Community Project Development 6: Round two begins

I began the second week of Bible studies on Sunday although after working the night before, I only completed it monday at 4pm. I found the second Bible study more challenging than the first, although I feel the launching question was more pertinent to the study. Hopefully this will be the general concensus. The second study continued on the theme of freedom... The first study concerned the freedom we have in Christ, whils the second concerned the freedom we have to choose.
The emphasis of the study is that God will not override freedom of choice. It is our choice to follow him or otherwise. While this study does not flow as easily as the first the subject matter of the first was not so much structured around a single point as drawn out and narritive. I would be interested to get feedback from leaders as to the difference between the two.

Did a trial of the new format of bible study on our own group on Teusday night. It went OK although I felt like I was on trial as it was my own work. I think that the length was just right as it left enough flexibility for th groups to go in different directions. I got feedback from that while he disliked working from a set structure that it allowed him to return to it when His group got sidetracked. He also questioned the relevance of the launching question to the study.
My own personal opinion is that there should be more open-ended questions, which don’t have a set answer in mind, but allow the groups to explore the topic.

I decided to visit another home group to see how the format was put into action. This I did by visiting the Falconers group on Thursday night. Usually it is run by Isabel although Deb Prodo runs it when she is away.

It was really good to be a fly on the wall at this group. They latched onto the launching question well and there were a few stories to tell and then the study began. In spite of not having printed a leaders answer sheet Isabel did very well. In fact the whole evening went really well. I came away pleased with the result.

Community Project Development 3 The Empire Writes Back

Yesterday I put together the first of the Bible studies based on the Sunday morning service. It probably took about an hour and a half. I then made additional copies for those who don't have and email adress. I think what makes it easier is that most of the quotations are from the book of Galatians, and that there was heaps of scripture, all raising different aspects of the same issue... the freedom we have in Christ. What was best of all was getting some positive feedback from Mick, who liked the way the study was set out.

Here is a copy of the first elucidation. this was followed by a leaders version in which the answers and scriptures were included in hidden text.

The Freedom we have in Christ

Open in prayer

"In School, how did you feel when others cut in front of you in line? What did you do?"

In Galatians 5:1 What does Paul mean by the yoke of slavery?
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What were some people in the church in Galatia trying to do?
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Read Galatians 2:16 There is a strange word which we don’t use nowadays… What do you think that word means?
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What then was the purpose of the law if not to make us right with God? Look for the answer in Romans 3:20
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Since rule keeping is not the way to God, what is? Galatians 5:6
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Read Galatians 4:3-7 What does Paul mean by the rights of sons?
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In the ancient world, what do archeologists and historians tells us it meant to be a son? How is this different to how we understand sonship today?
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What is the difference between the discipline needed by a child and the discipline needed by the mature son?
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In Hebrews 8:8-12 we see Gods plan for a new covenant that He spoke of in Jeremiah 31. How do you think this covenant was different from the previous one?
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What are the results of the Spirit being at work in our lives? Galatians 5:22&23

Community Project development 2 The continuing saga

From lists of home group leaders, I gathered the information necessary to contact them quickly. Rob’s basic premise is that the Bible studies during the week will be based on the sermon form Sunday. This provides a level of continuity for the groups and strengthens the impact of the message on the hearers. It also means that any questions or difficulties with the message are nutted out in a small group setting. It is logical that people will be more inclined to air their difficulties or lack of understanding in a small group context than in a large setting such as a Sunday morning service. The key is therefore to get the material to the small groups as soon as they have been prepared.

Electronic media such as emails or web sites are the ideal forums for getting information out to people quickly. The difficulty in a church context is that many older people do not have access to this technology.

For this reason I contacted all the leaders and a few core members of home groups to ascertain whether they use the Internet and to what extent email would meet the needs for getting information to them quickly.

I created a special group that I set up specifically for Home group leaders within Microsoft outlook and made a note of those for whom I did not have email addresses. The email addresses were then added to this group. By putting the lists together in this way saves time, so that individual members addresses don’t need o be added and posted one by one.

Community project development 1

Liased today with the Office and got hold of the contact list I need. I spent some time strategising and working out who has emails and who doesn't. Two potentials on the list. I will need to contact them to arrange for an alternative means of delivery.

I also spent some time thinking about how to approach group leaders as some objections may raise their heads. Possibly best to send a letter from Rob to the leaders explaining how he envisages the system working. Really there is no way of telling how well or otherwise the project works until it begins. At best we can plan and strategise and work through scenarios tring to think of every eventuality. I propose to use Sun City's planning programme for the launch of the lost city as the basis for the strategy. Walk through the process from the leaders perspective then from the group attendees perspective streamlining and ironing out any problems as we go.

Jounal Community Project

Spoke to Rob confirming what he had in mind for the community project.

While it appears easy enough the one difficulty I assume will be getting the information out to everyone. There are still many people out there who still rely on snail mail. This will not provide them with adequate time to receive questions by post so some alternative arrangement may have to be made. At this stage the project is envisaged to trial for two months after which he will decide how things are going and may wish to take it over from there.

One of the key criterion will be working in a redundancy into the system so that anyone skilled enough in the mechanics of puting together the questions will be able to run it when I am not here. This is mainly as a provision for when I am away overseas or when someone else takes over the running of it. The key thing is always build away from oneself. If something is living it will take on a life of its own, all that is needed is some oversight and pruning.