Tough Talks (Part 1-3): Recapping the Essentials of Tough Talks

TTAKING INVENTORY

This week, we are taking a one week hiatus from our Tough Talk series as the ministry staff heads to a conference together. We are blessed to have Kyle Bowen here as a guest preacher and we believe this also a great opportunity for our groups to stop and take inventory of the essentials of tough talks as we’ve reached the half-way point of the series. We want to invite your group to consider the following questions that get to the heart of each sermon so far: 1) Why Have Tough Talks, 2) Receiving Tough Words & 3) Giving Tough Words.

WHY HAVE TOUGH TALKS? (Read Matthew 5:21-26)

  • What is it about those interactions that leads you to coping or functioning in a negative way?

  • Give an example of a time where you’ve seen your anger progress. 

  • What is a way you’ve prioritized or gone to great lengths to reestablish connection with someone? 

RECEIVING TOUGH WORDS (Read Proverbs 15:28-33)

  • What’s a helpful feedback or correction that you’ve grown from?

  • How would you describe the word admonishment? (is it different from Biblical admonishment?)

  • What’s your hunch about how someone you trust would answer the following question about you: “What do others see about myself that I can’t see?”?

GIVING TOUGH WORDS (Read Ephesians 4:10-15)

  • What role do you believe you are called to inhabit in truth-telling (see v. 11)?

    • Do you rely on one specific person to be truth-teller for and to you? Or do you have a multitude of truth-tellers? If you have more than one, how would you categorize them or describe them?

  • How often do you find yourself struggling to give tough words due to relational anxiety?

    • What’s a conversation that went poorly when you have given tough words? 

TO PRAY

Invite your group to consider this question: How are you praying for healing from a tough conversation for the person you gave tough words to and for yourself?...  and then pray together.

Matt DeLano