IntImacy

DestIny

meanIng

cRaVe

Erwin raphaEl McManus

member experience guide

An E xplorat ion of the Human S pirit

CRAVE“An Exploration of the Human S pirit”

Erwin McmanusSmall Group Experience and Personal Studies

written by Jason Jaggard with Brian Gass

CRAVE: An Exploration of the Human SpiritGroup Member Book© 2010 LifeWay Christian Resources

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without express written permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to LifeWay Christian Resources, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0175.

ISBN: 978-1-4158-6881-2Item 005271313

Dewey Decimal Classification: 233.5Subject Headings: SPIRITUAL LIFE \ SOUL \ HUMAN BEINGS (THEOLOGY)

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. Scriptures marked HCSB are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

To purchase additional copies of this resource or other studies: ORDER ONLINE at www.lifeway.com; E-MAIL orderentry@lifeway.com; WRITE LifeWay Small Groups, One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234-0175; FAX (615) 251-5933; or CALL (800) 458-2772.

1-800-458-2772www.lifeway.com

Printed in the United States of America

CRAVE: An Exploration of the Human Spirit

Introduction to CRAVE 04

The CRAVE Experience 06

Live Your Story 08

Intimacy – Broken 14

Intimacy – Whole 24

Destiny – Broken 36

Destiny – Whole 48

Meaning – Broken 62

Meaning – Whole 76

Leader’s Guide 88

Welcome to Community 90

Sharing Your Stories 91

Sharing Your Lives 91

Leading a Small Group 92

About the Author 96

4 CRAVE

What you hold in your hands is a kind of expedition—not into a jungle or underwater or outer space—but into the depths of your own soul. With our lives moving so busily with jobs, school, family, friends, frustrations, and aggravations, it is too easy to skim across the surface of our own selves.

Crave will take you deeper.

God’s commands aren’t simply arbitrary hoops set out to see if people love Him enough to jump through them, but every command—every desire of God—is actually connected to a deep and profound need in our own lives. Needs that are oftentimes buried under a pile of living. Needs that are often guarded because of pain.

So when God created male and female it wasn’t arbitrary. He designed us for intimacy, like a car is made to run on … electricity (or gas or corn or whatever).

When God called Abram to become a great nation with his wife Sarai, He wasn’t just seeing if Abram would obey. He was giving Abram an opportunity to find his longing for destiny satisfied with God.

When God offered Moses the Law, it wasn’t just a list of rules. It was an invitation to have trust in something greater. It was God connecting to our own need for meaning that He gave us in our mother’s womb.

Could it be that your needs for meaning, intimacy, and destiny have come from God?

Could those needs be the evidence that you were made to be in relationship with God?

Introduction 5

There is a trend in Christian circles (and Stoic circles … if there are any) to give desires a bad rap. In Eastern thought you’re supposed to empty yourself of your desires, because they are evil. In Western thought you’re supposed to indulge your desires, because they are good.

Could there be a third way? Is it possible that you were meant not to empty yourself of your desires, and not to give in to your desires, but actually have your desires be transformed and fulfilled in a vulnerable, thrilling, and dangerous relationship with the Creator of stars not discovered and babies not yet born?

If so, God is willing to meet us not only in our depravity but also in our loneliness. And not only in our loneliness but also in our deepest friendships. And we can sense God not only in our wrongdoings but also in our rightdoings. Not only in our failures but also in the simple need to succeed. Not only in our faith but also in our doubts, and in our primal desire to need to trust and make sense of the world.

But it is also possible for these soul cravings to become distorted. Given these distortions, what was intended as good can go terribly awry. Thus our need for intimacy becomes an obsession and is satisfied in ways very different from God’s intentions. Our sense of destiny is dictated by the demands of world and culture. And our sense of meaning is distorted into something less than living out our lives as God’s image-bearers. Because of this, each of intimacy, destiny, and meaning is divided into “broken” and “whole.”

So don’t sit back—lean forward. Step into the current of God’s conversation with humanity. God’s conversation with you. Allow yourself to be touched by the stories in the films and with Erwin as a guide throughout the experience. Reflect deeply. Risk greatly.

And discover the God your soul has been craving.

