Magdalen Road Church Weekend: The Church as Community

Session One: A Community of Grace
Ephesians 1-2

Reflection
What are your hopes for this weekend?
What positive things do you associate with the word ‘church’?
What negative things do you associate with the word ‘church’?	

Read Ephesians 1:22-23. Christ fills everything, but only the church is his fulness. Christ is head over everything, but only the church is his body. This may be true of some idealised church, but what about real congregations?
To dwell above with saints we love
will be eternal glory.
To dwell below with saints we know, 
well, that’s another story!

Prayer
Pray for God’s blessing on the weekend.
Pray for open hearts.
Pray for people who come with fears or hurts.	

Read Ephesians 1:1-14

Reflection
Paul says God has blessed us ‘with every spiritual blessing’.
Look for all the times Paul says ‘in Christ’ or ‘through Christ’.
List the blessings that Paul identifies as ours in Christ.	

Read Ephesians 2:1-10

We are sons of disobedience and children of wrath. But God has shown us his ‘great love’, his ‘rich mercy’, his ‘incomparable grace’ and his ‘kindness to us in Christ Jesus’. He has adopted us as his children (1:5). Human rulers sometimes pardon criminals. But never at the price of their own son. Nor do they ever then adopt the pardoned criminals into their own family.

What has this to do with community? Everything. A community of grace will be:
1. A passionate community (1:3, 6, 12, 14; 2:6-7)
2. A loving community (1:15) 
3. A humble community (2:8-9)
4. A holy community (2:10)

Reflection
Passionate, loving, humble and holy.
Where is your church strong and where is it weak?
Where are you personally strong and where are you weak?
What steps could you take to become more passionate, loving, humble and holy?