1
This first week of Advent we are encouraged about the hope that is to come.
2
Don't give up if you feel you have lost touch with Jesus. Advent is a time to refocus and reconnect.
3
Reflect on the experience of Jesus to help you see your spiritual pathway more clearly.
4
What is Jesus asking of the Church today?
5
What lifestyle changes do we need to make to enable us to pray more often?
6
The light of Christ has been in the world for 2,000 years. Are we any better at embracing it for ourselves than Jesus’ contemporaries were?
7
What are you doing to support and encourage fellow Christians who are being persecuted in other parts of the world?
8
Can you think of anything you need to repent of and change in your life of Christian discipleship and what can you change to make it stick?
9
Are you bearing fruit for God’s kingdom, or are you spending more time and energy in pursuing other agendas?
10
What might need to change in order for you to become more closely attuned to hearing and doing God’s will ‘on earth as in heaven’?
11
Do you ever think of money, or land, or other people, as commodities you’re entitled to own or exploit?
12
How, during his ministry, did Jesus anticipate the ‘new age’ promised by God in the law and the prophets?
13
In what ways are you or your church a living example of the age to come?
14
Why does genuine and lasting renewal depend on repentance, restoration and tangible changes to the way some- one thinks and lives?
15
If John the Baptist were alive today what would he say about the injustice that has recently been reported in the news?
16
How does God’s grace challenge human interests and agendas?
17
How did Jesus’ vision of God’s justice and peace differ from that of most of his contemporaries?
18
What are the unjust and oppressive human agendas that the gospel of Jesus confronts in the world today?
19
Is a desire for vindication the same as a desire for justice?
20
Given what happened when Jesus went to Jerusalem, what should we expect to happen when his followers today speak out against injustice?
21
In what ways is religion being used as a cloak for injustice in the world today?
22
When was the last time you had cause to really celebrate?
23
Looking at Zechariah's song of praise consider what parts of it offer the most cause for joy and celebration?
24
What matters most to you about the way we celebrate the birth of Jesus today?
25
What does Jesus’ prayer of celebration tell us about his relationship with his father?
26
How might you or your church become a party host and share the good news more widely in the way described by Jesus in this parable?
27
Why, when the prodigal son returns, does the father respond with celebration rather than with anger and recrimination?
28
How can we celebrate the party of God’s love in such a way as to welcome not only the younger brothers who have come back from the dead, but also the older brothers who thought there was nothing wrong with them?
