SESSION 7: Getting Stretched

1. Welcome each other to your small group.

2. Share your name and your response to this introductory sharing question:

  • What is one of the scariest things you have ever done?           

3. Sharing Questions

  • Share an experience where you really got stretched.
  • How do you react to the following quotation from the book (see page 85):

“To grow spiritually, you have to get stretched beyond your comfort zone. It’s that simple. You won’t grow inside your comfort zone.”

  • Have you ever had the experience of attempting something for God and finding out that it definitely stretched you beyond your comfort zone?

4.  Prayer

  • In groups of 2 or 3, look at the prayer at the end of chapter 7 and pick a part of that prayer that you would like to have prayed for you. After each person shares, pray for what they suggest.

5. Assignment for next week:

  • Read chapter 8 and think about what stood out to you in this chapter.
  • Questions to think about:
    • What is one place where you are being stretched and growing into expertise and developing passion & leadership for this place of ministry?
    • Are you attempting only things you can pull off on your own?  Or are you attempting some things that could happen only if God shows up and enables it to happen?
    • What would you attempt for God if you knew you would not fail?
    • Do you sense that God might be inviting you to a new risk to try something?
  • This week pray for yourself and two other people in your group:
    • "I’d like to learn how to risk for you when my life is too comfortable."
    • "God, what might I attempt for you that would be beyond my ability to pull it off on my own?"