Posted by marcos on February 22, 2003 at 21:36:07:
In Reply to: Schedule and methods -What do you think? posted by PS on February 22, 2003 at 15:12:08:
: A. Schedule
: Since I have no discipline at all when it comes to ending our discussions and/or shutting my own mouth, Cari has suggested that we adopt a fixed schedule that will be, well, sort of a sacred nomos, for the benefit of those poor souls who want to eat dinner earlier. ;-)
: From now on, music is over at 4:15, regardless of when it starts. (Starting time is largely determined by arrival times, but ending time is now set.)
: Teaching is over at 5:30. If, on a given day, a discussion really cooking and EVERYONE agrees we want to go later, we can go till 5:45 or 6. After that time, we can continue our discussion over dinner if we choose.
~That's cool.
:
: B. Method
: It is becoming increasingly important in the light of recent discussions that we take careful thought how we go about building some kind of coherent structure in our doctrinal studies. There are so many varieties of truth and deviations from truth in the world that it is impractical to attempt to build a foundational understanding of God or personal relationship with him by comparing and contrasting them. A foundation of primary concepts must exist before such comparison can be fruitful for the believer. Knowing God is in fact our goal, not a sociology of religion, so our foundation must focus on the base of our faith claims--the teachings of Jesus and his followers. All future analysis (including our critique of sacred “Christian” teachings) must be built on this foundation. Though I am easily tempted to launch into comparisons of the form and/or theoretical underpinnings of various beliefs, I will have to use some restraint here so as not to cause more confusion than understanding.
~I always thought this was cool and didnt feel any confusion, well, sometimes I like confusion.
But if you feel you should do more of what you describe here, that's cool.
: I want to consider a core belief every week, illuminating major concepts that can be easily retained, and later revisited and reconsidered in the light of other concepts.
: I want to solidly fasten these concepts to scriptural bases for them. To this end, I want to suggest a few verses every week to be learned.
: This is of course all optional, but why anyone would attend at all if unwilling to read a few minutes a day is beyond me. ;-)