Common Ground leader Helps

Posted at http://commonground--theapostlescreed.blogspot.com/ with invited additional comments form leaders.

Common Ground discussion Helps

Teaching the book “common ground” in a small group or class

Over all approach.

1. Inspire each student read the chapter before your session. Some will, others won’t Those who do not read will still bring the book and scan it during class. Either group can help you teach, though the pre-readers will have more to contribute to the discussion. Make sure you have 20% readers in the class or you will risk having a jumbled discussion without sound doctrine. If your entire group refuses to read then consider dividing up the sections and have different people read them during the first 12 minutes of class. This will get them “into the book” and encourage reading later. And if all else fails and you can never inspire any of your students to read ahead of class, consider a lecture approach by printing up the section titles as an outline and rehearsing the content of the book as a lecture. Even then freely read paragraphs here and there so students are inspired to read sound doctrine as part of their own devotional growth.

2. Open most sessions by reading the quote at the beginning of the chapter. These are real quotes by real people though the names are fictitious. They show how people think today and remind us of the importance of sound doctrine. Don’t make fun of the ‘stupid comments” for there may be people in your class who have these same views—all of these quotes were from people in Sunday school or college level classes. The quotes only get the discussion engine going—don’t base the whole lesson on them.

3. There are two ways to order the discussion. Some teachers like to work through the discussion questions in logical order which is fine. An alternative way is to hand out a half sheet including these questions inviting people in the class to pick what they want to talk about in the order they prefer. The advantages of this second approach is rewarding students who read the book before class and a more lively class since people get to talk about what stood out to them in the reading.

4. Don’t hammer those with sub-Christian views. The church today has many Christians who simply are uninformed and have a secular approach to doctrine. They have gotten their doctrine from TV or popular talk shows, not from the Bible and the ancient creeds of the Christian church. Calling people heretics, even in jest, will not accomplish your goal. Doctrine is a serious matter. People have died for these beliefs and they are not laughing matters. On the other hand, allow for the fact that many Christians simply are ignorant of orthodox Christian doctrine and it takes time for them to absorb fully Christian beliefs. Your job will be similar to those ancient missionaries who entered new cultures where all kinds of sub-Christians beliefs prevailed yet they nudged and shepherded them to fully Christian doctrine with tender compassion and solid teaching. Ironically today’s Christian church is in need of such missionaries today!

5. End every session with praise and thanksgiving. Sound doctrine should inspire worship not arguments. Feel free to have hearty discussions during the class but always end up with praise to God and a recommitment to living a holy life. The closing section of each chapter “What About Us?” is a poetic “how shall we then live” response to each doctrine. Be wary of ending your session any other way. Allow for closing time and shut off discussion in time to turn the session toward praise and prayer. Each chapter has a closing prayer than can be prayed silently and individually, by someone in your group, or given to someone ahead of time to use as a guide to praying an extemporaneous prayer. Let every session end with glorifying God—after all, that is the end of good theology.

Have a great time in this book! Once you have completed it you will discover that sound docrine can be life changing! --Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Introduction

You might consider using the introduction “Why we study the Apostle’s Creed” in the first session to introduce the entire series (or as a short introduction to chapter one).

1. What other ways do we “underline the Bible” to bring out the most vital truths for Christians? (e.g. preaching, denominational Articles of Religion, hymnody etc.)

2. Discuss this statement: “Heresy is not believing something beyond the creeds (we all do that) but believing something against the creeds.”

3. List some things your church strongly disagrees on that other Christians believe beyond the creeds—Catholics, Pentecostals, Holiness churches, Presbyterians and others. Now list some things from memory where these churches agree.

4. Using the author’s “written in pencil, ink and blood” model list some things which fit into each category in your opinion.

5. Discuss how churches in the “free church tradition” who seldom say the creed might benefit fro a study of the creed—why study what we all agree on? Do you know any Christians (or denominations) who reject the creeds or part of it? How much of the creed can an individual (or denomination) reject and still be Christian?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 1—Almighty God

1. What is the difference in believing in only one God and believing our God is the top God or best God? How does this relate to our view of other non-Christian religions?

