If you have been a part of previous inductive Bible studies with me (either by attending or by following the blog from the group), I wanted to invite you to another study group.  If you don’t fall into either category, you are receiving this just because I thought you might be interested.

Starting on September 11 at South Fellowship we will be exploring the letters of the Apostle John.  The group will meet at 10:45 on Sunday mornings, and I hope to post a blog entry each week after the discussion, d.v.

If you were in the previous study of the Gospel according to John (or followed the blog), this will be a natural follow-up:

• How are John’s letters related to his eyewitness report of his time with Jesus?
• What common themes are there, and what information is unique to the letters?
• How does John the story-teller relate to John the church overseer?

If you were not in the study of the Gospel, the letters will still be a valuable study.  While I expect we will refer to the Gospel account occasionally, the letters are also a stand-alone study of what was happening in churches toward the end of the first century.

• What was happening in the Christian community decades after Jesus died and rose and ascended?
• What were the issues facing believers in that day?
• How might John’s instruction apply to our time?

If you are interested and can attend, I look forward to our discussions (always lively, usually helpful, never boring).  If you are not able to join us, you can still follow (and comment) on the blog.  Go to www.GoodNotSafe.com and select the Blogs menu.  You can subscribe to the “Letters of John” blog to receive updates from our discussion group.  The blog will also have the handout for the upcoming week if you want to get a head start on the passage.

As before, we will be using an inductive method, centered on the discussion of the group’s Observation, Interpretation, and Application.  Several people have sharpened their personal Bible study skills as a result of participating in these groups in the past.  If you want to learn practical ways to get more benefit from the Book that God has given us, this group will move you farther along that path.

You don’t have to be an expert Bible scholar to benefit from and to contribute to this group.  The goal is not to get together and tell each other what we know about the Bible.  Our goal is to come together to see what we can learn collectively from the text that John wrote.  Whether you just finished a six-month study of John’s letters in your quiet time, or if you are not sure which Testament John’s letters are in, you have something to offer and something to gain from this study.

If you can, join us for a time of fellowship and learning focused on God’s Word.  If not, connect with us on the blog to follow John’s letters to the churches he loved.