Today marks the fourth week of our seven-week Advent series, Advent: Against the Powers of this Dark World. In this message, pastor Emily Schulz talks about the problem of busyness and offers solutions for slowing down to love God and love others.
Discussion Questions for Advent 2019 Pt4 | December 1, 2019 | Click here for a printable version of the discussion questions.
For a copy of the Creating a Rule of Life guide, click here.
Key Passages: Ephesians 5:8-17
Discussion Questions
1. What was your gut reaction when you realized this message was going to be about busyness? Why do you think that was your initial response?
2. Emily introduced the idea of the “tyranny of the urgent” and the four quadrants of urgent/important, urgent/not important, not urgent/not important, and not urgent/important.
What are some of the things you do regularly that fit in the urgent but not important quadrant?
What’s one thing in the not urgent but important quadrant that you wish you made more time for?
3. Did the message challenge the way you’ve typically thought about Sabbath?
Do you currently have a practice of a weekly Sabbath? If so, tell us about that. Why did you start? What kind of changes did you have to make in your schedule in order to embrace a weekly Sabbath? What did you have to say no to so that you could say yes to Sabbath?
If you don’t currently practice a weekly Sabbath but you’d like to start, what changes would you need to make? What might you need to say no to in order to say yes to Sabbath?
4. What are one or two new commitments you made when creating your Rule of Life that you want to prioritize in 2020?
Is there anything we can do to help support you or keep you accountable?
Moving Forward
- Practice Sabbath one day this week. Decide which day you’ll be taking as a Sabbath and what you’ll do to pray and play. Don’t do any work on this day. Then report back to us next week and let us know what the best part was and what the hardest part was!
- Put in action one of the new commitments you made in your Rule of Life. Report back next week about what you did and how it went.
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