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.
- Review and summarize one of more of the suggested Ebola articles.
- Encourage your group to listen to the podcast for this session (Share the link via email or social media)
Intro
Review together the central ideas from one or more of the three articles on the Ebola crisis.
Ebola and Global Health Priorities
Liberian Churches Confront Crisis of Faith
Ask the group:
- What’s your immediate response to the impact of the ebola crisis described in these articles and why?
- What were you expecting or hoping to find in them, based on their titles?
- In what ways does the content of these articles give you more or less hope?
- In what ways does the news to which you pay attention (or ignore) reflects your attitude toward the world in general?
Content
Read together Ezekiel 17:22-24 and watch the Bible Background Video.
Then, ask questions like:
- What do you think might have been the “gut reaction” experienced by the original hearers of this message and why?
- If you had to share a similar message in the light of current events, what might you say and why?
- In what ways might our faith give us more or less hope in the face of what goes on in the world in general and our lives within that world?
- What makes it harder to find such hope these days?
- Where does today’s news seem darkest and how might you envision it working out in a positive fashion? What can we do that might help that along?
Closure
Continue by asking:
- Looking back at current events you discussed today, what do you think is the strongest lesson that might be learned from them and why?
- If you could wake up tomorrow and see one headline, what would you most want to see and why?
- What can we do that might allow other people to regain hope for what tomorrow brings?
Close with a prayer that you can help people look past