First Steps

[Book of Faith Social Network]

What are you doing to help prepare your congregational leadership for the Book of Faith?

[Edie Eickemeyer]

We've frequently mentioned the book of faith initiative and have begun using the logo when posting adult education opportunities. Our initial endeavor was to read the entire Bible in 3 weeks as a congregation, setting up a Bible here at church and scheduling people/families to come in and read -even read aloud - for 30 minutes. We included 3 by 5 cards for questions and comments and intend to use the questions as the basis for an adult Sunday School class. Had great participation and feedback.

Our Christian Education Ministry team is considering ways to use the assessment tools.

I'm waiting until after our Synod's Leadership Conference focusing on book of faith to schedule additional "specially prepared" materials.

I am a bit disappointed in the release dates for materials presented so far...too late for fall programming. (It happened with AKALOO, too.) In my DISCIPLE classes, I advocate their purchasing a study Bible, though they have to wait till next spring to buy the LUTHERAN Study Bible. :)

[Debbie Johnson]

Returning to the Sunday School classroom as a bi-monthly leader for teens, God inspired me with a simple idea; create a literacy book club with the Bible as the book. I printed out a schedule for reading 1/2 of each book starting with Genesis every two weeks. We then will gather every other week in the teen room for a light breakfast at the Sunday School hour and just talk about what God was up to in that section of the Bible.

I know kids have tons to read for school, so I do not expect many teens to show up let alone read the readings. But I'll show up faithfully till Christmas and see how it is going.

I really liked the idea of incorporating beautiful art to depict God's work found in the Bible. I will bring some library books to show pictures of classical stories by classical artists as a spark for discussion. I used to do this years ago when these kids were quite young, and had forgotten about the idea. Thank you for reminding me.

[Joyce Jungemann]

Debbie: Because we live in Sarasota with the extensive opportunities that Ringling offers both in the Museum and in the School of Art and Design, prints are easily available to me; for specific subjects, such as Moses, or the Creation, or the Nativity, I recommend to you this website which has an extensive number of pictures of art and sculpture: www.artbible.info/art Also did you possibly download the poem activity I submitted to the website administrator; she, in turn, provided a link to it in my posting. Partly, I wrote the poem as an interactive activity as an overview understanding of the "Opening the Book of Faith" but, mostly, for persons to access their current Scripture reading profile and their hope for a future profile. Section VII I wrote by listing, in columns, words from Martin Luther's hymns and then arranging them in Gerard Manley Hopkins hyphenated imagery. I believe you will find the poem an easy, effective understanding for young people of "Opening the Book of Faith." Finally, I complement you for your "simple" gift idea, and I'm wondering if you know about a dialectical journal. Like the art and the poem activities, a dialectical journal brings the conceptual into the active/visual for youth. Let me know if you want to know more. God's blessings on your work. JJ

Section
Debbie Johnson said:

Returning to the Sunday School classroom as a bi-monthly leader for teens, God inspired me with a simple idea; create a literacy book club with the Bible as the book. I printed out a schedule for reading 1/2 of each book starting with Genesis every two weeks. We then will gather every other week in the teen room for a light breakfast at the Sunday School hour and just talk about what God was up to in that section of the Bible.

I know kids have tons to read for school, so I do not expect many teens to show up let alone read the readings. But I'll show up faithfully till Christmas and see how it is going.

I really liked the idea of incorporating beautiful art to depict God's work found in the Bible. I will bring some library books to show pictures of classical stories by classical artists as a spark for discussion. I used to do this years ago when these kids were quite young, and had forgotten about the idea. Thank you for reminding me.

[Anna Marsh]

Ooh, that website is great! Thanks, Joyce!

[Anna Marsh]

On the contrary--I'm thrilled to hear that people who are not rostered leaders would be willing to lead Bible studies in your congregation. That is GREAT news! As is the extent to which you are creating resources for your context that touch areas our existing resources may not.

P.S. Another link for Bible & Art that you might want to look at is:
http://www.biblical-art.com/index.htm

[Kevin Meyer]

On Reformation Sunday 2007, with prayer and thanksgiving for the joy and delight they had shown us over the years, we decommissioned our hymnals and in their place comissioned pew bibles. The theme that we continue to discuss is that each generation must be reformed by the word and it is really hard to be reformed if we don't actually open it up.

Some may wonder about hymnady and liturgical settings... we have for years been printing all the words for the whole worship setting including the scriptures utilizing on line resources. The hymnals were there by tradition and barely used. Now, we do not print the scripture texts but instead ask folks to open the pew bible and follow along when the text is read. Pastorally, I can invite folks to open the scripture and study a particular text during the sermon or even direct them read bits prior or following the text appointed for the day.

Our Sunday School is taking up the project by making ribbon book marks for each of the bibles so people can find the passages prior to worship.

We are currently conducting some adult forums to develop a wider awareness for the BoFI. (I don't use the abbrivation BFI as they are a garbage collection company.) Our schedule calls for us to roll out the indepth biblical study around Reformation Sunday 2008... in keeping with the theme.

[Pastor Justin Johnson]

In our congregation, we have been trying to live the discipleship model of ministry, so the Book of Faith fit right in. This year, as the pastor, I am going to try a different technique. It will involve a church bank. For every Bible study that is attended, there will be 3 points that go into the bank. If a lay leader is leading the Bible study it will go up by 5 points. The goal is to get 1,000 points by the end of the year. Now teachers will cringe because this is a reward based system of education (I know my wife is a teacher), but I am looking at it as something fun to do. If 1,000 points are built up, we will have to do something special for the congregation. That is where our brainstorming techniques will come in.

[The Rev Dr Keith A. Spencer]

We covenanted on Reformation Sunday during each worship service using a modified version of a memorial from on Book of Faith Initiative from one of the synod's synod assemblys that I found by googling around. During Coffee hour I shared about our upcoming coffee hour Bible Study on "Re-discoveirng the Book of Faith," took pre-orders on the new Lutheran Study Bible, handed out copies of the Lutheran 101 supplement from The Lutheran Magazine, and opened up our Augsburg Fortress Christmas Book Sale. Over 25% of the worshipping attendance signed up to participate in the Bible Study and most showed up and activiely participated