You Y’all will be my witnesses.

CLOSING THE DISTANCE

We will help you share your faith— together as a community.

Our witness for Jesus is often stronger when it’s spoken and lived out as a family— the body of Christ.

    • This series highlights 4 key practices.

    • Each practice is deeply rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus.

    • These practices move the gospel deeper into our communal life. They also provide a magnetic, life-changing witness to the world around us.

LET’S REMEMBER A KEY TERM

BODY LIFE WITNESS

“BODY LIFE WITNESS is happening when someone who is not a Christian encounters the gospel as it is spoken and lived out in the communal life of a group of Christians.”

Today’s Practice

Closing the Distance

OVERVIEW

  1. Watch - Madison and Chandler (Closing the Distance) 1 min

  2. Discuss - Grace and Truth  7-10 min

  3. Watch - The calling of Matthew, The Chosen3 min

  4. Read and Discuss - The Sinner Dinner, Matthew 9:9-13 10 min

  5. Review - Body Life Practices 3 min

  6. Workshop - Body Life on Your Campus 15 min

  7. Presentations - Presenting to the group 10 min

  8. Bicycle Adventures - Does Madison ever learn to ride? 3 min

Watch together

Madison and Chandler

Madison and Chandler are college students in Boston with roots in Texas, Arkansas, and Germany. They will get us started at the beginning of each practice we are learning together.

▼ Read out loud.

When Jesus closed the distance, he came full of grace and truth.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 NIV

▼ Read together.

What do we mean by closing the distance?

  • We may be inclined to limit body life witness to large group meetings, speaker events, or socials.

    But Jesus made a habit of “closing the distance” between his discipleship band and those who would never set foot in a synagogue or come hear him preach a sermon on the mount.

    Jesus not only proclaimed and embodied the gospel to those who came to him, he also “closed the distance” between his community and those who were on the margins:

    • the disabled and sick

    • social outsiders (tax collectors, prostitutes, Roman soldiers)

    • the unseen and vulnerable (elderly, widows, children)

▼ Discuss.

What does closing the distance look like in the life and ministry of Jesus?

  • CLOSING THE DISTANCE involves any intentional effort to move closer in physical and relational proximity to those who do not know Jesus.

    When we close the distance we follow the lead of the one who became flesh (incarnate) and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.

Given Jesus’ example, who would you identify on campus as people or groups that the body of Christ could close the distance with? Why?

▼ Take 5 min and brainstorm this activity as a group.

Let’s talk about Grace and Truth

When Jesus closes the distance and comes near, he always comes full of grace and truth.

Let’s define our terms.

    • The unmerited favor of God toward people

    • Grace is unbroken, uninterrupted, unearned, accepting relationship.

    For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

    Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV

    • That which aligns with reality.

    • God’s truth leads us to what is real, what is accurate and what will lead us to freedom.

    • Ultimate truth is found in the person of Jesus Christ

    “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.“ John 14:6 ESV

Imagine being in a group where the following grace and truth virtues are present or absent.

  • No grace, no truth

  • No grace, all truth

  • All grace, no truth

  • All grace, all truth

▼ Brainstorm

Together, come up with one word that could summarize each of the four groups above.

ex) No grace, all truth = (“description”)

STOP. Scroll past this point only AFTER your group has a word to describe each relationship.

▼ Read.

Grace and Truth continued

Look at the dropdown lists to see how your answers compare to the descriptions listed.

  • SHALLOW

    surface level or non-existent relationships

    MOTTO: “Let’s keep it light.”

  • JUDGMENTAL

    law and moralism

    MOTTO : “If you follow the rules, you are accepted here.”

  • ACCOMMODATION

    do whatever feels right to you

    MOTTO: “Go with the flow” or “You do you”

  • SEEN, KNOWN, and LOVED

    Honesty, transparency and the ability to be vulnerable. Freedom is present because sin is confessed and love and forgiveness are received.

    MOTTO: “You belong, you can receive love and forgiveness here and with God.”

▼ Read below.

Jesus at the sinner dinner

Watch this 3 min clip from the TV series, The Chosen, to get into the world of Matthew 9:9-13, where Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector to follow him. Afterward, you will read the text in the Bible together.

  • 9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

    10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

    12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

    Matthew 9:9-13 NIV

▼ Read below.

▼ Answer the following questions about the “sinner dinner.”

Questions about the story

1. How do we see Jesus “closing the distance” with the different people in this story?

-Matthew

-The “tax collectors and sinners”

-The Pharisees

2. Based on this passage and what you know of Jesus, what do you think Jesus’ motivation is for being at Matthew’s dinner party?

3. Sometimes we can carry an image of a Jesus who is not always full of grace and truth.

How would you describe:

-a “no grace, all truth Jesus” showing up in this story?

-a “no grace, no truth Jesus” showing up in this story?

-an “all grace no truth Jesus” showing up in this story?

-Which of these are you most tempted to believe about Jesus?

4. What about your movement? How do you tend to relate to those outside of the body of Christ?   

▼ Read and review.

BODY LIFE CONCEPTS & PRACTICES

Family: A Key Storyline of the Bible

The main storyline of the Bible involves God’s calling and formation of a people (family) through whom He blesses the world.

Not just “Christ in You” but “You in Christ”

Becoming a Christian involves more than simply inviting Jesus into our life. It includes becoming a part of God’s family.

Communal vs. individual

Body-life witness moves our emphasis from the individual, spiritual, personal, private and futuristic dimension of the gospel to the communal, visible, social, public and present dimensions of the Christian faith.

Family Practices

Certain practices of God’s family take on profound significance because of the way they embody essential elements of the gospel story and draw people into the body of Christ. Practices like:

confession/vulnerability

inviting

welcoming

closing the distance

Workshop 

▼ Read. Get your creative juices flowing.

You have 20mins.

Imagine you are creating a Body Life team for your Cru movement.

Your task is to weave Body Life Witness practices into your Cru movement over the course of the year. At the end of your small group brainstorming time, you will present your campus plan to the large group.

GUIDELINES

  1. Have fun with this!

  2. Be outrageous with your creativity— THINK BIG!!

  3. Keep in mind the body life practices that you learned about to flavor what you present.

TIPS

Use key moments and rhythms of the school year to help you plan.

  • Semester orientation and welcome weeks

  • Fall retreat and winter conferences

  • Holidays and breaks

  • Summer opportunities

Need some ideas?

Here are some real body life practices from real student movements.

  • Two sophomores chose to live together in the dorm in order to build relationships with the incoming freshmen and provide an embodied witness.

  • “For Spring Break, we chose an opportunity that would be appealing to even our non-Christian friends— a Filter of Hope clean water mission.”

  • At one of the first weekly meetings, student leaders wore two name tags. One was their name, the other confessed an area of struggle.

    “My name is Chris”

    “I struggle with people pleasing.”

  • Cru students partnered up and joined a student organization on campus to provide an embodied witness in this community.

  • During Thanksgiving when most students had a place to go home, some Cru students stayed to host a Thanksgiving meal for international students and others who had no place to go.

  • During the first week of class, this Cru movement sponsors PB&J (short for Pizza, Boba & Jesus). This event is a first taste of Cru for many outside the Christian community.

  • Your Cru small group breaks up into groups of 2-3 and seeks to sit with people they don’t know in the dining commons to see what conversations might happen.

Come back to the large group. Choose someone from your group to present your groups ideas.

Big Idea:

When we, as the body of Christ, close the distance we follow the lead of Jesus, the one who became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. or

When the body of Christ closes the distance, it demonstrates Jesus’ relentless pursuit of relationship with us all.