Disciple III Remember Who You Are: Teacher Helps: The Prophets - The Letters of Paul

By Nellie M. Moser

Teacher Helps

The Teacher Helps provides an outline for an orientation session and process suggestions for each of the weekly group sessions. It does not contain new or additional content for the leader to present to the group.

A one-page teaching plan is provided for each session. Weekly group sessions follow a set pattern, with designated amounts of time for each step. Suggestions for group activity are specific and clearly related to the Scripture being studied.

In the front of the teacher helps is a section of general information on effectively using the study manual, preparing to lead the weekly group meeting, following the proper schedule and procedure, tips for leading discussion, and suggestions for creating and maintaining a caring climate in the study group.

Process suggestions in the teacher helps enable full participation by all members of the group as a result of disciplined daily study. A one-page plan for each of the weekly group sessions follows an established schedule and procedure, with an amount of time designated for each section in the plan. Each session plan includes suggestions for group study of a selected passage of Scripture.

Disciple III Remember Who You Are is the third study in the four-phase DISCIPLE program. The driving idea in this study is the connection between memory and identity as the people of God. The word You in the title is meant to be heard both in its singular form (the individual) and its plural form (the community). We are a community of memory. Participants in this 32 week study will read the major and minor Old Testament prophets, with the exception of Daniel, and will read the thirteen Letters traditionally attributed to Paul. To establish the historical context in which the prophets spoke for God, daily reading assignments draw also on the books of Deuteronomy through Chronicles.

Several themes weave their way through the study – the call to remember; the call to repentance; the need for renewed vision; and the place of community. The prophets and Paul are continually calling hearers and readers back to their God and to a sense of who they are as a people"set apart."
Commitment and Time Involved

32 week study
Three and one-half to four hours of independent study each week (40 minutes daily for leaders and 30 minutes daily for group members) in preparation for weekly group meetings.
Attendance at weekly 2.5 hour meetings

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abingdon Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781426726842

Book preview

DISCIPLE: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

Teacher Helps

Copyright © 1996 by Abingdon Press

All rights reserved

Pages 13, 14, and 15 are adapted from DISCIPLE: BECOMING DISCIPLES THROUGH BIBLE STUDY Teacher Helps Youth Edition, copyright © 1988 by Graded Press.

For more information about DISCIPLE or DISCIPLE training events, call toll free 800-251-8591 or 800-672-1789.

Cover design by Mary M. Johannes.

Nellie M. Moser, Editor of DISCIPLE; Katherine C. Bailey, Assistant Editor; Linda O. Spicer, Secretary; Phillip D. Francis, Designer.

00 01 02 03 04 05—10 9 8 7 6 5

Contents

Put the Study Manual to Work

Weekly Group Schedule and Procedure

Group Meeting Plan (Adult)

Group Meeting Plan (Youth)

About the Videotapes

Context

Marks of Obedient Community

Tending to Details

Preparing to Teach DISCIPLE

Group Building and Maintenance

Preparing Questions and Leading Discussion

Principles for Bible Study

Orientation Meeting

The Prophets

1. God’s People Weep

2. God Sent Messengers

3. Starved for the Words of the Lord

4. God’s Faithfulness

5. God’s Requirement

6. God Pleads

7. God Rules the World

8. God’s Anguish

9. God Will Not Abandon

10. The Day of the Lord Has Come

11. God Cleanses and Renews

12. God Will Save

13. God’s Vision for a New World

14. God’s City of Peace

15. God Will Restore Zion

16. God’s Mission for Israel

The Letters of Paul

17. Called Through God’s Grace

18. The Letters of Paul

19. The Lord Is Coming

20. Honest Labor

21. Seeing the Good

22. The Body of Christ

23. Crisis in Confidence

24. God’s Saving Righteousness

25. Salvation for All

26. New Life in Christ

27. Fruit of the Holy Spirit

28. Christ Above All

29. Whole Armor of God

30. Leadership in the Church

31. From Generation to Generation

32. Remember Who You Are

DISCIPLE Group Members

Put the Study Manual to Work

Each part of the study manual has a specific function both in daily preparation and in the weekly group meeting.

Theme Word

The theme word gives a clue to the subject of the lesson and the Scripture being studied in the lesson.

