Disciple: Into the Word Into the World - Questions for Group Meetings Session 1 Questions Session 2 Questions Session 3 Questions Session 4 Questions Session 5 Questions Session 6 Questions Session 7 Questions Session 8 Questions Session 9 Questions Session 10 Questions Session 11 Questions Session 12 Questions Session 13 Questions Session 14 Questions Session 15 Questions Session 16 Questions Session 17 Questions Session 18 Questions Session 19 Questions Session 20 Questions Session 21 Questions Session 22 Questions Session 23 Questions Session 24 Questions Session 25 Questions Session 26 Questions Session 27 Questions Session 28 Questions Session 29 Questions Session 30 Questions Session 31 Questions Session 32 Questions   Session 1 Questions How does Torah fit into the Hebrew Bible and what is its function? What is the twofold significance of sabbath in Torah? What then is God like? What relationship do you see between the attitudes expressed in “Our Human Condition” and the environmental issues just discussed? Am I pretending something to myself or to others that I need to confess? How do I make confession to God and accept the forgiveness that comes from God?   Session 2 Questions Why do persons seek meaning without God? What are the results? What does it mean to you that God chose ordinary people to carry out God’s purposes? Read aloud Genesis 11:1-9 and Acts 2:5-12. What does this mean? In what sense is pride a violation of the first commandment? How is all humankind reflected in this story? How is all humankind also reflected in Abraham and Sarah in their role here? What kinds of information are provided in the genealogy? Who is emphasized, and why? What is the purpose of the genealogy in its place? What connections can you make on the basis of this information? How can I be alert to the leading of the Holy Spirit at every moment of the day? What is the difference between choosing to live daily as a servant and choosing particular ways in which to serve?   Session 3 Questions How did Mesopotamia and Canaan differ? What is the power in hospitality experienced as table fellowship? Who are the people today to whom we resist taking the gospel for fear they will repent and be forgiven? In what sense is this resistance to sharing the gospel also a resistance to extending hospitality? What new insights did persons have into the characters and into the story? What did they feel as each of the characters? What attitudes toward self and toward others lie behind the offering of hospitality? When are we most likely not to offer hospitality? When are we most likely not to accept hospitality? How do I rationalize having to have my own way? What are some signs that point to self at the center, and what are some signs that point to others at the center?   Session 4 Questions What questions do you have about a God who requires such a test? Should Abraham have protested God’s command? What new insights came as you listened and watched? Which do you find harder to believe—that God would test us or that God would provide for us in the testing? How does God test us? Does God ever or always provide a “ram in the thicket”? What was the status of the promise at Sarah’s death? Is it more an inherited faith or a faith you came to on your own? What does the text actually say? What did this story likely mean to its first hearers? What did the writer want to say for God? What meaning does this story have for us today? What does the passage mean for me? What is the power of memory in times of crisis and testing? What images of God do I have as I approach worship? What do I expect to happen between me and God?   Session 5 Questions How do birthright, blessing, privilege of the firstborn, being male or female, and the significance of children figure into the family conflicts? What does it mean to remember these stories as a series of confessions of sin? How do they differ in content, tone, and outcome? In what sense are any or all of the factors in the biblical story operating today? What does the passage say about God? What does it say about human beings? What does it say about the relationship between God and human beings? Why does alienation in family exist even among the people of God? What insights did you gain from study of Isaac and Rebekah and their family that apply to your own family? What experiences in your own family provide perspective from which to understand Isaac and Rebekah and their family? What does it mean to be persistent in prayer? What image might I hold in my mind that is a two-way image of prayer?   Session 6 Questions In what sense was Jacob wrestling for himself, and in what sense for Israel? In the meeting of Esau and Jacob, what was resolved and what was left unresolved? What was happening between Esau and Jacob as this scene was being played out? What was going on beneath the surface? Why do we have difficulty making the first move toward reconciliation, whether as an individual, a family, a racial group, or a nation? What can free us to move toward reconciliation? How comfortable am I with silence? What do I concentrate on when I am sitting in silence listening to God?   