Series Companion for Take Heart

• What is a Series Companion?

  Here we provide space to take notes on the sermon and Scripture text and answer reflection questions that you can discuss with others. When considering the reflection questions, remember that the goal is not to have all the “right” answers―instead, let these questions serve as a starting point for curiosity in your conversation with God and others. See the Appendix of this guide for more resources and opportunities to engage with this study.

  Prayer is an act of courage. This series includes weekly prayers, blessings, and images to use as a part of your prayer practices.

• Weekly Format (and time estimates)
  • REFLECT: Listen to the sermon, read weekly selections and scripture passages, and answer questions. (30-40 min)
  • RELATE: Discuss reflection questions with your small group.  (60 min)
  • PRAY: Close your time by praying for each other.
• Sermon & Reading Schedule

  NB: Sermon schedule is subject to change at the discretion of the pastors.

  Week 1: I Have Overcome the World (John 16:33) – John Mury
  Week 2: Courage for the Cross (Philippians 2:5-11) – Meghan DeJong
  Week 3: Encourage One Another (Hebrews 10:24-25, 3:13) – Dave Swaim
  Week 4: Color-Courageous Discipleship – Michelle Sanchez
  Week 5: Ruth & Naomi (Ruth 1:14-19) – John Mury
  Week 6: Daniel – Michael Taber (Highrock Online only)
  Week 7: Peter – Dave Swaim

• Conversation Covenant

  We hope that all small group discussions are lively and enriching, but sometimes tough topics will be discussed. The Conversation Covenant* is an agreement to hold respect and grace toward all participants within a small group, no matter the conversation. Please adhere to the Conversation Covenant, or think about how to create one that fits your context.

  I pledge:

  • To act in good faith, with curiosity. I will assume the best about my conversation partners when entering into our groups. I will give the benefit of the doubt, recognizing that they may know something I don’t.
  • To show respect. I will show respect. I will be polite and give due regard for the feelings and traditions of others. I understand that I do not have to agree with someone to show them respect.
  • To speak the truth. I won’t use rhetorical tricks to try to win an argument. I will speak what I genuinely believe is the nuanced truth.
  • To aim to discover the truth. I will not enter into a conversation with the purpose of changing the mind of anyone to my way of thinking.
  • To focus on what we can change. I will focus on what we can do differently in the future since we cannot change what we did in the past.
  • To take responsibility for the conversation. I will take responsibility for the quality of the conversation and the abidance of the rules both in principle and in spirit.
  • To follow the covenant even when others fail to do so. I will abide by the rules regardless of whether another person breaks them.
  • To lighten up and approach the conversation in good humor. I recognize that humor is a hallmark of a constructive, generative conversation and take the conversation in good humor.

  *Adapted from https://conversational-leadership.net/conversation-covenant/

Appendix

• Bible Study Tools
  • Blue Letter Bible
  • Bible Gateway
• Icebreaker Questions
  • What was a small win from your week?
  • Share a High/Low from your day or week.
  • On a scale of 1-10, how are you doing coming into this meeting?
  • If you were to describe yourself as a weather forecast today, what would you be? Example: sunny, partly cloudy, rainy with a chance of snow, etc.
  • What song would be the theme track for the day you had?
• Tips for Guiding Conversations
  • Allow everyone space to share. It’s ok to ask what people are thinking even if they don’t volunteer to share right away. But always give people the option to decline to share. Example: “Hey, Fred, you’ve been a little quiet and I’m curious to know what you think. Would you like to share anything?”
  • Remember there aren’t necessarily “right” answers. Encourage participants to simply be curious about what came up for them or others without the pressure of feeling like they “should” have thought or felt anything in particular. Example: Instead of asking “what is this story supposed to be communicating?” ask “what did you notice?”
  • Embrace the differences. Affirm that different people can come to different conclusions regarding the same thing. Example: “It is really interesting that the text reminded Susie of ABC, while it reminded José of XYZ. Both can be present and true.”
  • Adapt to suit your group’s needs. Sometimes conversation is free-flowing and sometimes it’s easier to move through discussion questions one at a time. Do what feels right for your group, but don’t feel pressured to answer/discuss every single question.
  • Encourage curiosity by modeling curiosity! Asking someone “Tell me more about XYZ” can be a really simple but effective tool to go deeper in conversation.
  • Don’t be afraid of silence. It’s natural to want to fill silences or pauses in a conversation. But don’t be afraid to sit in silence with your group members. Sometimes thoughts just need time to percolate, so don’t feel like you have to rush to another question if no one shares immediately.
  • Refer back to the Conversation Covenant. This is the posture that we as Highrock hold as we gather in groups. When the conversation gets tough, you can always refer back to the Conversation Covenant to remind the group that everyone has agreed to abide by this covenant in small group meetings
• General Resources for Individual Support
  • Spiritual Practices
  • Mental Health Resources
  • Boston Area Community Aid
  • Parenting & Kids―Understanding each other through Milestones
• Selected Readings & Works Cited

