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| "I wish i knew a better way to have a Faith Talk!" |
I wonder how many parents feel inadequate when they are challenged to faith talk with their families? How many choose not to attempt a feeble bible conversation due to feeling biblically incompetent? I’m curious how many wives remain silent while secretly wishing their husbands would take the lead in discipling their family?
I don’t think that this needs to be so difficult. I want to let you off the hook. The work of transformation in you family is God’s work. The Holy Spirit does the teaching. God’s Word is living and active, parents can trust it to make a difference in themselves and their families (Hebrews 4:12).
With all this talk about the gospel, and family ministry, there has to be a way for parents to engage their families in scripture in a way that doesn’t cause parent to feel inadequate. Here is an idea that I think any parent could pull off.
This is a new book called , “The Whole Story of the Bible in 16 Verses.” A discipleship pastor wrote this book. I think any parent could tell these stories and have a brief, casual conversation with their families about what God is revealing in them. People love stories. He has even provided a free study guide that will inform the parent of the emphasis of the passage and provide questions to ask.
Every week a parent will learn one of the stories to tell or they assign someone in the family to learn the story. The assigned storyteller learns the story so that he or she can tell it without reading it — not word for word but so the story remains true to the meaning. While the storyteller is telling the story, the family reads along to see if the storyteller has missed anything. When the story is finished, the storyteller or one of the parents will rebuild the story pointing out anything that was missed. A parent can ask someone to tell the story back to everyone without reading it. No one knows who will be asked, so everyone pays attention just in case he or she is chosen.
Once the story has been told, rebuilt, and told again, the small-group leader asks questions that draw out the important truths in the story.
- For example:
- “What new thing did you discover in the story that you did not know before?”
- “What did you learn about God?”
- “What did you learn about people?”
- “Which person is most like you in the story?”
- “What will you take away from this discussion?”
- “What will you do with what you have learned?”
The 16 Verses:
- Creation (Genesis 1:31)
- Human Beings (Genesis 1:27–28)
- The Fall (Genesis 3:6–7)
- Redemption Promised (Genesis 3:15)
- Abraham (Genesis 12:2–3)
- Judah the King (Genesis 49:10)
- The Passover Lamb (Exodus 12:23)
- King David (2 Samuel 7:12–13)
- The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:6)
- Resurrection Promised (Ezekiel 37:3–5)
- New Creation (Isaiah 65:17)
- Fulfillment! (Mark 1:14–15)
- The Cross (John 19:30)
- Resurrection (Romans 1:3–4)
- Justification (Romans 3:21–26)
- Glory (Revelation 21:1–4)
Wouldn’t it be great to start this practice this Easter? I would start with, “#13 The Cross (John 19:30) this month, and then #14 Resurrection (Romans 1:3–4)” in April. Then you could keep up this tradition the following months. You could do that. I can assure you that you family will benefit from this practice. You could make it a part of the family dinner once a month (Dad cooks when mom tells the story). This experience should be fun and relaxed. There will be successes and there will be fails. But the biggest fail is to neglect this most sacred of opportunities.
Please tell me the story about how it goes. I love stories.
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| Dr. Phil Sallee, Pastor twitter.com/philsallee facebook.com/phil.sallee philsallee.info nbchurch.info nbfamilies.info |
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