People Matter, Unity Matters, Obedience Matters

In one paragraph

Pastor Mark closed out the church's year-long study of Romans by working through the final chapter, Romans 16. Rather than skipping the long list of names the way most readers do, he slowed down and treated each person as someone worth knowing, using that list to show what the early church actually looked like from the inside. Pastor Mark opened with a name game, asking the congregation to picture...

Read together

1. Romans 16:1-27 the primary passage preached through in its entirety
2. John 17 Jesus's high priestly prayer quoted for unity: 'sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth' and 'that they may all be one'
3. Mark 15:21 Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, pressed into service to bear Jesus's cross

Talk about it

1. Pastor Jason spent time on the name game to help us slow down and actually hear the list of people in Romans 16. What does it tell us about Paul, and about God, that the Holy Spirit preserved the names of 28 individual people in this passage?
2. Pastor Jason pointed out that roughly a quarter of the people named in Romans 16 are women, and almost every one of them is described as a hard worker. What does that say to us about how the church should recognize and receive the work that women do?
3. Priscilla and Aquila risked their own necks for Paul, and all the Gentile churches were grateful for them even though they were Jewish-background believers. What does their story say about how ethnic or cultural background should, or should not, shape how we receive fellow believers?
4. Pastor Jason said that anyone or anything breaking down our unity in Christ should make us suspicious, pointing to Jesus praying for unity on the night He was betrayed. Where have you seen division creep into a church, and what did it cost that community?
5. The benediction says God is able to establish us according to the gospel, and that true faith leads to obedience, with Pastor Jason saying doing follows being and not the other way around. What does that look like practically in your own life right now?