We watched the Big Start in the chalet together and then set off to the Bible Reading. They have a different title these days, but it's an extended bible Study and usually it's a good place to start. This year the readings are from Acts and we began today with Acts 2.
Apart from being taken by surprise by the speaker's authoritative assertion that Luke was a Jew who knew the family of Jesus, it all went pretty much to type. Clearly I'd missed something in the world of New Testament studies, but a quick internet search found a number of articles exploring Luke's Jewishness. I thin I'm still of the opinion that he was a Gentile who travelled with Paul and wrote his gospel after careful research rather than first hand knowledge. But that's not terribly important.
In talking about Acts 2, we were pointed back to Acts 1 and a nice 3 point outline:
- Trust God
- Receive the Spirit
- Tell the story of Jesus.
In the afternoon I went to a seminar about whole-life discipleship in the church which was very interesting. Some good ideas and thoughts.
We talked about the sacred/secular divide and about how we do church tends to reinforce this concept. And it's not just the fault of pastors (hurray) but the way people see their spiritual lives as separate from their everyday lives. There were some useful ideas about how to begin to break down this divide and I'll be giving it some thought when we get home.
We ended the day by going to the Cafe Church event. I think they struggled with the number of people who turned up and it didn't really work for me, but I think that might have been the setting, the distance between where we were sitting and the focus of the "stage", plus a few other factors. it did give me and idea for the dedication that's coming up in a couple of weeks time.
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