Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Thoroughly review all the referenced resources for this session in advance.
- Encourage your group to listen to the FaithElement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context
Share this article on mandatory vacation and ask:
- What do you find the biggest benefit to taking a break from work and going on a vacation?
- Where do you go and what are your usual priorities for spending your time when you go on vacation?
- At what points do you find that God is closest to you and how important is it for you to find that peace with God?
- What effect does it have on your life to take a vacation and find that time to connect with God?
- What is it like to have to come back when you’ve been on such a great vacation?
Content
Read Luke 9:28-43a, and watch the Bible Background Video for this session before asking:
- What do you think led to Jesus looking to take a couple of friends to the top of a mountain for a chance to rest?
- What do you think Jesus and the disciples might have missed out on by taking the rest?
- How would you react if you were one of the three disciples on the mountain?
- To what degree do you think the disciples found this experience restful or intense?
- How do you think that it would it have affected you?
- In what ways might the mountaintop experience led to Jesus’ reactions in the later part of this passage?
- What can we learn from this transformation and how it can help our lives?
Closure
Share this ad for Hawk’s Rest Ranch and ask:
- How well do you think this place might meet the promise of “serenity” and why?
- What could you imagine doing there if you were to buy that place?
- Why do you think so many people see going to the mountains as a way to recharge their batteries, and what does it really mean to do that, anyway?
- How might we make closeness with God so hard to find?
- What kinds of things can we gain from our times with God that can be “brought back” to help other people?
Close by listening to Rest in You. As you do, meditate and find that closeness to God.
Writers: Crystal Shepherd and Steve McClain