Session 7 Questions What is your overall impression of the sons and of God’s purposes in working through them? What happened in this story? What did the story likely say to its first hearers? What did the writer of the story want to say for God? What is the story's central purpose? What does the story mean for me and my life? What do we see when we look at this human condition from the perspective of Scripture? What is my responsibility if God provides? How does what I need change when I come to believe God will provide?   Session 8 Questions What is the incandescent idea in the greater part of Genesis? How does the Joseph cycle of stories function in relation to the patriarchs and matriarchs and the fulfillment of the promise? What new insights did persons get into the story and into their own reaction to the characters and to the event taking place? Where is God at work in this story? How do we move from the attitudes and actions described in “Our Human Condition” to a lifestyle required by the issues raised in “Into the World”? What would happen if as I meet each person I said to myself, “I depend on that person; that person depends on me”? What requirements does interdependence make on me daily?   Session 9 Questions How would you describe the six women so crucial to the Exodus? What does mirmah mean? What is your understanding of when deception is not acceptable and when it is? How did these factors work together to create fear in everyone involved? What does the passage say about God? What does it say about people? What does it say about the relationship between God and people? Is this sentence a true statement? What are examples that support the statement? How does one practice the spiritual discipline of submission in this regard? How shall I listen to God through his Word? What is God calling me to do through God’s Word and my meditation?   Session 10 Questions What kind of God do we meet in Exodus 3 and 4? Where is God active, and where do we need to get on the move with God? What do we mean when we say God is a personal God who calls us by name? How are we to perceive God’s call as personal if we don’t hear a voice? How does God get involved in history today? Can and does God ever act except through human beings? How does this passage call on me to make changes in my life? From your standpoint, what is the price to be paid? What would be the consequences of accepting a call to serve? What other factors are involved in resisting a call? How has God’s call come to you? What are the times and the situations in which I sense God’s guidance? What are the most effective ways for me to learn God’s Word?   Session 11 Questions What is the Jewish salvation story, and what are its lessons? What is the Christian salvation story? How does Easter influence the way Christians read the rest of Scripture? What are some goals toward which we may move as Christians and Jews? What actions did God take to save Israel? How did God act through others? What picture of God did you get from this account? What did the memory say about who these people were? about where they came from? about where they were going? In what sense does this memory also tell Christians who we are, where we came from, and where we are going? How does one come to the point of being willing to risk the cost of taking a new direction or experiencing a new freedom? What do I need to fast from in order to concentrate on my spiritual life? What keeps me focusing my attention and giving some of my time to growing spiritually?   Session 12 Questions What were the complaints and conditions the people experienced on the journey, and what were God’s responses? What theological affirmation is central to the story? What evidence do you see that we still try to “gather manna” seven days because we are afraid we won’t have enough? What part of your day-to-day existence are you able to trust to God’s care and provision? What part do you have difficulty trusting to God’s providing care? What is the role of God, of Moses, and of the people in this story? What does the account mean for us today? What keeps me from being teachable as I read Scripture? What attitudes toward Scripture make way for Scripture’s transforming power?   Session 13 Questions Why did God give Israel and us the Ten Commandments? How are we to understand God’s authority in the Ten Commandments? In what sense are the Ten Commandments a plan for our salvation? What is the relationship between keeping the first commandment and each of these commandments? How does honoring the sabbath help restore priorities that allow keeping the other commandments? Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? What kind of conversation were you having with yourself as you thought about the questions and answered them? What did you learn about yourself? When did you find yourself agreeing with the commandment in general but wanting to bend it for yourself? Where did you become aware of priorities needing reordering? How would my choosing to live simply make life any different or better for someone else? What changes in the way I plan and go through my days do I need to make?   