  Throughout this companion you will find selections of poetry, prayers, and images to reflect on your worth and the worth of others. If there is another reading, image, or piece that resonates with you on a given week, you are welcome to share that with your small group.

  Bowler, Kate with Jessica Richie. Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days. CONVERGENT, 2023.

  Jackson, Drew E., and Jon Batiste. God Speaks through Wombs: Poems on God’s Unexpected Coming. InterVarsity Press, 2021.

  Ruth and Naomi by Kelly Latimore, 2022.  https://kellylatimoreicons.com/

  Pastor Michelle’s book is Color-Courageous Discipleship.

• Prepare

  The following questions are jumping-off points for personal reflection. Engage with them to awaken your awareness to the themes in this sermon series. Pay attention to the questions that stand out to you and look back on them throughout the series to see how God might be speaking to you. Being courageous invites us into vulnerability with God, ourselves, and others.

  Relationships & Reconciliation

  • Consider your own feelings of self-worth. What are some formative narratives that have shaped your sense of self-worth?
  • What has shaped your narratives about other people? What expectations do you have for others?
  • How does your relationship with Jesus or reading of the Bible affect your sense of self-worth?
  • What relationships can you think of that need reconciliation? Do you feel hopeful that reconciliation will come? Why or why not?

  Courage

  • What does courage mean to you? Do you think of yourself as courageous?
  • When have you experienced God in moments of courage?
  • How do you respond to fear and uncertainty? What role does your faith have in these responses? How would you like to be able to face your fears?
  • Spend some time in prayer sharing and listening to how God provides you with courage in your relationships?
• Week 1

  I Have Overcome the World

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing these questions.
  2. What can we infer from the way Jesus talks about our experience of the world? How does this align with your expectations of the world?
  3. What does Jesus’ declaration in this passage mean for us practically? What does it mean for us spiritually?
  4. Taking the notion If we take seriously Jesus’ declaration that he has overcome the world, how could this help foster courage within us? How could it affect our  our actions/decisions/relationships?
  5. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  John 16:33 (NIV)

  I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

  Reflection for Courage

  “for courage when you don’t feel very brave” by Kate Bowler

  God, I have no idea what courage is
  or how to muster it,
  but I know I need it.
  Fear is taking up too much space
  and I have so little bandwidth left.
  God, if courage is a gift, then please give it.
  And if it is a thing for me to learn,
  then show me how.

  For blessed are the brave.
  Those who perform big courageous
  acts of sacrifice.
  Those who move toward fear and danger
  so the rest of us feel a little more safe.

  May we also learn bravery
  in small acts of great love.
  We who grieve, even if we feel like
  we are doing it all wrong.

  We who have received the bad news and take the
  next right step toward what must be done.
  We who sit in the shards of a
  life that has come undone.
  We who hold another’s hands
  on their hardest days.
  We who serve and pour out and keep loving,
  no matter the cost.
  We who live still,
  brave and scared at the same time.

  Perhaps fear is not something to be vanquished,
  but rather that strange friend who tells us
  who we love, and what we can’t live without.

  So bless us, God.
  In our fear. In our shaky hope.
  Because brave looks like that too, sometimes.

