CONVERSATION STARTERS

Conversation Starters help us dig deeper, connecting Sunday’s sermons with our Monday lives. These prompts have been designed to help Community Groups grow in their relationship with God, with one another, and with their neighbors. Please know that these questions are meant to be a resource to you. You do not have to follow them verbatim or get through them all. We trust you to know your group and to ask the questions based on your group needs.

1) What stood out to you in the sermon?

2) The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus’ answer to the question “Who is my neighbor?” (v. 29). Jesus, unlike the people of His day, says that your “neighbor” is anyone in need, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or socioeconomic status. What are some ways that this understanding of our neighbor is different from how our culture relates to and understands one another?

3) This parable calls us to sacrificial generosity. You can’t be this generous to everyone, but we can be generous toward one person. What makes generosity challenging?

4) This parable calls us to cross ethnic, economic, and religious barriers that may prevent us from loving our neighbor. What do you think are some of the common barriers today that stop Christians from loving their neighbor?

5) It may be hard to admit, but we’ve all been like the person in the parable who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. We have all been in a position of need, whether spiritually, relationally, or financially. What makes it hard for us to admit our needs to other people?

6) Who is one “neighbor” that God may be calling you to show generosity and love toward?

Title: The Good Samaritan

Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Speaker: Tom Nelson, TomN@ChristCommunityKC.org

“A parable is an extended metaphor and as such it is not a delivery system for an idea, but a house in which the reader/listener is invited to take up residence.” - Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes

>> How Are You Seeing Your Neighbor?

"It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit. ... Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory