Lessons: Building on sermons

After getting my new Bible this Easter I decided to leave where I was in the Old Testament and read through the New Testament; something I hadn't done in too long. This morning I reached Galatians which happens to be what the current series of sermons is at Church. But what benefit is there if your personal studies are closely related to the present journey of the church?

One of the ideas that has been developing in my mind recently is that concerning the way in which we study God's word. In a book called "Velvet Elvis" Rob Bell briefly mentions how sermons and quiet times aren't actually the traditions of the early church. That more accurately the histories and ideals were continually discussed and questioned in crowds and people groups.

The conversation of faith was living and thus more real to those that embraced it. In the early centuries people didn't have their own Bibles and relied upon open teaching and conversations about what was important to them. It wasn't just an abstract one hour lesson once a week on a Sunday morning but an ever present process of questioning life and every single thing that surrounded them; from history and tales told by their grandparents to new ideas being discussed in the temple courts. It wasn't just about faith but life too; every aspect of it.

So when we sit listening to a sermon maybe we shouldn't just leave it at that; archiving the notes we took with the scores of ones from weeks past. What we hear should be something added to the cocktail of questions and aspects of growth that are already in our lives or on top of trails of thought we have already begun. That also we should develop the ideas further, question them for ourselves, study again the passages later that week on your own, or bring them up in conversations with others that share a similar journey of life and thought. Whatever you do don't let it become nothing, a once thought of thought, an abstract idea rather than a lifestyle.

So tomorrow I look forward to hearing a little from the book of Galatians. And to the sermon I will bring my questions and my life and take care in relating them as best I can. And after I will take new questions and new answers into my life and into my studies, into my conversations and whatever I find to be significant I will be sure to let it take root in my heart and in my mind.