DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Greyfriars’ Identity

1. When does a person’s identity begin ? Suggest some contemporary issues this touches on.

Read Psalm 139: 1-18, 22-24

2. What does this psalm say about God’s knowledge of us?

Read John 1: 10-12 and John 3: 1-8

3. What do these passages tell us about the origin and nature of a Christian’s new life?

4. Do you agree with Rob Yule’s assertion that churches and institutions have a special identity or character ?

5. How would you describe the ethos or special character of Greyfriars?

6. What do you think of Rob’s initial impressions of Greyfriars? Do you think he has identified distinctive features of our church or not ? What things have changed since he came at the beginning of 2003 ?

7. Do you agree that Rob’s symbol of the survey point is a good description of how God has used Greyfriars over the years ? What do think of his comment that ‘one thing you don’t want in a benchmark is innovation, changing with the times’ ?

8. Compare Greyfriars’ commitment to ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3, AV) with the qualities of the Roman Catholic Church that have been in the news recently with the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

Greyfriars’ Potential

1. ‘Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.’ (Søren Kierkegaard). Share some of your experiences of this sometimes painful aspect of human experience.

2. How is the Bible a book of both heritage and hope ? Share some Bible passages or stories that illustrate your answer ?

Read Ephesians 2: 1-10

3. What difference does it make to realise that God has prepared you beforehand for a life of creativity and distinctive achievements (Ephesians 2: 9-10)? How do we get in touch with God’s unique purposes for our lives ?

4. Share some of your experiences of how God’s service is perfect freedom, surrender to God’s will true happiness ? Can you say, looking back on your life, that your ‘heart’s desires have been granted in what God ordains’ ?

5. What do you think of Rob Yule’s view that Greyfriars has the potential to offer two quite different and yet complementary morning service styles ? What do you think of his statement that some aspects of our Christian heritage are being lost by purely contemporary churches ?

6. Why are young people trained in classical instruments at school not getting a look-in in today’s youth culture ? Do you think there is a potential to have a more high-brow, baroque-style of service at Greyfriars alongside a more contemporary family-friendly one ?

7. How do we establish a more family-friendly service to attract parents and caregivers from our large preschool Play Group ministry ?

8. How could we better resource or support the caring and helping ministries in Greyfriars? Is burn-out more a risk in these ministries than other areas of Christian service ?

9. How can we develop better support for students, business leaders and professionals in Greyfriars? Do you think we should be doing more to highlight workplace Christianity ?

Greyfriars’ Community

1. Can you remember, or describe, when you first heard the term ‘body of Christ’ ?

Read 1 Corinthians 12 : 12 - 27

2. What does the term ‘body of Christ’ mean ? How does it draw attention to important or neglected aspects of the church as a Christian community ?

3. Is Rob Yule right when he describes our age as ‘very individualistic’ ? How can we overcome individualism and develop a greater sense of teamwork and community ?

4. Is the Greyfriars’ community as diverse, welcoming and accepting of people as it should be ? Do strangers have to run too much of a gauntlet to get in ?

5. In your observation, do the churches you know have life in them ? Is the Christian church generally, and Greyfriars in particular, as capable of being renewed and rejuvenated as Rob maintains ? Share examples from your own experience.

6. Are descriptions of church decline as widespread as suggested by the New Zealand media, or is this just a bias of secular commentators ?

7. ‘For a church to grow it doesn’t need programmes,’ says Rob Yule ; ‘it just needs life.’ What do you think of this assertion. Is he right, partly right, or dead wrong ?

8. What do you think of Rob’s motto: ‘One gift releases another’ ? Share some examples of how this might work in practice. What gaps do you see in Greyfriars that if filled would release others’ gifts ? Do helping ministries need a community administrator ? Does Rob really need a PA ?

9. If it’s true that ‘life imparts life’, how can we ensure that Greyfriars and its people have life ?

Greyfriars’ Context

1. What in your view are Greyfriars’ greatest opportunities for outreach and growth ?

Read Romans 15 : 17 - 24

2. Was it exaggeration or truthfulness that led Paul to say, after twenty years evangelising the East Roman Empire, that he had ‘nothing left to do in this part of the world.’ (Romans 15: 23, CEV)? What was his strategy, and what can we learn from it ?

3. What can we learn from Acts 17: 16-23 about Paul’s understanding of the cultural context of the cities he visited ? Is this important for Christian mission ?

4. What do you think of former minister Rev. John Allan’s farewell remark in December 1937 that Greyfriars’ church building ‘ought to be much too small for so closely populated a district’ ? Has our building development matched the growth of central Auckland since then ? Do our facilities serve our mission ? What should we be doing to our buildings to encourage our church to grow ?

5. Does Greyfriars reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of central Auckland ? What implications does your answer have for our mission as a church ?

6. Should Greyfriars be a village church in Mt. Eden or a regional church in central Auckland ? What changes would need to occur to move from the former to the latter ? How far do you travel to come to church ? Do you think God is presenting us with ‘an opportunity for enlargement’ (Isaiah 54: 2-3)?

7. What are some of the pressures of contemporary life in Auckland that provide us with a unique ‘opportunity for evangelism’ and the sharing of our faith in Jesus Christ ?

Greyfriars’ Future

1. What do you think of Rob Yule’s view that the Greek view of time is ‘understandable and rather comforting’, but that the Hebrew view, by contrast, ‘makes room... for a future that is genuinely new’ ?

Read Isaiah 2 : 1 - 5

2. Which is your favourite biblical prophecy? Do you believe there will be a coming age of universal peace throughout the world? Or a coming age of faith?

3. How would you answer the atheist or sceptic who points to evil and suffering in the world as counter-indications of Christian belief in the goodness of God and his purposes ?

4. Would faith and hope have any merit if they were plain-sailing, and didn’t have to face setbacks and counter-indications?

5. What do you think of Greyfriars’ present buildings and the legacy bequeathed to us by our forbears?

6. Study the Greyfriars Statistical Summary. What would you suggest needs to be done to turn around this decline? Is there any contribution you could make, with your personal interests, abilities, or gifts, to assisting in a fresh period of growth and expansion?

7. When is the right time to exercise remedial leadership:

a. when things are doing well,

b. when things are doing badly,

c. when there is still momentum for change, or

d. when disaster is staring us in the face ?

8. Do you think the ‘best is yet to be’ for Greyfriars ? What resources does Christian hope offer for change in difficult or challenging circumstances?