As part of our church’s vision to build disciples who represent Jesus to everyone, everywhere with everything, we want to see disciples representing Jesus not just here in Australia, but all around the global. Our global vision is to see indigenous disciple-making movements among unreached people groups. An unreached people group is an ethic group with a population of >2% evangelical Christian and have little to no access to the good news.
Discuss one or more of the following questions:
1. How do you feel about spending time with and talking to people who are different to you? Does it make you feel uncomfortable or does it fascinate you? How much time do you currently spend with people from different cultures?
2. Over the last few weeks, we’ve explored how Jesus as the King of the nations motivates us to bring glory to His name in all the earth, and how God’s kingdom comes with a cost that allows the nations to come and find shade, shelter, freedom, healing and good news. On Sunday, we explored 1 Peter 2:9-12 and what it means to be a people with an identity centred around bringing glory to God. What and where do you get your identity from? Does how you view your identity align with God’s eternal goal of glorifying His Son in all the world?
3. According to 1 Peter 2:9-12, our identity is not an end in itself, but it’s for the sake of ‘priestly service’ in the world to proclaim the praises and excellencies of God. In the Old Testament, the priests’ job was to mediate between God himself and His people, however, in this passage, we see that all believers are called a ‘priesthood’. What do you think it means for believers to be ‘priests’ and act as mediators between God and all the peoples of the world?
4. Andrew Livingstone suggests that it’s important for us to spend time with people who are different to us so that we can listen, learn, and understand. When we hear people’s stories and get to know them, we can see how the gospel intersects and impacts their lives. Some of us are really good at making new friends, but we don’t connect the gospel with our friends’ lives. Others of us are really good at telling people about the gospel, but we don’t spend the time listening and understanding before we do so. Which approach do you lean more towards? What are some changes you can make so that you are connecting with both God and people far away from God?
5. As Christians, we are like signposts that point people towards God, but nearly three billion people in unreached groups around the world don’t personally know a Christian, have any churches where they live, and many don’t have the full Bible translated into their language. Of the six ways you can get involved in God’s mission (pray, go, send, learn, welcome and mobilise), what is one thing you can do that helps you take your next step towards pointing the unreached towards God?
