Sept. 4 Sunday School Class Notes

Crossroads Bible Church Student Ministry
Discussion Questions & Notes
Sunday School Class: September 4, 2011.

From the video of Alan Hirsch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETN67tbrvX4)
• You have to be loving, you have to be serving, you have to do it together in order to actually achieve your mission because you’re never going to achieve it otherwise. So, communitas takes place along the way of trying to do something that requires that we learn to love each other in a deep & more profound way as a group of brothers and sisters...
o What is exciting about this? What is scary?

• A little danger is a good thing…One of the bad things about middle class culture is its’ obsession safety, security, comfort & convenience…so the Gospel becomes this kind of civil religion that really just affirms my lifestyle…it becomes a country club atmosphere and not a threat…I don’t experience adventure or journey or quest over there.
o Do you agree with his observations about middle-class culture? Why/not?
o Assuming he’s correct, what practical steps should we take to avoid the “country club atmosphere?”


Study:
John 10: 10 & 10: 27-28.
Why did Christ come?


1 Corinthians 15.
What is the Gospel according to vv. 3 & 4?



How important is the resurrection according to vv. 14 & 15, 19?





John 21.
How does the resurrection “tie-in” to “communitas?”



Possible Applications:
Quotes on Communitas:

“Communitas is a community formed in the context of an ordeal, a challenge, a task, a mission, that requires each player to find each other in a new, significant way to get the job done.”—Alan Hirsch


“You have to be loving, you have to be serving, you have to do it together in order to actually achieve your mission because you’re never going to achieve it otherwise. So, communitas takes place along the way of trying to do something that requires that we learn to love each other in a deep & more profound way as a group of brothers and sisters...”—Alan Hirsch

Mind Vitamins for Possible Applications:

“A question we pose is this: What is it about the holiness of Jesus that caused ‘sinners’ to flock to him like a magnet and yet managed to seriously antagonize the religious people? This question begs another, even more confronting question: Why does our more churchy form of holiness seem to get it the other way around—to comfort the religious and antagonize the sinners? Jesus’ brand of holiness (the true form) didn’t seem to deter the sinners from wanting to get up close and personal with him.”—Alan & Debra Hirsch

“We so easily impose a cultural form on the people and the groups we hope to reach with the love of Jesus. We so often make the gospel synonymous with a bland, middle-class conformity and thereby alienate countless people from encountering Christ. How often have we seen public opinion polls that reflect the attitude of ‘Jesus, Yes! Church, No!’”—Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch

“He [Jesus] was notorious (yes, that’s the right word) for hanging out with the wrong types. In contrast with today, when so much of our Christianity is being with the right people in the right places at the right times, Jesus was always in the wrong places with the wrong people, at the wrong times, according to the religious establishment. We want to say that this is the Jesus we must rediscover to balance our excessively sober images of our Lord. We need his model of holy laughter, of his sheer love of life, of his infectious holiness, of his common people’s religion, for our day. We want to say that being Christlike is not only hard work, it’s also loads of fun—you get to do what Jesus did and hang out with the interesting people…Being Christlike gives us a positive model of engagement, and this is why we need to imitate Jesus as our primary model for mission and evangelism.”—Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch