In Part discussion questions

Use these discussion questions with your small group, Sunday school class, or family to lead conversations about the spring 2010 edition of In Part magazine, which focused on the BIC Core Value of Relying on God: “We confess our dependence on God for everything and seek to deepen our intimacy with Him by living prayerfully.”

To our core

Letting go of our lifeboats

• Read Acts 27 aloud, each time putting yourself in the shoes of a different character: Paul, the crew, the soldiers. What are the thoughts/feelings that these people may have experienced? If you had been on the boat, would you have listened to Paul? Why do you think the soldiers did?
• In this story, the crew members placed their hope in the ship’s lifeboats to save them. How can we identify false securities in our own lives, and how can we adjust our perspectives in order to rely on God rather than other things?
• What do you find yourself relying upon during life’s storms? What about in calm waters?'
• There are a number of stories throughout the Bible that tell of people and communities who put their hope in false things. Can you think of any? What does the Bible say about those who have misplaced trust?
• Have you ever realized that something you thought would help you in hard times was actually detrimental to you? What did you do?
• How can our false securities keep us from God?
• Have you ever relied on God about a problem, even though the solution seemed within your own reach? What does it feel like to do this? Practically, what might this look?
• The Bible talks in other places about how people—like Jonah and Peter—react to different situations in boats and on water. How do these stories compare and what do they say about reliance on God?

Feature

A Good Friday journey into shadows

• Has God ever seemed absent in your life? Reflecting on that time, do you think that God was really absent or is there another reason that you didn’t sense His presence? What explanation(s) does this article offer for why this might be?
• Have you ever attended a Tenebrae service? If not, what is your impression of the service, drawing upon the description in the article and sidebar? If so, share about the experience.
• Talking about her experience in her first Tenebrae service, the writer reflects, “The death I honored that Good Friday wasn’t just Christ’s death; it was the death of my image of an Easter-only God.... [Since then,] I have tried to enlarge my faith to encompass the brutal reality and scandal of the crucified Christ as well as the hope of Christ resurrected.” What does it mean to have an “Easter-only” image of God? What effects might this image have? Where are you on the spectrum of “Easter-only” and “crucified-only” Christ?
• Why do you think the writer describes Christ’s crucifixion as a “scandal?”
• Toward the end, the writer admits that she still has doubts, fears, and questions; yet she says that she has found ways to sustain her faith in the midst of those. What doubts, fears, and questions do you have about life, and how have you responded to them?
• What does it mean to “seize the hop before us,” as Hebrews 6 encourages us to do?

What He Left Behind

• What kinds of images does this poem use to describe Christ’s Passion, and what effects do they have?
• This piece was written as a “list poem.” How does this form influence the poem’s message or effect on readers?
• Read each gospel’s account of Christ’s resurrection: Matt. 27:57–66 & 28:1–10; Mark 15:42–47 & 16; Luke 23:50–56 & 24:1–12; John 19:38–41 & 20:1–18. How do they compare?

Vibes

Bringing God into the game

• Describe your relationship with sports. Are you invested in them in any way? If so, in what ways are you involved (e.g., a participant, a spectator, a coach, etc.)? On a scale of 1 to 10, how involved are you in sports?
• Would you agree with the writer’s assertion that the world of sport is becoming “one of the most pervasive forms of religion in the world?” Why or why not?
• What do you see as the relationship between sports and faith? Do you think that athletics can enrich one’s faith? If so, how? If not, why not?
• Should Christian athletes act differently from non-Christian athletes? If so, in what ways?

To the point

• How can we make sense of times when God seems unreliable from a human perspective?