2. It is popular today to say the Christian God-the-Father is the same God as all other religions… that “the Father” is Allah, or any other God and Jesus is “our way” of getting to the Father but there are other ways—what do you think of this?

3. What are some mistaken view of God he Father that cold come from our human situation and how would you answer the person who says, “If God is like a Father then I hate Him.”

4. What is the doctrine of providence? How can we say that God provides us with a car and house when we ourselves purchased it with out own hard-earned money?

5. Make a chart of the various answers to theodicy—the problem of evil. If God is almighty how can he let bad things happen? Which one of these answers would you use most in explaining the problem of evil?

6. This book repeatedly claim there are things we can’t explain or prove to unbelievers—we “just believe” them. Discuss the difference between believing on evidence and believing by faith and how both have a role in faith. What have you believed due to evidence and what by faith alone?

7. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Or perhaps actually have someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or have someone pray based on the lesson a similar prayer.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 2—Creator

1. This chapter says, “we Christians are unbelievers when it come to competing stories of creation. It is an unusual way of thinking about Christians—as “unbelievers.” Discuss the similarities between the “Christian unbeliever” [in non-Christian or anti-Christian accounts of creation or other things] and the unbeliever in the Christian account to such things…how are they similar and different?

2. The writer claims we can seldom convince unbelieving others that God is the Creator. Yet scientific research into the origins of matter and life is a worthy endeavor for Christians—why?

3. If marshalling scientific date to prove God as creator seldom convinces people with the opposite view how do such people “get converted?—what makes them want to become a Christian?

4. Describe both views of the activity of God in creation (page 41—the distant initiator and the imminent creation-by-touch) then find Scripture that seems to suggest either of these view. Which do you (the students) prefer? Why?

5. Discuss the role of the entire Trinity in creation. How is this different than the [non-Orthodox] notion that “the Father” created everything and the Son and Holy Spirit came later?

6. Chat about how most discussions of “creation” seem to dwell on a limited part of creation (Humans, this planet) and why. Then ask someone to describe the “scope” of creation (matter, the universe, seen, unseen etc.)

7. Describe the view of creation that says “God is still creating even today” then ask is anyone in the group has an inclination to that approach inviting them to describe it and even mention Scripture supporting that view.

8. Discuss this sentence: ”How he created is interesting but not relevant to our core faith.”

9. This chapter is willing to let scientists offer up creation theories about the how and when, but insists Christians care most about who and why. What must any theory of creation include for Christians to be able to accept it?

10. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 3—Jesus Christ

1. What do Christians mean when they say “Jesus is God?” What mistakes do we make in vocabulary that can lead to sub-Christian doctrine? (e.g. referring to the Father as “God” etc.)

2. Look up First Council of Nicaea in an encyclopedia (or on Wikipedia, printing out the story assigning the several role in discussing the “Arian controversy” –see if your students can recreate the debate using real Scriptures. Make sure you have (or serve as) the narrator to ell the story of how this decision came out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism

3. Discuss how Christians might have a friendly chat with a person who believes that Jesus was a good man and great prophet but not God.

4. What is loaded into the Greek term “Jesus is Lord (Jesus is Yahweh)? How does this change our discussion of who Jesus is looking at “God” in the Old Testament?

5. Describe how Christianity might be different today if all Christians had agreed with the Arian view in 325.

6. Do you think “God protected” or the “Spirit inspired” this council in AD 325 to make the decision they did? To what extent does God guide and lead the church to make such decisions? Is “the church” always right in such decisions? What would we do if we decided they were wrong?

7. Ask someone to distinguish between the use of “I believe” in the Apostle’s Creed (which was rooted in a personal baptismal confession) and the “we believe” of he Nicene Creed and how it plays out today.

