tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386222332008-05-12T15:18:58.372-05:00Becky Laswellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621416936047739365noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-46139571391786935252008-05-12T12:03:00.006-05:002008-05-12T12:17:10.141-05:00

Mother's Day The Power of Words by John and Kathy Burke, May 11, 2008 In this message, John and Kathy Burke both spoke about what words can do, for better and for worse. These questions will ask you about both sides of the power of words in your life, look how words have effected you, and how, perhaps, your words have effected others. You’ll have to do some shuffling through your memory to think

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-35920944481922459972008-05-05T07:46:00.004-05:002008-05-05T08:00:58.864-05:00

Series: Heart Check Parable of the Soil by John Burke, May 4, 2008 1. In this message John talked about Jesus’ “parable of the soils” (see Bible passages below). He called it a “Heart check”. We’ll come back to that idea, but let’s start where John started. At the beginning of the message, John showed a video of someone trying to give away money at a street corner. Almost no one would take it.

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-77502600566357305392008-04-28T07:36:00.009-05:002008-05-05T08:04:18.433-05:00

Series: Mad Love Foundations for Compatabiltiy by Rick Shurtz, April 27, 2008 In this message, Rick talked about building foundations for love and compatibility in relationships, but he started with the analogy of foundations in a house. Let’s start there too. 1. Have you ever lived in a house (or do you now) where the builder did not do such a hot job on construction? If so, that probably

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-38335282783804965642008-04-21T09:22:00.010-05:002008-04-21T16:09:33.503-05:00

Series: Mad Love Dealing with Conflict by Ted Beasley, April 20, 2008 We’ve spent a few weeks talking about what creates “Mad Love”… the type of loving relationships that God wants for us. This week Ted looked at something that can seriously derail love: conflict. 1. Ted started by asking us whether we could think of any old photos of special, love-filled moments with people from our past. Think

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-47934865398950784162008-04-15T07:21:00.006-05:002008-04-15T07:40:29.607-05:00

Series: Mad Love Committment by John Burke, April 13, 2008 Continuing this series about building loving relationships, John talked about the make-it-or-break-it issue of commitment… something that’s missing in so many types of relationships. 1. John mentioned Chip Ingram’s book (see below) where he noted that a lot of our ideas about how love commitments happen come from movies, TV, songs, etc.

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-30464115079299827842008-04-06T10:06:00.008-05:002008-04-07T05:32:29.852-05:00

Series: Mad Love Flexibility by John Burke, April 6, 2008 Last week John talked about how listening and understanding love languages helps build loving relationships – this week his focus was on being open to change. 1. Let’s start with a flashback to last week: If you were in a group discussion, the wrap up asked you to identify and change something about the way you listen to others, or way

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-28022052411453501872008-04-01T17:17:00.007-05:002008-04-01T17:32:18.899-05:00

Series: Mad Love/Everlasting Love Communication by John Burke, March 30, 2008 Jesus taught that loving God and loving others is the core of a new life with Him. In this series, the focus is on loving others and clearly, communication enormously important to that. In fact, as John said in his message, communication is at the heart of our ability both to express love and to receive love. 1. John

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-42631224981732669132008-03-25T15:27:00.007-05:002008-04-06T10:19:38.881-05:00

The Prodigal - John Burke, March 23, 2008 Not your typical Easter message… but then Gateway isn’t your typical church. The service revolved around a contemporary, musical version of the Prodigal Son. But in this case it was the Prodigal Daughter and the music was all U2 (and the band and singers were GOOD!) 1. U2 has some pretty high message songs – and we hear a lot of their stuff around

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-64062144336219446482008-03-16T23:55:00.007-05:002008-03-17T00:14:47.601-05:00

Series: Famous Last Words Hate by John Burke - March 16, 2008 John opened with a challenge, “Does faith require courage?” And, he told us about Ruby Bridges, the courageous little girl in the 60’s who went to school in New Orleans when the city began to open its doors to African American children. Every day she passed crowds of people shaking their fists at her, yelling at her, and threatening

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-1831966561963034892008-03-09T09:16:00.008-05:002008-03-10T16:28:41.113-05:00

Series: Famous Last Words Obedience by Rick Shurtz - March 9, 2008 In this message, Rick focused on Jesus’ directions to his disciples (and us) to stay connected to Him. 1. But before we get there… let’s start where Rick started: a dilemma. Rick’s was whether to visit the Texas capital with his daughter or work more on the topic this week. Have you had any dilemmas this week – or further back -

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-12255117684361780292008-03-02T18:45:00.013-06:002008-03-02T22:45:49.835-06:00

Series: Famous Last Words About God by John Burke, March 2, 2008 In this message, John talked about what might be the most important “Last Words” ever spoken: “ Who do you say I am?” This message is about Jesus’ claim that He and God are One. Is it true? In this discussion you’ll have a chance to explore this question more. Some of these questions are “out there”, but give them a try. 1. Before

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-40193882347814167112008-02-24T08:07:00.010-06:002008-02-25T14:38:47.003-06:00

Series: Famous Last Words About Love by John Burke, February 24, 2008 Famous last words… this will be interesting: What were the main ideas that Jesus wanted his disciples to learn before He left? In this message, John explores one of those: What is love. That’s sure something worth learning. 1. In last week’s Second Helpings you started by thinking of a song that had fired you up to change the

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-36804683418423283052008-02-20T09:34:00.006-06:002008-02-20T09:56:50.778-06:00

