• Practice of Scripture: Study

    Luke 4:1–13

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    This guide walks your group through Tina's sermon on Scripture as a tool of formation — not just information — using Jesus' temptation in the wilderness as the anchor. Encourage honesty and vulnerability; the goal isn't right answers but real conversation.

    Part One

    Getting Started

    1. What's a word that comes to mind when you hear the word 'study'? Does it energize you or make you want to change the subject?

    2. Think of something you've gotten really good at — a skill, a hobby, a sport. What did consistent practice actually do to you over time?

    · · ·

    Part Two

    Understanding the Passage

    The question is not whether or not we're being formed, but the question is who or what is forming us.

    1. Each time the devil tempts Jesus, Jesus responds with 'It is written' — quoting Deuteronomy. What does it tell us about Jesus that his first instinct under pressure was to reach for Scripture? What do you think that kind of rootedness looked like in his daily life before this moment?

    2. The devil's first two temptations attack Jesus' identity: 'If you are the Son of God...' He had just heard the Father say, 'This is my Son, whom I love.' Why do you think the enemy targets our identity, and how does knowing who we are shape how we respond to temptation?

    3. Tina draws a distinction between information and formation. What's the difference, and where do you see that tension in how the church — or your own life — has approached Bible study?

    4. Tina says, 'Practices don't save us; Jesus saves us. But practices position us.' How does Jesus' life in this passage illustrate that idea — that spiritual disciplines create space for God to work rather than earning His favor?

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    Part Three

    Personal Reflection

    You can know a lot about God and still not be transformed by Him. You can win a Bible trivia contest and still be impatient, still be anxious, still be controlling.

    1. Tina describes carrying a fear for years — offering it to Jesus, then quietly taking it back. Is there something in your own life that you've given to God and reclaimed more times than you'd like to admit? What makes it hard to let go?Reflect

    2. When you engage with Scripture, which mode tends to be more natural for you — gathering information or allowing it to search you? What does that say about where you are with God right now?Reflect

    3. Tina talks about compartmentalizing life — acting as if Jesus cared about her soul but not her body or the rest of her. Are there areas of your life where you've quietly kept Jesus at a distance? What would it look like to give Him access there?Reflect

    4. Formation, Tina says, happened not when she figured something out, but when she surrendered and let Jesus do what she couldn't do herself. Have you experienced a moment like that — where transformation came as a gift rather than an achievement? If not, what might be getting in the way?Reflect

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    Part Four

    Application & This Week

    The ride isn't the point. Glacier to Banff isn't the point. Formation is the point — giving God access to areas of life that are vulnerable.

    1. This week, choose a passage or theme of Scripture that feels alive or relevant to where you are right now — something that draws you, or something you sense God may be inviting you into. Set aside time to come to it slowly and prayerfully, not to master it but to be met by it. Ask God to speak, and give yourself permission to linger. What passage or theme comes to mind?Apply

    2. Jesus was so deeply rooted in Scripture that it came out of him under pressure. What's one concrete step you could take this week to move Scripture from something you read occasionally to something that's forming you — maybe a passage to sit with slowly, a verse to memorize, or a practice you haven't tried before?Apply

    3. A Rule of Life is an intentional arrangement of your life around practices that help you be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did. Is there one practice — even a small one — you sense God inviting you into right now? Share it with the group so they can ask you about it next week.Apply

    4. Who in your life could you invite into the kind of honest, vulnerable community Tina describes — where someone speaks a true word over you when you're anxious, or walks with you through a season of formation? Is there a step you could take this week to deepen that kind of relationship?Apply

    Close your time together in prayer.

    Lord, form us the way only You can. Where we've been managing fear, give us surrender. Where we've been collecting information, give us transformation. Do in us what we could never do for ourselves. Amen.Description text goes here

  • The Practice of Scripture: Meditate

    Joshua 1:7-8; Psalm 1:1-3; Luke 24:44

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    This guide walks your group through Keith's sermon on meditating on Scripture, drawing on the ancient Hebrew practice of hagah and the spiritual discipline of Lectio Divina. As you facilitate, create generous space for honesty about how this first week of the practice has actually felt, and gently invite people into the week ahead with curiosity rather than pressure.

    Part One

    Getting Started

    1. When you were a kid, did you have a book, story, or even a song that you returned to over and over again? What kept pulling you back to it?

    2. How has the first week of the scripture practice gone for you? Share one high and one low, even if the low is just 'I forgot.'

    · · ·

    Part Two

    Understanding the Passage

    Scripture was designed to be meditated on. That's one of the reasons that it's full of riddles, and puzzling sayings, and phrases with double meanings, and complex plot lines.