Session 14 Questions What are the four primary codes of law in the Pentateuch? How do the laws function in relation to justice and righteousness? What are the two groupings of laws, and how do they function? What insights about community and relationships among people are here that might speak to particular present-day social concerns? Where are they mentioned? How do they connect? What is the relationship between a holy God and holy people? What claim does this passage have on the church today and on us? In what sense would my choosing daily to live simply bring some justice to this situation? How much of what I buy do I really need, and how much do I buy for other reasons? How would my priorities for use of money look if I put at the top of the list living as a compassionate, caring steward?   Session 15 Questions What made Israel different from surrounding communities in the way Israel related to the neighbor? How are these law codes relevant for the church today? How is the community learning to live compassionately and model compassion in keeping these laws? What is the intent behind the sabbatical year and jubilee? What wisdom might a world facing ecological disaster glean from these plans? How do these passages fit the intent of Creation described in Genesis? What is the central idea and purpose of this Scripture? What did the passage require of its first hearers? What elements are the same in the situation then and in our situation now? What elements are different then and now? What is the meaning of the passage for today’s church? If I took this passage seriously, what changes would I make in the way I live? What expectations do I bring to my time of worship in the congregation? How does a sense of forgiveness and renewal give me a power for living?   Session 16 Questions What was the purpose of the Tabernacle? What does the ark teach us about God’s prevenient presence, God’s powerful presence, God’s passing presence? What is the power of the image of the portability of the Tabernacle? Where do you see the design, furnishings, functions, and purpose of the Tabernacle reflected in our own worship? What biblical ideas or terms coming out of the form and function of the Tabernacle have become a part of our theological language of faith? How do you experience the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph? What was God doing through the people? How do you experience the God of the Exodus? What was God doing with and through the people in the Exodus? How do you experience the God of Sinai who gave the people the covenant of the Law? What was God doing for and through the people at Sinai? What does this passage tell us about God? What does it tell us about human beings? What does it tell us about the relationship between God and human beings? How disciplined am I in arranging and using my study time and in selecting the tools and methods for my study of Scripture? How do I expect God to change me through my study?   Session 17 Questions Why were two volumes necessary? How do the Gospel and Acts differ in literary style? in emphasis? If we did not have this material, what would be missing in terms of understanding Jesus? in terms of the theology of the church? in terms of the importance of Scripture to Jesus? in terms of what is required of us? On the basis of your reading of Luke and Acts, what response can you make to the questions in "Our Human Condition”? What kinds of ministry are called for by “Our Human Condition”? Am I open to whatever meaning and direction God gives me? How do I know when God is speaking to me in the silence?   Session 18 Questions How do the various discoveries contribute to a clearer view of Jesus in his Jewish environment? What have we learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls that adds to our understanding of Jesus? How will I start to pray both for myself and for others? What will give order and discipline to my praying?   Session 19 Questions How does prayer change us? How does prayer empower us? How can we live the Lord’s Prayer? How were you strengthened and challenged in your own prayer life by your study? What was important about the occasion or situation when the prayer was offered? What was the nature of the prayer? What was the life situation to which this prayer was important? What situations in our lives parallel these? To what extent have they found prayer the answer to the needs described in the condition? How do I go about confessing my sins? How will facing who I really am set me free?   Session 20 Questions What was the nature of Jesus’ ministry and his disciples’ ministry? How do these ministries challenge persons in modern mainline congregations? What evidence do you see that Jesus offends modern-day Christians? How are Jesus and his gospel presented in your congregation? Are certain ways of talking about Jesus not acceptable? How has Jesus been “packaged” in our churches to make him fit our image of him? How willing are we to hear the gospel message that in God’s rule the poor, not the privileged, are favored? What point did Jesus want to make when he told this parable? What do you think the parable meant to those who first heard it? What meaning does the parable have for the church today in contrast to the Jews in Jesus’ day? What claim does the passage make on us? What does Scripture have to say to this human condition? How would a lifestyle of service be different from the way I now live? What changes do I need to make in the way I live in order to be available to others and their needs?   