Discussion Guide for The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers

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These discussion questions relate to Kent Duncan’s sermon: The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers. Learn more about his integrated outreach to blue collar workers by reading his thesis: Facilitating Marketplace Ministry in a Blue-Collar Context.

Tell us something about yourself by answering one of the following questions:

1. What is the most satisfying part of your work?
2. How do you spiritually prepare for your workday?
3. What have to told God recently about your job (the tasks you perform, your job position, your relationship with coworkers)?
4. What do you look forward to as a reward at the end of your work years?

Discussion Questions relating to this week’s sermon: The Gift of Future for Blue Collar Workers

1. Based on the significance of passages like Luke 4:17-21 and Acts 2, our study suggests the very nature of the age in which we live is transformed by the ministry of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Think about these changes and give three or four implications that result.
2. In a recent book, Amy Sherman describes our promised future as marked by two key elements: “justice and shalom.” About justice, she writes, “The justice of God is all about restoring wholeness in relationships – with God and with other human beings.” [1] In what ways do you have opportunity on the job to work toward this justice?
3. A second element Amy identifies in our promised future is “shalom” – something she suggests finds expression in four quadrants: peace with God, self, others, and creation. When you think about this “shalom” as an expression of Christ’s Kingdom, where do you see your work fitting in?
4. Read 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1-4. These Scriptures suggest a more “down to earth” eternity than we might ordinarily think. Rather than the destruction of this earth and our “escape” to heaven, verses like 2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1 describe “a new heaven and a new earth.” In what ways does the thought of an “earthly” eternity change your ideas about the future?
5. Consider Jesus’ resurrected body. In what ways was it like His pre-resurrection body? In what ways was it different? What might Jesus’ glorified body tell us about what life in eternity will be like for us?
6. Describing how our work can be shaped and motivated by an awareness of Christ’s kingdom, Darrell Cosden says, “work becomes a type of eschatological* mandate rather than simply a creation mandate”.[2] How does it change your understanding of work when you focus forward towards our full redemption as compared to looking backward to the stories of Adam and Bezalel? *eschatological: dealing with ultimate or final things; with Christianity, having to do with the destiny of humanity, the Second Coming, or the Last Judgment.
7. When we work giving attention to Christ’s coming Kingdom, Murray Dempster says we participate in “kingdom-signifying deeds of anticipatory transformation.” Further, he declares that these “are the kinds of human effort that God preserves, sanctifies and directs teleologically* toward the future age of God’s redemptive reign.”[3] Think about your work as “prophetic.” How does it change your understanding as you consider the possibility that God will redeem and preserve such labor? *teleological: having to do with ultimate purpose or design.
8. What action might you apply to your work this week in light of these Scriptures?