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. Welcome back, Life Group Leaders. My name is Dallas.
I get to be your host for our Life Group Leader Podcast. And today I have with me, Paul Hunt. Hey everyone, how are you doing? So glad you're joining us today.
I'm the K and Recovery Pastor, and it's my honor to be with you today. Sweet, we're jumping in. We have our magazines. You're probably going to be able to hear it a little bit.
We're on page 64 because we're in week three of our series, James. I love seeing people show up every week with the magazines. Yeah, me too. And leaders, this is a great way for you to lead the charge.
A simple group chat. Hey, show up this weekend at church first. And then number two, bring your magazines. Show up and interact.
From an Asian household shame works really for me. You just guilt the heck out of the person who shows up without it. I'm just kidding. But maybe a little bit.
That is one way, but we probably showed them a little bit of mercy. Yes, mercy. Oh, that's a great transition. Ooh, we're getting there.
We're getting there. Okay, so the lean in question, what makes it so great, what makes it so fun is we want everybody to talk. We want everybody to model this. It's short and sweet.
Go for it. Get everybody going. I will say one change that I would make to this question is what are some of your favorite places you've visited and why I would take out ever because I think about every place I've ever visited and it'll take my brain a long time to process that. So make it a little bit easier to ask.
Hey, what are some of your favorite places you visited? Why? Or like what is one place, what is one recent place that you visited that you really love? Yeah, make it easier for people to answer.
This isn't the question that you want people to think five minutes on. We're going to get into those questions. This is one you want people to rapid fire through. So what's a place that you've recently visited?
Recently, I just actually got back from Paris over the summer. Paris. And it is one of my favorite cities in the world and why I love the beautiful architecture. It's just like scenic everywhere you go.
But a big thing for me as a foodie is just food. I go to places to eat and so even the bread in France is good. So I love Paris. What about you?
Originally I was thinking through this. I was like Kenya because I'm getting ready to go to Kenya in like three weeks. So I've just been watching videos of the last trip. I have a Kenya mug that I drink coffee with.
In the morning we've been prepping as a team, praying for it, reconnecting with people. I went there a couple years ago. So I think for me I'm building anticipation to go to Kenya in excitement to see old friends. And it was really one of my favorite places to visit, to experience the people of Kenya.
They continuously, even to this day, encourage me, challenge me. And they're just really great friends. So see the range of answers you can get from my superficial, I like food, to as deep as the community and relationships that are always sharing. No wrong answers.
Only because it's been so fresh in my mind. So everybody's talked a little bit. You get to hear a little. You're still putting the pieces together of our stories.
And then we are jumping in. We are looking down, which means we are interacting with scripture. That's the only thing we're doing. We interact with scripture.
You're going to read James 1, 27 through 2, 13. I still find because in our life group we have a one person who's just such a good reader of scripture. And whenever our leader is like, who wants to read scripture, we all just look at her. Sarah, you're going to do this?
Yeah. And she's like, shout out Sarah. She does such a great job. So I can just imagine her reading this for our group when we meet.
But jump in. We want you guys to read it out loud. We aren't going to model that for you. I know that's you.
You're like, wait, what? We want you to do it because we want to save time. You guys read the passage, but then we're going to interact. So as we're doing this, there are three look down questions.
I'm picking two. I'm picking number one and I'm picking number three. That's what you can do as a leader. Pick a couple of them.
You don't have to do every single question. You know your group though. If you want to do every question, go for it. So what is James's primary concern in this passage about Christians and how they live?
What's a primary concern in the passage? Any thoughts? Yeah. I think from the message stands out is just that word favoritism.
And man, I think it convicted me because I don't often think of favoritism as one of the major sins growing up in Sunday school. It wasn't listed with murder and stealing. It was like favoritism was not on there. And so that word really stuck out to me just that the distinction of how well they treated people based on appearance or socioeconomic status, that was what stood out for me.
Yeah. I love that. That's just interacting with the text, interacting with the weekend message. And then I like that number three question because it gets us to compare and contrast.
But you're not comparing and contrasting what we see currently in culture. We're sticking to James. We're sticking to the passage, the rich are pressing the poor, but they're rich in faith. So really helping people compare and contrast what they're seeing.
And so we're looking down at the passage and then we begin to look out. And so I think this is really crucial for us as leaders to keep our heads down in the text for those questions. Like just point people back like, oh, we're still in the text. Like a really encouraging, oh, we're still in the text.
Let's hang out there for a bit. And then we move people to looking out. So let's look out now. I really like that first question.
What kinds or classes of people is the world likely to neglect, ignore, and push aside? Yeah. And as the care and recovery pastor, as I was listening to the sermon, as I was reviewing it and thinking about that question, like, man, my heart breaks for the people who show up on Monday nights. And the people who come to our care nights, a lot of them who are wrestling with different issues in their lives, addiction struggles, I think can often feel ostracized or stigmatized, just even based on their struggle.
And so I love the heart of the message, which is that if we're judging someone on anything other than like they are an image barrier, they are a son and daughter of God, that's a form of favoritism. That's a form of looking down on someone. And so yeah, my heart breaks for those who are walking through a season of like sobriety or trying to get out of an addiction and who can often feel rejected by their own family and friends for those things rather than being seen with compassion and care and the image barrier that they are. I want to dig a little bit more here.
But first, we got to go experience Monday night, like all of our live group leaders. It was so cool. Like I even volunteered. I'm like, I'm going to lead worship on Monday.
