Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This week the conversation is designed to equip and resource you to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practice his spiritual rhythms and changes the world together. Everyone welcome to the new edition of our Life Group Leader podcast. My name is Scott.
I'm one of the discipleship pastors and I'm here with Alison who is our global engagement pastor. Welcome. Thank you. Well, we're excited to just be able to go over these like group discussion questions with you as we continue in our parables series of stories Jesus told.
And this week we're looking at the story about the kingdom we belong to, looking at the scripture of Matthew 22, one through 14 and Luke 14, 16 to 24. But to start out, we always do this of leaning into some of the discussion questions. I really love it in our life groups and we have kind of an icebreaker questions. It does break the ice.
Yeah. So Alison, like for you, what was like your most awesome, incredible, unforgettable party celebration that you've been to? Oh, that I've been to you? Gosh.
OK, well, I had a little bit of probably a churchy answer to it. Go ahead. So obviously my role is in global outreach, but I got to attend a big gathering that we called a family gathering a few years ago with all of our partners and we got to celebrate together what God is doing in all of our churches around the world. And for me, that was like the best party that I could imagine, even though we talked about some serious things because I got to be and here like different perspectives of different people all around the world and people that were like my family, you know, so that was one.
But I love throwing a party. Yeah. I'm like a big party planner. Yeah, it's right.
Yes, I love a good theme. So sign me up for a party. Yeah. Yeah, I love parties and celebration.
I used to have actually a shirt through my college years that said the kingdom of God is a party. It's so true. That's perfect for this one. Yeah, yeah.
But as I was thinking about this, the memorable, the one that I'll never forget is my friends 40th birthday party. So it was a merry couple, both of them were celebrating the 40 years. And I love a good thing too. And I grew up, I was an 80s child, dating myself, and we had an 80s party.
So we dressed up like 40 and 40 together. No, no, no, no, 1980s, a decade. No, no, I mean like I thought because they both turned 40. Is it just one friend?
No, there were a merry couple, but both of them turned 40. Oh yeah, I didn't even, you're right. 40 plus 40, they could have been that too. You're right.
That's so funny. But yeah, it was an 80s theme party we dressed up in like, you know, the whole 80s flare and I dressed up as run DMC, you know, run DMC the round group. But it was so fun because we're with good friends and just a lot of laughter and we can take ourselves seriously. It was a great time.
So I was really memorable. But as we specifically look at this passage for this week of the parable, the Great Banquet, Jesus, he shares a story about a man who throws this big celebration in Luke 1421 and Jesus says, the master told the servant go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city and bring him here, the poor, maimed, blind and lame. So Allison, like what does this passage? Does this verse reveal and they'll like God's heart about heart of Jesus?
Yeah, I think when I read this, it's really about the other. Jesus is not afraid. He is not concerned about what he would look like coming close to someone that maybe looks different than him or to leaves differently than him or has a different life experience that he does. He has a tender heart of compassion to those that are marginalized or those that are not looked at as valuable, maybe.
So I think it's really a picture of an inclusive, parting, again unexpected, yes, list. Yeah, that's really good. I've actually been reading this book. Oh man, I had that book.
It's called Gentle and Lully. Yeah, I'm still in the middle of it, but it just describes a heart of Christ. And just like what you're sharing, he's a shepherd who is gracious, is merciful. He cares for the brokenhearted, the least of us and neglected and marginalized.
I guess, I mean, Alice, every time I speak with you, your role here is as a global engagement pastor, but your heart is very soft and tender to people that are different from you. Where do you think that comes from? Well, from God, I think I tell my own story a lot, but I come from a multicultural, multi-racial family, and I might not look like it from the outside. So because of that, I think in certain circles, I carry some privilege.
But I think about my grandma, and I was just telling the story the other day, but my grandma is actually, when we talk in local outreach about how we have a heart for the quartet of the vulnerable as scripture tells us, which is the orphan, the poor, the widow, and the foreigner, the shinder. I think about my grandma. She was all of those things. My grandma came to the US and was widowed shortly after with four children.
