Hi All,

The votes are tallied and scored, and I had a great time doing nerd statistics with them. If you don't care about that sort of stuff and just want the results, then the winner is James, followed by a close second of Making Room for Life. These two came in first and second respectively in both the scoring and the ranking. So, it looks like we have a 22 week schedule ahead of us. Next meeting starts our James study. Stay tuned for more info this week, as the leadership team digests the results and moves to implement the new study.
There are some nerd plots attached. If you have any questions, send me an email at oliver@imcs.rutgers.edu


Matt

Hi All,

Well we did it, we got through Romans. We decided to study this book on Feb 25^th 2006, and finished it in January the following year! What a haul. I know that I will look back with fond memories of our times together while studying Romans. Just think about how we have all changed and what God has put in our lives in the last year! I know it was a great experience for me, and many of you have told me the same thing.

I want to thank Christian and Michelle Andrews and Dave and Nancy Medrow for generously providing their homes for all of us to use. I also want to thank all of you who brought delicious food, and those of you who facilitated the study of Romans. It really was a group effort!

As you all have guessed, one of the next big decisions for AG (if that is what we still want to call it) is what to study next. In Romans, we ran the table of topics….from the guilt of mankind, faith, the supremacy of Christ, the place of Israel, transforming our minds, and how to treat people as Christians. Looking back on it…it was a tall and worthwhile order!

At the next meeting, I am asking you to come with answers to two questions in mind, and be ready to discuss them.

1. What do you want to study next?
2. How long do you want to study it?

After the meal, the AG leadership team is going to break us up into smaller groups where we will discuss these questions. I think if we break up for discussion, it will allow more ideas to be heard. The goal of this break up is for the AG leadership team to listen to the group, to see what we should study next.

To get you thinking about this subject, I am going to put a few examples of topics to study next. These are just suggestions….you can think of your own. Hopefully these will get you thinking about this important question for the group (they do not appear in any particular order).

1. Another Letter from Paul (ie. Galatians, Philippians, Timothy I, II)- One of Paul’s main concerns was for Christians to understand what Christ had accomplished for them on the cross, and how that relates to the way they understand themselves and how they should treat each other. Paul addresses a variety of disputes that arose in the early church, such as the role of spiritual gifts, resurrection, and leadership in the church. We also find some of the most beautiful expressions of love in these letters. Most of these letters are short (unlike Romans which is Paul’s longest letter).

2. Book of James. A letter written by James the half brother of Jesus. This is a short book focused on the works and deeds that Christians should be engaged in. He is deeply concerned to tell us that true belief always shows itself by what we do. This is a very practical book and basically shows Christians how they should be living in real-life concrete situations.

3. Book of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. These four books are around or a bit longer than Romans and recount the life of Jesus. Each of these books is concerned with showing us different aspects of Christ’s life. I think any of these would be enormously helpful as we are called as Christians to live like Jesus lived. Instead of asking ourselves “what would Jesus do?”, we could just go see what he did.

4. Books of Proverbs or Psalms. These are lengthy books written by a variety of authors that instruct us primarily in wisdom, worship and prayer (although there are many other things). Each of the chapters of these books is more or less self contained which makes them amenable to short and brief study. These books are often poetic in nature, but communicate many rich truths about the life of the believer. These books seem to lend themselves to topical studies.

5. Books of Ecclesiastes. A book written by King Solomon. The focus of this book is in comparing the wisdom of God over against secular culture. It is a magnificent work that exposes the folly of trying to find meaning to your life in this world as opposed to finding meaning in God.

6. Old Testament Narrative Books: (ie Genesis, Exodus Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1,2 Samuel, 1,2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah) These books recount the lives of real people who have real encounters with God. They are not stories of people who “got it right.” These books have the excitement and intrigue of novels. The things that happen to the people in these books are, quite frankly, amazing. These books are a great opportunity to look how real people encountered God, and how God used them (warts and all) to accomplish his purposes. I can imagine studying the life of Moses, or David, or Ruth or any other character to see what we could learn as believers from their successes and failures.

7. Books that teach Christian principles: There is an array of books that many of you have read such as “the other 6 days”,“blue like jazz”, or many of the C.S. Lewis or N.T. Wright that I know have impacted the life of people in the group. If you have a favorite which you think would be good for the group, bring it and be prepared to talk about it.

8. Topical studies: instead of looking at a specific book, we can study specific topics such as relationships, finance, leadership, etc. This sort of study is generally very practical, and draws on a variety of resources for learning. Bring your suggestions if a topics!

Hopefully this gets you thinking about what you want to study next!

If you have any questions, contact me at oliver@imcs.rutgers.edu

Matt