Session 21 Questions What concepts in Israel’s history contribute to the image of Jesus as the royal Christ? How did Jesus’ actions demonstrate this image? How are followers of Jesus to live daily? What is either implied or made obvious through prediction or sign about the coming passion of Jesus? To what degree did the disciples understand what these events meant? What does the text say? What did the writer intend to communicate? What did this miracle mean to those who were there? What does the miracle mean to us? What is God saying to us in this story? How can we know the way to live? What would be different about today if I let go of my need to be in control? How can I live as a person who is both available and vulnerable without calling attention to myself?   Session 22 Questions What was the difference between Jesus’ understanding and the disciples’ understanding of the journey? What was Jesus attempting to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God? What does this point require? If I took this point seriously, how would I change the way I live? How does Jesus confront us in the present? What claims does Jesus make on us? How do we experience God’s rule as judgment as individuals? as a church? as a city or nation? Where do you see evidence of God’s judging today? When have you experienced God’s rule as judgment? as salvation? How do you understand the Kingdom or rule of God in terms of the end of history? What is your understanding of God’s kingdom expressed in the concept of the Second Coming? Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? What is the connection among the human condition described here, costly discipleship, and the discipline of submission? If today I see myself as a steward of God’s money rather than an owner of money, how will I spend it differently? How shall I decide how best to use money in others’ behalf?   Session 23 Questions What difference would it make in our lives if we learned to think back on the present from the prspective of the last things in our lives? What does the passage say? What does it mean? What does it require of us? What attitudes underlie the view that money is our security? What behavior results from those attitudes? What attitudes underlie the view that money is a trust from God? What behavior results from those attitudes? Why do you think Jesus told three parables about lostness, repentance, and joy when the issue for the Pharisees was table fellowship and community with sinners? What is the primary message you hear? How do you think and feel about what you hear? How has the church understood, explained, and responded to this passage? How does your life as you live it interact with the church’s teaching of this passage? What vision does the passage put forth? What response will you make? What attitudes or actions foster a continuing sense of God’s presence? How do I learn to pray without ceasing so that I am also listening to God without ceasing?   Session 24 Questions What is Luke’s witness regarding the Resurrection? What is the basis of the belief of the apostles and others that Jesus was raised from the dead? What is going on? What is going on underneath what we are observing? What are we learning about Jesus from these events? What witness do we want to give about who this Jesus is on the basis of what we are seeing? What do we want others to know about Jesus? What basic beliefs about the Resurrection arise out of these accounts? How have you found this statement to be true in your experience? When am I aware that the Holy Spirit is guiding me? Am I alert to those times when the Spirit is working through other persons or through groups to guide me?   Session 25 Questions What happened at Pentecost? What new ways of thinking and talking about the Holy Spirit did you hear? How is this core message being delivered today? What happens in the story? What do you think Luke wanted to convey in his account? What seems to be the central idea? What meaning does this passage have for the church today in contrast to its meaning for the Jews in the first century? What is the meaning of the passage for me? What risk do I see in serving others? What attitudes would I need to cultivate in order to see myself as servant whenever and wherever and from whomever the call comes?   Session 26 Questions What did Luke want to say through his accounts? Why did Paul write his account? How does it differ from Luke’s? On what points do they agree? What events of history or persons does Stephen emphasize? Why? What does he omit or treat lightly? Where does he combine two different accounts? What theme, often emphasized by Luke, emerges, particularly in 7:51-53? What charges or words angered the hearers? What were the long-term effects of Stephen’s speech? As the gospel moved into these groups, what boundaries were being crossed? What kind of “map” would you draw to show the kinds of boundaries that need to be crossed by the gospel today? What would it be like? Would it be a geographical map, a cultural map, a sociological map, a map of particular groups of people, or what? What does the passage tell us about God? What does it tell us about human beings? What does it tell us about the relationship between God and human beings? What kinds of experiences produce feelings of vibrancy, challenge, anticipation? In what sense are such feelings related to risk, even to the point of martyrdom, or at least the risk of service without qualification? What need of a decision or a direction or of freedom do I have that I might achieve by letting go of or fasting from something else? What shall I let go of this week for greater gain?     