Charles W. Colson - The Faith Participants Guide: Six Sessions

Christianity fails today because it isnt being explained. It isnt being explained because people dont know what they believe. They dont know why they believe it and they dont know why it matters.

Charles Colson

Before You Begin

This session is planned for 50 minutes, including two video segments and 12 discussion questions (some of which also include follow-up questions). If time is a constraint, feel free to select only those questions most pertinent to your group discussion.

The synopsis preceding each question or questions is designed to provide a short summary of the content covered by that question or questions. During your group time, we encourage you to read the Scripture(s) together. While it is not necessary to read the summaries during the meeting, your group will be better prepared to take the discussion to a deeper level if you are able to read and meditate on them in advance.

Make every effort to read the prologue and chapters 14 of the book The Faith prior to the session. These corresponding chapters provide a more in-depth explanation of the concepts addressed in this sessions video segments, the summary sections, and the group discussion questions that follow.

Video Teaching Segment (20 minutes)

Notes

Christianity is a worldviewa system of life and thought

[Your Notes]

There is a God and God is

[Your Notes]

God has given us truth and it is knowable

[Your Notes]

God has revealed himself in the Scriptures

[Your Notes]

Deeds versus creeds

[Your Notes]

Video Group Discussion (25 minutes)

Everywhere, Always, by All

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.

Jude 13

Most professing Christians dont know what they believe, and so can neither understand nor defend the Christian faithmuch less live it. Many of the things we tell nonbelievers do not represent real Christianity. And most nonbelievers draw their impressions of the Christian faith from the stereotypes and caricatures that popular culture produces. The challenge of anti-theism and radical Islam could not come at a worse time for the Church, because most Christians do not understand what they believe, why they believe it, and why it matters.

In what ways is Christianity misunderstood by the non-Christian world and why is this a problem for the Church? How is our cultures definition of Christianity a poor representation of orthodox Christian beliefs?

[Your Response]

Orthodoxy

We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Hebrews 2:14

It may seem odd to rely on the ancient roots of Christianity at a time when progress is so exalted. But progress does not always mean discovering something new. Sometimes it means rediscovering wisdom that is ancient and eternal. We all find our identity in our roots. Visit nearly any family and youll see pictures of grandparents and earlier generations. People go to great lengths to trace their ancestry. Adopted children seek their birth parents. Where we come from tells us who we are, and so it is in the Church.

We call the core beliefs that have united Christians through the ages orthodoxy, or right belief. Understanding this faith, once entrusted for all, is critically important today, for we live in a time when Christians and the beliefs they uphold are under assault.

If we are to face todays grave threats to the Christian Church, we must look across the sweep of Christian communions, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox, to find the original consensus of the early Church; that is, those essential elements of our faith that, from the beginning, all true Christians have believed.

What is meant by Christian orthodoxy? Why is it absolutely essential for Christians to understand our biblical and historical roots?

[Your Response]

Competing Worldviews

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

Ephesians 4:1718

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Colossians 2:68

Everybody has a worldview some basic premises that you think about life and you say, Ah, that informs what I do and how I see things. Christians must see that the faith is more than a religion or even a relationship with Jesus; the faith is a complete view of the world and humankinds place in it. Christianity is a worldview that speaks to every area of life, and its foundational doctrines define its content. If we dont know what we believeeven what Christianity ishow can we live it and defend it? Our ignorance is crippling us.

Do you agree that we all, Christians or not, go through life with a worldview that informs everything we think, say, and do? Why or why not? What is the basis of your worldview? Explain