Welcome to the Mariner's Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. This is week one of a brand new series. My name's Derek Kirkwood, I'm our discipleship pastor at Mariner's, and I'm so grateful for you.
I know that as a life group leader, every single week you're trying to figure out how do I create a great environment for the people of my group to understand God's word, to walk through life together, share meaningful moments, to pray with one another. And I'm so grateful that you are doing that so well within your group. If there's anything that you need from us, would you reach out and just be sure that we have equipped you and provided you with any resource that you need to do what we're asking you to do, which is to care for people and help them to find Jesus. Now you're not alone in that.
We have great programs and ministries, events, all kinds of great things to help people become more like Jesus. And those things are for you too. Now this week we're starting a new series called Red Letter Invitations. And at the beginning of this podcast here, I wanted to share with you the direction that we're going over the next several weeks together.
Now what is Red Letter Invitations all about? It's all about the words of Jesus and the things that he's inviting us into. If we're here at the church, we're all trying to figure out how to become more like Jesus. And so we ought to pay close attention to the red letters in the gospels.
This is a dive in to stories that many of us know, but perhaps people in your group, they're going to be new to them. But they will all come with a fresh perspective, with an invitation about how you and I might live in our life. And so I want to take a couple of minutes here and just walk you through each of these weeks so that you can get kind of a flyover picture of where we're going. And then as usual, each week Jeremy and I are going to spend time walking through each of the weekly discussion questions so that you can feel better equipped to lead each week's discussion.
So the first week coming up this weekend is the idea of come to me. Jesus invites us to come to him. And really, this is an invitation during some of the pain and sorrow and frustration concerned in our life. When we are weary, Jesus says, come to me.
Well then after that, the invitation is to follow. Anytime we are asked to come to Jesus, the hope would be that we are so compelled to follow after him. And next week, April 17 and 18, is going to be an I believe weekend. And so if you have people in your group that have yet to give their life to Jesus, next weekend might be for them where the invitation is not just to come to Jesus, but to take an inventory and audit of their life and to choose to follow him.
Well then after that, April 24 and 5, the invitation of Jesus is to take up our cross. If we're going to become like Jesus, we have to choose to do that daily. And Jesus invites us to take up our cross, to recognize that as a follower of Jesus, that's a life of sacrifice, that's a life of denying ourselves, a life of saying his ways are better than our ways. We're choosing to follow him in the midst of every aspect of our life.
We're actually going to take communion together on that weekend. May 1 and 2nd week, four of our series is going to be about storing up treasures. Where on earth do we want to store up our treasure? Is it here or is it actually?
Do we want to be investing in that eternal treasure, the eternal life that we are living parallel to our earthly life? When you and I say yes to Jesus, we are eternal beings. We are going to be with him in eternity when this life ends. There is more life to follow.
And so that week we're going to be talking about where should we invest our time, talent and treasure, our resources, our finance. On May 8th and night, that's Mother's Day weekend, we're going to talk about Jesus' invitation to love him. What does it look like to love from the perspective of Jesus? And is there any better passage of Scripture to look at the Matthew 22 verses 34 and 40 as we think about our mothers.
We think about these great women in our life. And so we're very excited about that weekend and getting to care for and pray for the mothers in our lives. And then May 15th and 16th, the week after Mother's Day is outreach weekend. And so we are going to look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 and Matthew 28, where he tells us to go, go and make disciples of all nations.
That is our command. As followers of Jesus, he doesn't say, sit, he doesn't say, be complacent. No, he says, contribute, advance, go. We are the sent ones.
And so we are invited into being a part of his mission, not just observers of it or benefactors of it, but actually contributors to it. Then Matthew, sorry, Matthew, May 22nd, 23rd, we're going to be talking about loving our enemies. So Jesus invites us to live a countercultural life at all aspects of our life. And one of the most challenging one is to think about those people in our life who are the most challenging, the ones who are a struggle to love.
And Jesus says, to love them as well. Then moving forward into May 29 and 30, we're going to be talking about take and eat. This is going to be another communion weekend as well. This will be all about our relationship with Jesus moving forward.
