Easter 7 - Small Group Questions

If you were unable to be with us on Sunday you can listen to this sermon here.

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26

1. Can you recall an experience of 'not making the team?'  How did that feel? Share with the group.
2. This passage, only half a chapter, occurs between when the resurrected Jesus ascended to the Father and when the Holy Spirit descended on believers at Pentecost.  What do you think about this 10 day period?  What do you think the disciples were thinking during this time?  Try and put yourself in their place.  How do you think this period would have felt for you?
3. Can you recall a time when you were called to 'wait on the Holy Spirit?'  Were you able to do so? or did you start working out a solution on your own?  Discuss when you've been blessed by waiting on the HS.
4. The disciples reflected on scripture, prayed together, established qualifications, discussed it amongst the believers, asked God to guide their decision, chose, and moved forward.  Is this a pattern that you regularly follow in your own discernment of God's will?  If not, what is your pattern?  How is that working for you?  What aspects of this pattern might you incorporate in your discernment?
5. Have you had a powerful experience of group prayer?  How was this different than private prayer?
6. Mtr. Mary quoted Adam Hamilton who says, "God’s will is more about how we make our decisions than about the specific decisions we make."  Do you agree?  Why or why not?
7. How might this understanding of God's will be freeing for you?  Do you believe that God is always working to redeem our decisions?  Do you live that way?  Or do you live in fear - of God's judgment, of getting it wrong?
8. Consider your ministry in the Church and the world.  How have you been a 'Matthias-like apostle?'