Church Family Moment for Sunday, October 13, 2024

By Director of Spiritual Formation Rebecca Guzman

1. Check out The Message version of our scripture from Ephesians. Compare it with the NRSVUE version. You can even look at them side by side here. This is one great way to think about what a passage really means. The basis of our 2024 Operating Campaign theme is this part from Ephesians: “But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!” What does looking at the two versions of the passage reveal to you about the meaning? What, particularly, do you notice in the passage quoted?
2. Listen to a readaloud of The Most Thankful Thing by Lisa McCourt. What are you most thankful for? Is it a thing? Why is it important to remember what we are thankful for? Thankfulness is Paul’s gift of love to the Ephesians, of this mother to her little girl, and for us to one another.
3. At Big Youth Group on Sunday, the youth did this activity with an outline of the human body. It works very well for this passage too! Print it out and label the ways that you can be Jesus’ eyes, heart, hands, feet, etc. in the world.
4. Journal, considering the following:
   1. What does it really mean for the church to be the body of Christ?
   2. Where do we get power? What does the Scripture say?
   3. What does it mean to know God personally?
   4. How do we learn what God is calling us to do?