The New Normal – Week 1
Icebreaker:
- How well do you deal with change? Do you tend to roll with the punches or resist?
- What do you hope to get out of this new series?
Going deeper:
- In light of this week’s sermon, what is new information, challenged, or stood out to you?
- Why does change bring about loss?
- What examples do you have from your life?
- How does waiting bring about passivity?
- What is bad about passivity?
Read aloud Genesis 37:1-36 (it’s long, divide and conquer)
- What patterns do you see in this family dynamic?
- What influence has this family had on history?
- Why did Reuben try to rescue or stick up for Joseph?
- Where did his sense of responsibility for his brother come from?
- Have you ever been betrayed by a family member?
- Care to share?
- Has your life ever been completely turned upside down?
- What was your attitude towards that change?
- Did it help or hinder?
Application:
We have no control over the changes coming down the pipe. We only have control over our attitude towards it.
The first step is to be brutally honest with yourself.
- When you face massive change, what is your first response?
- What is your strategic process?
Here is the point where you can chart your course. This is the place where you make the biggest difference in your own life.
- Are you tired of making the same mistakes over and over again? Then evaluate your process. You have one, so it’s good to define it and know what it is.
- When you modify your process is when you exercise the greatest influence over your choices, decisions, and emotions.
- This has proven to be one of the most significant antidotes to depression and anxiety.
Exercise:
Decide on a time this week to sit down with God and examine your process of responding to change?
Next week regroup and discuss what modifications each person will make in response to what they learn.
Group Leader Note:
- Have your group break up in pairs (men with men, women with women) exchange numbers and check in on each other’s progress throughout the week.
