Fail Leader Guide: What to Do When Things Go Wrong - Softcover

Miofsky, Matt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501847856 ISBN 13: 9781501847851

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

We all know the feeling. We take a leap, only to land flat on our face. Just when our plan appears to be perfect, it falls apart. Life's failures and disappointments can make it difficult to move forward; how do we pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off?Author and pastor Matt Miofsky examines the life of Jeremiah, whose failed pursuits are described in more detail and depth than with any other prophet. Even though God set him apart to speak to the nation of Israel, Jeremiah's attempts to fulfill his calling were met with ridicule, punishment, and suffering. But through it all, God never left his side.The story of "the weeping prophet" has much to teach us about trusting God during life's most trying times.The Leader Guide contains everything needed to guide a group through the five-week study including session plans, activities, and discussion questions, as well as multiple format options.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Matt Miofsky is the Lead Pastor of The Gathering United Methodist Church in Saint Louis, Missouri. Matt gained a degree in Advanced Math and played football at Washington University and then attended Candler School of Theology. Matt lives with his family in Saint Louis and has previously published two small group studies based on his sermon series, Happy? and Fail.

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Fail Leader Guide

What to Do When Things Go Wrong

By Matt Miofsky, Martha Bettis Gee

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2017 Abingdon Press
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-5018-4785-1

Contents

To the Leader, 
1. Jeremiah's Story, 
2. The Do-Over, 
3. In the Pit, 
4. Finding Hope, 
5. On the Other Side of Exile, 

CHAPTER 1

JEREMIAH'S STORY

Planning the Session

Session Goals

As a result of conversations and activities connected with this session, group members should begin to:

• explore Jeremiah's background and the difficult circumstances he faced;

• examine our own contemporary context;

• acknowledge personal challenges;

• reflect on how we can choose to respond.

Scriptural Foundation

These are the words of Jeremiah, Hilkiah's son, who was one of the priests from Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The Lord's word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah's King Josiah, Amon's son, and throughout the rule of Judah's King Jehoiakim, Josiah's son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah's son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

(Jeremiah 1:1-3)

Special Preparation

• Have available a notebook or paper, along with a pen or pencil, for anyone who did not bring a notebook or an electronic device for journaling.

• For the activity "Examine Our Contemporary Context," print the following on a large sheet of paper or a board: The word of the Lord came to the people of (your church name) in the days of __________________.

• Then head three separate large sheets of paper or three separate locations on a board with each of the following:

Like Jeremiah, we were all born into a certain location with certain social and historical realities.

Like Jeremiah, we were all born into a particular kind of family.

Like Jeremiah, we all have been thrust into situations that we didn't choose or couldn't control.

• Decide if you will do any of the alternative activities. For the activity in which participants conduct a job interview, you will need a large sheet of paper or a board and marker.

• For the activity of identifying Scriptures, participants will need access to concordances, either the printed variety or an online concordance such as that on BibleGateway.com. You will need sheets of printer or construction paper, tape, and markers. On a large sheet of paper, in large letters print Jeremiah 1:8:

"Don't be afraid of them, because I'm with you to rescue you," declares the Lord.

Getting Started

Opening Activity

As participants arrive, welcome them to the study. Gather together. If participants are not familiar with one another, provide nametags and make introductions.

Form pairs, and invite partners to discuss the following:

• Where and when in your life, if at all, did you learn how to fail? How did you learn how to deal with failure?

After allowing a few minutes for pairs to discuss, ask one or two volunteers to report some of their conversation to the whole group.

Call the group's attention to Matt Miofsky's idea that some of our best learning experiences actually happen through our setbacks, disappointments, and failures. In this study, participants will explore failure and the lessons that we can learn from it through the lens of Scripture and specifically through the story of the prophet Jeremiah. By encountering how God worked in and through Jeremiah's failures, we will have the opportunity to see how God can also work through our own failures.

Opening Prayer

Pray together, using the following prayer or one of your own choosing:

O Holy God, we are all too aware of our own failures. Yet we have hope that you can use us, as imperfect as we may be. Guide us as we seek to explore more fully how our failures can be a source of growth. Help us trust in your power to shape us according to your purposes. Amen.

Learning Together

Video Study and Discussion

In this series, author and pastor Matt Miofsky introduces us to the prophet Jeremiah. He explores how God worked in and through Jeremiah's failures and setbacks in the hope that we can see how God also can work through our own failures. Session 1 gives us some background about the difficult circumstances in which the prophet lived and to which he was called by God to respond.

• What is grit? What is the relationship between grit and how we respond to difficult circumstances in our lives?

• Miofsky tells us that Jeremiah was born at the worst possible time, in the worst possible place, and given the worst possible job. What about Jeremiah's circumstances would cause us to label them in this way? What message was Jeremiah called to deliver?

• We learn that there is a whole host of circumstances in our own lives that we cannot control. What are some challenging circumstances you have faced, and how have you responded? Would you characterize your own life as risk-taking, bold, adventurous? Why or why not?

Book and Bible Study and Discussion

Explore Jeremiah's Background

Many difficult or challenging circumstances of our lives are largely out of our control. But how we respond to those circumstances will determine whether they build us up or bring us down. It was just such difficult circumstances that Jeremiah was facing.

Ask someone to read aloud the foundational Scripture, Jeremiah 1:1-3. Ask a second volunteer to continue with verses 4-8 and a third to complete the passage by reading verses 9-10. Remind the group that they were just introduced to Jeremiah's historical context in the video segment. Point out that in the era referred to as BC, time is measured in a way that seems backward to us, from the earliest date forward to later ones. So the time period in which Jeremiah was active was from around from 626 BC until at least 587 BC. Discuss:

• The author remarks that Jeremiah was born into a perfect storm. Why does he characterize those times in that way? What was going on?

• Name the three prominent jobs or vocations we can find throughout the Old Testament. Which one does the author identify as the most difficult? Why? What job of the three could Jeremiah have reasonably expected would have been his?

• If you had to write a job description for a prophet, what would you list as skills essential to the position? How would you describe the job responsibilities? How do these responsibilities differ from the conventional wisdom of today's culture about what a prophet did or does?

Examine Our Contemporary Context

Ask someone to read the foundational Scripture aloud again, and point out the contextual "pegs" Jeremiah uses to identify the time period being described. Invite participants to think of particular events in the recent past that might serve as their own contextual pegs; for example, now and in the future, the peg "9/11" would call to mind the attack on the Twin Towers. Or the name "Challenger" might evoke the explosion of the space shuttle, or calling to mind "Pearl Harbor" instantly would evoke the attack on December 7, 1941.

Call the attention of the group to the prompt you posted. ("The word of the Lord came to the people of [your church name] in the days of __________________.") Ask:

• How would you complete that open-ended sentence to briefly identify,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1501847856
• ISBN 13: 9781501847851
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 64
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar