#STFLOVES Leader’s Community Group Study Guide May 23, 2021 PDF VERSION
LEADER’S Community Group STUDY Guide
#STFLOVES
For the week of May 23, 2021
LEADER’S INFO
THE LAST MEETING OF THE QUARTER: How you wrap up your last meeting of the year is important. Make sure you allow plenty of time to go through the “My Story” and “Remembering” sections. Feel free to spend your entire time there, allowing everyone time to connect.
NOTE ABOUT COMMUNION: There is a video option to take your group through communion, or you can lead it yourself. See the last section called “Remembering” with the link for more explanation.
Special email to your group ahead of time: You may want to email or text your group ahead of time so they know/remember they are doing communion.
DISCUSS PLANS FOR THE FALL & NEXT WEEK
Find out from your group if they know their plans for being part of the group in the fall. Please let us know of any roster updates that you know of, or changes to your meeting day, time or location for the Fall Quarter when you submit your attendance.
SUMMER CONNECTION IDEAS
- It’s no surprise some are still working through the effects of extended isolation due to COVID quarantining. Be aware of that for your group, and realize some may need extra attention while your group is on break. Over the summer, you may want to consider planning a social with your group at the beach, having a game night, going out to dinner, attending one of our summer events/classes or meeting for guys-only/girls-only breakfast once or twice.
- You may also consider sending out prayer requests via email, text or mail; this is a great way to keep people connected.
PRAYER FOR NEW FALL COMMUNITY GROUP LEADERS & HOSTS Take some time to pray for new Leaders and Hosts to launch new Community Groups in the fall. As the COVID limitations continue to lighten up, we anticipate some significant growth in the number of groups needed this fall.
Remember to get Communion supplies for the last meeting.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Men’s Conference
June 5, 2021 8:30am – 2:00pm
Join us at Indian Rocks Baptist Church on Saturday, June 5, from 8:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. for a men’s conference! Speakers will include Vance Day, president of Promise Keepers; Michael Clayton, former Bucs WR; and Clyde Christensen, Bucs QB coach. Register
VBS 2021
June 7 – 11, 2021
STFKids is headed to present-day Israel, where discovery awaits at Destination Dig. We need 20 more volunteers to make this happen! Please register here to volunteer: vbs@stfchurch.com VBS is right around the corner and you can help us get ready! Shop our Amazon Wish List for much needed VBS supplies. Amazon Wishlist
Men’s Golf Event
June 13, 2021 2:00 – 5:00pm
On Sunday, June 13, in the afternoon, STF men’s will hold a golf event for Men at the Bay Palms Golf Complex on MacDill AFB. Father’s feel free to bring your children! The cost is $40 per person. Register
Women’s Bible Study: Monday (In Person or Virtual) Tuesday (In Person)
June 14, 2021 7:00 – 8:30pm June 15 9:30-11:00am
Join us this summer to stay connected to God’s Word and be encouraged! Every fervent believer longs to summon up the kind of boldness and faith that can stand firm. Journey with Priscilla Shirer through the life and times of the prophet Elijah to discover how the fire on Mount Carmel was forged in the valley of famine. And how the emboldened, fiery faith you desire is being fashioned by God in your life right now. Questions? Email lauren@stfchurch.com Register
This is our final week of the Spring Quarter. Along with an abbreviated study, you’ll take some time to reflect on your group experience and then take Communion together.
QUICK REVIEW
Looking back at your notes from this week’s teaching, was there anything you heard for the first time or something that caught your attention, challenged or confused you?
MY STORY
1. Looking back at this past quarter and year, how has your Community Group experience encouraged, challenged or helped you in your walk with Jesus and in connecting with other people?
2. Summer is just around the corner and it looks like it will be “more normal” than last summer! What new normal are you looking forward to the most this summer? How can your Community Group best pray for you this summer?
DIGGING DEEPER
1. We live in a society where most people have a lot of material possessions. At times, it can be tricky to know the difference between what we need and what we want. Based upon your observations, what are two or three typical “wants” that people often confuse with “needs?”
How would you define the difference between a want and a need?
2. 1 John 4:7-21 describes the connection between God’s love and our love for others. What words or phrases in this passage do you find most motivating for you to love others?
1 John 4:7-21 New International Version (NIV)
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
As you think about the community around you (family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.), is there someone in your life or on your path who might benefit from an intentional act of love this week?
REMEMBERING
- Option #1 – Play the video to set up Communion followed by a worship song: JD sets up Communion using 1 Corinthians 11:23-28. The video then transitions into a worship song, allowing people to take Communion and reflect or sing, worshipping as the song plays. Close your time in prayer.
Make sure to preview the video. (Special Thanks to North Coast Church for making this video for their Life Groups)
COMMUNION: Get communion elements ready. (In-person: set on table in the middle of the room.) Let the group read through the Scripture. Then do the following:
- Option #2 Leader-Led Communion
- Read 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NIV: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
- Have everyone eat and drink the Communion elements.
- Worship option while people take Communion (thanks to NC Worship Team for providing this worship song) – Pour Out Praise
- Close in prayer – Group prayer or leader closes
- Meeting Wrap-up – Remind your group how you plan to connect this summer and ask them to let you know of any changes for the fall as the summer progresses.
Jesus wants us to remember what He has done for us and that He is here to walk through life with us. That’s why Jesus told the disciples at the Last Supper to repeatedly come together and take Communion. Taking Communion is about remembering all Christ accomplished through His death on the cross and resurrection. It is through this sacrifice that Jesus’ grace and mercy are made available to us.
This week, your Community Group will conclude by doing as the disciples did, taking Communion together. To prepare for Communion, read the following verses and reflect on Jesus’ commitment and work in your life as you follow Him. Write down a few of your thoughts about the impact each of these verses has on you.
Romans 5:7-11 New International Version (NIV)
7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
1 Corinthians 11:23-25 New International Version (NIV)
23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
John 15:12-17 New International Version (NIV)
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
PRAYERS