Before the Session

  • Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
  • Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
  • Encourage your group to listen to the FaithElement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media).

Context (From the Current Session Page)

Watch this video of a shepherd and his sheep and ask:

  • What most stands out to you about this video and why?
  • Based on this, what would you say is a shepherd’s job?
  • What is the work of the sheep?
  • What does it mean to be the people of God’s pasture or the sheep of God’s hand?
  • How does this video help you understand your relationship to God or to the other sheep?

Content (From the Mind Session Page)

Read together Psalm 95, then watch the Bible background video and continue by asking:

  • What expressions of worship do we find in this psalm?
  • We might be used to hearing the words of this psalm, but we may not actually shout, sing loudly, bow down or kneel in worship. Why do you think we have kept certain practices, and neglected others?
  • What is it about God that inspires worship and praise – particularly God’s relationship to nature and the relationship to God’s people?
  • Since, in the Psalmist’s time, people’s lives were still very much controlled by nature, and they still found much mystery and wonder in creation, why would this all add up to praise and thanksgiving on their part?
  • Over what uncontrollable part of our lives does God have power and how might we express that in our songs and worship?

Continue by reading Exodus 17:2-7 and asking

  • Why did the psalmist bring up this ugly part of their history that happened so many generations before?
  • What else might these people have done to make God angry, and how is this incident like something we might do in our own time?

Closure (From the Media Session Page)

Share the “I Want To Be Like You” video clip and ask:

  • How do you feel about hearing this classic song done this way?
  • If this song can be said to have a “spirit,” what would that be and why?
  • What are some expressions of worship you’d like to see reinterpreted and why?
  • Why are we sometimes resistant to reframe the ways we worship or even talk about God?
  • What are some things in our own experience that affect the way we are able to approach God?
  • How do we overcome negative experiences through our faith?
  • What might we do to reinterpret our experiences of faith in order to better reach others for whom faith is a negative experience?

Close with a prayer.

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