About This Guide
The online groups guide is designed as a teaching series companion to foster discussion, study, and prayer, especially in a group setting.
Join a weekly group for a meaningful way to connect to our community.
pdf download
Download this PDF to help you make a plan to follow Jesus in your everyday life, including diagnostic questions to help get you started.
Pickup a print version at our weekly in-person Sunday gatherings.
more Resources
Explore a curated online collection of recommended practices and resources to pursue presence, formation, and love in your life.
Questions about the series or looking for a way to get involved? Contact us.
Love
Teaching Texts: Genesis 1: 1-5
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
Genesis 2: 1-25
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Spirit-empowered Work
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Describe the best day you have had at work in the last month.
What word would you use to describe how you feel about your job?
“How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?” – Dorothy Sayers
Your work matters
It is not at all that God mostly cares about when you pray or read the Scriptures or attend small group or serve in some obviously charitable way.
God cares deeply about what you do with your energy, and creativity, and time. What you make with your hands or dream up with you mind or lead with your heart
It is no small thing that in Jesus the Word become Flesh and dwelt among us and half His life worked as a carpenter or stone mason in relative obscurity.
Your journey through life going to present you with some really important questions.
Potentially none bigger than these three:
What will you worship?
Who will you love?
What will you make? Or do with your time?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver
In Genesis, God shows up on the scene bringing order out of chaos, then we see God pushing back the darkness by the Spirit
This is part of your calling as well.
And it’s true if you are working your dream job in a fully resonant sense of vocation
Or you are doing work you despise at the moment - waiting for something else
Or anything in between
God invites you, God created you to join in
Bringing order out of chaos and pushing back the darkness
The Genesis text say there was work to do:
Cultivation
Exploration
Bringing order - naming the animals
Some aspects of ruling or dominion
“[Human beings] “cultural mandate” - the call to rule, fill, and transform the earth - was established before the Fall and exists independently of our need for redemption. God clearly had an initial basic plan for the development of the newly created earth, which includes human beings cultural involvement.” – David Bruce Hegeman
“Humans are called to work the earth in order to uncover the rich potentialities “hidden” as it were, beneath the earths surface. On the most basic, agricultural level, mankind cuts into the earth and sows seed, which grows up into plants, which, when carefully tended, yield fruit in the appointed seasons. Dig deeper and the earth will yield still more riches; precious stones and gold; ore which can be melted to make metals; and basic chemical raw materials which can be synthesized into pigments and dies for artwork, fertilizers to increase crop yields, or rocket fuel to explore God’s vast universe. Other parts of the creation can be transformed as well. Wood can be fashioned into flutes for the praise of God or timbers for buildings, stones can be dressed and fitted into walls etc.” – David Bruce Hegeman, Plowing in Hope
RULE - FILL - WORK - PRESERVE
Rule - have dominion, bring order, make peace, organize for thriving, this isn’t about using power to manipulate
Recovered dominion is a big part of what Jesus has done for us in the Gospel
Fill - Be fruitful. This call is for the us as a people but also to fill the world with songs and homes and meals and enterprises for good and on and on
Work - make, create, innovate, clean, repair, edit, build, teach, dream, write
Build a cabinet, repair an eye, make as latte, craft a lesson plan, make a pitch deck
Comfort a mother in labor, coach a team, make something beautiful
Sweep a floor, sell a house, argue a case, set a menu
We are made to work
Preserve - protect, guard, recycle, tend, manage resources with love
God has accomplished creation.
Jesus has accomplished our salvation.
“Now that you dont have to be perfect , you can be good.” – John Steinbeck, East of Eden
Where can you bring order to chaos?
Think small
Think medium
Think big
Where can you push back darkness?
Give vision, give light, give hope
Glorify God - represent God in true ways (even if incomplete)
RULE - FILL - WORK - PRESERVE
Here are some questions:
What is wrong? Confront and stop
What is missing? Create and catalyze.
Changes what is possible in a place.
What is good? Celebrate and cultivate
Enjoy. Share. Spend. Watch. Reward.
What is confusing? Clarify and compel.
“It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.” – Oscar Romero, priest in El Salvador
Pray over our endeavors
Work challenges Confusion or Opportunities
Pray for each other