8. Why is it important theologically for Jesus to have been God “who came down for us and our salvation” (Nicene Creed)?

9. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 4—The Virgin Birth

1. Discuss for a moment the sentence “Theology is not a produce of arithmetic as if we could find out which subjects are more important by adding up the number of verses that mention them.” Though we often do this what important beliefs (besides the virgin birth) would become less important by using this method?

2. Christians believe the Son of God existed before he was born on earth. What theological truth does this imply related to his conception? (a true incarnation of “very God”—God becoming flesh).

3. How does each person of the Trinity play a role in the incarnation?

4. Read then discuss the practical implication of the statement” We serve a God who makes impossibilities possible.”

5. Make a chart of mistakes we can make about the two natures of Jesus—they are all mentioned in this chapter. Discuss each.

6. Christian orthodoxy claims Jesus “was every bit as human as Peter or Paul.” Why do we prefer (as Zach does in the opening quote) to imagine Jesus “pushed the easy button” to overcome temptation and did nnot beat temptation as a fully human being? (Some of us want to escape the idea that Jesus was fully human so we can say “I’m only human” in dismissing our sin.)

7. Make a chart as a class of the people in the early centuries and their beliefs which were outside of Christian orthodoxy (p 70). Ask how these beyond-orthodox view can sometimes appear today.

8. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 5—The suffering, death and Burial of Jesus Christ

1. Discuss how both believers and unbelievers agree on this part of the creed. Then discuss how we differ on the meaning of this part of the creed.

2. Ask why the Creed leaves out all the teachings of Jesus and skips from His birth to His death… and what that means about using both the Creeds and the Bible in our training.

3. Discuss the limitations of establishing “Muslim nations” or “Christian nations” as it relates to history and theology. To what extent are we in the world and not of it? How has the view of a Christian’s role in nationalism changed through history and today? Consider using the “Christ and Culture” rubric of Richard Niebuhr in this study

http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/christ.and.culture.HTM

4. Using Thomas Aquinas that on the cross Jesus reminded us of all the virtues he taught make an oral list of the virtues illustrated by Jesus in His death. (p80)

5. What wonderful thoughts come to us by knowing that Jesus really died?

6. Discuss the original meaning of “descended into hell” and the later meaning that came to be associated with these original words. Do you (the student) prefer either of these? Glance at an encyclopedia (or the Wikipedia entry) on “Harrowing of Hell.” Read the verses in 1 Peter (3:19–20; 4:6) and discuss their meaning. Which interpretation (as a student) do you prefer? Why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_Hell

7. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 6—The resurrection and ascension of Jesus

1. Introduce this chapter by making a chart with three titles: Unbeliever-myth Unbeliever-spiritual point and Believer-actual explaining each approach to the resurrection. Discuss how the middle group can be found in churches yet they are unbelievers in an actual resurrection.

2. Ask for alternative [unbelieving] explanations of the disappearance of the body of Jesus and then the Christian belief.

3. Discuss the difference between coming back to life (Lazarus) and a resurrection.

4. Who raised Jesus—Himself, the father, the Spirit? (Look up the Scripture passages on page 91)

5. What practical meaning does the resurrection have for Christians? Why is the resurrection of Jesus important to us?

6. Discuss how we Christians can believe yet not understand, explain or prove some things. Can you think of other things we believe yet do no understand, cannot explain and are not able to prove them?

7. Study 1 Corinthians 15:13-19 and the meaning of the resurrection here.

8. Why is it important for Christians to reject the notion of a “spiritual resurrection” where Jesus’ spirit arose and not His body? How does this relate to our own future and how we think about death?

9. We believe not because the evidence has made belief automatic, yet there is evidence for the resurrection—what are these?

10. If here were no ascension how would what we believe be changed?

11. What does it mean to us today that Christ “sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty?”

12. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 7—The Second Coming and Judgment

1. Discuss Joel’s opening comment and how common it is in the world…even among some in the church to think like Joel and what makes them think this way. Why do we hear less about hell and judgment than we used to?

