- Please bring a copy of the Bible to group, preferably a NIV or another contemporary translation.
- Please bring an open mind to what it is the Holy Spirit may want to teach you. If you are not a believer in Christ, please bring an open mind if you can, or at least a respectful attitude for those in the group that may be devout Christians.
For The Very First Meeting (and each thereafter)..
- read the Epistle of James- the whole thing, each week. At the very least, read the chapter we will be discussing in our group time. I strongly encourage you, though, to set aside the 15-20 minutes each week to read the entire epistle!
- We have memory verses for each group session that will aid in your internalizing the epistle. This is an optional (of course) but wonderfully beneficial addition to your Lenten disciplines. Please know the first verse FOR THE FIRST SESSION, the second set for the second week, and so forth.
we have no text but scripture. We will briefly chat about the entire chapter. Where there are cool theological or grammatical concepts that may be lost in English or in popular thinking, we'll pull those out. Otherwise, we shall let the text speak for itself. This will be the first half of the group.
The second 30 minutes will be a focused discussion on one topic from the chapter. In this way, we will touch briefly on every theme in the epistle, and still find time to give more attention to the major themes.
I have never gone through James in 5 weeks- we will need to move! But I also think the rapid pace will help to keep us engaged, and allow opportunity to digest a truly incredibly "right here and now" text.
