29. Inspiring Community

FLASHBACK

What did you experience with God this week?
In the last few days, did you have the opportunity to share an experience with God with someone close to you that doesn’t know Jesus yet? Or could you pray for them or help them practically?
Do you need God‘s help in an area of your life?

■ Pray together: Give thanks for your experiences, ask God for help where you need it.

■ Pray together to learn new things about God and that your relationship with God deepens and gets stronger.

BIBLE STUDY

Read the passage silently. What words or phrases stick out?
One person reads the passage out loud.
One person retells the passage in his/her own words (Bibles closed).
If necessary, the others complement what was said (Bibles closed).

Acts 2:42-47

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.⁴³Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common.⁴⁵They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Hebrews 10:24-25

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Everyone by themselves:
- What words or phrases stick out now? Are there any differences to what you noticed before?
- Why do you feel drawn to those words or phrases?
- What can you learn about people?
- What could God be telling you?
Share in the group.

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS & ACTION STEPS

What aspects of community are challenging to you?
In what ways can you contribute to strengthen and deepen relationships in your group? (Everyone note one or two ideas, then discuss these in the group.)
What can you do as a group to bring God’s presence to university and to your fellow students? What can you move, organise together (see scripture comments)? Everyone note two or three ideas and talk about these in the group.

■ Pray that your friendship with God and among each other strengthens and deepens.

■ In prayer, make yourselves available for God, that He increasingly uses your group to bring the perceptible presence of God to your university (see scripture comments).

■ Pray for the people on your prayer list (see also “Prayer that moves God”).

SCRIPTURE COMMENTS

Towards the end of the 6th century, central Europe was predominantly heathen again, due to the Migration Period. Churches in the cities had a hard time reaching people with the gospel.

Columban, Gallus and many other Irish monks were sent by God to central Europe in that time. They travelled in clans and started hundreds of monastery communities within a short period of time. They had a flat hierarchy, were well-connected in a network and greatly affected society through the Kingdom of God. A great sign of distinction was that they brought the perceptible presence of God to the people.
What do we mean by “the perceptible presence of God”? There are accounts telling of Columban and how people brought “the sick in droves” to him and that he “healed everyone that came to him from their illness through the remedy of prayer while God’s help was with him”. Through those clan-like communities, whole societies and regions were saturated with the gospel, having a long-lasting effect.

We want to see today’s society – like the one back then – saturated with God’s Kingdom. Therefore, it is our wish that the SHINE student groups are not just inward-oriented communities. In these groups, we want to be equipped for a lifestyle that shines and acts outwardly together so that our student friends can experience the presence of God. For example, we organise evangelistic parties and invite our friends to them. (See Luke 5:27-32).

OTHER LANGUAGES