I was preparing for a Bible study with some of the young adults at Monroe Free Methodist Church last week when I was trying to figure out what to talk about with everyone. At first, I had said I was going to talk about the Miracles of Jesus, but after thinking about which ones, or how to go about that, I decided not to. I didn't think that I was equipped to talk about miracles, and I did not know where to start.
So I started to think about what would make a good study that would be interesting and could keep a conversation going, that I also would feel like I could lead a discussion on. Like all inspiration, it struck me! A wonderful story about community, self-sacrifice, and the kind of life change that encountering Christ can encourage!
Check out the tweet thread below:
Wow. This was just what I was looking for. It was such a great story about what the church has the potential to look like. I love it!
Now I know that I can't just tell everyone a story and say, "wow, wasn't that great?!" I wanted to find something from scripture that this would compliment nicely. After some searching that wasn't coming up with anything that struck me as the perfect match, I settled upon Romans 12. This passage is a great call to the community to live out their lives in a Christian way, where they will show the world what it means to follow Christ. It also speaks to the idea of Christian unity, which I thought the tweet thread did a good job demonstrating. Next was to come up with some questions to ask.
Here's the outline I made for the group to use:
I'm always hesitant in leading bible studies. I think this mainly arises out of the desire to have everyone talking and contributing to the conversation, as that's something I do myself. However, what Anna Marie reminded me after is that everyone is engaging with the scriptures, the stories, and the conversations in their own ways, even if they don't say something or tell everyone else about it. This is something important that I need to remember when leading, because it will often discourage me if not. I think I have in my head a certain expectation of how a bible study should go, and if I don't meet that expectation each time it is not a 'good' bible study. I'm hoping that I can move past that and simply allow the spirit to work on everyone's hearts in the way that only God knows will be best.
Clay
So I started to think about what would make a good study that would be interesting and could keep a conversation going, that I also would feel like I could lead a discussion on. Like all inspiration, it struck me! A wonderful story about community, self-sacrifice, and the kind of life change that encountering Christ can encourage!
Check out the tweet thread below:
Ok. I’m not sure where to start. With the Sicarios? Or with Pablo Escobar? Or with the prison reform? Ok. When’s the last time you were rocked to your core with what it means to love? I’ll start here...
My mate Graham says, “I want you to meet my friend from Mexico while he is in town, you share a lot in common.” Um, no... No former State Attorney General has said that my ministry has caused, "Homicides have decreased by 80%, Kidnappings have been eliminated 100% and extortions are down 90%" in the “murder capital of the world”.
How? Well, my new friend Poncho Murguia felt God call him to take a tent to a park in the centre of the city and to fast and pray for 21 days... not exactly a plan. During that time he felt led to repent of loving people to build his church instead of loving people because God loves them. Full stop. That’s it. A journalist interviewed him and asked, “What are you protesting?” Poncho explained, he’s not. He’s praying for the city.
Journalists thinks this is hilarious. They print the story. 4,000 join him to pray for their city. So he’s then asked to what would he do about one of the most corrupt prisons in Mexico. Long story short, it works. So the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico put out a hit on him.
He and his wife gdaioy face that he might be murdered so give thanks each night for just one more day. Poncho prays about what to do and God answers with a question, “Why don’t you adopt the sicarios?” 😳
*Side note, Poncho came to Christ when he was 18 and after 4 months adopted 7 children, one of whom was only 2 years young than him after being challenged by a woman to go do what Jesus did after he tried to share the ‘four spiritual laws’ with her.*
Another side note, if you aren’t sure what sicarios are, yep like the movie. Professional assassins who only make $40 a hit and might do 4 a day.
Then the unthinkable happens. A sicario comes to Christ, hands his boss his M16 (to shoot him) because he’s become a Christian and can’t kill anymore. Boss says he’ll only kill him if he returns to the cartel.
So the sicario rings Poncho and says, “I’m coming to church the Sunday after next.” Poncho knows that his whole congregation lives are in danger because of rival cartel reprisals. So his explains to the church, “We can’t turn this brother away. Christ loves him... ...but I understand that this puts your life in danger. So we will arrange for anyone to find another safe church where you don’t have to fear that yet again there is be another mass shooting as a reprisal, this time in church because we will not turn away sicarios.
