Week 1 — A People Who Know They Are Chosen
Apr 8, 2026 | Thessalonians
- Paul says the gospel came to the Thessalonians not “in word only” but in power and in the Holy Spirit. Think about your own experience of faith — was there a moment when it moved from something you believed intellectually to something that felt genuinely real and alive? What made the difference?
- Paul celebrates that the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols.” For them, those idols were concrete religious objects with real social and economic consequences for abandoning them. What do you think the modern equivalents look like — not objects, but the structures of trust and desire that function like idols in our lives?
- James K.A. Smith argues that we are shaped more by our habits and practices — what he calls “cultural liturgies” — than by our conscious beliefs. What practices in your daily or weekly life do you think are forming your loves in ways you may not be fully aware of?
- Greg Boyd talks about the idol of political and national identity — the temptation to transfer to earthly powers the hope and trust that belongs only to God. Where do you see that temptation in yourself or in the church broadly?
- Paul describes the Thessalonians’ conversion with three verbs: you turned, you serve, you wait. Where are you in that movement right now? Which of those three feels most alive in your life — and which feels most incomplete?