• Week 2

  Courage for the Cross

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2. When you think of superhero movies, how does the main character typically overcome the world? Are there ways that trope informs what we expect of Jesus?
  3. Discuss the details of how Jesus overcame the world. What is unexpected?
  4. Who was Jesus saving the world for? What was at stake for him in this pursuit? What is at stake for us as we follow Jesus’ example?
  5. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  Philippians 2 (NIV)

  2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

  5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

  6 Who, being in very nature God,
  did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
  7 rather, he made himself nothing
  by taking the very nature of a servant,
  being made in human likeness.
  8 And being found in appearance as a man,
  he humbled himself
  by becoming obedient to death—
  even death on a cross!

  9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
  and gave him the name that is above every name,
  10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
  in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
  11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
  to the glory of God the Father.

  12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
  14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
  19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. 20 I have no one else like him, who will show genuine concern for your welfare. 21 For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon.

  25 But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. 26 For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. 29 So then, welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30 because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to make up for the help you yourselves could not give me.

  Reflection for Courage

  “for friends who hold us up” by Kate Bowler

  God, you called me to love
  but people are inherently risky.
  Telling my story, being known, asking for help,
  complaining again about
  the thing I worry might sound cliché by now.
  Shouldn’t I be over it already?

  But something is happening when I am known.
  I am becoming stronger somehow.

  I am reminded of the pillars I’ve seen
  holding up cathedrals.
  Flying buttresses, engineered to provide support
  for a fragile wall,
  allowing them to be built taller, more stunning,
  more covered with ornaments
  or filled with stained glass,
  letting all the colorful light dance in.
  The walls would collapse without them there,
  but strengthened, they create something beautiful.

  God, when I am no longer quite so tall and strong,
  give me those who hold me up
  and remind me of who I am and that I’m loved.
  Yes, I’ll get back up again today.
  Yes, I’ll get those kids cereal
  and help my parents with an errand.
  Yes, I’ll go to work or come up with something
  better to do with retirement hours.

  I will try again.
  I know I will,
  because someone else’s absurd faith in me
  is fortifying.

  So, blessed are our flying buttresses.
  For they hold us up
  when everything seems ready to come apart,
  allowing us to face today-
  not because we’re doing it alone-
  but precisely because we aren’t.

• Week 3

  Encourage One Another

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2. How do you feel while receiving encouragement or giving encouragement? Does one feel more vulnerable than the other? Why might that be?
  3. What is vulnerable and courageous about committing to relationships in community? Do you enter communities with expectations of people thinking, believing, or acting all the same?
  4. What are some challenges and blessings you have experienced in communities you have been a part of?
  5. How does difference within a community require us as individuals to be vulnerable and courageous? Share some examples. How does mutual courage mature a community and develop a sense of belonging for everyone?
  6. How does the Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit) model and encourage you to be a community who loves one another and lifts each other up?
  7. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  Hebrews 3:13, 10:24-25  (NIV)

  13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

  24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

  Reflection for Courage

  “Dinner Party” based on Luke 5: 27-31, by Drew E. Jackson

  Clink! Clink!
  Turn down the music a little.
  Let me say a few words as the host.
  A toast! To our dear friend who put this evening together.
  This spread is amazing!
  I’m not even talking about the dinner,
  this collection of sinners is splendid!
  This is my kind of heaven.
  A curator of souls, you are. The most eclectic kind!
  Take a look around. Simply Divine!
  We are the ones who have longed to be filled.
  Others were invited, am I right, friend? But they said that their hunger
  was nil.
  Their loss. So eat your fill, ladies and gents!
  Our friend has promised that there is more where this came from.
  The night is young. The party has barely begun!
  Cheers to you! Mazel Tov!

• Week 4

  Color-Courageous Discipleship

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.
  • Pastor Michelle’s book is Color-Courageous Discipleship.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2. Discuss the importance of courage when it comes to discipleship.
  3. Discuss your own relationship to being color courageous. What part of the Jesus-centered approach to anti-racism that Pastor Michelle discussed caught your attention?
  4. What kind of courageous hopes do you have for racial reconciliation? What laments or doubts do you have about racial reconciliation?
  5. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  TBD

  Reflection for Courage

  “Rise Up My People” based on Luke 5:24-26, by Drew E. Jackson

  Rise up!
  Rise up, my people!
  It’s time to shake the dust.
  It’s time to claim your dignity.
  Enough has been
  enough!

