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Every Nation
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Every Nation
Every Tribe
Every People
God’s vision for diversity

Small Group Resources

In October 2021, we continued our ongoing heart journey as a church family in responding to the longstanding issue of racial injustice and to press into God’s call to us to be a community where people of every race, nation and culture can thrive.

Over three Sundays, John Wright (10 October and 17 October) and Josh Kay (31 October) laid out a biblical vision for a church that reflects the picture that began on the day of Pentecost and which is described in Revelation 7:9. There was also an invitation for each of us to set time aside to reflect personally and engage with the resources at trentv.org/everynation.

And now we are encouraging every small group to reflect together over a couple of weeks in November using the resources below. We encourage everyone to approach these sessions with openness of heart, kindness and humility. The intention is to provide a space for honest and open conversation and so please use the resources as works best for your group, ensuring that everyone in the group has the opportunity to speak and be listened to. This is a continuing journey and as a group you may want to return to the resources in the coming months as people reflect further.

Small Group Focus Week – Session 2

Small Group Focus Week – Session 2

As you reflect on your first focus week session, please consider the point that you may have reached with your reflections together. The most important thing is to be able to facilitate honest and meaningful conversations. Therefore, there may be questions or reflections from Session 1 that you may still wish to consider together or there may be a conversation from Session 1 that felt incomplete - so please feel free to continue with that conversation, even for the whole session if that seems the appropriate thing for your group.

When you feel ready as a group to move on (whether in this or a future small group session), you may want reflect on some thoughts following on from Josh Kay’s talk of 31 October. In his talk, Josh reflected on the story of Peter and Cornelius as reported in Acts Chapters 10 and 11.

In reflecting on these passages and on our journey of racial diversity, Josh drew out three observations:

  1. It starts with a revelation of God’s vision for diversity.
  2. Our differences are real; and they present real difficulties.
  3. Discovering God’s vision for diversity results in praise.

So there is both challenge for each of us and hope for a better future. Through the series of talks and in our wider journey, there is a dual reality that we are being invited to embrace:

  • Adopting a biblical vision of racial diversity for the church.
  • Engaging with the history and current-day reality of racial prejudice that has been encountered by people both inside and beyond the church.

Questions

  1. As you reflect on the long-term and more recent history of racial prejudice within the church and beyond, what does it look like for us to lament, both as individuals and as a church family?
  2. In Josh’s talk on 31 October, he said this, ‘So Why did the men in our story need a vision from God? Often when God speaks clearly...in my experience it’s because something tough or big is coming. In this story God revealed something that caused them both to take revolutionary, counter-cultural actions.’ So what invitation do you believe that God is making to you and to us as a church family in this time?

Small Group Focus Week – Session 1

To allow yourselves good space for reflection, discussion and prayer, we’d suggest that you think about the time that you will devote to each element of your time together. You may find it helpful to replace sung worship that you might ordinarily have with a space for reflection and prayer using the ‘Come Closer’ and ‘Now the Dust has Settled’ resources below.

We’re conscious that conversations around the subject of race can be difficult and challenging for a number of reasons and so we encourage you as a group to begin by watching this video of a recent conversation between Dave Ellis and John Bernard-Carlin that we hope will be helpful to you.

Note: for those of you who are meeting online, you could use the screen share option or could share the link trentv.org/everynationsg with your group if that is helpful.

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When you have watched the video, please provide space for people to reflect with each other about where each person finds themselves on this journey – including giving the opportunity to share from personal experience, these questions may be helpful:

In listening to Dave and John’s conversation and as you reflect on the recent Sunday talks in October and your own personal reflections:

  1. Are you experiencing an apprehension or even resistance within yourself – and do you have a sense of where that apprehension or resistance may be coming from?
  2. What is your internal response to an invitation to ‘embrace discomfort’ on this journey together?
  3. As you reflect on people of many nations coming together on the day of Pentecost and the vision described in Revelation 7:9 and then you reflect on the reality of church history or even your own experience of the church, how do you feel?
  4. What is your desire as we come together in these conversations?

We invite you to provide some space for people to reflect to then be able to lead into a time of prayer.

As an introduction to this, you may want to play Dave Ellis’ song, 'Come Closer' (a semi-autobiographical rap that Dave wrote following the murder of George Floyd) and then listen to 'Now the Dust has Settled', a personal reflection that John Bernard-Carlin wrote after listening to Dave’s song. These creative pieces are written in deeply personal language and include expressions of emotion born out of lived experience and we invite you to listen in the spirit with which they are intended to provoke meaningful conversation and heart reflection. Whether listening to these for the first time or otherwise, please invite each person to reflect personally on the invitation that God may be making to them and then allow space for people to share their reflections and to pray for one another and for us as a church community.