Faith Seeking Understanding: Questioning with Grace

Welcome! While I’d prefer to jump right into things, perhaps a little “what’s this about” should come first.

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.

I probably wouldn't have made it through the entire Bible once, much less four times, if not for that community. It was nice to know that other people had questions on those particularly challenging passages. And it was great to hear other perspectives that opened my mind up to concepts I hadn’t considered before. I felt God’s Spirit at work among us. 

When I came across Banned Questions About the Bible by Christian Piatt, I thought of those Bible group discussions. Christian Piatt posed some difficult questions to a number of theologians, ministers, and thinkers and collected their responses in the book. The responses are easy to read and don’t require a Ph.D. in theology to grasp. Some questions focus on difficult passages in the Bible; others on how we read and interpret the Bible. You may not agree with some of the responses (they don’t all agree with each other), but you should find plenty to spark discussion and help you come to terms with what you think and believe.

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.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll at least bookmark the site and I look forward to the discussions that come!