Such as These

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Fellowship – Snacks or a Meal (10 minutes with snacks; longer, obviously, if there is a meal).

Gathering Time (5-10 minutes). In pairs or groups of three, have participants answer, “How do you think Jesus invites us to receive others into the kingdom of God?”

Group Dialogue (Approximately 30 minutes). Read Mark 10:2-16.

• Who is testing Jesus? What are they focusing on? [Read Mark 10:2-5. Some of the teachers/Pharisees are testing Jesus and focusing on the law of Moses as the sole authority for instruction and daily living.]
• Why do you think Jesus focuses on the law? How is this different from his teaching and example? [Read Mark 10:6-12. Discuss how Jesus uses marriage and the law to reveal the values and emphases of the culture. As the disciples question Jesus more about the law and marriage, he invites them to reconsider how they understand divorce and marriage. Jesus invites them to see the law differently.]
• Note the transition from the conversation around law and marriage to people bringing little children to Jesus and his disciples rebuking them.
  • How does Jesus, as a teacher, invite his disciples to reconsider how they view people coming to him with questions or to receive blessings? [Read Mark 10:13-14. Discuss what it means for places of worship to receive children or other groups of people and receive blessings from the congregation, even if they differ from those normally present.]
• The Preaching Note for today, October 6, says, “‘Let them come,’ he says. That means that how we treat children and what we allow done to children or not done to children is what we do to the kingdom of God.”
  • What does it mean to you that what we allow done to children or not done to children is what we do to the kingdom of God?
• “And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.” (Mark 10:16). How is your church blessing children and responding as Jesus would respond to them? How could your church bless children in your congregation and community?

Prayer (10 minutes). Share prayer requests and respond appropriately.

Sending Forth (2 minutes). End with the following prayer, a similar prayer, or the Lord’s Prayer:

Loving God, we come before you as children hungry to learn and grow in our faith. Help us to reflect on the grace you have given us and to give thanks. Open our eyes so we might continue to love you and others more deeply with questions and curiosity. Help us to bless and welcome others just as you so graciously and warmly welcome us. In Christ’s holy name, we pray. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Hunter Pugh, an elder in the Alabama-West Florida Conference, serves a charge in Brantley, Alabama. He has served the local church for ten years. Rev. Pugh is also an adjunct professor of religion at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. He loves the outdoors and traveling, as he sees God’s creation and the beauty of the diversity in people the Lord has made.