Several years ago, some folks from Grace Presbyterian in Springfield joined together to read the Bible all the way through. We shared our thoughts, reflections, and questions through an email discussion group. You can still find those archives on Yahoo Groups. We had such great discussions that what was planned to run for one year extended into four.
While I found it a thought-provoking read, I craved a chance
to talk about it with others. When Grace began planning for this fall’s adult
ed opportunities, I offered this. Rev. Erin Sharp suggested
we try an on-line discussion to bring in people who can’t always make it to the
regular Sunday School offerings.
So, here we are. What’s going to happen? Every week, we’ll focus
on one of the questions in Banned Questions… . I’ll
post a brief synopsis (need to work on the “brief” part) and toss out some
questions. Each of the questions reference Bible passages that we can also
explore. Feel free to respond as you have time and to offer
questions/thoughts/reflections of your own.
We’ll
have some copies of the book available at Grace on Rally Day (September 9). You
can also buy the book on Amazon (paper or electronic) or on the publisher’s web
site here.
You can preview the
book on Amazon here. Click on “Look Inside” to see a list of questions covered in
the book. Please let me know what
questions you’d like to see us cover and we’ll cue them up. You can make
your suggestions in the responses here or, if you prefer, catch me at Grace.
Where we go with this depends on where you’d like to go.
Right now, we’re starting out as an online discussion
through this blog. I’ll probably set up a Facebook group to announce new posts
(usually on the weekend). We’ll also run updates in the bulletin and on Grace’s
web site. I’ll also be looking for opportunities for occasional face-to-face
discussions (perhaps at a coffeehouse) for anyone who can make it, so stay
tuned.