This coming Sunday, May 24th, Walter will be addressing the topic of Christians and the LGBTQIA+ community. Three specific questions were asked by our church concerning this issue:
“Should we kick LGBTQIA+ people out of the church?”
“How does our church treat divorce?”
“If the church treats divorced people differently now than it did years ago, does that mean that things will change for LGBTQ+ people in the future? Why and how might church attitude concerning these sensitive topics change?”
To work through these questions, the sermon will start in Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:18-25, looking at God’s original blueprint for human relationships. Jesus refers back to this passage in his teaching in Matthew 19:1-11, which makes the Genesis pattern authoritative for Christians today. We’ll also touch on John 8:1-11.
Followup from Last Week
To kick off your group discussion, we recommend that you check in with your people about their previous “I will” statement. Start group time, before you read, with this question: “How did your ‘I will’ go this week?”
Secondly, it’s important that we are sharing God’s truth with those around us. Your second question before the read-through should be, “Who were you able to share with this week?”
Step 1: Assignment - Read through Genesis 1:26-28, 2:18-25, and Matthew 19:1-11 (Bonus: John 8:1-11)
Before your group meets, text these passages to them and ask them to read it at least once.
Step 2: Read Through - When your group meets, read the texts in at least two different translations.
Step 3: Retell - Ask one or two people in your group to restate each passage in their own words, as if they were telling the story to a friend. Make sure you choose different people each week!
Step 4: Reflect: Go around the group and ask each person to answer these two things.
What does this passage teach us about God?
What does this passage teach us about human beings?
Step 5: Respond - Go around the group and ask each person to complete this statement, “Because of this passage, I will _____this week.”