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Your Kingdom Come...On earth as it is in heaven...YOUR KINGDOM COME This is a study guide taking us through the Lord's Prayer in ten sessions. It is well-ordered and logical. Studies One & Two deal with the introductory material in Matthew 6.5-8 while the rest takes us through the petitions in the prayer itself. As in a lot of study guides for small groups, it would need adapting to match the clientele and the leader. The wide-ranging discussion material brings up all kinds of possibilities and avenues to pursue. The applications for everyday life come from all directions. While I would prefer to leave the ice-breaking parlour games behind, the questions that bring each petition to life are helpful. However, the rather disturbing trends emerging in evangelicalism today are here. I would feel uneasy with the rather 'ritualistic' approach of dealing with past grievances by committing them to bits of paper and burning or burying them. Again, why in the section on 'Purpose' (Matthew 6.10) and 'the coming kingdom', where the author cross-references with Isaiah 12.1-11, does he advise the leader not to get 'sidetracked ...onto who the remnant are'? I would be inclined to go down that wonderful 'sidetrack'. Furthermore, in acknowledging the value of study groups within church life, one cannot but be disturbed by J. John's comment in the introduction to the guide that, 'First (and perhaps foremost) a small-group study can engage us in a deeper way than a book or sermon. Reading a book or hearing a sermon are passive activities.' Is that so? What kind of preaching does the author listen to and how does he assimilate it? Perhaps it would be a good exercise for him to make his next project, 'Ten studies in how to hear the Word of God preached'. Geoff King© Evangelicals Now - March 2002 |