Small Group Discussion Questions
Session 1 | Friday
Session 2 | Saturday Morning
Session 3 | Saturday Evening
Session 4 | Sunday
Paul’s idea of knowing Christ means to live with the purpose of Christ and his Kingdom in everything that he does. For example, he is willing to be flogged and jailed when he does not have to.
- Are you tempted to keep up appearances? Bring honor to the family/self. To avoid shame
- Do you feel the pressure to do that?
- In what ways have you experienced this recently?
- What is your current goal/telos in life? How do you live your life to reach those goals?
Session 2 | Saturday Morning
- What robs you of joy in life? What is your situation/life stage? (parents of young kids: valley of diapers? No energy for life)
- How has the flesh, the sinful nature driven you to find joy?
- How has success distorted your God-given image/worth/identity? How has the sinful nature made you feel when you have failed?
- What does it look like to rejoice in the Lord given your current situation?
Session 3 | Saturday Evening
- If you had to boast, name 3 things from your life that are worldly boasts.
- Is it easy or hard to consider those things in your life “garbage”? Why? What makes it easy? What makes it hard?
- For those who have children or grandchildren, (they could not be adults), how much does their future success affect your current “goals” in life? How do these goals affect your daily/weekly joy, stress levels, mental health, etc.?
- Referring to the metaphor of a homeless man and garbage man, do you think that purpose would make a difference in the way you lived? In the way you raise your children? In the way you pursue those worldly boasts?
Session 4 | Sunday
Paul’s idea of knowing Christ means to live with the purpose of Christ and his Kingdom in everything that he does. For example, he is willing to be flogged and jailed when he does not have to.
- Would you have given up your right as a Roman citizen in Paul’s situation? Why or why not? (show of hands - yes or no)
- What do you think Paul is thinking and feeling when he is being flogged? Joy? Regret? Resentment?
- What empowers Paul to take on the beating? What is his goal/telos in this situation?
- How would the goal/telos “I want to know Christ” change the way you view: marriage, children, work, money, injustice, etc.
Check In | Newton
Registration and all of the sessions will be at Newton. Newton (circled yellow on the map below) is located on Conference Drive, past the Welcome Center and across from the main parking lot.
Packing List
Bring reusable water bottle or cup, Bible, pen.
Bring soap, shampoo, toiletries.
Mt. Hermon provides towels and bedding (make your own bed)
The weather is going to be chilly, so be sure to pack warm comfortable clothing.
Packing List
Bring reusable water bottle or cup, Bible, pen.
Bring soap, shampoo, toiletries.
Mt. Hermon provides towels and bedding (make your own bed)
The weather is going to be chilly, so be sure to pack warm comfortable clothing.
Press On
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
Philippians 3:12-14 NIV
Philippians 3:12-14 NIV
Main Speaker and Guest Leaders
Here's who's serving at retreat this year.
Pastor Eugene Chu
Main Speaker |
Tori Roche
Worship Leader |
Percival Amayun
Worship Leader |
Pastor Eugene's Bio:
Hello everyone! My name is Eugene Chu. My wife Priscilla and I have two children, one living and working in NYC and another is a nursing student at Azusa Pacific University. Priscilla and I met at UCSD where I majored in Psychology and minored in InterVarsity leadership. After graduation, I served on staff with InterVarsity for three years at both UCSD and USD. I would later receive an M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary and served at the Chinese Church in Christ in Milpitas for 26 years. I was called by God to serve the local church. I chose to serve the immigrant Chinese church as a pastor for exactly half of my life. Now, Priscilla and I attend a mixed racial church near where we live and where we have been friends with a few people for over 20 years. That's my hope and vision for the local church. Mature and live life for God's kingdom, together. At whatever stage you are at, the church is God's gift and spiritual family to us. God works through the life of the church body. For fun, I love traveling and experiencing the world's different cultures, sites, people, and foods. I love planning and logistics which is why I chose to transition from pastoring to serving InterVarsity again as a Field Operations Director. Strangely, it feels like the timing is right, too. "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." Proverbs 16:9
Hello everyone! My name is Eugene Chu. My wife Priscilla and I have two children, one living and working in NYC and another is a nursing student at Azusa Pacific University. Priscilla and I met at UCSD where I majored in Psychology and minored in InterVarsity leadership. After graduation, I served on staff with InterVarsity for three years at both UCSD and USD. I would later receive an M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary and served at the Chinese Church in Christ in Milpitas for 26 years. I was called by God to serve the local church. I chose to serve the immigrant Chinese church as a pastor for exactly half of my life. Now, Priscilla and I attend a mixed racial church near where we live and where we have been friends with a few people for over 20 years. That's my hope and vision for the local church. Mature and live life for God's kingdom, together. At whatever stage you are at, the church is God's gift and spiritual family to us. God works through the life of the church body. For fun, I love traveling and experiencing the world's different cultures, sites, people, and foods. I love planning and logistics which is why I chose to transition from pastoring to serving InterVarsity again as a Field Operations Director. Strangely, it feels like the timing is right, too. "In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps." Proverbs 16:9
Saturday 1:30pm Workshop
"Aging: Do We Have To?"