And it's going to be a beautiful message about what does it look like for you and I to be in that kind of relationship with Jesus where we dine together. That we are not just dining by sharing a meal, but we're actually consuming a meal that means we are part of something bigger than ourselves. And then lastly, the last message with red letter invitations is all about rejoicing. This is a message about leaping for joy and celebrating everything that God is doing in our midst and having a pattern, a healthy recognition that as a follower of Jesus, there is much to celebrate because God is always alive and active in our lives.
And that weekend actually at Irvine, on June 5th, is going to be a night of worship. And so not only are we going to talk about rejoicing and leaping for joy, we're going to do it right after service that evening. And I hope that you can stick around. OK, so why am I bringing all of this up?
Well, as a life group leader, what I want to help you be most equipped to do is to consider the overarching story of where we are heading in this series. Because as a leader, you want to be out in front of your people. And so you want to know as we're leading discussions and conversations about what are the invitations of Jesus for you to have that flyover perspective of, OK, this week's about come to me. But the week after is about following him.
Or the picture of, OK, I know that one of the biggest invitations from Jesus is that we ought to go and be about something. Well, let's know that Outreach Weekend is coming up middle of May. And we get to be on the front end of encouraging our groups to come to church that weekend and get excited about Outreach Weekend and all the opportunities that we have to contribute in the great story that God is writing in our local global and city engagement strategies. And so you as a leader, you're not just there to facilitate discussion in your group.
You're leading your group. And so what might God be inviting you as a leader into? And maybe a different perspective in this series. He might be inviting you into lead your group in different kinds of ways, calling them to a new adventure, calling them to be more consistent and attending church, calling them to be more consistent and daily devotion by going through the annual read with us or whatever it is.
You as a leader are out in front of your group. So with that being said, Jeremy, why don't we take a few minutes and walk through the discussion guide together as we look at the first week of Come to Me. I love that this invitation is the posture of Jesus who says you can come to me in all aspect in every area of your life. As if to say your spiritual life is the entirety of your life.
It is integrated into everything that we do. And so, Jeremy, what is your primary hope or the desired outcome from week one together? So with Come to Me, really, we want our group members to feel a sense of relief, like emotionally, physically, spiritually. It's just a great way to come out of this season.
I think our whole culture is at a point where we could really use this sense of relief and catch our breath. And so we see here as we kick off this new series on the heels of Easter that Jesus says that we come to him on his terms, not on our own terms, but that that's actually really good news that we'll see that he offers us rest and relief. And something better than we could achieve on our own without him or even for him. That's great.
Yeah, there really is a need for all of us to have a collective sigh of relief, isn't there? It's been a long 12 months. In church this past weekend, at Easter, getting to see that 12 month video of what God has done in the midst of our constant adjusting and pivoting and changing, it was both beautiful and also like, wow, it's been a long year. And I love the invitation this week to come to me, to come to Jesus, that easy yoke that he's the one that we get to come to.
And so what would you encourage our life group leaders to consider as they get ready to lead this discussion or even to create this kind of environment with their group? Yeah, so always, you know, we've provided the leader guy we want to study and kind of prepare for the story, but specifically this week brainstorm ways, kind of take a self evaluation of where are you burnt out or close to it? Like where are you just carrying a lot of stress and do this for the people in your group and think about cultural pressures, even in our so-called Christian subculture. We put pressures on ourselves, others put expectations and pressures on us.
And even within the church, it's easy for things to become this religious pressure to keep up a certain appearance and so work through some of those things in your own mind and be prepared to be honest about that with your group. And it's always a good reminder for leaders in this moment to whatever you share, the level of authenticity and vulnerability is what your group's going to model. You know, they're going to replicate that, which means that we need to go deep enough, but don't go too deep, right? Sometimes it's like, oh man, you might overshare and then you can create an environment in your group that you go, oh, this is probably something I needed to share with my spouse or my counselor, not with my life group leader.
But at the same time, the other side to that coin is you got to go deep enough that we're getting beneath the surface level stuff. We want to talk about real issues, but appropriately. That's a great point and that I hadn't really thought about in this instance, but also, you know, if we jump too deep, too fast, it could also make other people feel like their burdens or stresses are insignificant or kind of feel like, well, mine's not really worth sharing. If that's, he set the bar there.