And then there was some resource challenges being the way she experienced. And so I think even from my roots and knowing how God has sustained my family and brought me into a relationship with him, first and foremost, I think about how there is a pursuit of my heart that started even before my grandma. So there's a tenderness toward people who have experienced things that nobody should, that people who were sort of outcasted or thoughtless of or something, we shouldn't be thought of that way because we're children that if we received him. So I think that's where it comes from, truthfully, is my own story is it's woven in this weaving in of the pursuit of me, my God.
So yeah. Yeah, that's really good. I love that. And I think thanks for sharing that.
And I think that's what we really desire in our life groups for people to be vulnerable and transparent about their experiences. And as we look at the scriptures here, as we look down the scriptures, it talks about how the invitation goes out to everyone, right? And it says right there, invite everyone you find to the banquet. And so I guess as we look out into our community, look out from just what we're familiar with, like, who are the people?
What kind of people would be considered the outcasts of our society in this day and age? Yeah. I obviously in my role here have a tender heart towards those who I think are area in this specific, you know, Southern California, people might think of as the outcasts. But I think it could be anybody to be honest with you.
It depends on who you are. Like you could be somebody who may be seen as like maybe you're under resourced or you were marginalized because of your ethnicity or something, but you may look at someone with maybe a higher net worth or something as somebody that you don't want to even come close to. And so there's also like the other side of those things too. So I would say probably generally if we're thinking a majority, a lot of people would look at those who maybe have to speak another language or don't have material possessions as some others do or maybe are struggling with their finding a career or things like that.
So like the materially poor or those that are unable to access resources, maybe some of their eggs are and that could be due to a whole number of things. But I think that's probably in general what a lot of us look at as an outcast in today's society. Yeah. That's really good.
I love what you're talking about how anyone could feel like an outcast or another part, you know, they feel outside of the inner circle. I mean, I felt that way. There have been times when I felt like I was not in the inn where I felt invisible. I have the privilege to serve alongside our senior adults, our singles community.
And I come across people that feel left out, that feel like they don't belong. They feel like the outcast, whether they're a single mom or a widow or someone who comes from an immigrant background, like we just said with that kind of language barrier. And for them to know and for us as Christ followers to understand like we're all outcast that God has brought into his fold, into his family. And so I guess kind of continuing on with that a lot of thought, like what makes it challenging and difficult to engage with people who we would consider as the outcast or people who feel like the others.
Yeah. I mean, I think as Christians, a lot of us feel like, you know, we read scripture. We know that God makes it very clear that like in this person, Luke, who we should approach, who we should care for. But our time, the limitation for that, our fear can be limiting us from, you know, if someone speaks another language, it's like we don't often play the long game in like a world of instant gratification where relationship takes time, it takes trust, it takes you being vulnerable and as well as somebody else being willing to be vulnerable.
So I think there's all kinds of things. It could be cultural misunderstanding, it could be, you know, the difference of privilege and not really fully being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and also not being able to explain like your story either. Yeah. That's a piece of it.
I think for many of us, I'm including myself, it's like we are very privileged in some ways. We live in this bubble and there's barriers that society has put up and we've put up as well to whether it's language, whether it's cultural barriers, our worldview barriers, background, all of these things. And what I see in Jesus is that he broke down those barriers, all those barriers and he went, he moved toward them when often I think speaking for myself to it's sometimes uncomfortable. It's not easy when you have those barriers.
I'd rather be with the people that think like me, that speak like me, that look like me, that have the same faith as me. And that's the truth, that's the honest truth. But if we are to be like Christ and then move toward people that are different, the Elchas, the others, then what should our life look like? How should we live our lives?
And I guess kind of leading to that is that question of looking in like, what are some practical ways we can be welcoming and hospitable to those in our society and our culture who would be called Elchas? Yeah, I think first, a very practical thing. It's not something that you necessarily need to go out and do, but I think it's what your quiet time looks like in your prayer life. Being able to pray and ask God, God help me see others the way that you see them to know that I know are not more important because of my position or my authority or the place that I was born, et cetera, et cetera.
