Christian Believer Leader Guide: Knowing God with Heart and Mind

CHRISTIAN BELIEVER: KNOWING GOD WITH HEART AND MIND

Leader Guide © 1999 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved

Symbol art by Nell Fisher

Cover and interior design by Ed Wynne

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Contents

ARTICLES

Group Orientation

Study Manual Format

Weekly Group Process

Go With the Flow

Readings Format

Readings Time Chart

Readings Sources

Video Set Teaches

Scripture and Doctrine

Prayer and Doctrine

Mystery and Doctrine

Teaching Doctrine

Tests of Doctrinal Faithfulness

Group Makeup

Small-Group Work

Group Interaction

Leader Prepares

Participants Prepare

A Word on Reading

Taking Notes

A Different and Difficult Study

Questions Galore

Language of Faith

Faith Asks Questions

Aids to Understanding

With Heart and Mind

Eastern and Western Church

The Reformation

Singing the Faith

Create Symbols

SESSION GUIDES

  1. Believing and Understanding

  2. The Self-Revealing God

  3. God’s Book for God’s People

  4. The God of Beginnings

  5. Giving a Name to God

  6. The God Who Is Involved

  7. God Makes Covenant With Us

  8. Created in God’s Image

  9. The Trouble We’re In

10. The Amazing Story of Grace

11. God So Loved the World

12. Fully Human Fully Divine

13. The One Who Came to Save

14. Restored to Union With God

15. Jesus Christ Is Lord

16. The Reach Toward God

17. God With Us

18. Power to Live and to Serve

19. The Mystery and Message of the Trinity

20. God’s Called-Out People

21. The Body of Christ in the World

22. Signs of Sacred Things

23. In Spirit and Truth

24. Living the Christian Life

25. A Life Pleasing to God

26. Ending With a Beginning

27. A Time of Reckoning

28. Resurrection of the Body

29. World and Life Without End

30. The Difference Believing Makes

Group Orientation

Schedule group orientation one week prior to the first weekly group meeting.

7:00 P.M. Prayer at the Birthing, handbook page 2. Group read aloud.

7:05 P.M. Welcome the group.

• Introductions

• Affirm the group’s commitment to study.

• Verify the meeting calendar.

7:15 P.M. Introduce the study.

• Show Video Segment 1.

Explain that they will see the same video again in the first weekly group meeting.

• Respond to questions on the nature of the study. Use handbook pages 3–9.

7:30 P.M. Distribute reading packages—study manual and book of readings.

• Page through study manual Lesson 1, and explain how each section works (see study manual pages 4–5 and Study Manual Format, leader guide page 4).

• Page through the readings for the first topic, Believing. Explain how the readings fit into the study and how the book is organized (see Readings pages 5–6 and Readings Format, leader guide page 6).

7:45 P.M. Emphasize disciplined daily study (see Participants Prepare, leader guide page 12).

• Stress note-taking on Scripture (see Scripture in CHRISTIAN BELIEVER, study manual page 5, and Taking Notes, leader guide page 13) and on readings (see Steps to Understanding What You Read, Readings page 6).

7:55 P.M. Practice taking notes on Reading 11.

• Follow Steps 1–6 on Readings page 6.

8:10 P.M. Explain the weekly group schedule and process (see Weekly Group Process, leader guide page 5, and Small-Group Work, leader guide page 11).

8:20 P.M. Review assignment for Lesson 1. Hear and record prayer concerns.

8:25 P.M. Covenant together to be present, prepared, and prompt for weekly meetings. Invite someone to read aloud Power in the Memory, handbook pages 23–24, as others follow along.

8:30 P.M. Dismiss

Study Manual Format

The study manual guides the participant through orderly daily study in preparation for the weekly group meeting. All lessons have the same parts, and each part has its own function (see Go With the Flow, leader guide page 5).

LANGUAGE OF FAITH. A symbol and a group of words at the top of the first page of each lesson carry the main ideas of a doctrine.

TITLE. The titles capture the messages in the teachings covered in the study.

PRINTED BIBLE VERSE(S). These verses emphasize the topic of the lesson.

LIFE QUESTIONS. These questions, out of life experience, provide starting points for the group’s work in identifying life questions to which doctrines speak.

ASSIGNMENT. Introductory paragraphs suggest how to approach study of assigned Scriptures. Daily assignments for Days 1–5 include Scripture and readings and Day 6, the study manual. Note pages provide space for daily notes on Scripture and on readings, for notes on the study manual commentary, and for prayer concerns. Participants will work from the note pages in the group meeting.

DAILY PRAYER. This paragraph is a reminder to pray daily for concerns recorded in the group meetings.

THE CHURCH TEACHING AND BELIEVING. This section discusses the doctrine of the lesson, explores related Scripture, provides necessary historical information, situates the doctrine within the church’s teaching, and connects the doctrine to daily life.

BECAUSE WE THE CHURCH BELIEVE. This statement makes the connection between what the church teaches and living according to those teachings—an encounter that requires thought.

BELIEVING AND LIVING. Questions in this section tie doctrine to life—communal and personal.

