Discussion-based Bible Study

An invitation from Summer Pastor Heidi

I’d like to invite you to a Zoom discussion–based Bible study to be held on either Wednesday or Thursday mornings.

Throughout my career, I have used this Walter Wink–inspired method to benefit church members (to learn more about scripture and have a chance to talk about it) and me (to learn more about you so I can make my sermons better). Usually, we will focus on the Gospel lesson for that week’s Sunday service, and I typically use the Gospel text suggested by the Revised Common Lectionary.

If the text is Mark, Matthew, or Luke, we will look at Throckmorton’s Gospel Parallels: a Comparison of the Synoptic Gospels. (Any edition is okay.) A printout of the page we will use in the study will be available at church on the Sunday before, along with printouts of upcoming lessons.

Walter Wink, who devised this method, was my teacher. It came to him while he was a student pastor, trying to get high school students interested in the Bible. He shifted from top-down teaching to a Socratic method. He asked many questions, and the kids could come up with their own answers. All comments were acceptable! Walter was influenced by Jungian psychology and used the arts to expand our understanding. The arts part is a little hard to do online, but we will try!

When I was at Peace Prez in St. Louis Park, we had a lot of fun with this online class. Gail Hall used to Zoom in and participate. If you have any questions, ask her!