2. Think about funerals of friend and family—the chapter says people today often broaden the path to include their relatives. Is that true in your experience or not?

3. When we broaden the path to include our dead relatives who never claimed to believe, on what (theological) basis do we sometimes act like they were saved?

4. What is the difference between the Second Coming and the final judgment? Why do we tend to talk more about the Second Coming than the Final Judgment?

5. Jesus is acting as the final Judge, how does this differ from popular thinking of who does the judging?

6. Who gets judged—how broad is scope is the final judgment?

7. What are some of the ways Christians over time have explained the delay in God bring final judgment?

8. This book reminds Christians of the “joy in judgment” that we should think about—describe how this approach to judgment changes a fearsome cringing into a joyful anticipation of judgment for us

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 8—The Holy Spirit

1. What do you see as the trouble with Kurt’s view in the opening quote?

2. What makes people nervous about too much talk about the Holy Spirit?

3. Can you explain what the “Jesus only” folk believe about the Trinity?

4. Is all three members of the Trinity are God then is it OK to pray to Jesus or the Holy Spirit just like we pray to the father? How can one pray using a full Trinitarian approach?

5. List a dozen worship song used most often in your church organizing them into four categories.., worship of the Father, the on, the Holy Spirit and all three.

6. Take considerable time for this next item: List on the board the “office work” of the Holy Spirit then invite people to give a personal testimony of how the Spirit worked in their lives on one or another of these items. Let this be a spiritually refreshing “testimony meeting” more than a cerebral discussion of ideas. Use this time as a means of glorifying the God the Holy Spirit and praising God for His work through the Spirit.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 9—The Holy Catholic Church

1. Read Brian’s and Kevin’s opening remarks at the beginning of the chapter. See if anyone in the class knows someone who ahs dropped out of assembling with other Christians completely and practices private or “solo-Christianity.” Have them tell the stories but try to keep the class from judging whether they are “real Christians” or not yet.

2. In what ways are all Christians everywhere “one?”

3. How can we say the church is Holy? Is it a lie to say this?

4. Discuss the meaning of “catholic” in the creed—the difference between catholic and Catholic. What does the Creed mean by “catholic?” What does it not mean?

5. Discuss the Nicene Creed’s use of “apostolic” and what me mean by this term when applied to the church?

6. Discuss this statement in the book: “The church is not two people playing golf on Sunday mornings and merely claim to be Christians. The church is the physical gathering of Christ’s followers.” If the church is the gathering” or “assembly” of Christians when does the church exist? When can it not exist?

7. See if anyone can find a long-term “solo-Christian” in the New Testament then discuss “How long can a person who comes to faith in Christ on their own remain a Christian if they shun all other Christians? (There is no clear answer to this in days or months but wrestle with it anyway for it is revealing to discuss it).

8. While our church buildings all pass away what happens to the church after the end of time?

9. Invite testimonies form your students on how the church has been a blessing to them. make this a time of praise and gratitude for God’s creation of the body of Christ.

10. Have your group do a mental experiment imagining their life if they would NOT have had a church—what would they not have if there was no church throughout history—what would a church-less Christianity be like?

11. Have the group read the “What about us” ending to this chapter to themselves as a closing meditation, or have someone prepared to read it aloud for the group. Consider closing by having someone read the prayer at the end for the group, or praying their own prayer based on the response we have to this part of Christian beliefs.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 10—The Forgiveness of Sins

1. Open by discussing Kaila’s remarks then the books statement” Kaila cannot be forgiven, for she confesses no sin.” Ask, “Is it important for people to agree they are sinner even when they don’t really believe they’ve ever sinned?” How would Kaila ever come to accept her sin? Or are there people who never sinned who need no forgiveness? Can one be a sinner without ever sinning?

2. How do modern folk tend to dismiss or diminish their own culpability for sin? What about our culture encourages this approach? Who in the Gospels couldn’t admit their own sin and how does Jesus deal with it? (e.g. the Rich Young Ruler)

3. What is the difference between sin as an act and sin as a state?

4. If we see sin as primarily at its core a broken relationship and not just a violation of a law how dos this change our view of sin?

