DATES: Sunday 7th August to Sunday 28th August 2022
WHAT WE WANT FOR PEOPLE: To know how to travel through pain and suffering through the framework of Jesus and His Kingdom.
BOOK/THEME: Suffering found in Job
Key points for campaign:
In this campaign, The Uninvited Guest, we are tackling the topic of suffering. Suffering is a part of life but not a part of life that we willingly invite; he is a guest at the table. What do we do with this uninvited guest?
Suffering is the Uninvited Guest. It causes us to ask all sorts of questions about God’s character, His sovereignty, and His love for us. Questions like, “Where is God in our suffering?” “Who is God in my suffering?” and “What is God saying in my suffering?” as well as “How do I respond to other people’s suffering?”
This campaign provides navigation tools for suffering. It will not answer every question we have about suffering but rather offer up a way to navigate suffering with God and with people.
I hear people say sometimes (a lot actually) that is ‘I think God has brought this into my life to teach me something’. I think it’s important to distinguish for people that God doesn’t bring suffering into our lives for the purpose of training. It’s more that in the process of suffering (which is a normal part of human life), He cleverly uses it to show us things, if we engage with Him in it.
Another thought was that the whole reason we are asking the questions, “who is God, where is God and what is God saying?” is because this is a trigger or reminder for us to engage with Him in suffering. We're not to leave Him off the list of the people we connect with in our suffering, or not to go to Him when we have exhausted all other options.
Key application:
For people to feel confident that God is with them in their suffering, that they can ask Him questions, lament and wrestle with Him.
For them to have faith that God does turn the worst of situations around for good. To understand that suffering is a part of life, that we all walk through it, it is common to all humanity. To be able to mercifully respond to the suffering of another.
| RESOURCES: |
Recommended:
The Problem of Pain, CS Lewis
Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering- Timothy Keller
Radical:
If I Were God I’d End All the Pain- John Dickson
Embodied Hope- Kelly M. Kapic
