Best Practices

[Dave Mareske]

This conversation is designed to list your ideas about how to get folks engaged with scripture.

[Dave Mareske]

One favorite is to have a discussion on spirituality types. Are you a contemplative, a learner, a worshipper, a worker for justice? Then match people's spirituality with a gospel. Say, "you sound like you would like John's gospel". It gets them to read it out of curiousity, either to confirm my prediction or say that I don't know what I am talking about, either way, they have read something new.

[Dave Mareske]

Wanted to get the best practices ideas up and running. Here is one from Susan Langhauser:
My favorite presentation is to have folks come to a coffee and bring their favorite Bible from home. This allows them to talk about their "encounters" with Bibles and it gives me an opportunity to present different translations/paraphrases and make suggestions about their use for different types of study.
Susan Langhauser, Advent/Olathe

[Dan McKnight]

Oh, that's a great idea. Of course, being in the missional marketing mindset, I like doing occasional Bible-based sermon series with a tie-in to TV shows. At Kaw Prairie our m.o. is to draw people in to hear the message, and then, you teach them a great new story from the scripture that ties into the topic they hadn't ever heard before (like tying in various Office episodes to Ahab & Naboth's vineyard, David & Bathsheba, Abigail & Nabal, etc-- and then, of course, the Gospel :-)

[David Paulsen]

Last week, we had a fun one week session (it lasted about 45 minutes) based on the portion of Colossians 3, which reads "With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God." It was essentially a one week spin off from one of the sessions included within the first Book of Faith bible study series. We asked participants to bring in versions of their favorite Christian music and to briefly state what that specific song means to them. To get it started, we had five prepared songs ("Spirit in the Sky", "Battle Hymn of the Republic", "I Want To Know What Love Is", "Gone", and "What a Friend We Have In Jesus"). The session worked well and I was able to get one new family involved in the adult bible study, as a result.

[David Paulsen]

Our congregation just wrapped up a four session course based upon the "Opening the Book of Faith" book. We formatted the course to brief 30-minute sessions, in order to fit between our two worship services. The participants enjoyed learning the four different ways to study scripture (although it was difficult for me, as a lay leader, to really drive the historical portion of the discussion). Learning about the Lectio Divina form of devotional bible study was the most popular portion of the class.

[David Paulsen]

The first three Sundays in January 2009, we are planning on discussing the "Rediscovering the Book of Faith" during 30 minute session. The course materials that we prepared utilizing the Augsburg publication are available on our church web site (http://www.stpauls-wichita.org/).

[David Paulsen]

Today, our congregation completed the three-session "Rediscovering the Book of Faith" bible study. Of the three sessions, by far the most popular was the third, which discussed the Reformation. The exercise of ranking passages of scripture on a "Gospel and Law" scale was also popular.

[David Paulsen]

We just wrapped up a single session "musical bible study", which featured "peppy" Mardi Gras style music (think "When the Saints Come Marching In"). It was well received and served as a nice transition to Lent. As a key part of the study, we encouraged participnts to bring in music that they feels would fit the theme.

Here is a link to the materials...
http://www.stpauls-wichita.org/files/Book_of_Faith_-_Mardi_Gras_Mus...

[David Paulsen]

Our congregation is using the "Book of Faith Lenten Journey - 40 Days with the Lord's Prayer" as the basis for a 4-week bible study (30 minutes each week). It was difficult to boil "Lenten Journey" into just 2 hours of study, but attendance has been good and the reactions have been positive. We are framing the study using the "Lectio Divina" bible study format. Course materials are available at the link below:

http://www.stpauls-wichita.org/files/Book_of_Faith_Lenten_Journey_-...

[David Paulsen]

Since June, our church has been using the Book of Faith's Together in Faith series for our Sunday morning adult bible study. We are really enjoying the materials and variety provided by the series.