tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post2587629118592219658..comments2024-03-29T05:08:30.047-04:00Comments on The Heath Post: This Week In Sunday SchoolGoHeathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11122010542579322600noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-152580218269797202018-04-13T18:50:14.405-04:002018-04-13T18:50:14.405-04:00So then my wife has something called the Serendipi...So then my wife has something called the <i>Serendipity Bible</i> for small-group studies, and it includes a bunch of great discussion prompts and questions that run alongside with the text. I lean on these pretty heavily, and here are some of them that I might bring up about Chapter 4 this Sunday:<br /><br />-- What threats brought you fear as a child? What threats bring you fear today?<br /><br />-- Describe a time when you felt right about breaking rules or having a run-in with an authority figure.<br /><br />-- "When, if ever, do you feel that Peter's response to his political and religious leaders would be appropriate for a Christian today? How do you reconcile this passage (verses 18-21) with Romans 13:1-4?"<br /><br />-- "What is the most persecution that you have experienced due to your faith? How did you take it?"<br /><br />-- "If you were Peter or John, how would you have felt when you got thrown into jail?" If you had been one of the other followers, how would you have felt?<br /><br />-- "On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), how sure are you of Peter's statement in Verse 12? What most builds your assurance?" And/or, what most feeds your doubt?<br /><br />-- From this story of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, what aspect of the Holy Spirit is most striking to you?<br /><br />These questions are from pages 1522 and 1523 of <i>Serendipity Bible</i>.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-22671588115354754492018-04-13T18:20:58.265-04:002018-04-13T18:20:58.265-04:00A couple of other neat things on Chapter 3 from Th...A couple of other neat things on Chapter 3 from <i>The Interpreter's Bible</i> that may or may not come up Sunday:<br /><br />-- On Verses 6 and 7, "the use of 'the name' in religious formulas and practice springs from the identification of a name with the person to whom the name belongs and the belief that the qualities and powers of that person are inherent in his 'name,' so that by invoking the 'name' his power and authority are called into operation ... Note that while others work miracles in the power of 'the name,' Jesus does so by his own 'authority' (Mark 1:27)." (55) <br /><br />-- "Verse 7 is a favorite passage with those who seek proof from his technical language that the author of Acts was a medical man." (55)Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-45997783362417463122018-04-13T18:05:01.530-04:002018-04-13T18:05:01.530-04:00For example, this week, unless someone definitivel...For example, this week, unless someone definitively wants to go deep on anything in Chapter 3, I'll probably treat it pretty lightly. We discussed Chapter 2 pretty heavily, and, as <i>The Interpreter's Bible</i> says, "some scholars believe that 3:1-5:16 is a 'doublet' of ch. 2, plus 5:17-42, and represents an earlier and more reliable tradition about 'the birth of the church.'" Peter's speech in Chapter 3 "follows very much the same lines as his first one" in Chapter 2, <i>The Interpreter's</i> points out.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-6706164937830277232018-04-13T17:59:20.876-04:002018-04-13T17:59:20.876-04:00I usually start out asking which pieces of this we...I usually start out asking which pieces of this week's reading anyone feels calls to discuss. If that goes nowhere, then I have two or three sections that I'm ready to look at together. And I try to bring in some stuff from outside reading to sprinkle into the conversation.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-67936928483258736622018-04-13T15:02:49.358-04:002018-04-13T15:02:49.358-04:00Basically what we do each week is talk about our h...Basically what we do each week is talk about our highs and lows or where we feel like we experienced God in the last week; then we read and talk through a passage or two from an Acts chapter, and then we talk about how God might be speaking to us individually through these readings to lead us in our home life, work life, church life, whatever. In this light, it's always the same lesson applied to a different reading.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-70382555395230443082018-04-13T09:48:32.634-04:002018-04-13T09:48:32.634-04:00So now I'm with the startup Less-Young Adult C...So now I'm with the startup Less-Young Adult Class, targeting 40- to 60-year-olds but open to whoever feels called to join us. We did about a month of Sermon on the Mount, finding sea legs of stuff like who might be there, what kind of activities/conversation most grabs us each individually, where we should be meeting, etc. And now we've started a study of Acts. Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-64328226664597668542018-04-13T09:43:23.324-04:002018-04-13T09:43:23.324-04:00I'm just joshing--I knew you were being seriou...I'm just joshing--I knew you were being serious; I just hadn't gotten further than knowing what chapters we would be talking about.<br /><br />I switched out of teaching the high-school class over the last few months to teaching a class mainly targeting 40- to 60-year-olds, an age band into which I fall smack in the middle. I went a couple of years as teacher of the high-school class here, and there were some great moments and important connections made. But, for whatever reason, I didn't seem to connect with most of them, and actually attendance declined pretty sharply during my time teaching it--even though our church's attendance for Sunday school generally, worship, high-school youth group, etc. is all up, up, up. <br /><br />I had four or five years as the Sunday-school teacher of a high-school class in Raleigh in my middle 30s, and it seemed the individuals in that class (me included) grew in faith and the class grew in number (against more general trends in that church). I'm not sure of the difference this time around and here, but I suspect that the way that I talk with teen-agers has changed a good bit now that I am the parent of a 9-year-old child. And/or, I wonder if I"ve aged into the same band that most of the high-schoolers I'm around now have parents or teachers--I'm neither a youngish uncle character, nor a sage grandparent.<br /><br />Attendance is not the only gauge of effectiveness as a teacher, of course, but it is also not unmeaningful. Counting matters all over the Bible, for example. So, anyway, late last year, I went to the Christian-education committee and suggested that we transition me away from that group--instead of putting the committee in the hard position of having to bring the idea to me. The high schoolers and I hammered Sermon on the Mount for about a month or six weeks then, and, not long after Christmas, we parted ways. I'm still getting to interact with those students in other ways, of course. <br /><br />It feels more like the right move all of the time, and I'm really thankful that I can honestly say that I didn't get all down in the dumps about it.Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-15451249654168085792018-04-13T00:03:53.663-04:002018-04-13T00:03:53.663-04:00I'm not being a wise guy I'm curious what ...I'm not being a wise guy I'm curious what discussion you would have around this.Matthewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-66817433910766056242018-04-12T15:04:35.508-04:002018-04-12T15:04:35.508-04:00You really think you're something, don't y...You really think you're something, don't you?Erichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11218278987255792995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1697242053625998558.post-21498354858439524822018-04-12T13:20:46.323-04:002018-04-12T13:20:46.323-04:00So what is the lesson?So what is the lesson?Matthew Vaughnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10349035708120354682noreply@blogger.com