What is the Church? (Group Study, Video Session 7)
David Fitch defines the Church as “a community of practices which join people together in their submission to Jesus as Lord.”
Before diving into session 7 of the group study, What is the Church: Why It Still Matters, take a moment to reflect on this question from Fil’s March 26th sermon: When and how do you practice being with the least of these, or with children?
(If you would like access to this video study, please contact Groups director Jessica Flake.)
Session 7: The How Question
Getting Started
1.Reflect on a time when you’ve been the new person in a group. What were some things people did that made you feel welcomed and invited to participate in the community? What were some things people did that made you feel excluded and isolated?
Practices: More Than Just Personal
2. Fitch says that every practice we’ve been talking about are not individual practices. They are social practices where God’s presence becomes manifest in and among us (Matthew 18:20). These are practices that create space for God to work.
Discuss how we can shift our focus from an individual practice of faith to a more social one. What are some challenges to this? What comes most naturally to you about this?
Christendom vs. Post-Christendom Organization
3. How can we (re)organize our practices to allow for the cultural shift from Christendom to post-Christendom? What kinds of shifts in thinking—and doing—does this reorganization call for?
Three Places/Three Circles
4. Read Acts 2:43-47. Discuss the impact of “day-by-day” life among the early church. What is exciting about this way of life? Do you sense the energy of the Holy Spirit present among the people?
5. Fitch’s “close circle” is a place of worship with Jesus as the host. The “dotted circle” is a place of discipleship with the disciple (follower of Jesus) as host. The “half circle” is a place of mission, where Christ-followers follow Jesus to be among the hurt, the lost, and the broken.
In which of these circles do you feel most secure? Which circle feels hardest to enter? Which of the circles is most exciting to you?
Talk—or dream—together about what happens when we organize the church in all three circles.