6 CRAVE

ThE CRAVE ExpERIEnCE

Icebreaker

After an opening prayer, the first 5-10 minutes of each CRAVE session is devoted to a time for getting acquainted, sharing stories, and warming up to the topic. This is also a great opportunity to get everybody involved and engaged. It’s important that everyone in the group answer these first, light-hearted questions.

DebrIef InDIvIDual StuDy

Every small-group session of CRAVE includes a section for individual study. Devotional in nature, the individual study can usually be completed in less than an hour and asks group members to take the small-group discussion to a deeper, more personal level.

Intro

Author and CRAVE producer Erwin McManus has created an intro and an outro for each film. Intros are most closely associated with the “broken,” or dysfunctional, aspects of destiny, meaning, and intimacy. These vignettes are usually less than four minutes and introduce key elements, offer insights, and initiate ongoing discussion.

Short fIlm

The CRAVE experience is driven by three short films: Pop Star (12:19), Midnight Clear (14:12), and Nameless Moment (11:33). These original short films take advantage of some of the youngest and brightest directors and writers in the film industry and have been uniquely created to drive the CRAVE small-group conversation. Plan to show these short films during the initial session, “Broken,” of each topic.

Facilitators should take advantage of the viewer’s guide we’ve included for each short film. This includes a couple of questions to keep in mind during the film. The viewer’s guide is good preparation for future discussion. We’ve also set aside a few

The Experience 7

minutes after each short film for a quick discussion to be sure everyone is on the same page. This time also allows for different interpretations to emerge.

outro

Erwin has also shot outros for each short film of the CRAVE experience. The outro not only offers some concluding thoughts but also summarizes the “whole,” or functional, aspects of intimacy, meaning, and destiny. Much like the intros, the outros are typically less than four minutes.

Short DIScuSSIon

Because the outro leads directly into the small-group Bible study, we have included something like a bridge from Erwin to your small-group Bible study discussion time. Lasting no more than a couple of minutes, this section usually consists of a couple of questions to capture the essence of Erwin’s vignette.

Small-Group bIble StuDy

The small-group Bible study should last from 20 to 30 minutes. This is an open conversation facilitated by the group leader that includes relevant Scripture, leader notes to advance the discussion, and discussion questions. The individual study time will be driven by the short films, Erwin’s vignettes, and the small-group Bible study discussion.

Wrap

These closing few minutes should include prayer requests and prayer, a sneak peek into the next small-group meeting, and a brief description of the individual study for next week.

8 CRAVE • Week 1

1

LIVE YouR StoryChocolate. Barbeque Sauce. Sweet Tea. Coffee.

These are things some people crave. You see smooth milk chocolate poured slowly over frosted ice cream, or you hear the sound of Southern sweet tea filling an empty glass full of ice on a hot summer day. You start to salivate, you lick your lips.

You begin to crave.

Of course, there are cravings that go beyond sugar and caffeine.

Ever been so thirsty that your tongue stuck to the roof of your mouth? Ever been so desperate for water that you tell yourself drinking anything would be better than being thirsty? Your body craves water.

Ever been underwater too long and felt the panic of possible suffocation, your adrenaline racing and your lungs burning as you frantically swim towards the surface? You also crave air.

Some cravings deal with basic physical needs, yet other cravings go much deeper—even to the soul.

Things like friendship. Progress. Our need to make sense of the world.

These are our soul’s cravings. Like air. Like water. Our souls silently and sometimes violently seek to have these needs fulfilled. And like air and water, our souls begin to wither when we don’t breathe deeply or drink fully from the wells God has to offer.

Where do these cravings come from?

How can one satisfy the soul’s cravings?

Week 1 • Live Your Story 9

Welcome to CRAVE, a seven-week discussion around the theme of SOUL CRAVINGS, a book and DVD series by storyteller Erwin Raphael McManus.

Crave Intro leaDer: play the Intro vIGnette for “crave” from the crave DvD anD have Group memberS SpenD 10-15 mInuteS SharInG theIr thouGhtS about the experIence.

“Every human being craves something.”

• When you think back to your childhood, what is the one thing you most remember craving?

• Has that object of desire changed through the years? Why or why not?