Session 27 Questions What was at issue in the Jerusalem Council? What agreements came out of the meeting? What were its far-reaching results? At each point where is Peter? What is he doing? What is happening to Peter himself as he is involved in these events? How is the Holy Spirit active in and through Peter? What is the outcome of Peter’s actions? What do you see there that was shaping Peter for the major role he played in the events in the Scripture we are studying? What does this passage say about God? What does it say about human beings? What does it say about the relationship between God and human beings? What is the nature of missionary activity and the role of the missionary in today’s world of many language, racial, and cultural groups? Where do you see the Holy Spirit active in sending persons across lines with the message of the gospel? What would my day look like if it were God-centered rather than self-centered? What makes a self-centered life an anxious life? What makes a God-centered life a joyous life?   Session 28 Questions What picture do you have of Philippi and the early Christians there? What is distinctive about the theology of Philippians? What is the reason for Paul’s joy in the Lord? Who are the persons or groups involved? How is the Holy Spirit active here? What is happening in terms of the development of the church and the spread of Christianity? What kind of city did Paul come into when he came here? What problems did the missionaries encounter here? What was the reaction to Paul’s preaching and activity here? What was the result of ministry here? What did Paul want to say to his readers? What does our Scripture say to this condition? What does this condition indicate about the kind of ministry needed in the world? How do I feel about what I own and the money that I have available to me? What is the connection between holding money and possessions lightly and having an attitude of joy in what I am able to give?   Session 29 Questions What were some of the causes of the conflict between Paul and the Corinthian congregation? What view do you have of Paul based on his interaction with the congregation? What did you learn about the Corinthian congregation? What situations or issues did Paul face as pastor and missionary in Corinth? How did Paul’s critics view Paul? How did Paul want to be seen and understood? How did Paul handle controversy? Why was the Jerusalem collection so important to him? From Paul’s standpoint, what characterized apostleship, and how are apostles to be evaluated? What does the text say? What seems to be the purpose of the passage? What is Paul’s situation? How is the situation then like our situation now? How is it different from ours? What is the meaning of this passage for the church today? If the statement is true, what makes being involved in the church worth the effort? How shall I live as servant in family relationships so that others are given integrity and value by my actions? What are the small things I can do for others today?   Session 30 Questions What instructions did Paul give you for leading the community? Why was the image of shepherd particularly appropriate? What examples do you observe in church life today of knowledge of or contentment with water baptism only and a hesitancy to ask for the Holy Spirit? How do persons in your congregation react to the idea of laying on of hands? Do you know church members who lack the assurance that Christ has entered their lives? What is the message in these three accounts, and what are the results? In Luke’s report of the journey, what particular points did he want to make about Paul, the Holy Spirit, and the growth of the church? What parts of this condition do we tend to see as a problem for others but not for ourselves? What form do the shouting crowds that we join usually take? What attitudes will make me open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit? How am I to tell the difference between the leading of the Holy Spirit and some other inclination?   Session 31 Questions Why did Paul write the Letter to the Romans? Why did he need the help of the house churches? Why was Paul in this situation? What was Paul’s main point in his defense? What resulted from his speech? What connections do you see? How do I learn to turn my life over to God daily? Do I need to put something out of my life in order to let God be at the center of my life?   Session 32 Questions How are you experiencing the rhythm of living in the Word and in the world? How do you understand God’s order and rhythm in your life? In what areas of your life are you experiencing God’s reordering? What is the primary message in these Scriptures? Where are you in your own life in relation to these two passages? What has the church taught about the meaning of these passages? Is where you are at odds with or in harmony with what the church has taught about these two passages? What vision of the future arises from these passages for you? How will your thoughts, feelings, and actions be influenced by that vision?