What Minds Are For

Sunday, August 16, 2026

Scriptures:

• Sermon Summary

• Discussion Guide

  Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions and reflections are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
  
  Summer Discussion Guide 2026

  If your group is meeting this summer and wants to talk about the sermons, here are a few questions that you could use to engage with our teaching. 

  • What specific part of the message resonated with you the most? Why do you think that particular part, or idea, or story caught your attention? 

  • Did the sermon speak into a particular struggle or question in your life or your faith journey right now?

  • How did the message challenge or encourage you personally?
    And what do you think the application could be for our church community? Was there anything that could strengthen or stretch us as a church? 

  • How did the exposition of the scriptures used in the sermon provide you with a new perspective of deeper understanding?

  ——
  It is good to remember that the conversation experience in the group is shaped by the personal stories of those who participate in it and how willing the people are to be open and vulnerable in the group.

  So if you’re leading the discussion, feel free to model and encourage person-centred and story-centred sharing by reflecting on how some parts of the sermon resonate with you personally.
  ——

  Additionally, what contributes to a more authentic group discussion is when people can share not about the abstract and theoretical applications, but one or two practical things they are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion. 

  So, you can end your time together with this question: 

  • What is one thing you are taking away from either the sermon or the discussion we’ve just had?

• Service Songs & Prayers

  CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 29

  MUSIC Curated by Rebecca KS.
  Hillsong Worship - Cornerstone
  Mission House - Faith More Precious Than Gold
  Bethel Music - Goodness Of God
  Elevation Worship - Call God
  
  PRAYER: BLESSING THE CHILDREN
  Written by Yelena Pakhomova

  Let’s pray for the children in our own lives - the little and grown children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, children of friends, and children who live next door.

  Please join me in a prayer of blessing:

  Loving God,

  Today we want to bless the children in our lives.

  We love them, which means we often live

  with this tension of surprising joy and sudden anxiety,

  as the love and hope we have for them coexist

  with concern and worry for their future.

  So as we hold this tension,

  we bless them with curiosity and joy,

  with daring and discovery,

  as they fall in love with creation

  in their own unique and beautiful ways.

  God, as they grow and become,

  may they have a profound, unquestioned sense

  of belonging in your world.

  Gentle Christ,

  We bless the children in our lives,

  especially those who struggle,

  those who aren’t well,

  those who move through the world with more challenges,

  who encounter visible and invisible barriers

  in their bodies, their minds, and the world around them.

  We bless them with courage and hope,

  with safety and protection,

  with friendship and community.

  God, as they grow and become,

  may they be surrounded by love

  that lifts them up and makes way for them.

  Spirit of wisdom,

  We bless the children in our lives

  in all the learning that comes their way,

  and in the learning they intentionally seek out.

  We bless them in their sense of agency,

  in choosing their own paths,

  in finding good mentors

  in growing deeper in knowledge and wider in love.

  God, as they grow and become,

  May they learn to trust their hearts

  and may your Spirit guide them, always.

  Amen.
  
  SERIES BUMPER
  Soapbox Sundays