Spice Up Learning With Adult Elective Events ADULT STUDY Lessons for the Imperfect
The high standards demanded by Christian faith can leave even the most committed Christian feeling inadequate and imperfect. Each day, Christians are challenged to conduct themselves with decency and grace at home, work and in communities. Each week, our churches strive to worship and minister in unity and love. While perfection is impossible, how can Christians grow stronger?
Within 1 & 2 Corinthians, two of Paul’s most important letters are discovered. These letters contain foundational teachings on Christian service, unity, worship, conduct, marriage, spiritual gifts and the exercise of love as a basis for living. 1 & 2 Corinthians are sometimes seen as “opposite” letters. In the first letter God’s love is taught through the need for proper action, while in the second letter Paul personally demonstrates his love through patience and compassion to the troubled Corinthian church. Together, these letters form a compelling back-to-back treatise on faith development and practice.
This five-week study takes a journey through 1 & 2 Corinthians, helping us learn from the lessons Paul provides to the Corinthians. If you prefer a four-week schedule, simply conclude with week four in the following outline.
Five-week plan:
Week One:
Disunity & Dysfunction (1 Corinthians 1)
One Bad Apple (1 Corinthians 5)
Week Two:
The State of Unions (1 Corinthians 7)
Carnivorous Corinthians (1 Corinthians 8)
Week Three:
Misbehaving in Church (1 Corinthians 11)
The Way Most Excellent (1 Corinthians 13)
Week Four:
The New, New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3)
Genuinely Genuine (2 Corinthians 4)
Week Five:
The New Order of New Things (2 Corinthians 5)
Stewardship… Impaired? (2 Corinthians 9)
Resources available:
Sessions with Corinthians: Lessons for the Imperfect is a guidebook containing Bible study materials and session questions for groups. While a leader will need a copy, the study is enriched if each participant has a copy for individual study. Space for notes and question responses is included with each chapter. For more information, visit:
http://www.helwys.com/books/mccullar2.html
For quantity discounts, call 1-800-747-3016.
Tips:
• This study is appropriate for small or large groups.
• The session leader is encouraged to create a balance between studying 1 & 2 Corinthians, and promoting discussion around the connection of the scripture with current issues individuals or churches face.
• Promote the study through your church newsletter, with verbal announcements, and in adult Sunday school departments. Have fun with the promotion, playing up the “Imperfect” aspect. Using obviously misspelled words, for example, can attract attention and create interest in the study.
• Order books for the leader and participants ahead of the study. ADULT STUDY Faith in the Workplace
What, if anything, does religious faith have to do with daily work? The vast majority of people live in a working world that can seem fairly far removed from where they worship. Is it possible to live faith at work, even when it includes tough ethical choices, impersonal bureaucracy, gossip and backbiting, and tough challenges? It can be easy for faith to be segmented to off hours, rather than integrated into our working lives.
Even as Christians are interested in their faith being real at work, it can be confusing or unclear how to do so. Many Christians are seeking help in discovering strategies for making their faith a central part of their lives at work.
This study offers adults practical helps and principles that can add meaning to their work, and helps them discover healthy and positive ways to live their faith in the workplace.
The book and leaders guide provide material for eleven sessions of study, but the key areas can be covered in five sessions. We have provided a suggested list of session themes below. Feel free to substitute these for other sessions found in the leader’s guide, if the change will make the study better for your learners.
Five-week plan:
Week One:
What Does Faith Have to Do with Daily Work, Anyway?
(p. 4 leaders guide)
Week Two:
Can Faith Really Be Lived at Work
(p. 6 leaders guide)
Week Three:
Live by Faith’s Values
(p. 9 leaders guide)
Week Four:
Relate to Fellow Workers as a Person of Faith
(p. 12 leaders guide)
Week Five:
Choose How You Balance Life
(p. 14 leaders guide)
Resources available:
• Two resources are suggested to support this study. One is the book, Go to Work and Take Your Faith, Too by Ross West. This book provides key content and illustrations for the study, and is appropriate for both the leader and the participants.
For more information, visit:
http://www.helwys.com/books/gowork.html
For quantity discounts, call 1-800-747-3016.
• The second resource is a free leader's guide designed for a study of West’s book. Download the study guide free of charge from this address:
http://www.helwys.com/choice/choice_fsg.html
Once downloaded, simply print the guide and provide it to the leader.
Tips:
• Promotion idea: Create an “official-looking” memo (as if from a major corporation) and distribute these to adults in Sunday school or through your church’s mailing list. The memo should provide a brief description of the benefits of the study, as well as the time and place for the meetings.
• Enlist a leader for the series that can bring strong work experience to the material, and who has good skills at leading adults to participate in discussion.
• Teaching tips: As you lead the study try to develop an atmosphere of informality, openness, and friendliness that will encourage individual discussion, personal sharing, and mutual support. Here are some suggestions about how to make this happen: • Be prepared to listen at least as much as you talk!
• Be willing to share your own personal pilgrimage so that others will more readily share theirs.
• Set up the meeting room in an informal way—with chairs in a circle or semi-circle, perhaps around a table.
• Agree on a beginning and ending time for the sessions, and stick to it.
• Encourage participants to enter into an agreement with one another to attend faithfully, prepare for each session, offer support to one another, and keep any confidences that are shared.
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