See you. See you. See you.
See you. See you.