That next week, not one person from the church left. Everyone in the community was willing to put their own lives on the line so sicarios could find redemption.
And it is that radical welcome to former murders, including by people who have had loved ones murdered, that is transforming their city. And I don’t know what to say...
But I want to follow Jesus.
From Jarrod McKenna on Twitter
My mate Graham says, “I want you to meet my friend from Mexico while he is in town, you share a lot in common.” Um, no... No former State Attorney General has said that my ministry has caused, "Homicides have decreased by 80%, Kidnappings have been eliminated 100% and extortions are down 90%" in the “murder capital of the world”.
How? Well, my new friend Poncho Murguia felt God call him to take a tent to a park in the centre of the city and to fast and pray for 21 days... not exactly a plan. During that time he felt led to repent of loving people to build his church instead of loving people because God loves them. Full stop. That’s it. A journalist interviewed him and asked, “What are you protesting?” Poncho explained, he’s not. He’s praying for the city.
Journalists thinks this is hilarious. They print the story. 4,000 join him to pray for their city. So he’s then asked to what would he do about one of the most corrupt prisons in Mexico. Long story short, it works. So the most powerful drug cartels in Mexico put out a hit on him.
He and his wife gdaioy face that he might be murdered so give thanks each night for just one more day. Poncho prays about what to do and God answers with a question, “Why don’t you adopt the sicarios?” 😳
*Side note, Poncho came to Christ when he was 18 and after 4 months adopted 7 children, one of whom was only 2 years young than him after being challenged by a woman to go do what Jesus did after he tried to share the ‘four spiritual laws’ with her.*
Another side note, if you aren’t sure what sicarios are, yep like the movie. Professional assassins who only make $40 a hit and might do 4 a day.
Then the unthinkable happens. A sicario comes to Christ, hands his boss his M16 (to shoot him) because he’s become a Christian and can’t kill anymore. Boss says he’ll only kill him if he returns to the cartel.
So the sicario rings Poncho and says, “I’m coming to church the Sunday after next.” Poncho knows that his whole congregation lives are in danger because of rival cartel reprisals. So his explains to the church, “We can’t turn this brother away. Christ loves him... ...but I understand that this puts your life in danger. So we will arrange for anyone to find another safe church where you don’t have to fear that yet again there is be another mass shooting as a reprisal, this time in church because we will not turn away sicarios.
That next week, not one person from the church left. Everyone in the community was willing to put their own lives on the line so sicarios could find redemption.
And it is that radical welcome to former murders, including by people who have had loved ones murdered, that is transforming their city. And I don’t know what to say...
But I want to follow Jesus.
From Jarrod McKenna on Twitter
Wow. This was just what I was looking for. It was such a great story about what the church has the potential to look like. I love it!
Now I know that I can't just tell everyone a story and say, "wow, wasn't that great?!" I wanted to find something from scripture that this would compliment nicely. After some searching that wasn't coming up with anything that struck me as the perfect match, I settled upon Romans 12. This passage is a great call to the community to live out their lives in a Christian way, where they will show the world what it means to follow Christ. It also speaks to the idea of Christian unity, which I thought the tweet thread did a good job demonstrating. Next was to come up with some questions to ask.
Here's the outline I made for the group to use:
- Read the tweet about the church
- What in the story shows love?
- Community?
- Self-Sacrifice?
- Transformation?
- Read Romans 12:1-8
- What does Paul tell the Roman Church about how we should live?
- How should we think?
- What makes us one?
- How do we work together?
- Read Romans 12:9-21
- What does this community do?
- What are our interactions with others supposed to look like?
- How does this relate to the story we heard earlier?
- Take some time to think about how this passage is calling you to live differently in your interactions with others.
I'm always hesitant in leading bible studies. I think this mainly arises out of the desire to have everyone talking and contributing to the conversation, as that's something I do myself. However, what Anna Marie reminded me after is that everyone is engaging with the scriptures, the stories, and the conversations in their own ways, even if they don't say something or tell everyone else about it. This is something important that I need to remember when leading, because it will often discourage me if not. I think I have in my head a certain expectation of how a bible study should go, and if I don't meet that expectation each time it is not a 'good' bible study. I'm hoping that I can move past that and simply allow the spirit to work on everyone's hearts in the way that only God knows will be best.
Clay