5. can you think of a case where one might be forgiven without personal repentance? (what is your view of babies who die as infants?)

6. Discuss he role of baptism and its relationship to the “Salter call”. Discuss especially baptism as (more recently) a symbol of forgiveness of sin rather than (in the early church) more closely connected to the moment of forgiveness.

7. In what ways does the church have the “keys of the kingdom” in enabling forgiveness of sins to happen? The book says, “The keys to the kingdom are the ordinary activites of the church.” What does this mean. Give examples of how we can lock up the kingdom to others in the church.

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 11—The Resurrection of The Body

1. Open with Cassie’s view of death and Heaven—of a soul that leave the body to go to a body-less “spiritual” heaven while the body molders forever in the ground. Discuss how common this sub-Christian view of the afterlife is among Christians today. Be careful at this stage of knocking down folk who believe this way—the rest of the lesson will do the gentle correcting.

2. This chapter starts out by claiming that this classic doctrine of Christians “inspires more unbelief among today’s church attendees than any other statement in the creed.” Why do you think it is that many Christians today do not believe this doctrine? How free are today’s Christians to discard doctrines the church has believed for several thousand years?

3. Discuss the practical problems hat make unbelief of the “bodily resurrection” easy—what is hard to explain about this doctrine? (e.g. people burned up in a fire, bodies thousands of years old with nothing left of them etc.)

4. Take some time to explore recent human scientific advances (p 164. cloning etc.) that seem to enable a fresh view on the resurrection of the body.

5. Discuss the difference between coming back to life (e.g. Lazarus) and the resurrection.

6. Talk about what might happen to us in the mean time (p 165) between our death and resurrection. List the options of orthodoxy here. End up with the statement from the book, “Whatever we envision as the intermediate state between death and final resurrection, a Christian doctrine always ends with a real resurrection of a real body.”

7. What are the risks of discarding the doctrine of the resurrection of the body (see p. 167). Consider a study of 1 Corinthians 15 at this point.

8. Discuss and clarify the Christian view on who gets resurrected.

9. Encourage the class to ponder how our resurrected bodies are similar and different from our present bodies—especially in the context of Christ’s resurrected body.

10. how does a firm belief in the resurrection of the body change how we live practically each day?

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Chapter 12—The Life Everlasting

1. Why might Christians who “have it pretty good” in here and now not think much about Heaven?

2. Discuss the opening statement on p. 176, “Why is it that Christians today have such contempt for otherworldliness?”

3. Using Matthew 22:20 and other verses cited on pages 178-179 discuss the immensely practical question of knowing others in Heaven.

4. Discuss the communal aspects of Heaven and Kenny’s opening view of a privatized cubicle of his dreams.

5. Discuss the connection between the “holy catholic church” and ‘everlasting life” using the book’s point that “the church is going to heaven” and our life in the church down here is preparation for a life with these people in heaven as well.

6. Spend considerable time discussing the life-altering approach of seeing heaven as the goal of life rather than a reward for life or a consolation prize after the real event down here. How would this classic way of seeing everlasting life alter our view of life here? What are the problems that can come with this view?

7. Open a discussion of how we can see heaven in ways that are less then accurate (fishing in a stream, backpacking without pain etc.) but actually portray something true about heaven. Invite views at this point that might even be funny but actually portray a truth about heaven—after each list on the board what it tells us that is probably true about heaven.

8. Lead an extended sharing time where your students tell about people they look forward to seeing in heaven. Make this a time of repositioning thoughts toward the afterlife and the joy of everlasting life. Then turn the stories to “questions I hope to have answered in heaven.” Finally, have several students describe what they’d like to say to Jesus Christ when they met Him face to face.”

I invite you to post your own ideas on this chapter by adding a comment to this post to help other leaders. -- Keith Drury