By Rhonda Pittman Gingrich
The complete 13-session Compelling Vision Bible Study Series is now available in English at www.brethren.org/ac/compelling-vision/bible-studies. A Spanish translation will be available in coming days at www.brethren.org/ac/compelling-vision/estudio-biblico.
The series is a project of the Compelling Vision Working Group and is intended to help church members study the compelling vision statement that will be brought for approval to the 2021 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren.
These Bible studies affirm the importance of God’s Word in our life together, God’s Word revealed in scripture, and made flesh in the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, as we gather around the Word in the context of community, God still speaks to us.
Each session invites participants to gather around the Word as they explore a different word or phrase from the compelling vision statement, with the hope of deepening and enriching personal and communal understanding of each particular word or phrase and the compelling vision as a whole.
Each session has been written by a different writer, reflecting the rich theological, geographical, ethnic, and gender diversity within the Church of the Brethren. Not only does this broaden and enrich our collective perspective, but also fosters understanding–a value that has undergirded the entire process of discernment.
The sessions were written to be used in either a face-to-face or virtual environment. Congregations and other groups are encouraged to use these Bible studies in the months leading up to Annual Conference, to both prepare for the conversations to take place at Annual Conference, and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to imagine what it might look like to live into the vision and become “Jesus in the Neighborhood.”
— Rhonda Pittman Gingrich chairs the Compelling Vision Working Group.
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