    1. Keith pointed out that Joshua 1 and Psalm 1 function as 'seams' in the structure of the Hebrew Bible, and both use almost identical language about meditation. What does it say to you that the library of Scripture is essentially framed by this invitation to meditate?Reflect

    2. The Hebrew word hagah means to murmur or to growl over, like a lion with its prey or a dog with a bone. How does that image change the way you think about what it means to engage with Scripture?Reflect

    3. Keith drew a distinction between study and Lectio Divina. Study asks what a text meant then and how we apply it now. Lectio asks how God is coming to me personally through this text. Why do you think that distinction matters, and where might you have collapsed the two in the past?Reflect

    4. Luke 24 shows two disciples who had read the Scriptures but still missed the point until Jesus opened their minds. What does that tell us about the kind of reading Scripture is asking of us?Reflect

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    Part Three

    Reflection and the Week Ahead

    Christians don't simply learn or study or use Scripture. We take it into our lives in such a way that it gets metabolized into acts of love.

    1. Now that you have had a week with the daily scripture rhythm, how has it actually gone? What was one moment that felt alive or meaningful, and what was one moment that felt hard, dry, or that you simply missed?Apply

    2. Did anything from this first week surprise you, whether about the practice itself, about Scripture, or about yourself as you showed up to it?Apply

    3. As you head into another week, Keith described a practice called Lectio Divina: reading a short passage slowly and repeatedly, not to extract information but to listen for what the Spirit wants to impress personally on you. What feels inviting or uncomfortable about approaching Scripture that way?Apply

    4. What is one small, concrete thing you could try this week to move from skimming to meditating? Maybe it is where you sit, how slowly you read, whether you read aloud, or what you do when a word or phrase surfaces and stays with you. Name something specific you want to experiment with.Apply

    Close your time together in prayer.

    Lord, slow us down. Teach us to chew on your words rather than skim past them. May your thoughts inhabit our minds completely this week, and may what we read get metabolized into love.

  • Practice of Scripture: Read

    Matthew 5:17–19

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    This guide accompanies Keith's sermon on the practice of reading Scripture, tracing the story of William Tyndale to Jesus' own words in the Sermon on the Mount. As you facilitate, create space for honesty — some in your group may carry real pain around the Bible, and this conversation is an invitation, not a test.

    Part One

    Starting the Conversation

    1. When you were growing up, what was your relationship with the Bible like — did it feel familiar, foreign, exciting, confusing, or something else entirely?

    2. If someone handed you a Bible right now with no instructions, what would you most naturally do with it — read it, set it on a shelf, open it randomly, something else? Why?

    · · ·

    Part Two

    Understanding the Passage

    Scripture is more like a map to another world — to a thin place, a place of overlap between heaven and earth, almost like a portal to the kingdom of God.

    1. Keith describes William Tyndale and others dying just to get the Bible into ordinary people's hands. What do you think it was about Scripture that made the powers of the day so afraid of people reading it for themselves?Reflect

    2. Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 that he came not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. In your own words, what's the difference between those two things — and why does it matter how we read the Bible?Reflect

    3. Keith points out that Jesus reads the Bible as a story in search of an ending, with himself as the climax. How does that reframe the way you might approach a passage — especially one that feels distant or confusing?Reflect

    4. Jesus says that not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will disappear from the law. What does that kind of confidence in Scripture invite from us in return?Reflect

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    Part Three

    Looking Inward

    We don't burn Bibles anymore — we just ignore them.

    1. Keith lists several honest reasons people drift from Scripture — busyness, confusion, digital distraction, and even pain tied to how the Bible has been misused. Which of those resonates most with you, and why?Reflect

    2. Has the Bible ever been wielded against you in a way that left a mark? If you feel safe sharing, what has that done to your relationship with Scripture?Reflect

    3. Think about the disciples on the road to Emmaus whose hearts burned within them as Jesus opened the Scriptures. Have you ever experienced something like that — a moment when Scripture felt alive and personal? What was that like?Reflect

    4. If you're being really honest, what would it mean for you personally to move toward Scripture rather than away from it right now?Reflect

    · · ·

    Part Four

    This Week's Practice

    Whatever Scripture is, it certainly is not ordinary.

    1. Keith invites us to try on the practice of reading Scripture this week — not as an obligation but as an experiment. What might a small, realistic first step look like for you given where you actually are right now?Apply

    2. Is there someone in your life — a friend, a housemate, a family member — you could read even a short passage of Scripture with this week, the way those early followers of Tyndale read it together by candlelight?Apply

    3. Before next week, try sitting with one passage slowly — not to study it or master it, but just to listen. What passage, even a familiar one, might you bring that kind of attention to?Apply

    4. Our church is trying on this practice together. As you go into this week, what's one thing you want to pay attention to or notice about your experience with Scripture — so that when we gather again next week, you'll have something honest to bring back and share with the group?Apply

    Close your time together in prayer.

    Lord, open our eyes the way you opened the eyes of those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Let our hearts burn within us as we open your Word this week. Give us courage to draw near to what we've been avoiding, and meet us there.