That list can go on forever. But something that we think of a lot is God, how can you shape our heart to see others as your image bearers from the very beginning of scripture, we are told that we are as humans are made in his image. And that's not just Alison, you're made in his image. That's Scott, you are made in his image.
And he doesn't love me because I received Jesus anymore than he loves my neighbor who hasn't been told about Jesus. He wants us all to be in relationship with him. And so I think that's a huge thing is just practically like start with prayer. And then just I think more in terms of what can we do, who can we be in our communities?
There are so many ways that we can serve. And what I love about our church is whether you are part of our online community, whether you are part of another congregation all around us, there are ways to engage with people that are different than us. There are ways to be able to step into serve a community that you might be really uncomfortable with, like you said. And so just in our ministries and global outreach, we have a whole sort of section of our ministries that's both global and local.
We care for immigrants and refugees in our community through English classes, through refugee ministry and caring for them through relationship conversation, even talking about Jesus to people who come from work on context. And so there is quite a, you know, it can even be as simple as you going over to your neighbor's house and your neighbor that maybe cooks food that smells different than the food that you cook for dinner. And you haven't been like courageous enough to get to know them because you just maybe assume that they're different because of who they are, what they look like. So I think there's all kinds of ways practically, but we have to start with that imposter of prayer to ask God to open our eyes to see people the way he sees them.
Yeah, that's so good. It begins with that, right? For us to really move in our hearts of what God's heart is. And I know that we are moving to the outreach weekend here at Mariners and what would you say are some practical steps?
Yeah. So there are, first of all, you got to come. The weekend, this weekend, we're going to be sure Eric's going to be teaching a story to us from the scriptures, two different passages of scripture that sort of share the same story. And then talks about the poor, the maimed, the blind, and the lean, and the other talks about every tribe, tongue, and nation.
And sometimes those things can feel synonymous if you really think deeply about it. And so to this weekend, we're going to be putting on display how awesome it is that we could be in partnership with the global church that we can really take a step in and, you know, dance with our brothers and sisters from different nations and that we can really highlight the things that we've already gotten to be a part of as a church. So we're going to be showing a lot of what our church, what you have all been a part of, we're going to be inviting people to come into the next step of signing up for an interest meeting. So this interest meeting, we're going to do sort of a high level view of what are, what is the scope of all of global outreach?
Who are our partners around the world? What are the ways that we can engage with them, whether being, whether going on a faith adventure or a short term trip to go visit them and serve alongside them, or whether it's being an advocate from right here for their ministries overseas. And then the next is more of the practicality of serving in those global neighbors ministries like I shared for being an English tutor in ESL in English as a second language ministry or coming alongside and helping a UCI student get to know and have a relationship, meet an American family, have dinner in your home, or it's helping to resource refugee families with much needed clothing for their kids or an English conversation to help them practice their English. It's, you know, serving with the gift of maybe you speak another language and we want to be able to provide the weekend message in the language of, you know, those who English is not their native language.
And so those are always and ministry teams that we're going to be highlighting within our global interest meeting. And I'm really excited. I hope that our church will sign up and get to know and then take an next step out of that because I think that it's not just, you know, we are not disciples if we're not serving, like Jesus did, if we're not looking to gain a greater perspective of this multifaceted, big, beautiful God that isn't just the American God. He's the God of every tribe, combination, you know, so that's right.
I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to you.
And this is so good, Alison. I think for all the life group leaders listening, like once again for us to know that we are all outcasts in need of God's grace, that when we felt unworthy, he's the one who made us worthy. And as he moves and changes our hearts and he's he fills us, we're going to move to action. And there's so many ways to partner locally and globally and we're going to celebrate all the amazing thing God has been doing in the weekend services.
And select release, you'll hear more about it through the weekly emails and once again, the weekend messages, but we'd love for you to partner with us in being the salt in line the hands of Jesus. Alison, thank you so much for being with us and like group leaders, have a wonderful rest of the week.