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Great. Plan sounds good, Disco.
The only reading groups I've done before are journal clubs for reading academic papers and bible studies. I was thinking about what kind of questions to ask for discussing each chapter. This might be a bit too odd, but how do you all like the questions in the Spears' Friendly Bible Study method?
The relevant bit is the questions each participant is asked to answer, and it occurred to me they might act as a starting point for discussion:
"1. What is the author's main point in this passage? (MAIN POINT)
This question helps each member focus on what the author says. It often helps to state the question again in another form: "What is the author saying about God?" Each person must address the text directly in a relationship formed between reader and author.
This is not the time to share the ideas of a commentator, minister, priest, or other authority figure. The search here is for the main point the author was making in this passage and the author's understanding of God working in our world. It is easy to respond with what we would like for the author to have said.
It is easy to express our own ideas on the subject. However, the target of the question is what the author actually said. To help those who may be unsure and timid about Bible study, remind the group again that a variety of responses can help the group see the whole of the passage more clearly. After one or two sessions, this will be easily understood and liberating to most participants.
2. What new light do I find in this particular reading of this passage of the text? (NEW LIGHT)
This question provides opportunity for the working of the Spirit in our silence. This question reminds us of the continuing revelation in our lives from both unfamiliar and familiar passages. The focus here is on each member's new insight, observation, or understanding during this particular reading of this passage on this particular occasion.
Each reading can bring some new or renewed insight. That insight may be small or great. This answer may grow with more and more points as the group works through the passage with other questions.
The new light may be something that is seen now, but had never been seen before. It may be a new understanding of a word or phrase. It may be a new way of seeing a particular problem that this passage triggers in a member's mind. It may be the last in the sequence of questions answered in the silence. It may grow with more and more points as the group works through the passage with other questions.
3. Is this passage true to my experience? (TRUTH)
The focus here is on comparing the message of the Bible passage with each person's experience in life. Our spiritual journeys are ``experimental'' as we search toward fuller understanding. Our personal experience and our community experience are sources of authority which we bring to the study to understand and supplement the Biblical text.
For those who come from other religious traditions, this question may come as a shock. Few of us have lived in other traditions in which we have been allowed to question the ``truth'' of the Bible. Yet we are accustomed to answering this question, if not with the Bible, with other written materials. This question is often a freedom experience and consistently will open up new insights for everyone in the group.
Recognition that our present understanding of the passage is not consistent with our experience may require reassessment of the meaning of our experience, deeper study of the meaning of the Bible passage, or recognition that our individual spiritual journeys, as with those of the Biblical authors, are searches in the dark in which full clarity is not given at every moment.
4. What are the implications of this passage for my life? (IMPLICATIONS)
The answer to this question may provide implications for living at any of several levels of spiritual life. The center of the question is, "What difference, if any, does the passage make for my life?" There is a reaching from the text back to our lives in this question. It brings the role of ethics and daily living practices to our attention. This holding together of faith and action is central to our tradition.
5. What problems do I have with this passage? (PROBLEMS)
Here we identify problems of language in the text, of interpretation, of meaning, or of applying the text to our lives. These problems may generate interest in seeking answers from other sources during the days before the next Bible study.
Problems can be identified without being solved. This question reminds us that study of a passage is a continuing process. Like life, understanding is never complete at any one time. It is a continuing dialogue between the text and life. "
Or if those questions are not the right ones, maybe we could come up with a different list of five questions. Process-wise I think it helps to have a framework of fairly simple questions. Each person can write in their answers to start off the discussion? |
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