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Group Discussion
Questions for facilitating dynamic discussion
The Table
November 5,2023
Week 2: Expanding The Table
Jon Kalvig
Mark 2:13-17
Jesus often dined with new friends, sparking transformations that echoed through eternity. This week, pull up a chair at our new series “The Table,” where we serve up stories from four life-changing dinner parties in the Bible. Join us as we learn from Jesus how we can help people find new life with God.
• What was your first car? If you have a fun story about an early experience with that car, briefly share it with the group.
• If you have access to the internet, search “Engel Scale.” Pull up the chart and share which step you see yourself on now. Which step is the likely next hurdle with your non-Christians friends?
Reread Mark 2:13-17 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
1. Levi makes a life-changing decision by leaving his job to follow Jesus. Jon shared about how he left the Christian dorm to live amongst non-believers. Can you think of something you left, or got rid of, as a means of following God?
2. Jesus was called a “friend of sinners” and yet never sinned. What would it look like for someone at The Compass to live similarly?
3. Making room to follow Jesus also involves intentionally prioritizing spiritual disciples. What is a faith practice you have made a greater priority in recent months?
4. Take out the Picking Your Pearl card or open it on your device (thecompass.net/pearl). Share with the group a couple of individuals or affinity groups that you hope to share Christ with.
5. What is an activity that you could imagine bringing your “pearls” and Christian friends together? Hospitality is a function that all believers are called to practice [see Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 2:9; 3 John 1:8]. What about the home, and hospitality, enables us to reach our neighbors?
Wrapping It Up: Engaging relational evangelism seems daunting. However, when applying PEARL with our non-Christian friends, we are setting the table for God to work supernaturally. We are responsible for relying on God’s Spirit as we pursue people with love. Then we get a front row seat at how the Lord draws people to Himself. Let’s pray like Paul (Ephesians 6:19-20) for boldness and perseverance.