Study Guide for

Walk Across the Room:

“What’s Your Story”

February 15, 2009

Open Up

Bill Hybels, author of Just Walk Across the Room, suggests four mistakes of well-meaning but ineffective Christian story-tellers: Long-windedness, Fuzziness, Religion-ese, Superiority. Your group can probably guess what each category means. Ask them to demonstrate examples of each type. TRANSITION: Part of “walking across the room” is sharing our simple stories about the before-and-after difference God makes.

Dig In

(1) Read Psalm 107:4-9 and Psalm 106:6-14. The writer of Psalm 107 may have been referring to the forty years that the Jewish people wandered in the desert because of their own rebellious choices. Share with your group an example from your own life of wandering away from God through your bad choices.

(2) Read John 9:1-11 and John 9:15-17. The former blind man told his story in only a few words, and he insistently stood by his story. What doubts do other people express about the man’s story? Have you ever shared your story about the change Jesus made in your life? How did the person listening to you react?

(3) Read 1 Corinthians 2:4-6 and John 9:24-38. Though Paul was writing about his own life change story, what truths from 1 Corinthians 4 do we see in the interaction between the former blind man and the skeptical religious leaders in John 9?

Work On

All of us are different because of Jesus. If your life before Jesus was radically different than your life now, that is the story you can tell. Even if you came to Jesus as a young person raised in a Christian family, your life now is different from what it would have been if you had walked away from Jesus. The story you can tell is the life you might have lived if you had left God behind.

With your group, take some time to compose your story. Can you simplify it to approximately a hundred words (two to three minutes) or less? OPTIONAL Sometimes our words are less long-winded, fuzzy, and religiously superior when we write them down, so consider jotting down your story OR emailing it to your group if you aren’t able to finish it during your study.

Lift Up

To inspire you to share your story, read Isaiah 52:7 and then ask the Spirit to open the right opportunity and nudge you with the right words after you’ve “walked across the room.”

Another Step – Advanced Study

Read John 4:23-30 and John 4:39-42. John records the very basic details of how the woman shared her story and the impact it made on her listeners. Discuss with your group reasons why her short invitation was so effective. OPTIONAL BACKGROUND: To get more details of this woman’s life story and how Jesus “walked across the room” (crossing social-ethnic-religious-gender barriers) to her, read John 4:7-22