Easter 04: Authentic Fidelity

Redemption Church KC Sermon Podcast

1. Without reading ahead to the questions that follow, come up with a mental list of things and people to which you have an authentic fidelity.
How do you know? How were you able it identify these things?
To what things would others who know you say that you have fidelity, based on what they can see of how you spend your time, your energy, and your money?
What do you think of these lists? How similar or dissimilar are they? Why do you think that might be?
2. Whoever you may have thought of as “hired hands” during this week’s sermon, “they” aren’t the only ones who act as hired hands, holding fast to ideologies
over relationships. We do it too. All of us.
Where does that propensity show up most frequently for you? In what contexts and situations do you find it most difficult to forgo some aspect of your own power, privilege, comfort, or authority in favor of a sheep or a relationship right in front of you?
Where do you find yourself most likely to choose your own benefit, your own voice? When might you be most likely to skip out on fidelity when it gets uncomfortable or challenging? In what relationships and dynamics do you most easily and quickly come to the end of what you’re willing to do to act as a shepherd?
3. Tim also preached about the problems we have today in both Christian & civic leadership. He talked about how we are responsible for the leaders we choose in not only society as a whole, but also in our homes and workplaces, our neighborhoods and families, in our churches, and in our communities.
What does it look like to steward that responsibility? What ways can you (do you) utilize your own agency to identify, install, and support leaders who embrace and embody the good shepherd of the kingdom to the best of their ability? What’s at risk should we choose (individually and collectively) to abdicate our responsibility in these spaces?