Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Avoiding confusion
As I indicated in a post last week, the verses in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 give instructions on how Christians should live in view of Christ’s imminent return. Keeping the context of last week’s lesson on the 2nd coming in mind, I don’t want this week’s lesson to turn into one on “church unity.” There was keen interest in discussing 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 last week, and I don’t want to lose that interest this week. How do you plan on avoiding confusing in your lesson?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
3 comments:
Your comment on how you didn't want this lesson to become one on church unity. I believe that this lesson is pointing directly to that, and from the stand point of a member of a small country church we need this more than ever to be able to keep our numbers from shrinking any further. I suppose that a smaller church's conflicts are or seem to effect everyone, where a larger church it probably only effects small groups. At any rate, my intention is to use the passage as a way to build the people, keep the unity or rebuild the unity so we can regain our excitement for the coming of our Lord. I truly tank you for the work you do each week. I pray right now God will bless you for your efforts at helping the rest of us lead our classes.
Herb you make some good points, and if you choose to focus on teaching church unity, you might consider looking at the Jan 23, 2006 lesson, "Consider Others" (and Newer posts). To better understand where I'm coming from, take a look at a draft of my PPT slides for "Do you get along with others" To me, the context of Christ's imminent return seems to drive Paul's intent in the focal passage.
My 2-cents...
I see Paul continuing on a theme he started in chapter 4 where he instructed them (and us) on how we are to walk in holiness, love, diligence, and hope. Continuing into chapter 5 last week we were instructed to walk as 'sons of light' and now he seems to give us instruction to simply 'walk for obedience sake'. To me, the last two chapters have been instructions for how to live the Christian life.
I don't like Lifeways teaching plan approach much less their lesson title 'do you get along with others?'. I have several reasons but I will qualify my statement with this much; I dont think it is an optional Biblical answer (i.e. yes, no, maybe, on condition, etc) and I don't want to give that impression.
vr,
kaf
Post a Comment