Week 1: JUNE 6
SEEKING PEACE:
Bittersweet Returns
Ezra 3:1-13
Questions:
- In this post COVID transition what first things can you put first?
- How can you affirm the Lord’s goodness?
- How do you see the steadfast love of the Lord right now?
- What do you think made the old folks cry?
- What do you grieve and lament about this transition?
Week 2: JUNE 13
SEEKING PEACE:
Assertive Peace Seekers
Matthew 5:38-48
Questions:
- When do you celebrate the limit of an eye for an eye?
- Turning the other cheek is assertive but non-violent. When have you turned the other cheek?
- Where would you like to be more assertive?
- Where would you like to be more non-violent?
- Where might you need to practice two handed forgiveness?
- Who do you now that has authority of living sacrificially?
Week 3: JUNE 20
SEEKING PEACE:
Resurrecting Fathers from the Tombs
Malachi 4:6
Questions:
- What do you think the link is between absent fathers and young men going to prison?
- Have you ever thought about the millions of incarcerated men in America as fathers–with children trying to find their way without dad?
- What did you hear in Phillip’s brief sharing? What stood out to you?
- How can our church rally around Phillip and his family–to support his relationship with his son?
- Resurrection in Jesus’ time was not “good news”; it was a threatening idea, undoing the forces that buried him. Might “practicing resurrection” with buried fathers today feel just as threatening to society?
Week 4: JUNE 27
SEEKING PEACE:
Repay With a Blessing
1 Peter 3:8-12
Questions:
- How does ‘repay with a blessing’ sit with you?
- Where do you struggle to turn from evil and do good?
- What does it mean to pursue, and run after peace?
- Where have you recognized your participation in evil, and what did/does it take to turn and do good instead?