It was like live group leaders. It was so, so cool. Like such a beautiful time of worship. I left encouraged.
I left like, this is it. Like I want more. I want to stay in here. So tell us maybe for those who can be there a little bit about what God is doing on Monday nights, how can the leaders be resourced to understand what's happening and also invite people in their groups or anybody they encounter and we can service?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm so grateful that you guys were there and got to witness what God is really doing on Monday nights. So we are starting a new or we have started a new ministry, which we'll hear more about as the months go on, but it's called regeneration. And we meet every Monday at 630 in youth room one.
That's our youth building the first floor. And we start off with a time of worship together, which really directs our hearts and just points us to our need for a savior. And I love that that's the heart of this passage too. Is that man?
If for those of us who have received mercy, we are quick to give mercy to others. So that's what Monday nights is about. We either have people who are there who like, man, God has been merciful in my life. He has set me free, who are there to serve others who are looking for that same type of freedom.
And so come on Monday night at 630 to experience worship together a time of devotional and sharing and then we split off into groups. And what I love about regeneration is that it's not like your typical AA or recovery meeting, it's discipleship, it's getting people connected to Jesus and realizing that we all have something in our lives to lay down at the foot of the cross. We've all created an idol for ourselves, whether that is chasing clout or appearances or looking at relationships to find fulfillment. It doesn't have to be a substance that we were looking to for peace or wholeness.
So anything other than Jesus, we're laying at the foot of the cross and finding freedom in the midst of community. So my encouragement to you guys as leaders would be as you're having conversations with folks, if there's a member in your group who's really struggling with something, maybe it's a pattern of behavior, maybe it's something that they've shared that's kind of been an ongoing struggle or pattern of thought. One way to show mercy to them is to come with them, like make sure that they know that they don't have to walk in alone, they don't have to show up feeling uncomfortable or by themselves. Like you can serve them by saying, hey, I want to go with you and let's worship together, let's go check this out and see what it's about.
And then yeah, over the course of the weeks as they press in to what the Lord is doing in their hearts, they'll find freedom, they'll find healing, it's been really great. Imagine how powerful that is as a leader, hey, I want to go with you. Not just I'm pointing you here, you're not like a park ranger, you're just welcome to the gate, yep, go that way, that way you're a tour guide. I'm going to walk with you and I'm going to walk hand in hand with you.
How powerful that is. And you can show up and you'll see Dallas leading worship. I guess. I'm going to put it on the calendar, but it is so cool.
You need to check it out. It's so powerful. Well, then Paul, I know you've, this is like nine months over a year of building this and it's off the launch and I can't wait to see what guys are going to do. And it's an opportunity for our ministry to partner with you guys, right?
It's not in replacement of your life group. Your life group is there to grow in your faith, to dive into God's word together. And so this isn't like you guys saying, hey, we're kicking you out of life group, go to care and this is in partnership with care of an additional space where they can experience community and life change and really focus in on some of the issues that maybe they want to talk about at a deeper level, but might take over the conversation in a life group setting that might not be as appropriate for that setting, but it's appropriate for a Monday night. So leaders, you are empowered.
You know what is happening. Even as a conversation maybe gets brought up this weekend group, you have an opportunity to go have a one on one conversation after group time and you now know what to say and you now are invited to join with your group. But then we turn to look in and this is where, you know, let the conversation breathe a little bit. This is the time just when you think you should move on to the next one is when I continue to be quiet and let it breathe just a little bit or I ask another follow up question, I ask it again or based on my relational equity with the people in the group, I say, hey, you, what do you think I can really help in the most loving kind way, not putting someone on the spot.
That's kind of walking through it. I know for me as I'm as I was looking through the questions, I just thought of mercy. It's not giving someone what they deserve and just this beauty of mercy and I think there's a time that your group can spend and being thankful for the mercy that we have been given. We did not get what we deserve and that's such good news for us.
Yeah, and I think as I was thinking about it, it is so tied to the concept of grace and for maybe newer believers or that people who haven't been in the church as much. I think grace can sound like a foreign word or like a foreign experience. So I love the invitation that we have from God's word to extend mercy to others because it's being like a participant of God's grace. We get to extend the same grace that He showed us to others.
Beautiful. And I think my last charge for you as leaders is there's a key workout in your magazine to sign up for a serve experience. Here's what I've learned the last couple of years. Some of you are going to ask me in December, hey, do you think you could get my group into insert serve experience, the foster family Christmas party?
It says there's full spots online. What can you do? Here's what I can do. Sign up early.
These will all fill out. They're going to be filled up so fast. I just get the day out to your group. Just put it in the calendar right now.
Tell everybody to move everything around, plan around that. Get into one of those serve opportunities. They are some of the most beautiful serve opportunities where you can serve our community. Don't miss out on it.
They will fill up. Yes. So true. I can't do anything about it.
And I've never met a group that regretted serving together. And you will love our church more. Having served, you will recognize man. Our church is so beautiful.
The people of our church are so beautiful and we get to do some amazing things through the ministries that we've worked on. Yes. I'm with the sign up now. Yeah.
And what it does for your group? Everybody has been through and it really bonds your group together. And that's what we want for you because we want you to continue to grow as a group. We want you to get stagnant and serving helps in so many levels.
Just sign up. That's it. So that's week three. That's James.
That's Seeker Good. Paul, thank you. Thanks for being on. Thanks for sharing.
We'll catch you on on Monday nights. Like your leaders. We're thankful for you. We love you.
We appreciate all that you're doing. Do you remember? Take care.