Category: Vital Congregations

Discussion group for Vital Congregations

Bible Study 1: Lifelong Discipleship Formation

Bible Study 1: Lifelong Discipleship Formation

Let us pray:

God of steadfast love,
The earth and all that is within it proclaim your wondrous works. The mystery of your splendor, the hope of your redemption, the truth of your salvation are daily made manifest throughout your beloved creation. You are, indeed, a living God who longs to reveal in wisdom and in truth. You long for relationships of righteousness. You desire for your people to marvel at your majesty and be transformed by your grace. Lord, we admit we do not always perceive it. We fear to follow; we ignore our discipleship. In Christ, help us to have courage and conviction to walk in faith that seeks wisdom and righteousness all of our days. Make us a people whose lives proclaim your story, and witness to your love. Form us as your disciples, so that we might be instruments of your will and grow ever closer to you. For this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Scripture Reading:

Read this through several times. Highlight words, phrases, images, thoughts, etc. that speak to you. Share and discuss these in the comments below. This passage is from the New Revised Standard Version, the bible we use in worship. A useful exercise is to compare this with other translations/interpretations. Often the differences give us some insight into the original language.

Acts 2:42-47 (NRSV)

[42] They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

[43] Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. [44] All who believed were together and had all things in common; [45] they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. [46] Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, [47] praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Welcome to the KPC Vital Congregations Initiative

You have read through the Vital Congregations details on the main page. You have navigated to the Discussion Room. And now you’re reading the first post of our effort in transformation, transition, revitalization, or whatever label you want to put on it.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re 90% ready to begin. To leave a comment and reply to a post you need a user ID and password. You will see a prompt to login below. Check it out. If you cannot login in please send me an email at [email protected] and we’ll figure out what’s wrong.

Going forward, this welcome post will serve two purposes:

  • A place to comment on technical problems of access or navigation (although an email to me will probably be the more useful if not the only possibility);
  • And, a place to comment or question basic understanding of what we are doing in the overall initiative. This is so those comments or questions don’t get lost in the specifics of the other posts as we proceed.

The first posts will begin soon as we begin a seven section bible study on Vital Congregation. We are using asynchronous, on-line, collaboration (I make a post about a topic and we carry on a conversation in the comment boxes) and so you may participate as you have time and from wherever you are. We will not have regular meetings but I’m not against having conversations has opportunity presents itself. Please try to look at the site every day for new comments and posts. Please make comments, no lurkers, and make your comments appropriate and on-point. I will post new topics regularly but not on a set schedule. I will judge when we are ready to move on based on the flow of new comments. That being said, no comments means this isn’t working and we need to rethink something.

I encourage you to go to the PC(USA) Vital Congregations website and read that material especially the PDF files that are available. Just press the Download Resources button. Do that and you’ll know as much as I do about this effort and we can discover the future together.

Blessings.