Session 3

Session 3: Do I Belong Here?

Time: Each session is designed to be 45-60 minutes.
Supplies: Notebook, pencil/pen, technology to watch the videos

Biblical Texts 

Luke 19:1-10
John 4:1-42

Facilitator’s Notes

Key learnings for this session:

  • We can all belong and have value.
  • Jesus wants to be in relationship with us.
  • Jesus invites us into renewed relationship with each other.
  • Connection is important. 

Observations to highlight:

  • In whom did Jesus invest his time? 
  • What symbols were used as an opportunity or invitation?
  • How did the people respond to Jesus when they saw whom he was spending time with?

Opportunities to present:

Where are the spaces in your context that give you the opportunity…?

  • To welcome the stranger.
  • To listen to other stories without judgment.
  • To expand who is welcome and a contributor in your “space.”
  • To not underestimate a person’s capacity based on a one-sided experience.

Opening Prayer 

Based on Isaiah 55 (The Message)

Reader: “I don’t think the way you think.
    The way you work isn’t the way I work.”
        —God’s Decree.

Community: Lord, renew my thinking.

Reader:
“For as the sky soars high above earth,
    so the way I work surpasses the way you work,
    and the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies
    and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of making things grow and blossom,
    producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words that come out of my mouth
    not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
    they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.”

Community: Lord, help me to respond in faith, hope and love to the work that is before me today.

Amen.

View “Do I Belong Here?” Video Sermonette by Hyacinth Stevens. (Length: 8 minutes – Link)

View Young Adult Video by Abby Endashaw. (Length: 6 minutes – Link)

Group Discussion Questions 

Use the “We want to know” resource questions from the Introduction.

Think About It 

In the book Dream With Me by John M. Perkins, Perkins talks about segregation in the South and having to receive segregated medical care for his son, who was born with polio. He talks about going to the same doctors office where there were separate waiting rooms for white and Black people, with paneling separating the two. In this same chapter of the book, side-by-side (but not together), he shares a story about how he purchased  a medical clinic where white and Black people were serviced equally. His first action in the medical facility he bought was to take a sledgehammer to the dividing wall. 

Divided no more, we all “belong here.” Perkins said it felt good! It reminded him of what the apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:14-16, “Christ has made peace between Jew and Gentiles and he has united us by breaking down the wall of hostility that separated us.” What needs to come down around us? What are the divisions keeping others out?   

Journaling Question

  • Are you building walls or tearing them down? What internal and external walls need to come down in your context?
  • Personally, what tools do you need to work to tear down walls that make others feel like they do not belong?

Making a Connection

  • What welcoming symbols can you use to invite others into the community? 
  • How can you change up your routine to make room to welcome or connect with someone outside of your circle?
  • As a class, design a welcome activity that would create space to make new people feel welcome and part of your group. After the activity, do an evaluation by designing a survey to see how others are experiencing your church, school or community. Do they feel like they belong? Why or why not?  

Closing: Spoken Word Poem

“Do I Belong Here?” by Tiara Downer (Link)

Spoken Word text:

I would often fall into a place of doubt
Because I saw no space and I felt left out
Do I belong here? Me and my face,
My culture, my beliefs, is there enough space? 
Can I be apart, or will I be rejected?
Can you blame my thoughts or are my feelings expected?
Can I be heard because I have something to say?
My differences bring significance, no harm in any way
So, do I belong here? Of course, I do!
I am to be seen, heard and wholeheartedly valued.