“Every human being has a craving for intimacy.”

“All of us have a craving for destiny.”

“Every one of us has a craving for meaning.”

• Of the three cravings Erwin mentioned in the film, which one, if any, do you think is closest to being satisfied in your life? Explain.

• Which of the three do you have the most questions about? Why?

10 CRAVE • Week 1

• Name some ways that people are different from each other. Start with the people in your group. In what ways are you all different from each other?

Now read the quote below:

“Every one of us, no matter how different we are, no matter where we were born or what time in history we may have lived, what color our skin may be, what language we may speak, whether we’re male or female, every one of us

have these intrinsic cravings.”

• How can you see that being true in your group? In your community? In your country? In the world? Try to give examples of two different people or people groups having the same soul cravings, even if they are expressed differently.

“What we are experiencing is our soul longing for God.”

L ive Your S tory leaDer: play “lIve your Story” from “IntImacy” In the crave DvD anD SpenD 10-15 mInuteS SharInG WIth one another about the vIDeo experIence.

“There’s something about story that opens up not only the human imagination but the human heart.”

• Which of the movies mentioned in this clip did you find most fascinating when you first saw it? Was there another that you enjoyed more?

• What was it you loved about that particular story?

Week 1 • Live Your Story 11

“The great challenge, of course, is as we watch and experience these stories, that we begin to discover our own story.”

• What are some ways, if any, that this story or other stories you loved influenced your life in very real ways?

“This is the great opportunity that all of us have. That through the telling of stories, we can help others begin to discover the story of God for their life.”

While some of our favorite stories may have happened to someone else or were written by someone else, we are writing our own stories even now.

• Take a few minutes and come up with five of your favorite moments from your own life. Maybe a moment you fell in love or a moment you accomplished something great or discovered a profound truth that shaped your life. They can be funny, serious, tragic, or inspiring.

• Take one of the moments—your favorite one from your list—and share with the group. Spend some time discussing the soul craving that this story might represent.

leaDer: SpenD 5-10 mInuteS WrappInG up the Group’S thouGhtS on “lIvInG your Story” anD prayInG for one another.

Pray for one another. Pray that everyone might come to know themselves better, to see their own soul’s cravings more clearly and to see how those cravings might lead them closer to God.

leaDer: you may Watch the traIler to the Short fIlm “pop Star” from the crave

DvD.

leaDer: remInD Group memberS about the “perSonal tIme” DevotIonS that they can uSe to further theIr StuDy throuGhout the Week. next Week We WIll beGIn lookInG at “IntImacy.”

12 CRAVE • Week 1

perSonal tIme

here are Some DevotIonal thouGhtS for you to conSIDer on your oWn thIS next Week. uSe the Space GIven to journal So that you WIll be able to recall the experIence later.

“21 Grams”

In his introduction to Soul Cravings, Erwin quotes from a film called 21 Grams which stars Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Naomi Watts. Its lead-in refers to a phenomenon that occurs when a person dies:

“They say we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of our death … everyone. The weight of a stack of nickels, the weight of a chocolate bar, the weight of a

hummingbird.”

The question posed is profound: “How much does life weigh?” The implication seems to be that the human spirit is not only real but substantive.

• Do you believe in the human soul? How would you best describe it? How do you know that you are a spiritual being?

You are more than what you appear. You are made up of more than water and dust. You are a human being created in the image of God, and you have immeasurable value to Him. Ephesians 2:10 puts it this way:

Week 1 • Live Your Story 13

For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them (HCSB).

• What do you think are the implications of being God’s creation or created beings? How does this change your outlook on life? About yourself?

“You Are the Man”

In video this week, Erwin retells a story from the Bible about a rich man, a poor man, and a sheep. Here’s the brief account as told in 2 Samuel 12:1-7:

The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!

Once the finger was clearly pointed at David, he was challenged and convicted, acknowledging the depth of the pain that he had inflicted and the overall harm that he had done.

• Why do you think story is such a powerful tool in connecting us to our souls? Do you know of someone’s story that has helped you get in touch with your own?

• Spend some time asking God to bring to mind a story from your own life that needs to be confronted and perhaps shared. Then ask Him for the courage to do so.