6. Hospitality & Celebration

Eat & Connect

CONNECTION ACTIVATION (20 MINS)

Over the last six weeks, what one thing have you learned about someone in the group (or seen in them) that you can celebrate together? E.g. having learned that someone expresses their love best with acts of service - you now see how much they do to love the group by all the ‘hidden’ jobs they do. Or having heard them share their testimony you are blown away with how they model God’s love and faithfulness.

Worship

TESTIMONIES (10 MINS)

How have you stepped out and taken a risk recently for Jesus? Have you prayed for someone or shared something believing Jesus will use you? We celebrate someone taking a risk - not just the outcome!

WORSHIP ACTIVATION (20 MINS)

What does the ministry of hospitality look like in our congregations and in our worship services? When people who are strangers to the church come to worship, what do we do to welcome them? Hospitality can look like someone shaking your hand at the door, acknowledging your presence, offering to show you where the toilets are, and it often makes the difference in wanting to return to a place you’ve never been before.

Part of practicing hospitality means welcoming people through our sung worship as well as through practically serving and welcoming them on a Sunday. How can we welcome people well with the songs we sing on a Sunday?

Maybe through engaging with worship which is accessible for kids, or worship from other types of church services, or songs that are more traditional that visitors may be familiar with.

Sing together, "Amazing Grace" or one of our Tiny T's worship songs. As you sing you may want to change your posture to communicate with our bodies as well as our words that we want to give everything to God in worship.

Bible

BIBLE STUDY (30 MINS)

Read Luke 22:7-23.

Brogan talked about three tables - the passover table, the communion table and your table. What struck you about these three tables?

What were they remembering/celebrating in the passover meal? (General overview but for those that want more information see Exodus 12.)

What do we celebrate at the communion table?

From verse 21 - Judas was at Jesus’ table.  How does this challenge you personally about who you invite to your table, or how does it challenge you as a Group about who you invite?

Feasting is a tangible expression of celebrating God’s goodness to us. How does this motivate us to display the radical hospitality that Jesus has shown us?

Prayer

RESPONSE (10 MINS)

Take a few moments to allow the Holy Spirit to put some people on your heart whom you can bless this week.

Ask Him for creative ideas to celebrate people and host them well.

PRAYER (20 MINS)

Pray the Lord’s Prayer together, pay special attention to the words in bold.

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power,
and the glory are yours
now and for ever.
Amen.

Thank Jesus for His extravagant generosity and the way He has pursued you with His love. Thank Him for His Kingdom and His power and His glory. Ask that having reached the end of this teaching series our minds would be continually renewed and we would see more of His Kingdom come and His power demonstrated. Pray that His glory would be made manifest in us and through us.

Pray that the last six weeks of unpacking our vision for 2023 would be a springboard into more of encountering Jesus, building healthy family and being radically generous - For God’s glory! Amen.