SEEKING MORE UNDERSTANDING. This section provides suggestions for those interested in additional study for personal enrichment.

PRAYER. Prayers from a variety of sources for personal use and for opening or closing the session.

Weekly Group Process

OPENING WORDS SAID AND SUNG

(5 or 10 minutes)

Read the printed Scripture. Sing or read a hymn. Pray a brief prayer.

VIDEO SEGMENT

(25 or 30 minutes)

The video segment provides new information for group members to hear together and respond to in small-group discussion.

CONTENT OF FAITH

(40 or 50 minutes)

Here is the heart of the session: Scripture, readings, and study manual commentary. Small- group work will make extensive use of daily notes on Scripture and readings, and written responses called for in the study manual.

BREAK

(5 minutes)

LANGUAGE OF FAITH

(15 minutes)

Attention focuses on symbols and a group of words that express the main ideas in a doctrine. The words come from the week’s Scripture and readings, the study manual and video.

FAITH ASKS QUESTIONS

(15 minutes)

This section raises questions the faith community must ask to identify the boundaries of the particular doctrine in the lesson. Emphasis is on what the church teaches and believes, rather than on individual believing.

BELIEVING AND LIVING

(10 or 15 minutes)

The BECAUSE WE THE CHURCH BELIEVE statement recognizes that after study we say to ourselves, What do I/we do with this teaching? Questions for written response allow for the continuing struggle to connect belief to life.

CLOSING WORDS SAID AND SUNG

(5 or 10 minutes)

Review the next week’s assignment. Close with prayer concerns, a song, and prayer.

Go With the Flow

The sections in the study manual format and the weekly group process have an intentional sequence and flow.

In the study manual the flow relates to the order in which participants do their daily study in preparation for the weekly meeting.

The logic behind the sequence and flow in preparation is this: Study of doctrine begins with the Bible, adds the voices of church leaders ancient and modern, reflects on relevant biblical and historical information, and connects the doctrine to life.

Preparation: First, participants hear what Scripture and the church have said (assigned Scripture and readings, Days 1–5). Next, participants read and reflect on study manual commentary on that information ("The Church Teaching and Believing " Day 6) and respond as believing members of the Christian community ("Believing and Living," Day 6).

The flow in the weekly group process relates to the sequence in which participants consider and respond to the content of the lesson. The logic behind the sequence and flow in weekly group process is this: Informed discussion of a doctrine, based on disciplined study, results in participants’ being able to explain the main ideas in the doctrine, identify what the church has said the doctrine denies, and relate the doctrine to life.

Process: "Opening Words Said and Sung reminds people of the subject of their six days of study. Video Segment introduces new information on the doctrine to get discussion rolling. Content of Faith" uses the preparation participants have made in their daily study of Scripture, the readings, and study manual commentary in small-group work. "Language of Faith presents the doctrine through symbols and key words and phrases to be defined by the group. At this point participants should be able to say what a particular doctrine teaches. Faith Asks Questions" identifies the boundaries of a particular doctrine—what is included in the teaching and what is outside the teaching. Participants are free to believe or not believe, but they are not free to decide what the church teaches. "Believing and Living" connects doctrine and daily living. "Closing Words Said and Sung" reviews the coming week’s assignment.

Readings Format

The readings for each week are intended to provide enough information about a particular doctrine to identify the main points or the key ideas in a doctrine.

Here is information to make the book of readings easy to use. The contents pages list thirty topics and the numbered readings that go with the topics. As You Begin Your Study, Readings pages 5–6, tells you what to expect in the book and outlines the steps for taking notes during daily study.

Eight pages of full-color stained-glass art and accompanying explanation determine the organization of the book. Think of the art as windows into basic truths of the Christian faith.

Each window includes symbols related to a particular number of doctrines or topics—as few as two and as many as five. For example, the art on page 208 includes symbols for two topics, while the art on page 106 includes symbols for five topics. The topics appear in blue ink on the pages explaining the symbols.

Readings are grouped by topic and numbered sequentially. Daily assignments will always refer to the readings by number.

A general introduction to each group of readings is printed over gold color. Vertical color bars indicate where a reading with its introduction begins and where it ends. All readings related to doctrines depicted in a particular stained-glass window have the same color bars. For example, all the readings on the Holy Spirit and on the Trinity, following the symbols depicted on page 150, have green color bars.

The art in the reading book becomes stained-glass windows on the video set. Watch for it.

Readings Time Chart

Selections in the book of readings represent every period of church history from the first century A.D. to the end of the twentieth century. To provide a general sense of the historical periods and their dates and to show how representative people relate in time, the following chart selects names of a few persons whose writings are included in the book of readings and places them in their time periods. Certain documents are also located in their time periods. These few listings are only representative of the considerable number of persons in church history whose writings you will read in the book of readings. Dates are rounded off rather than exact.

Age of Reason and Revival (A.D. 1650–1800)

John Bunyan

Susanna, John, and Charles Wesley

Jonathan Edwards

Readings Sources

The sources—people and documents—of the readings in the reading book constitute a rich representation of time periods and religious communions. Here is a profile in numbers of the people and documents in the reading book. The 323 readings in the book come