Getting Your Feet Wet

Get Out of the Boat

Leaders’ Guide / Lesson Plan

Get Out of the Boat: Session Three, “Find Your Calling and Get Your Feet Wet!”

Key Points of Session Three:

1. Key Biblical image is Peter’s asking Jesus to call him, and then taking the first step of faith. At some point, there has to be ACTION!

2. God calls each of us to a particular purpose, and gifts each of us in particular ways. This session is all about discovering those gifts and then starting to do it.

I. -Introduce the topic for the week --- Getting some Wet Feet

-Welcome everybody and make any group announcements

-Prayer time --- invite joys and concerns and then offer an opening prayer. It’s great to let someone from the group say the prayer if you’ve talked about this with them beforehand. Don’t put anybody on the spot to pray.

-Starter Questions: Ask your group a couple of the following questions to get the conversation ball rolling:

1. What would cause you to step out of your comfort zone and get your feet wet with something new?

2. What’s the difference between a calling and a career?

3. How do we really know when God is calling us to do something?

II. Play the Video

Talk about the Video –

1. Ortberg ends his story by talking about “Bob.” How does Bob’s story encourage or inspire us?

2. Why is it important to discern God’s calling BEFORE we step out of the boat? Is it ever possible to really discern from within the boat?

3. Is getting out of the boat really just about conjuring up more faith?

It may be important to remind participants that this isn’t just about “making” more faith. It’s about finding enough courage and trust to take a first step --- remember Biblical image of priests taking first step into the Jordan. As we take steps, we learn that God is trustworthy, and we take more steps.

III. Bible Study

Studying Peter ---

1. Divide into two groups, or depending on size of your group, you could do this as a whole.

2. What do we learn about Peter, from the following scenes in his life?

a. Luke 9:28-33 When Peter saw Jesus, Moses and Elijah, he was impulsive, blurting out about building shelters

b. John 18:1-11 As the soldiers and Jewish officials gathered around Jesus to arrest him, Peter cuts off Malchus’s ear. He is rash, and Jesus commands him to put the sword away.

c. Mark 8:31-33 After Jesus taught that he was about to suffer, Peter rebuked Jesus --- what does Jesus’ reaction tell us was wrong with Peter’s reaction?

3. Compare those scriptures with Peter in the boat – Matthew 14:25-28

There’s a big difference – this time Peter asked Jesus, and waited for him to tell him what to do. Jesus was in charge of the situation --- and once he received the call…he walked.

4. The bible doesn’t record the other disciples’ reactions that night in the boat – but if you had been one of the other disciples, how might watching Peter walk toward Jesus have made you feel? What would you have thought? What impact might that moment have made on the rest of your life?

IV. Final Questions for Discussion / Wrap –Up

1. Remind everyone about Ortberg’s exercise with the inflatable raft and the “leap of faith.” Talk about comfort zones, and what it takes to move into something intentionally uncomfortable. How far can we jump on our own?

2. What does Jesus say about our comfort zones regarding our physical needs? See Matthew 6:11 and 28-34 he commands us not to worry about our food, clothing, but to pray for needs one day at a time. We are to walk, step by step, into deepening levels of trust and faith.

3. John Ortberg writes, “If I have the courage to acknowledge my limits and embrace them, I can experience enormous freedom. If I lack this courage, I will be imprisoned by them.” What failures, fears, or limitations may be keeping you from getting out of the boat and discovering God’s calling for your life?

Prayer

Something like this might be appropriate --- a prayer about how God has uniquely gifted each of us – and a call for help as we seek to step out of our comfort zone in faith. Perhaps before the prayer, you could ask members of the group to name specific ways that God may be calling them to take a first step out of the “comfort zone.”