When they changed the topic given to the discussion leaders for care-group lessons from the Corinthians series to the Ephesians series, I was resistant to say the least. I know I have to obey my church leaders, and I did, but my heart wasn’t completely in it at first. One reason was that I had already read the Corinthians series, was familiar with the teachings and had ideas for activities for the rest of them, and really like the series as a practical, applicable, and relevant set of lessons that I would be happy to impart to my fellow members. Another reason was that it became comfortable after the first few lessons, because everything was given in the documents we were provided: the interesting anecdotal stories, the reflection questions, and even suggestions on how to tie it all in with the lives of the intended audiences. I also found a lot of references to the Corinthian series on the Internet, which makes it easy to research and prepare for. And the message outline were always catchy and related to each other. So, I really liked the Corinthian series as a whole.
Then they said we had to change to the Ephesians series right in the middle of the comfy, cushy Corinthians series, and had to teach the Ephesians one, which at my first reading over the documents seemed too cumbersome, not really appropriate (in terms of depth) to the group I was teaching, and not really very informative in terms of the given details in the material. Besides, the outlines given didn’t really seem to well connected to one another, and the overall format of the documents seemed arbitrary and disconnected. I frowned and grumbled over the first lesson, and grudgingly came up with a discussion guide that came out well enough despite my stubbornness.
Subsequently, I had a talk with my leaders, and I shared to them my opinion of the recent events, and of course after clearing things up (they had their reasons, which were completely reasonable, but which I will not reiterate here anymore), I have now also come to accept the Ephesians series. I realized that my initial resistance was not to the lessons themselves, but to the concept of *change*. I was being made to adapt to something else, right in the middle of being comfortable, right in the middle of being already good at what I was doing, which now that I think about it was merely repeating, albeit in an upbeat and interesting manner, somebody else’s insights, somebody else’s reflections, and somebody else’s vision for how each lesson was to be imparted, and that’s not the right thing to do when you are leading a discussion. This is something I should know intrinsically, something I should have realized right from the start, but which I didn’t let myself acknowledge because of my natural stubbornness and innate hardheadedness.
I guess the point of all this (apart from procrastination ^^, er, I have to come up with the discussion today, as in within the next 2 hours), is that I have to work on my attitudes some more, to keep myself from falling into the trap of the bad habits that I had before. I should be more open to new things, consider that there might be other good stuff out there. I should not let the comfort of familiar things keep me from accepting new challenges. I should consider that I really don’t know everything, and that there are others around me who know better, and I should listen to them. I should allow myself to see things from the point of view of other people.
Now, I am going to start on another discussion guide, and I will not let myself be limited to the outline given, hindered by the complexity of the material, or distracted by the Internet. And it will be turn out to be excellent, because it is started and finished with the Kingdom in mind.
Game ^^