covenant: a standalone

hey gang - just a few short reflection questions this week as we take a breather from hosea, before diving straight into JUDE.

#1 why are covenants important? is the statement we signed this weekend a "real" covenant? or, just some kind of symbol? is there a difference? does god view our rituals with as much gravity as our 'personal' prayers?

#2 why do you think we chose to "team teach" this weekend?

#3 please give us some feedback on the creed/covenant itself. did it resonate with you? did you find meaning in the phraseology? was there something became clearer to you while signing/reading it?

thanks, everybody - please remember to remain in prayer for westwinds and for us as leaders!

- david

fed on lies about love: teaching you a lesson again, and again, and again

hey gang - this week jvo is taking the reins while i visit another church in lansing [to steal ideas and get a little fresh perspective].

so - please bear in mind that some of our conversation will be a little different this week as we orient our comments towards team teaching, different voice, etc...

so..

#1 what value is there in having two speakers present the same story from two different perspectives? what does jvo bring to the text that is unique? in what ways is his reading different from mine? how do you feel the two balance each other out? if you only got one perspective, what would you be missing?

#2 now that the parable of steve and angela is complete [you did get that it was fictional, right?] what have you learned about their story? how has god used their story to teach you about your life? in what ways do steve and angela differ from hosea and gomer? what makes this parable imperfect? what makes it uncomfortable?

#3 jvo used a pretty graphic illustration - how did it hit you? do you think you'll remember his point with the illustration of the manequin? did it overshadow the rest of what he was saying, or reinforce it?

#4 as always, i'm very interested in any other comments you'd like to make about this week's teaching and/or the series as a whole. feel free to let your creative and/or critical mind speak freely.

thanks again!

fed on lies about love: two rooms please

hey gang - hope everything is going well for you!

this week we'll focus our fusion talk on the second chapter of hosea, which deals with gomer running from her husband and her unfaithfulness to him. it is a passage of the bible that deals with explicit, unrepentant, sin and should lead into some hard conversations about who we are in god's eyes.

so...here are the things i'd love for you to consider.

#1 how did you understand the relationship between this week and last week's talks? did you feel like they were joined together sufficiently in the introduction? what about if you hadn't heard last week's talk, would this week have been easy to understand if you were "coming in cold"? was there a phrase/word that helped make this connection clear? or, maybe a phrase/word that made it more confusing than necessary?

#2 the story of gomer's multiple affairs is a hard story for many to relate to. if we avoid making one-to-one comparisons between her sin and ours, are there ways in which you see yourself reflected in her? what do you think makes her act this way? one thing we've never explored is that she may be acting this way out of devotion to the canaanite religion - is this a credible hypothesis? is there any textual evidence to support this?

#3 tell me about the orientation/position piece. did that make sense to you? was it helpful? do you find that you often fall into the trap of judging/evaluating yourself/others primarily by behavior? what do you think you might do differently to avoid this trap?

#4 as always, use this space to make any comments that the preceeding questions haven't addressed. again, i don't want you to feel confined to these questions - they're just a launching pad for further conversation.

thanks again!

fed on lies about love: an old fashioned man and a new fangled girl

hey gang - welcome to the new cohort of the sermon review team!

for this week, the first in our series on hosea and gomer, i'd like us to focus our commentary on overarching series issues. remember, if you think of something you'd like to comment upon other than the questions i've posted, please feel free to do so.

#1 as we begin our story, what immediate themes popped out at you through this week's teaching? did you resonate personally with any of these themes? were there some that you feel like you've lived through?

#2 how relevant to our 21st century context do you find the story of hosea and gomer to be? was there anything i said/referenced that brought this relevance forwards - anything that made it click?

#3 were there things in the message that i didn't address that you wish i had? did you feel like there were themes/images/issues that were obvious to you, but [for one reason or another] didn't get mentioned? or, were there things that you wished i'd spent more time explaining/exploring?

#4 most importantly, what do you feel like god spoke to you and/or showed you during this week's study of hosea and gomer? was there anything "just right" about the talk/material?

#5 finally, feel free to make any additional comments about the material here.

ok - good luck everyone!

- david