Bodybuilding with Tongues

This Saturday is Halloween.

For most children, it’s a day to get candy because of (or in spite of!) their playful costumes. As we grow older, however, many of us hear rumors and stories about Halloween’s dark origins. So what should we do? Trick or treat like usual? Avoid it altogether? Create a “Christian” alternative?

1 Corinthians 14 is not specifically about Halloween, but the chapter does contain Paul’s counsel to the Corinthian church about sorting out two other potentially spooky and spiritual issues: speaking in tongues and sharing prophecy. Since the first century, followers of Jesus have wrestled with how to approach these two gifts of the Holy Spirit. Should we practice them like usual? Avoid them altogether? Create some kind of alternative?

Though these questions have often created division and debate in churches, Paul’s guidance is actually quite clear and profound. What we say and do should be shaped to serve others. For Paul, this is the very definition of love–we are not called to seek what we can get for ourselves, but rather discover what we can give for the sake of others’ “upbuilding, encouragement, and consolation” (1 Cor. 14:3).

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SEE IT // BE IT

(Weekly Community Group Discussion Guide)

Date: November 1, 2015 // Title: Bodybuilding with Tongues

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14

SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes

ARRIVAL / SOCIAL TIME 15-20 minutes
Spend the first 15 minutes or so of your time together catching up and socializing with one another. Also find time to catch up together on how the assignments from last week turned out.

SERMON REVIEW 5-10 minutes

In our study of I Corinthians this fall, we have experienced the Apostle Paul’s journey through the issues of unity, sex, and culture with a young church striving to find its identity. The last few weeks, we have added to the discussion issues related to how the church worships. This week we tackle the hot topic issues of tongues and prophecy and how these gifts can be used to build up the church instead of tearing the church down. Each gift is important in helping us give voice to things that we are dealing with in our lives or in our community. By asking the Spirit to pray through us, tongues help give voice to things we don’t have words to say. By engaging in prophecy we hear God’s heart and then speak encouragement to uplift and console each other. While there are plenty of places these gifts can go wrong and lead to division, Paul encourages the church at Corinth to use these gifts for good in their community. In doing so, he hopes that no one will feel like a foreigner but they all will make room for the Spirit of God to work and move as an active agent in their midst.

THE MAIN THOUGHT Keep this in mind as you facilitate discussion.
“Gifts are given to build up the church, so let’s not use them to tear the church down!”

SEE IT Questions :: 10-15 minutes

Picture: This week Jon dealt with two issues that have been hot topics in many churches—tongues and prophecy. Let’s dive into these gifts together and try to understand them–What does is mean to prophesy? How can we hear God’s heart? What is the difference between foretelling and forth telling? How does prophecy engage each of these? What does it mean to speak in tongues? How do tongues help voice out what we don’t have words to say?

Mirror: What challenged you most in this week’s talk? What comforted you? What parts of Jon’s story ministered to you most? Which other story that Jon told this week caught your attention? (Muslim girl in service, water by Buddy’s house, conversation with Buddy) Why? How have tongues and prophecy been a part or not been a part of your life with God? Why might we need to leave room for these gifts as a community? What’s your biggest fear in engaging in prophecy or tongues?

Window: How can a church be built up and not torn down through these gifts? How will we need to treat each other for that to happen?

BE IT – Practice

Change UP // Speak UP
This week we dealt with the gifts of tongues and prophecy. Each of these gifts has to do with language and speaking. One gift helps us speak unintelligibly, the other intelligibly. One gift helps us when we don’t know what to say. The other gift helps us speak out when we do. Invite your group to Speak Up by praying together about both of these things. Have each member pray by asking each person to think through their life about what they have words for and what they don’t. Ask those who are praying for things they can put words to, to symbolize that by raising their right hand. Ask those who are praying for things they don’t have words for to raise their left hand. Ask those who have both to lift up both hands. Then Speak UP together for all these things together!

Change IN // Speak IN
Create a Standard Operating Procedure about how your group might speak truth into each other’s lives. List at least five practices or rules that might help this become a healthy process of building each other up instead of tearing each other down.

Change OUT // Speak UP
Take a walk or think through a community you are in every day—your work, your neighborhood, your kid’s school, etc. Take 2-5 minutes to walk around and ask God for a word for this community. Come back to the group and share some of the words that were received—and if you didn’t get anything just say you didn’t get a word (it is normal to get a word and not get one). Then after the words were shared, send the group to Speak OUT by looking to share at least one word in one of the contexts this week.

CLOSING PRAYER 5 minutes
Take a few minutes to gather any prayer requests and pray for each other to SEE IT and BE IT this week.