FOR…   Week 1 |  For Schools

Small Group Discussion Guide

Pastor Christian Hallberg   |   Jeremiah 29:4-7, 11

Watch the full message at pathwaychurch.com/messages

Message Summary

Pathway is kicking off a new series called For… because we want to be known for what we are for, not what we are against, and week one begins with our schools. Pastor Christian Hallberg reminded us that being for our schools is not about buildings or policies but about people: students carrying hard things from home, teachers who give so much of themselves, and the leaders making decisions for thousands of families. In Jeremiah 29, God told his people in exile not to wait for a quick rescue but to build houses, plant gardens, increase rather than decrease, and seek the peace and prosperity of the very city that had conquered them. Christian challenged us to notice how easily we tie God’s goodness to our circumstances, withdraw into a protective bubble, and put conditions on grace that was given to us without conditions. As followers of Jesus, we are called to be residents, not visitors, in the communities God has given us. And Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us that God’s plans to give us hope and a future hold true especially in the dark and uncertain seasons.

Leader Notes

• New series. This is week one of For. Help your group catch the big idea: each week names something God is for and calls us to live it out.
• Keep the focus on people. Christian intentionally steered away from policy and legislation, including the upcoming school vote. If conversation drifts toward politics, gently bring it back to the students, teachers, and staff who need the hope of Jesus.
• School choice is not the point. Christian said plainly he is not against private school or homeschooling. His concern is withdrawal from community. Families in your group may have made different choices; protect the room from turning this into a debate.
• Honor the educators in your group. If anyone works in a school in any role, consider asking them what real support looks like. Their answers may shape how your group responds.
• Be ready for heavier moments. Question 5 invites people to talk about dark or uncertain seasons. Leave room for honesty, and be prepared to pray with anyone who shares something hard.

Icebreaker

Christian shared his second-grade school picture from Peterson Elementary, bowl cut and all. What is a school picture, a school memory, or a teacher that has stuck with you, for better or for worse?

Last Week’s "I Will" Statement

Last weekend closed our One Life series with this challenge:

I will pray boldly for courage to share Jesus with my one.

Did you pray for courage to share Jesus with your one? Did any conversations open up? How might that same courage carry into the schools and people we talk about this week?

Discussion Questions

1.  Visitors or Residents?

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.”

Jeremiah 29:4-5 (NIV)

Christian contrasted visiting a place (the visitor sticker at a school, a quick weekend in Dallas) with being a resident who has to show up on a Tuesday and deal with the traffic. Where in your life are you more of a visitor than a resident? What would it look like to “build houses and settle down” there?

Apply It

Name one place (a school, your neighborhood, your workplace) where you want to move from visitor to resident.

2.  Praying Dangerous Prayers

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)

Christian said there is a brokenness in all of us that ties God’s goodness to our circumstances. We often pray, “God, get me out of this,” but rarely, “God, keep me low,” or “Show me more of your character through what I am living through.” Why are those prayers so hard to pray? When has God grown you through something you wanted him to remove?

Apply It

Choose one difficult circumstance and pray a dangerous prayer over it: “God, what are you teaching me here?”

3.  Bubble or Salt and Light?

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:13-14 (NIV)

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philippians 3:20 (NIV)

Christian named our tendency to build a protective Christian bubble out of a good desire for community, and the fear that “Babylon” might pop it. He described withdrawal as the path of least resistance. Where do you feel the pull to protect yourself or your family in ways that also keep you from people who need Jesus? How do we hold both healthy Christian community and real presence in our communities?

Apply It

Identify one relationship outside your christian circle that you can intentionally invest in.

4.  Shalom Without Conditions

Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

Jeremiah 29:6-7 (NIV)

God told the exiles to increase, not decrease, and to seek the peace and prosperity of the city that had conquered them. Christian explained that the Hebrew word behind “peace and prosperity” is shalom: a God-given wholeness and flourishing that the world cannot give. God was asking his people to take the very shalom he had given them and pour it into a place that had hurt them. Christian said, “The world needs more from you,” and warned that we often attach conditions: I’ll help when they change this policy, or I’ll serve if it brings people to our church. What conditions do we tend to place on our love for our schools and community? What would it look like to give shalom without asking anything back?

Apply It

As a group, choose one practical way to serve a school near you. 

5.  Hope in the Dark, Prayer That Changes Us

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

Jeremiah 29:11-12 (NIV)

Christian reminded us that Jeremiah 29:11 was spoken to people facing seventy years in exile, not a promise that life will be easy. How does that context change the way you hear this verse? He also said prayer changes things, but one of the most important things it changes is our hearts. Whose heart, including your own, might God want to change as you pray for a school and the people in it?

This Week’s "I Will" Statement

I will pray for one school by name and encourage one person in it this week.

Think about who that might be: a student you know, a family member or friend’s child, a teacher, a principal, or a staff member. Pray for them by name, pray for the school they walk into each day, and find one way to let them know they are not alone.

Prayer Prompts

• Pray for students in the schools your group is connected to, by name where you can, especially those carrying something hard from home.
• Pray for teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and support staff, that they would know they are seen, valued, and not carrying the weight alone.
• Pray for principals, administrators, and superintendents, asking God to give them supernatural wisdom for the decisions they make for so many families.
• Ask God to forgive the walls and conditions we put on his grace, and to help us see people in our community as people, not enemies.
• Pray for courage to increase rather than withdraw, and for Pathway to be a church our community would miss if we were gone.

 

Catch up on any message in the For series at pathwaychurch.com/messages