His study was from the ninth chapter of the gospel of John. He hung tight to the idea of look, listen, live and had some 5 thousand young people in attendance doing hand motions to that idea. He also had them reading the scripture along with him. He would say, 'who loves God's word? Thumbs up, those thumbs you use for texting, but God has a text message for you." The he would point them to their bibles. His style was engaging and captivating. I saw in him recognizable elements of the Black Church tradition. This young pastor, who has since the last time I saw him obtained a PhD in theology, had everyone in the room on the edge of their seats.
The bible study was theologically sound and very well organized. Some of the main themes of the study is that Jesus looks and sees who we are. The emphasis that Jesus knows us -- our needs, our wants, our hurts and pain --- was great. The pastor also talked about not our deciding to follow Jesus but Jesus follows us, seeks us out, chooses us. He described the process of justification through the man born blind as immediate and that his gradual coming to faith in Jesus was the process of sanctification. I enjoyed that explanation.
He also reminded those gathered that the theme of the youth gathering was not 'I Believe' but 'We Believe' because 'we' know and understand more about God than 'I' can know. The implication was that we help each other in our weakness.
When I went to say hello, he greeted me with a hardy, "hey rev, what are you doing here?" I told him that I was there watching how they did things and that I was happy to have heard his exceptional bible study!!!
Do you know any exceptional bible study leaders?
1 comment:
I only know one exceptional Bible Study leader and that would be you!
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