INTRODUCTION: What a privilege it is to partner with you in bringing the message of Sneezing Jesus to your group. The prayer over this book is that it will begin a sneeze heard around the world! You are certainly a part of that as you sneeze it forward. This guide assumes that those in your group have read or are reading Sneezing Jesus together. It is laid out in four sessions and will generally cover three chapters of the book each time you meet. But you can modify that however you like. If conversation is rich and you don’t get all the way through, go an extra week or two. Marinating in what it might look like to be fully human again is worth the time. We’ve produced short films to correspond to different chapters and you’ll have one to play each week. On the last week, you’ll have two. Be sure you’ve downloaded these in advance and have a way to play them. The purpose of meeting around Sneezing Jesus is to promote conversation rather than only being instructional. We’ve found that it is in the sharing of ideas and conversation that concepts become more than theoretical. As we speak and listen to each other, our ideas become more concrete and important to us. So, we’ve provided questions we think will help foster those kinds of conversations. You can use them as a guide but be flexible enough to allow the conversation to go where it leads. There is no right or wrong way to lead a group like this. When we talk about Jesus it’s not as if He’s not hearing us. He’s in our midst. So, talk about Him. And then sneeze Him on everyone you meet! Sneezing Jesus,
Brian Hardin
WEEK ONE Before we even begin: 1. If you were asked to describe Jesus in one word, what would it be?
Chapter 00. Prologue: On Flesh and Words Begin by playing the Sneezing Jesus Prologue film. Conversation Starters: 1. Have you ever thought of Jesus sneezing? Does it make you feel uncomfortable to talk about Jesus humanity? Does it somehow seem irreverent? 2. "What if we were to look at Jesus as the most normal human who ever lived? What if we realized that the process of sanctification—of being set apart, of becoming more like Jesus—doesn’t mean escaping our humanity but rather becoming fully human again?”
Chapter 01. Advent: On Brokenness and Wholeness Chapter Reminder “The Creator Father did not abandon humanity. He was waiting, watching, preparing to redeem the whole devolved mess. But a rescue would require something daring, painful, and unspeakably vulnerable. One day, at the precise moment of His choosing, God would invade the earth to rescue a species He had fashioned in His own image—an image He would not surrender to the darkness. And the invasion would be so counterintuitive, most wouldn’t even understand what had happened until the victory was already won.” Conversation Starters: 1. What does it mean to you to be created in the image of God? 2. What would your life look like if wholeness was completely normal? 3. God chose to slide through a birth canal and come helpless, naked, and screaming into the world like any other human baby—completely vulnerable. What does this say about God’s heart toward humanity? 4. Had it ever occurred to you before that Jesus life wasn’t meant to be perceived as superhuman but rather, fully human? How does that change the term “Christ-like” for you?
Chapter 02. Backward: On Utter Dependence and Kingdoms Chapter Reminder “With the 'Sermon on the Mount’ Jesus laid out nine affirmations comprising nine disruptive juxtapositions. In just a few short moments He had everyone’s complete attention. He was weaving a completely different reality from anything they’d ever experienced. Over and over Jesus attempted to awaken His listeners to the fact that the Kingdom wasn’t going to be what they’d imagined. It had already begun and was already here. The way they were envisioning it was completely inside out.” Conversation Starters 1. Have you ever noticed that in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He was presenting a reality that was largely backward to the way His listeners (including us) usually live? What does that say about humanity as we know it? 2. If you considered that God’s Kingdom was not something yet to come, but instead had already begun and was in and among us now (Luke 17:20-21), how would that change the way you live tomorrow? 3. What would you change if you lost one month from the grand total of your earthly life every time you spoke words of death and darkness into the world or acted in a way that is inhumane?
WEEK TWO
Chapter 03. Weep: On Tear Bottles and Pour-Overs Begin by playing the film: Weep Chapter Reminder Jesus was invited to a dinner party where a woman wiped her tears from Jesus feet with her hair. Conversation Starters 1. To be truly human is to withhold nothing from God. He’s not embarrassed. It’s not awkward for Him. Tears are a direct line to our soul in both joy and pain, and they speak beyond what we know how to say. What soft spots in your heart would bring you to tears if you were to allow yourself to enter them? 2. Tear bottles were used to capture emotional highs and lows in Jesus’ time. They were the peaks and valleys of life. In much of today’s culture we’re taught to suppress our emotions and keep things “calm, cool and collected.” As the hands and feet of Jesus, we must learn to be Christ-like in the lower points of life. Do you have a safe person that you can weep with if necessary? Are you a safe person who can listen without judgment, or gossip?