The Potpourri Sunday School Class’ next book, beginning March 12 and continuing for five weeks is Half Truths – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say (Adam Hamilton). The book is available in paperback and e-book from both Cokesbury and Amazon. An updated class schedule / study supplement will be forwarded in the next couple of days via email and will also be available on the SAPC Sunday School web page under the Potpourri Sunday School class or from Mike Bearden in the class. The scripture and some notes are included below for the March 12 lesson (week one).
About the book and author:
Half Truths – God Helps Those Who Help Themselves and Other Things the Bible Doesn’t Say – Adam Hamilton (Methodist Minister and Senior Pastor at The United Methodist Church of Leawood, KS).
“They are simple phrases. They sound Christian—like something you might find in the Bible. We’ve all heard these words. Maybe we’ve said them. They capture some element of truth, yet they miss the point in important ways. Join Adam Hamilton in this 5-week Bible study to search for the whole truth by comparing common Christian clichés with the wisdom found in Scripture. The clichés include:
Everything happens for a reason.
God helps those who help themselves. God won’t give you more than you can handle.
God said it, I believe it, that settles it.
Love the sinner, hate the sin
Week one scripture:
Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Matthew 10:29, Genesis 1:28, Romans 8:28, Proverbs 3:12, 1 Corinthians 15:54
The two books we will do following Half Truths are:
The Holy Spirit – William H. Willimon (Presiding Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, Birmingham, AL area, and Visiting Research Professor, Duke Divinity School, Durham, NC) and Stanley Hauerwas (the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at the Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina). 4 weeks; available – paperback and e-book – Cokesbury; and, paperback and Kindle version (free app is available from Amazon for use with other electronic devices) – Amazon.
“Do you realize what baptism really means? Through the Holy Spirit we become part of the Body of Christ! The work of the Spirit is often thought of as “inspirational,” but it’s more than a personal experience and this book challenges some of those individualistic and subjectivist accounts. You’ll come to understand that the Holy Spirit is who God is and what God does as the Trinity. And you’ll learn how to prayerfully embrace this gift that created the church and become empowered to live out holy love and friendship in the world.
‘Hauerwas and Willimon are among the most reliable teachers of the church. Ours is a time when faithful teaching is urgent in church that is compromised, bewildered and domesticated. This study by these trustworthy teachers on the Holy Spirit is a robust affirmation of the way in which core claims made concerning God’s Spirit matter concretely in the life of the church. This book is an invitation to fresh learning, to repentance, and to the recovery of missional nerve.’
-Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary”
The Faith of a Mockingbird – A Small Group Study Connecting Christ and Culture – Matt Rawle (“Lead Pastor at Asbury United Methodist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana. Matt is an international speaker who loves to tell an old story in a new way, especially at the intersection of pop culture and the church. He is the author of a new series of books titled The Pop in Culture Series. The series includes The Faith of a Mockingbird, Hollywood Jesus, The Salvation of Doctor Who and The Redemption of Scrooge.”) 4 weeks; available – paperback and e-book – Cokesbury; and, paperback and Kindle version (free app is available from Amazon for use with other electronic devices) – Amazon.
“Pastor and author Matt Rawle is on a mission. He sees Christ all around him—in books, movies, TV shows, rock music—and he wants to share what he sees. As Matt says, ‘God offers the raw ingredients, and ‘culture’ is whatever we cook up.’ In The Faith of a Mockingbird, based on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, pastor and author Matt Rawle uses Lee’s beloved characters to explore Christian faith, theology, and ethics. Join Scout, Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson in this four-week study considering God’s world and what it all means.”
Potpourri is an adult Sunday School class which studies an eclectic assortment of books that results in inspirational discussions that help on our Christian faith journey. The class meets Sunday morning 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m in the education building.