For Further Consideration :: Life Group Questions
Week 1, “The Stories of Christmas” | Shawn Cossin
What are some of your personal or family Christmas traditions? Share a few with your group.
Discuss – Ever said or done anything really dumb? Felt out of place? Considered yourself out of place?
Shawn invited us to explore what it means to feel like a misfit. He said that “being a misfit … fits us.” In what ways do we as Christ-followers sometimes feel like misfits?
Today’s Christmas story was connected to Rudolph. What do you remember/recall about the story of Rudolph and the “island of misfit toys”?
Why do you think this story of Rudolph resonates with so many people?
Pretty fascinating background to the story, isn’t it? (Bob May wrote it for his daughter after his wife died of cancer. He didn’t have anything else to give his daughter for Christmas, so he wrote this story.)
A working definition of “misfit”:
One who is unable to adjust to one’s environment or circumstances or is considered to be disturbingly different from others.
A person not suited in behavior or attitude to a particular social environment.
Why do Christians so often feel like misfits?
Read this quote and reflect on it as a group: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” [C.S. Lewis]
Read John 17:13-16, then explore the following questions:
What does this section of scripture communicate?
Who was speaking, and why would that be important to know as you read this?
Why in this prayer would Jesus ask that we be kept in this world rather than taken out?
Read Jeremiah 29:11-13, then consider – What does this communicate to us? What must we do if we expect to seek and find God?
Shawn listed several people mentioned throughout Scripture that were misfits, and said that God “uses misfits, and often chooses misfits to accomplish His purposes in the world.” Who are some of the misfits of the Bible you especially appreciate?
Read Isaiah 53:2 and John 1:10-11 … What does this tell us about Jesus?
Jesus himself was a misfit. Sounds strange to say, but it’s true. How was He a misfit, and how was He used for the sake of the Kingdom?
Read 1st Corinthians 1:27-28 – What encouragement can we receive from this section of Scripture? How do you see this section of scripture at work in your life?
Big Question – What misfit part of your life does God want to redeem this Christmas? (Take a stand? Endure criticism? Wait on Him in faith? Realize who God made you to be? Something else?)
IN CLOSING :: Take time to pray for each other and for our church, asking God to help us embrace the reality that, as Christ followers, we are misfits in the world. Commit again to be used by God for His purposes.
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