  Rise up!
  Rise up, my people!
  And live in shame no more.
  Go strut into the future light.
  There’s greatness that’s
  in store

  Rise up!
  Rise up, my people!
  And lift your voices high.
  Let’s sing the song that freedom brings.
  Our sound will
  never die

  Rise up!
  Rise up, my people!
  Go on and talk that talk.
  Put swagger in your step today.
  It’s time to rise
  and walk!

• Week 5

  Ruth & Naomi

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2.  Discuss the complexity of Ruth and Naomi’s circumstances. What were the costs of Ruth’s courage?
  3. What is Ruth and Naomi’s courage rooted in? How is their faith and sense of community foundational to each other’s thriving?
  4. How does this story speak courage into your own life and faith journey?
  5. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  Ruth 1:14-19

  14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

  15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

  16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

  19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

  Reflection for Courage

  
• Week 6

  Daniel

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2. Daniel does not separate himself out from the Babylonian culture or live antagonistically towards it, but he also remains distinct. What does that look like, practically, for you in your context?
  3. Are there ways that rejecting “culture” or “the world” can also lead to rejecting people and creating division? Discuss your thoughts.
  4. What about David’s life and practices helped him to be faithful in his convictions and humble towards those around him?
  5. Consider David’s life – how did he model vulnerable courage rather than individualistic or defensive courage? Consider his community as well as his intentional vulnerability with God in how he prays and goes to God for wisdom.
  6. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  TBD

  Reflection for Courage

  “for loving someone when differences divide us” by Kate Bowler

  God, this is a hard one.
  How do I begin to love or even connect
  with someone so different from me?
  How do I bridge this gap?
  It feels just as wrong as the beliefs I abhor.

  Blessed are we who want to be a part
  of the wild and beautiful experiment
  to find a common humanity.
  Who desire to come willingly into the gap
  that separates human from human,
  to love the stranger-
  especially the one we really don’t understand
  and secretly want to set straight.

  Blessed are we, willing to stay in the gap,
  in the contradictions of what we can’t understand.
  To actively work on disproving
  our own intuitions about another,
  in order to begin to see what they see.

  Blessed are we, swimming upstream
  against the current of our own human frailty,
  our fears and emotions,
  and willing to be wrong for a second.
  To reconsider. And hold to our integrity
  with kindness.

  Desiring to see the lay of the land
  and play the course,
  instead of the one we wished it could be.
  And to discover that humility
  is what makes change possible.

  Grace is never neutral.
  It works backwards and forwards in time,
  conspiring to make wrong right.

• Week 7

  Peter

  Reflect

  Before your small group gathering, complete the following and reflect on the discussion questions. These will be the basis for your small group time.

  • Listen to the Sermon on Highrock’s YouTube channel.
  • Read the Scripture passage.
  • After listening to the sermon, read and respond to the reflection for courage.

  Relate

  Use these questions as a launching point for your small group conversation. Open with a check-in/getting-to-know-you question. Group opener options are available in the Appendix.

  1. What from the sermon or reading has brought up new questions? Spend some time as a group sharing and discussing.
  2. Discuss Peter’s journey from a worldly mindset of courage to a Christ-like courage. What aided in that transformation?
  3. Consider your own framework for what it means to be courageous. Like Peter, is there something you can think of that shows a time you grew in your understanding of courage?
  4. How is Peter courageous? Who do his words/actions benefit? Who does he include? What is he willing to give away or risk for his convictions about the gospel of Jesus?
  5. Where would you like to see yourself growing in courageous vulnerability? Are there steps you can take to connect with community, shift your daily spiritual practices, or expose yourself to new situations that you think will help you foster this Jesus-like courage?
  6. Is there anything that makes you hesitant or resistant to wanting to engage with your faith, friends, or community more courageously?
  7. How might you pray courageously in light of the discussion this week? Is there a next step you could take in how you engage, act, or relate to others?

  Pray

  Pray about what came up in your conversation and for the week ahead.

  Scripture

  TBD

  Reflection for Courage

  REFLECTION FOR COURAGE 

  Prayer of St. Brendan the Navigator

  Help me to journey beyond the familiar
  and into the unknown.
  Give me the faith to leave old ways
  and break fresh ground with You.
  Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
  to be stronger than each storm within me.
  I will trust in the darkness and know
  that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
  Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
  and somehow, make my obedience count for You.
  AMEN.