Instructor: Stephen Hwang
Saturday Free Time Activities
|
Fieldhouse Hours
Saturday: 1:30 pm – 5:30 pm |
Heartwood Coffee Bar
Heartwood is located in Central Lounge is generally open Saturday and Sunday mornings and Saturday afternoons. |
Fitness Center
Located below Youth Memorial, the Fitness Center is open from 5:30 am - 11:00 pm. Guests must be at least 16 years of age. Students ages 16 & 17 must be accompanied by someone over the age of 18. |
The Childcare Team
Here's who's gonna teach the kids this year!
Sarah Liu |
Amy Duong |
Cynthia Chen |
Schedule
|
Friday 4/5
4:30 PM Registration 6:30 PM Dinner 7:30 PM Session #1 9:00 PM Small Groups 10:00 PM Quiet Hours |
Saturday 4/6
7:00 AM Prayer Room 8:00 AM Breakfast 9:30 AM Session #2 11:30 AM Small Groups 12:30 PM Lunch 1:30 PM Workshop 3:00 PM Free Time 6:00 PM Dinner 7:00 PM Session #3 9:00 PM Small Groups and Fireplace 10:00 PM Quiet Hours |
Sunday 4/7
7:00 AM Prayer Room 8:00 AM Breakfast 9:30 AM Session #4 11:00 AM Testimony 12:30 PM Lunch 2:00 PM Checkout |
Devotions
Friday Devotion
Philippians 3:1-11 NIV
1Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Warren W. Wiersbe, an American pastor, and Bible teacher said: “Like most religious people today, Paul had enough morality to keep him out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven. It was not the bad things that kept Paul away from Jesus, it was the good things. He had to lose his religion to find his salvation.
Saturday Devotion
Philippians 2:5-11 NIV
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
St. Augustine says the mother of all sins is pride. The path to unity is through humility.
Sunday Devotion
Philippians 3:12-14 NIV
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
The Christian life isn’t a 100 meter dash, it’s a lifelong marathon. You need the mentality of a long-distance runner if you’re going to make it to the finish line. You may be a Christian for 40 or 50 years, but you can’t start thinking, “I don’t need to grow any more” and stop running.
Philippians 3:1-11 NIV
1Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Warren W. Wiersbe, an American pastor, and Bible teacher said: “Like most religious people today, Paul had enough morality to keep him out of trouble, but not enough righteousness to get him into heaven. It was not the bad things that kept Paul away from Jesus, it was the good things. He had to lose his religion to find his salvation.
- What are some good things that have kept you away from Jesus?
- Do you ever feel "less Christian" when you sin? Do you feel that God loves you less because of something you've done?
- Where can you find God in the middle of difficult circumstances?
Saturday Devotion
Philippians 2:5-11 NIV
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death--
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."
St. Augustine says the mother of all sins is pride. The path to unity is through humility.
- Think of the example of Jesus “humbling Himself.” Have you experienced someone humbling themselves to serve you?
- What is one way that you can serve someone here at retreat?
- What is one way you can serve someone in your family? In your work or school or neighborhood? In your church?"
Sunday Devotion
Philippians 3:12-14 NIV
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
The Christian life isn’t a 100 meter dash, it’s a lifelong marathon. You need the mentality of a long-distance runner if you’re going to make it to the finish line. You may be a Christian for 40 or 50 years, but you can’t start thinking, “I don’t need to grow any more” and stop running.
- How can you press on toward the goal of knowing Christ and becoming more like Him?
What are things in your life that keep you from knowing God better?
How does God speak to the regrets and disappointment in our hearts?
