This plan is designed to have a Nurturer guide the study, feel free to have other cell members support any of the sections as part of nurturing. All instructions are identified for Nurturer. A separate document (cell content) is meant to be shared.
This cell plan is based on the sermon shared on Sunday, September 14th by Pastor Santos.
Prepare Ahead
- Read Cell Vision Statement
- Meditate on Matthew 25
- Pray and discern next steps for your cell for outreach / prayer partners / grad transition
- Link to sharable version for members: Cell Content
Opening
Nurturer: If there are new members today joining for the first time ask everyone to share something about themselves.
- Note: Has it been a while since your cell has reviewed the cell vision statement? Review it together at: Cell Based Ministry
Icebreaker: If you had $100,000 dollars and you had to spend it in the next hour, what would you do with it?
Worship
Bible Reading Sharing:
Ask: How was your bible reading in the last 2 weeks, share something from your readings with the group!
Note: If sharing is scarce and always the same people, can start a rotation schedule
Go into musical worship if someone is scheduled. Continue to ask if members of the cell are willing to lead this portion in the future.
Please pray for the group to begin the study.
Nurture: For those who would like to allot this portion of the night to something else feel free to use the prayer exercise:
- Prayer Exercise
- Lectio divina
Word
Matthew 25:14-30 NIV
14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag,[a]each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
22 “The man with two bags of gold also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23 “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
24 “Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “‘So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Discussion
Reminders and Recommendations for Nurturers:
- Spend some time in the sermon review to ensure the group has a grasp of the main point of the sermon
- Ask if there’s anyone who wasn’t able to join, if there is, spend a bit of time to go through the sermon summary being going in to the review questions
- If everyone was at the sermon, skip directly to the review questions
- Review the questions ahead of time and decide which questions to ask your group. Typically, a good discussion will only be able to accommodate 2-3 questions for a meeting.
- If being asked in a large group, invite others to join in and response if they have shared similar experiences or thoughts
- Try to avoid from going around in a circle, as the nurturer, ask follow-up questions and avoid giving advice.
- In order to allow for deeper discussion, consider breaking the group up into smaller groups to allow more space for sharing.
- Reminder to leave space and time for prayer and witness
Sermon Summary
- Main Idea: The kingdom of God advances when you recognize that your time, talent, and treasure are not your own, but belong to God, and you invest them in your specific calling for His mission.
- The Parable: A master (representing Jesus) entrusts his wealth to his servants (representing Christians) according to their ability before he goes away. This in-between time is the time we are living in now. When the master returns to settle accounts, he rewards the two servants who invested his money and produced more, calling them “good and faithful”. He takes the money from the third servant, who fearfully hid it, and gives it to the first servant.
- Wrong Views: The third servant had
- wrong view of God seeing him as a hard man and a thief
- wrong view of himself not seeing himself as a hired manager for God’s purposes
- wrong view of his belongings “the money is mine because i earned it.” It can apply to other things too, like your education, skills, time, etc.
- Faithfulness over Fruitfulness: God is pleased by our faithfulness, not just our ability or the results. God wants to partner with us in his mission because he loves us and it makes him happy, not because he needs our skills for maximum efficiency.
- Faithfulness involves wholeheartedly pursuing God’s mission with everything you have because you know it all belongs to him.
- Discerning Your Calling:
- Our shared mission is to multiply disciples, but we each have a different function or role within that mission.
- To discern your specific calling, you should consider your spiritual gifts, heart’s desires, abilities, personality, and experiences.
- It is a life-long process of investing your time, talent, and treasure to discover and live out this calling.
- Life Seasons:
- The amount of time, talent, and treasure entrusted to you shifts throughout your life. We must be wise stewards in every season
Sermon Review
- Core theme: Everything you have (your time, talents, and treasures) belongs to God, and you are called to faithfully invest it all in His mission.
- Main Takeaway: We must surrender our entire lives to God, seeking to understand our unique role in His plan and using everything He has entrusted to us to advance His kingdom locally and worldwide.
- Sermon Review questions:
- What were the wrong views of God that the 3rd servant have?
- What is God’s core mission for us?
- Discussion Questions:
- Introductory
- What is your purpose: How are you currently seeking meaning and purpose in your life?
- Are you Content?: Do you experience God’s abundance?
- Exploratory (4-6 people)
- Investing in God’s treasures:
- Adults: are you investing your time, talent, treasure to build God’s Kingdom through your career and family?
- Young Adults: are you investing your time, talent, and treasures into discovering your calling to advance God’s Kingdom through your career?
- Retired: how are you investing all the time, talent, and treasures God’s given you to advance God’s Kingdom?
- Investing in God’s treasures:
- In Depth (2/3 people)
- How do we see God? Do we have the wrong view of self, God, or His belonging like the 3rd servant?
- God is a hard man
- We are not a part of God’s purpose
- Growth belongs to myself
- How might I be wrestling with seeing the time, talents & treasures entrusted to me as belonging to God instead of me?
- How do we see God? Do we have the wrong view of self, God, or His belonging like the 3rd servant?
- Introductory
- Additional questions:
- What purposes does my time, talents and treasures serve?
- How might I be wrestling with seeing the time, talents and treasures entrusted to me as belonging to God?
- Am I ready to surrender more of my time, talent and treasures to God’s mission?
- How is our time used for God?
- How is our other resources used for God?
Witness
- Urbana: Are you a young adult interested in missions and discovering God’s plan and purpose for you? Join the team going to Urbana this year and reach out to Pastor Santos for more details!
- Thanksgiving Event: Dinner at Church on October 10th 6:30 – 9:30 pm
- Sign up for the Thanksgiving event here via this Form
- Help Needed for Adult Zone!
- We’re looking for help in the following specific areas:
- Administration – Help organize zone wide information
- Cell Planners – help review sermons and create biweekly cell plans!
- We’re looking for help in the following specific areas:
- Bible Reading:
- This year, we will be going through a 2 year bible reading plan together. Access to plan at gcgcny.link/readbible. Use this to share regularly in your cell about what you’re hearing from God.
- Prayer and Outreach
- As discussed in our last meeting, we will be shifting outreach to be a zone wide initiative to encourage similar life stage members to partner together to witness to their friends, with cell being a place for them to join once they are ready to be a part of the community, as part of this shift:
- New Outreach Chat to invite others along when you are looking to do something with friends
- Establish prayer partners
- Suggestion: Monthly same gender rotations to encourage biweekly checkins to strengthen relationships.
- Note that the above is a suggestion and may not be the best approach based on the make up of your cell, pray and discern how best to approach this for the benefit of your cell
- As discussed in our last meeting, we will be shifting outreach to be a zone wide initiative to encourage similar life stage members to partner together to witness to their friends, with cell being a place for them to join once they are ready to be a part of the community, as part of this shift: