Bible study is held on Sunday mornings from 9:00–9:45 am. If you would like to receive a Zoom link, please email us. Handouts are posted below for each session.
Bible study
"Love Your neighbor as yourself": the art of neighboring
Jesus once summed up the whole law into two simple commands, "Love God," and "Love your neighbor." This study focuses on exactly why Jesus would put so much emphasis on loving our neighbor—and how we can put that into practice today with our actual neighbors. Loving our neighbor creates so much good for society, and more than that, it can open up opportunities for us to reflect and share God's love with them.
This Bible study is loosely based on the book entitled, The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door. We will be referring to it in our Bible study but not reading the book itself. If you're interested in more, you can check it out for yourself.
april 12: the call to neighboring
Today we introduce the concept of neighboring by studying Jesus' summation of the law as "Love God" and "Love your neighbor." Though simple, it's quite profound, and it doesn't mean it's easy to put into practice. Each person will take a personal inventory and examine how well they actually know their neighbors. Our goal for today is to see how authentic, loving relationships among neighbors can make a longer lasting and more effective impact than broader societal solutions.
Download the study guide here: L1_Call_to_Neighboring.pdf
APRIL 19: overcoming barriers
Today we examine the barriers to developing relationships with our neighbors. In our technology-filled world, we have shallow connections to tons of people, but our society is trending in a direction of having deep connections with very few people. We will study the parable of the Good Samaritan and see how it's always easy for us to create rationalizations to "pass by on the other side" of our neighbors. We'll focus on the two big barriers, finding the time and overcoming our fears. Our goal for today is to develop a plan for how we can overcome those barriers with our neighbors this spring and summer.
Download the study guide here: L2_Overcoming_Barriers.pdf
APRIL 26: making progress
Today we overview how our society is not very set up to create real relationships between neighbors and how making progress will take effort. We study the time Jesus ate at Matthew's home with other "tax collectors and sinners," and why hospitality requires sacrifices still today. The majority of the time is spent discussing all the ways a person can move from stranger to acquaintance, and from an acquaintance to a relationship. Our goal for today is to develop a "first step" that you can "just try" to develop relationships with your neighbors.
Download the study guide here: L3_Making_Progress.pdf
may 3: motives
Today we take a look in the mirror and double check our motives when it comes to loving our neighbors. The reason we love our neighbors cannot only be reduced down to evangelism or bait and switch attempts to get people to come to church. We will study Jesus' encouragement in the Sermon on the Mount for us to be salt and light in our world today. We'll spend the most time discussing the power of simply "sharing your story" as you experience life together with your neighbors. By doing it in this way, Christians can share their faith with their neighbors, but it occurs in a much more natural and organic way. Our goal for today is further develop our plans for how to share our Christian faith appropriately (avoiding two extremes on either side) while we get to know our neighbors.
Download the study guide here: L4_Motives.pdf
may 10: discernment & wisdom
Today we acknowledge that loving your neighbors can turn into messy business. Once we offer help and show love, we can quickly get into situations where we overextend ourselves for needy, dependent people. We discuss the importance of showing discernment and wisdom. Discernment means distinguishing between being responsible to people (which is healthy) and being responsible for people (which is unhealthy). Wisdom means that we just won't connect with certain people and need to focus on a limited number of opportunities. Our goal for today is to specify our previous goals by clarifying what we will do—and just as importantly—what we will not do.
Download the study guide here: L5_Discernment.pdf