- Is God’s word inspired? All of it? What about the greeting of a letter?
- What kind of town was Corinth?
- What kind of church was the church at Corinth?
- How can the situation at Corinth be encouraging to us?
Body</h2
The Corporate Nature of our Calling
- Who is writing 1 Corinthians? Paul and…?
- “But his {Sosthenes] calling to obscurity was no less by the will of God than Paul’s call to apostleship and historical significance.” Do you think God has called you to “significance” or “obscurity”?
- “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
- Is your identity wrapped up in who you are to the church?
- Do you consider every role you have to be for the benefit of the body?
- Is there a part of your life that cannot be for the benefit of the body?
The Corporate Nature of our Context
- “…called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord…”
- How does the church have a universal identity?
- How does the church have a local identity?
- What are some dangers to not linking these two identities of the church?
- How can we be “The Church in Hinesville”?
- What pulls you away from being accountable to a specific group of people?
The Corporate Nature of our Conflict
- “Paul showed that any Conflict among the Corinthian Church was really Corporate in nature…”
- How can problems at other churches in Hinesville actually affect us?
- How can we increase our awareness that conflicts that affect one member of our church affect the whole church?
- How do you seek someone’s unmerited favor/shalom before addressing a conflict?
- How do we keep from checking out once we leave the meeting?
Conclusion
- Are you “all-in”?
- Have you been tempted to leave your church because of something that’s been difficult?
- Have you left a church on a bad note?
- Have you left a church on no note at all?
- Do you need to stop “dating the church”?
- Is your identity wrapped up in who you are to the church?
- Do you consider every role you have to be for the benefit of the body?
- Is there a part of your life that cannot be for the benefit of the body?