•  Display the word during each group meeting.

•  Suggest that persons memorize the theme word along with the lesson title to remind them of the unique message of each prophet and of the themes of Paul’s preaching.

Theme Verse(s)

The theme verse(s) expresses the focus of the lesson and might be read or recited from memory during the opening moment of devotion.

Title

The titles are descriptive of events or content, and together they carry the message of the prophets and the letters of Paul.

Our Human Condition

Our Human Condition is a statement of who we are as a community and as individuals. Marks of Obedient Community is the community’s faith response to Our Human Condition. Encourage persons to restate Our Human Condition in terms of their own experience.

Assignment

Scripture is central to DISCIPLE: REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE. Gaining and maintaining the discipline of daily reading and study of Scripture are essential to the gradual process of remembering our identity as God’s people.

•  The Assignment section indicates when to read the week’s Scripture and when to read the study manual and write the responses called for.

•  Insist on daily notetaking along with daily Scripture reading. The second page of each lesson in the manual provides space. The main purpose for taking notes is to have a personal record of information gleaned from Scripture and of insights and questions about the Scripture. Note-taking is a way of being in conversation with the Scripture. Many activities will call for use of the notes in group discussion and interaction.

•  Ask group members to covenant together to prepare this weekly page of notes.

•  Challenge group members through your own example of daily reading, study, and notetaking.

•  Encourage persons to mark their Bibles as they read. (See Marking Your Bible, page 12.)

•  Make use of the work persons have done during the week. The extent to which you recognize and use the preparation group members have made will determine the degree of commitment they continue to bring to completing assignments.

Prayer

The prayer psalm printed in the manual is a starting point for personal prayer.

•  Encourage persons to jot down concerns about which they want to pray during the week and to add concerns from their daily study of Scripture.

•  Establish a plan for group members to pray for one another. Encourage members to take time daily to picture each person in the group and to think of God’s love for that person.

The Word of the Lord

This section comments on the Scripture and draws meaning from it.

•  Write notes in the margin as you read and during discussion in the group meeting while others are telling what they have learned.

•  Decide how you will use the information persons write in the blanks in this section. Some information will be suited to response on a voluntary basis, in pairs or in threes; other information might be discussed in the entire group.

Marks of Obedient Community

Marks of Obedient Community identifies beliefs, attitudes, and actions of the obeying community. Marks is the faith response to Our Human Condition.

•  Make the connection between Marks of Obedient Community and Our Human Condition.

•  Vary the approaches you use for having persons talk about their written responses in this section.

•  In instances where obedience calls for group ministry, decide as a group how to proceed.

If You Want to Know More

This section invites additional study and research.

•  Most of what persons learn they can contribute in small group discussions. Occasionally, a brief report to the whole group may be in order.

Weekly Group Schedule and Procedure

Teacher helps for each of the thirty-two group meetings (pages 20—53) follow this format. Copy the planning sheet on page 6 (page 7 for youth) to use in writing your weekly group plan. In the parentheses, beside the designated times, write the clock time you are to begin that part of the session.

GATHERING AND PRAYER

(5 minutes)

Begin on time with those who are there. Use the theme word, theme verse, title, Our Human Condition, and prayer from the study manual.

VIDEO SEGMENT

(20 minutes)

The video segment will provide persons a common body of information to which to react and will focus attention on the subject of the group meeting.

Teacher helps for each lesson

•  suggest a way to prepare group members to view the video segment;

•  provide a summary of the ideas in the segment;

•  suggest questions to discuss about what persons have heard.

Preview the video segment.

Encourage notetaking during the viewing.

After the discussion, use one of the summary ideas to help group members make connections between the video content and what they have read in the Bible and study manual.

Occasionally members of the group may want to stay after the meeting to view a video segment a second time to gain fuller understanding of the topic.

To save time in setting up for the next meeting, don’t rewind the tape.

SCRIPTURE AND STUDY MANUAL

(50 minutes adults)    (35 minutes youth)

Much of the discussion and activity during this time will result from the reading and study persons have done and from their notes and questions.

Allow time in every session for persons to talk about the Scripture they have read. Encourage them to use their notes in the discussion.

This section in the weekly group meeting