Read 1 Corinthians 1.18-25.
In your own words, define the “foolishness of men” and define “the wisdom of God.”
Share an experience where you lived out “the foolishness of men.” Share an experience when you lived out the “wisdom of God.”
The church of Corinth was filled with people who had believed the “foolishness of men” and now we’re learning to live a new way, to love a new way. How is this similar to our Faith Family?
What are some of the challenges we face as a church because of our past beliefs? What is one primary challenge you face because of your past belief?
Is human knowledge unimportant to the Christian? How does the Christian engage human wisdom?
How has Christ’s death become a refuge for the Christian? What does the cross do for you? What does the cross mean to you? How has the cross changed you?
Read John 12.23-33. What’s the primary message of this text? What was Jesus communicating to His disciples? What is He communicating to us?
D.A. Carson writes, “At the moment, books are pouring off the presses telling us how to plan for success, how ‘vision’ consists in clearly articulated ‘ministry goals,’ how the knowledge of detailed profiles of our communities constitutes the key to successful outreach. I am not for a moment suggesting that there is nothing to be learned from such studies. But after a while, one may perhaps be excused for marveling how many churches were planted by Paul and Whitefield and Wesley and Stanway and Judson without enjoying these advantages. Of course, all of us need to understand the people to whom we minister, and all of us can benefit from small doses of such literature. But massive doses sooner or later dilute the gospel. Ever so subtly, we start to think that success more critically depends on thoughtful sociological analysis than on the gospel; Barna becomes more important than the Bible. We depend on plans, programs, vision statements—but somewhere along the way we have succumbed to the temptation to displace the foolishness of the cross with the wisdom of strategic planning. Again, I insist, my position is not a thinly veiled plea for obscurantism, for seat-of-the-pants ministry that plans nothing. Rather, I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.” The Cross and Christian Ministry.
How does this resonate with you? Where does this speak most personally to your current experience? How might you move away from some of the clutter of Christian subculture and move more intimately toward the cross?
What has the Gospel accomplished for you?
What hasn’t the Gospel accomplished for you?
Where are you still trying to help the Gospel rather than abide in the Gospel?
Read and meditate on Colossians 2.6-15.
