Becoming One With Christ

Each week’s group meetings during Easter Season point forward to the coming Sunday. For this week, your groups will explore what it means that having been made “one with each other” they are best able to use their spiritual gifts with others for the upbuilding of the body of Christ.

Suggested Agenda

1. Brief, informal time of gathering — (10 minutes or so) — with snacks to share.
   
2. Formal gathering — seated in a circle in chairs or around a table-- with requests for prayer for the coming week (10 minutes)-- and prayer led by the group leader or unison in the group. If the latter, one practice I’ve found useful in leading such groups is immediately after a person shares, the whole group pauses, then says in unison, “Into your hands, O God, we commend our sister/brother/sibling(s) Name(s).” Proceed to the next person and repeat until all who wish to offer requests for prayer have had the opportunity to do so.
   
3. Teaching and Conversation — (35 minutes) — Use Session 3 from our DIY Tools for Spiritual Gifts Discernment and Ministry Deployment
   
   Begin by saying something like, “Because we have been made one with Christ, we have all been given spiritual gifts. Because in Christ’s body we are being made one with each other, how we use our gifts most effectively depends to a significant degree on how we best relate to one another within the body of Christ. We explore and share our personality types with one another in order to help one another discern with whom we may best make use of our gifts.”
   
   Your time will be best spent by dividing it into two segments. Take no more than ten minutes to review the meanings of the letters and the personality types and some of their implications for how folks might work best with others. Then use the interview format suggested with one of your group in front of all. If you have more than five people, divide them into groups of two or three to continue the process for each group member. Conclude with a reminder of the assignment for next week, (Assignment for Session 4 in the DIY resource).
   
4. Gather in a circle or huddle, lay hands on one another, one by one, and pray in unison, “X, may you continue to grow in Christ in the days ahead.”
   
5. Thank all for coming, and send the group out to keep learning and living the baptism they have received.