If you've been enjoying these Second Helpings posts each week, and are looking for a way to help make them more readily available to even more people, please consider the volunteer opportunities below. One-time request: We're looking to improve how the Second Helpings discussion questions are integrated with the audio files from the Sunday messages that are posted online. We have an idea for

Becky Laswellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07621416936047739365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-16794855842541247852008-02-18T12:13:00.009-06:002008-02-24T07:50:52.672-06:00

Series: Next Serve by Ted Beasley, February 17, 2008 For this conclusion of the Next series, Ted gave us the challenge of making serving one of our next steps, but he also show us that it may not be as hard as we think. 1. Ted opened by talking about some of the music that fired him up when he was young and impressionable… made him want to change the world. Give that a shot in the group: can

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-47827546585857640612008-02-10T08:37:00.000-06:002008-02-11T05:49:21.451-06:00

Could your “Next Step” in growth be to increase your impact on the world around you? This was the theme John developed in the message “Impact”. Jesus said that we are not supposed to hide our “light”. No doubt, showing real care for other people that Jesus loves is part of the way we shine out His light in our lives. In this discussion you can explore different ways to shine on. 1. Start by

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-76438454432692189802008-02-02T09:14:00.000-06:002008-02-10T23:04:57.596-06:00

Series: Next Grow by John Burke, February 3, 2008 In this message, John really jumped into the heart of the “Next” series: Figuring out where you are now in your spiritual journey and then deciding how to take the next step. This discussion/exercise will probably be much more useful for you if you heard the message on Sunday and took a look at the Next Step options in the program (or checked it

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-6887298737686435392008-01-27T22:54:00.000-06:002008-01-27T23:36:02.106-06:00

Series: Next Connect by John Burke, January 27, 2008 We’re starting a new series this week designed to help us figure out where we are on our spiritual journey, and where we need to be going next. John’s message to day started where the original church started directly after Jesus sent the Holy Spirit: they started together. At the heart of the early church was connection. So that’s the focus

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-43468714141901548622008-01-19T11:32:00.000-06:002008-01-21T19:55:51.474-06:00

Series: Bandwidth Energize by Ted Beasley - January 20, 2008 If we want more bandwidth in our relationship with God, we need to find a way to energize the relationship. How to do that was Ted’s focus in this message. Based on Bill Hybel’s book Spiritual Pathways, Ted outlined seven possible approaches to capturing or recapturing a more alive spiritual connection. 1. Most this discussion will be

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-7090607960349328102008-01-14T14:07:00.000-06:002008-01-14T15:19:58.566-06:00

Bandwidth Restore by John Burke, January 13, 2008 Last week John talked about the importance of getting and applying God’s priorities to how we spend our time. In this message John talked about how to begin to get God’s perspective. 1. We all have other people who have ideas about how we should spend our time… but sometimes we assume people want us to spend our time on something that is really

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-66547357850932590952008-01-07T17:59:00.000-06:002008-01-07T18:12:45.209-06:00

Bandwidth Simplfy by John Burke, January 6, 2008 Bandwidth… don’t we all think we need more and more and more of it? But it doesn’t work: time is still a limited commodity. As we keep adding things to our busy lives, often we end up cutting something out… and then feeling stressed and guilty that we’re not doing it all. Is there any hope to find a way to get away from the stress and get it all “

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-53965651781026433432008-01-03T13:21:00.000-06:002008-01-03T13:36:16.146-06:00

The End by Betty Blake Churchill, December 30, 2007 In this message, Betty Blake Churchill asked us to look at plans for the new year in a new way by asking ourselves what needs are really behind what we hope to accomplish in the new year. We’ll get to asking that question here (and you’ll need some paper to answer) , but let’s start where Betty Blake started: the two kinds of people: those who

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-15968307533396937622007-12-24T09:52:00.000-06:002007-12-24T10:28:37.205-06:00

Series: Virtual Nativity Shepherds by John Burke, December 23, 2007 1. Merry Christmas! Since this is a Christmas message, we'll talk about both the first Christmas and our own Christmas experiences. So, what HAVE your own Christmas' been like. Take some time to share each of your faviorite Christmas memory/memories: anticipations, preparations, traditions, feelings, events... whatever you

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-9746908471708402222007-12-17T10:49:00.000-06:002007-12-17T11:04:06.501-06:00

Series: Virtual Nativity Wise Men by Ted Beasley, December 16, 2007 1. This Virtual Nativity series has challenged us to think about the Christmas story with new eyes. One of the things Ted challenged us with at the beginning of his message is to be real about our doubts. So before we get into a discussion of the wise men, let’s talk about doubts. Often it is in asking questions that we get new

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-645934031062159452007-12-10T16:50:00.000-06:002007-12-10T17:03:33.045-06:00

Series: Virtual Nativity Joseph by Ted Beasley, December 9, 2007 In this message, Ted painted a picture of a “life interrupted”: In so many ways, Joseph’s life did not turn out as he had probably planned it. That will be the theme for this discussion too: How have our lives been interrupted and how do we respond? 1. Start by getting Joseph into better focus. What is our “typical” view of

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38622233.post-36842735305243620602007-12-02T07:39:00.000-06:002007-12-02T07:58:55.092-06:00

Series: Virtual Nativity Mary - Humility by John Burke, December 2, 2007 As we begin this series on the birth of Jesus, John focused on Mary. Often we don’t look at her as a real person… but let’s try to do that. What was it like for Mary to get such a big surprise? Clearly it must have come as a shock to Mary to hear that she would become pregnant and that God’s plan was that she be the mother

Linda Gerberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02947244264496446708noreply@blogger.com