A Travel Guide to Christian Faith Dawn Weaks TRAVELER S EDITION A Travel Guide to Christian Faith is a three-piece resource: Before You Go, Traveler s Edition, and Tour Leader
Copyright 2009 by Dawn Weaks. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse content, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, www.copyright.com, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400. All scripture quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version. Copyright 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. Cover and interior design: Elizabeth Wright Visit Chalice Press on the World Wide Web at www.chalicepress.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weaks, Dawn Darwin. A travel guide to Christian faith : traveler s edition / Dawn Weaks. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-8272-1720-1 1. Christian life Textbooks. 2. Bible Textbooks. I. Title. BV4511.W4255 2009 248 dc22 2009008704 Printed in the United States of America
Contents Preface iv Hearing Session 1: The Big Picture 1 Session 2: How to Pray 4 Session 3: Being Church 7 Session 4: Being Baptized 10 Session 5: Taking Communion 13 Session 6: Receiving the Holy Spirit 16 Kneeling Preparing for Baptism 19 Faithing Session 1: From Baptism to Everyday Christian Life 21 Session 2: How to Study the Bible 24 Session 3: Spiritual Gifts 27 Session 4: Service and Witness 28 Session 5: When You Struggle 30 Session 6: Celebration and Benediction 32 My Rule of Life/Holy Habits 35 My Thoughts 36
Preface Welcome, friend of God, to this Traveler s Edition part of A Travel Guide to Christian Faith. For centuries, brave souls such as you have entered into an intentional time of discovering what it means to be a Christian. You have already been Seeking with the seven reflections you ve finished. Now you begin a time of Hearing, or learning more about the Christian faith. You ll have a teacher for this part and maybe even some fellow travelers. If you decide to make the Christian faith not merely a vacation but a place to live, you can be baptized within a week after the end of this Hearing time. That week will incorporate a time of Kneeling, preparation for baptism. Finally, you will be off on your way : following Jesus for your lifetime and beyond. For this, you will be using the material called Faithing. You ll have a mentor who will be a resource to you as you try out some of the practices of the Christian life. All you need for this trip is your open mind and heart. Ready? iv
HEARING/Session 1 The Big Picture One of the best ways you can learn about God is by reading the Bible. The Bible contains many stories. In fact, the one big book called the Bible contains sixty-six smaller books! All these books and stories work together to form one overarching story. Have you ever heard the main story that the Bible tells? A good title for it might be The Story of God s Persistent Love. Here s an outline of the story; your leader will help you walk through it. God Created Us Where it is in the Bible: Genesis 1 2 The Story of God s Persistent Love Everything was good. We humans had a close friendship with God. What happened? We Rejected God Bible: Genesis 3 We didn t trust God. We chose our own way. God Loves Us Anyway Bible: Genesis 12 Deuteronomy Now a chasm exists between humanity and God. So God forms a chosen people, Israel, to show all people God s way. God sends leaders, and gives the people (us) a law to follow. But the people (we) continue to reject God. 1
2 The Big Picture God Talks to Us, and We Ignore God Bible: Isaiah Malachi God sends prophets and poets to warn us and woo us back to God. Yet we continue to reject God. So God Becomes Human in Jesus Christ Bible: Matthew John God became human! Why? To show us God s love and remove the wall between us Jesus Is Killed and Is Raised from the Dead Bible: Matthew John Still we reject God in Jesus (the Bible calls this sin ). Jesus dies on the cross. God s love is persistent and will not let sin and death win. God raises Jesus from the dead! Jesus returns to God. In Response to Jesus, the Church Begins Bible: Acts Revelation Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be with his followers until the time he will return again. A community who saw Jesus alive again rises up. Eventually, they were called Christians and formed churches. They spread the word that our lives can be lived with God both now and forever in heaven. Jesus Is Coming Back to Earth Bible: This part of the story is found sprinkled throughout the Bible, including Matthew 25, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Revelation. Jesus will complete the story by returning to make things right again in God s creation.
The Big Picture 3 Until his return, we relate to Jesus through the Holy Spirit and we carry out his work. So we become a part of this Big Picture story! DISCUSS It may take a while for this main story of the Bible to sink in. As it does, consider your responses: What part of the story is most meaningful to you? Which is most difficult for you to understand? What do you see as the main purpose of the story? DO Create an expression of this story in your own way: cartoon, sculpture, play dough, watercolors, sketches, poetry whatever suits you best. Find a medium that allows you to translate the story as it applies to your life. Place your work where you can see it to remind yourself that you are now a part of this open-ended story. Bring it to share with the group next week! INTERNET E-mail someone or post online a summary of the story of God s Persistent Love. Tell them you ve learned this in a class and would like to bounce it off of them. It could be someone who s heard it before (but not as you tell it) or someone who s never heard the story. The more you tell it, the more it will become a part of you.