SHIFT taking a break until October 6th

Since Shift began over a year ago we’ve endeavored to fulfill our vision for young adults at City Church:

Shift exists for young adults seeking deeper connections in Christ-centered community.

We’ve met a lot of amazing people in their journey in Life and in Christ. People who’ve pursued new job opportunities, completed their degrees, been deployed or transferred, gotten engaged, married, and expanded their families with children. It seems SHIFT could not have been a more appropriate name for this group. Our lives are full of transition, change, growth, and movement.

Shift itself is in a period of reflection and evaluation and we have decided that Shift will be taking a short break. Shift will not be meeting for the remainder of August or all of September and will resume on Sunday, October 6th.

As we approach October 6th be on the lookout for more information through email, our Facebook page or on this blog on what you can expect when Shift starts back up.

p.s. We did want to mention two upcoming opportunities for us to get together so we can remain connected during our break. The first is a San Antonio Missions baseball game on Saturday, August 24th. The second is a trip to the San Antonio Zoo on Saturday, September 7th. We will send a separate email in a day or two with more information for these two happenings.

Blessings,

Shift

Personal Growth: Week 3 Discussion Questions

Yesterday, most of the groups did not have time to get to all the discussion questions so, as promised, here they are for you to reflect on.

Expectations: Sorting Out Good and Bad

1. Henry shares an illustration from his own life about how he judges himself when he doesn’t live up to his ideal. Think of a situation this week when you didn’t meet your own expectations. What feelings did you experience?

2. A crucial point in our relationships is when we first begin to notice imperfections in other people or they fail us in some way. Henry states that maturity is when we don’t allow the imperfection or failure to destroy the good we have in the relationship. How does the Gospel help us in this regard?

3. Henry states that the experience of acceptance and forgiveness from others and God is necessary before we can forgive and accept ourselves. The Gospel message is clearly a message of forgiveness and acceptance, but even the best churches struggle at times to be accepting communities. Why do you think that is the case?

4. We become whole people as we bring the bad parts of ourselves out in the open and experience acceptance and forgiveness. Historically, the Christian practice of confession has been the means to this path. How can we recover this practice in our communities?

5. Henry states that we have to embrace the pain of life to grow, and that the pattern of the Christian life is that death always precedes resurrection. Can you think of a time in your life where an experience of pain and suffering was followed by fresh, new life? How has that experience impacted your perspective on challenges in life?

Resources on Doctrine of God

This past Sunday we kicked off our Doctrine Series with Pastor John Witte who presented to us the following thought:

If the God of the Bible exists, we cannot make sense of our lives apart from him.

Pastor Witte mentioned some great resources for anyone wanting to further study the Doctrine of God.  So if you missed out or didn’t get the handout we wanted to list them here for you:

1. www.reasonablefaith.org
2. www.reasonablefaith.org/does-god-exist-1
3. Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig
4. www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs
5. Christian Theology: An Introduction by Alister E. McGrath, pp. 205-246.
6. Wikipedia: Classical Arguments for the Existence of God: Aquinas’ Five Ways