And so, yeah, we want to be thoughtful about kind of ease into the conversation. And then as we want to take them deeper, we share our own burdens and struggles. You know, we can even think back on the last series of that we just came through about kind of these challenging, surprising words of Jesus. And we want to, as we were walking people through these discussion questions, we're going to ask them to identify their burdens and what it would be like to be free from those and experience the freedom of Christ.
And so we want to think about what are some specific stories or teachings of Jesus that we're familiar with? For example, if someone's dealing with anxiety or stress in that way, we can think of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 6 about looking to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and how God takes care of them as a good father. And so how much more he'll take care of us. And recently in our past series, we had, you know, politics have been a big burden.
We had Jesus teaching about the image on the coin and his kingdom not being of this world. And so just think through what are some of the burdens that you have and others might have. And then also, where do we see Jesus address those, either specifically in his teaching or through his example in the way he he modeled life and relationships? Which is a great leadership principle for all of our life group leaders.
And, you know, I know because I've met many of them over the last couple of weeks, we have a whole bunch of new life groups that are going to start with us this series that just came out of the road. We had over 50 new groups get developed across all of our lotion. So Irvine, Huntington Beach, and then throughout neighborhood congregations as well. And so it's beautiful to even welcome you in new life group leaders.
We're so excited that you're going to be jumping into this series. And I would encourage you here to remember that you want to prepare well for this week, but you don't have to cover everything in this week. You get to remember that this is now a long journey. You have lots and lots of weeks with these people where let's do what God's putting right in front of us, but do the good work that God's inviting you into this week and know that we got another one next week, right?
So enjoy the ride. It's going to be it's going to be fun. Jeremy, let's take a second here and just talk about the rhythm that is in this week's group guide, the idea of daily devotion. What would you say is kind of the point or the hope of that is daily devotion, are weekly discussions?
Like what's the difference there and what we're trying to get at? Sure. The idea here is that when Jesus invites us in Matthew 11, take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy and light and find rest for your souls.
What he's inviting us to, a yoke would have been a rabbi's teaching again through word and deed. And so he's saying, you don't have to do for me. You don't have to perform for me religiously. Like I'm inviting you to walk with me.
And so the best way that we can learn to walk with Jesus is to spend time in his word each day. And so whether people are doing the annual read, which right now we've just looked at desires and emotions, all of that is pointing to where can we find rest with Jesus and stop striving in our own efforts. And what I love about that too is that it's not just our own efforts, kind of worldly or sinful apart from Jesus, but even our tendency towards self-righteousness and trying to do religious so-called good things or an approval before God. Jesus saying, no, just be with me.
That's right. It isn't a, it's like it's not a competition. It doesn't matter how much you read or how fast you get through the Bible in a year or whatever it is. It's like, I want you to, I want all of our, every one of us in a life group to fall in love with having a daily relationship with Jesus.
And that might be one verse. It might just be each morning or each evening opening up God's word and just allowing that to guide our thoughts, our behavior, our desires, allowing it to shape who we are. And so you're right, annual read, we have the Gospel Everyday Podcast. If you're at church this weekend, we handed out these little booklets that we're going to walk you through the next nine weeks of Red Letter Invitations.
They have additional scriptures and prayer and reflection in there. The point is the practice. It's, it's not to focus just on the end result, but instead to just develop the rhythm and the practice of being in God's word every day. And so I love that daily devotion is the first one in our discussion guide for Red Letter Invitations.
So Jeremy with that, any kind of final thoughts for us. And any kind of, I don't know anything else you want us to focus on or consider for this week. Just to really emphasize that in this text, as we start this new series that Jesus is saying that God is not going to conform to our expectations, He's inviting us again on His terms to trust Him and walk with Him. And so this is all about being honest about our own ideas and surrendering those to Christ.
And so I'm really excited for this first discussion as we kick off this new series. It's good. Well, come and follow the reality is if you don't do that, it's going to be real hard. To enjoy the next eight invitations.
And so Life Group leaders, let's do this well. Let's practice, let's model, let's show our groups what it looks like to really come to Jesus with the reality of our life and choose to follow Him in the midst of everything going on. So we're praying for you. If you need anything, don't hesitate to reach out to us and looking forward to chat with you next week.
Jeremy, all right, take care everyone.