Housegroups 

Series: Shaping Church Culture
Theme: Culture of Honour
Sermon date: September 8th 

Note for leaders: The focus of this sermon series is the themes, we would like you to develop the theme as a group. We believe it is important to share about this and to work on this together.
 
SHAPING CHURCH CULTURE

We are starting a new series on shaping Church culture. Church culture is something we build and create together, we want to intentionally build a healthy and loving culture, where we welcome and encourage everyone. The Oxford dictionary defines culture as “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society or the attitudes and behaviour characteristic of a particular social group”. We want God to breathe into and transform our ideas, customs, behaviour and attitudes to be full of his fruit and plans.  

The driving verse for this series is: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
 
Icebreaker

Q1 - Could you share some of the culture you recognize from the place where you grew up?

Q2 - Could you share some characteristics of the culture of the family you grew up in?

Q3 - Could you share any other definition of culture you might have heard? What do you feel is an institutions or group or countries culture? (you might want to encourage some people to search on their phones for a few minutes and come up with other definitions of culture)

Definitions of culture:


“Culture ... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” Tyler (British anthropologist) 1870

“Culture is a fuzzy set of basic assumptions and values, orientations to life, beliefs, policies, procedures and behavioural conventions that are shared by a group of people, and that influence (but do not determine) each member’s behaviour and his/her interpretations of the ‘meaning’ of other people’s behaviour.” Spencer-Oatey 2008

Study

This week we’re looking at building a culture of honour. We want to be a Church that honours one another and intentionally builds each other up. We want to honour those who serve, honour the work of others, honour the diversity, and honour the beauty of tradition-contemporary in our parish. Honour means speaking highly of others, but it is also treating each other with love, preparing them a cup of tea, being humble and kind.
The Oxford dictionary defines honour as:

  1. high respect; great esteem
  2. the quality of knowing and doing what is morally right
  3. regard with great respect

This is how we need to treat and regard each other within the Church and everywhere. That is part of our call as Jesus’ disciples.

Q4 - Can you think of a person you know who really lives this out? What do you see in them that makes you feel this way?

Romans 12:9-10 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.

Q5 - What does “being devoted to one another” mean in your context today?

Q6 - How can we honour other above ourselves? What does this mean for you this week? In what ways can we dishonour others?

Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets
There is a great shift in Jesus from not doing to others what you wouldn’t like to be done to you, to a more proactive “do to others what you would have them do to you” 

Q7 – What would you like other Church members to do to you? What do you find encouraging in the way you see others treat you?

Philippians 2:1-5 “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the othersIn your relationships with one another, have the same mind set as Christ Jesus

Paul presents Jesus as our model of living this out. Jesus did nothing out of selfish ambition, but humbly served others, looking at the interest of others. We are called to have that same mind set in our relationships.

Q8 - How can we be transformed to be more like Jesus? How can we work on our lives to have that same attitude?

Q9 - Are you aware when you are being proud or looking at your own interests? What can we do when we feel that way? 

Action 

Romans 12:9-10 “
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.

Q10 - There is a call to “honour one another above yourselves”. What little changes can we do to honour others? How can we look after the way we speak about others to keep them in “high esteem”? How can we serve others so that they feel valued and loved? What practical things would you like to start doing more?
 
Prayer 

Spend a few minutes in prayer, asking God to create in us individually and corporately a culture of honouring one another.


Nico Hilding Ohlsson, 02/09/2019