The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:
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A Bible Study and Discussion
Revisiting themes and texts arising from our conversations about singleness
An evening of eating, reading, listening, discussing, laughing, praying, etc.
with the GCF community
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)
6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Friends,
This week’s GCF will be a Bible study looking at some of the themes and passages that have come up in the course of our discussion about singleness. Throughout our various conversations we have mentioned, read, talked briefly about, or been prepared to discuss a number of biblical texts, but there have been so many other things to talk about as well, that the texts have not received the attention they need. This Thursday is our opportunity to address that.
Here are some of the possible themes and/or texts I have in mind:
– the importance / centrality of the body in the New Testament and Christianity:
– Jesus’ incarnation as God’s choosing to take on human physical form
– the metaphor of Jesus’ followers and the Church as “the body of Christ”
– the radical physicality – both actually and metaphorically – of the Last Supper / Eucharist
– Discipleship / the Church envisioned as a new family, superceding biological relations (parents, siblings, spouses, children)
– Christian ethical virtues as a framework for shaping how we express our sexuality
– Galatians 5 (Fruit of the Spirit), Ephesians 4, Philippians 2, Colossians 3
Let’s be clear right away that there’s no way we’re going to get to all of these texts / themes, and this isn’t even an exhaustive list. I’m not sure yet whether we’ll spend our entire time on one of the themes or passages, or look more briefly at a number of different ones. If you have a significant preference one way or the other, please let me know between now and Thursday evening.
What I’m much clearer about is the conviction that all of these texts have significant contributions to make toward our ongoing conversations, not only about singleness, but also more broadly about how best we can express ourselves as the sexual beings God has made us to be. I hope you will join us for that conversation, and that you will bring along any friends whom you think would benefit from being part of the conversation.
Shalom,
Geoff
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