About the Book
This Covenant experience will guide participants in a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Bible over twenty-four weeks. Unlike the learning participants may have experienced in other groups, this in-depth study of the whole Bible emphasizes the biblical concept of covenant as a unifying pattern through all the books in the Old and New Testaments. It underscores the unique relationship that God chooses to have with us as God's people. This relationship is grounded in the faithfulness of God's love and on our ongoing commitment to stay in love with God while we share signs of that love with others.
Each episode connects to an aspect of this covenant relationship, which is summarized in the heading of each participant guide.
GOD ESTABLISHES THE COVENANT to be in relationship with us. So the first eight weeks, Creating the Covenant, examines how the covenant community is created and established--highlighting several examples throughout scripture.
It discusses the story of our origins in Genesis, the Exodus narrative, the teachings of Moses, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, as well as other books from each Testament that focus on the foundation of Christian faith.
In doing so, it lays out the framework for a life lived in concert with God and others.
Each participant in the group needs the Participant Guides and a Bible. The CEB Study Bible is preferred.
The Creating Participant Guide is eight weeks long, and has a lay flat binding making it easy to take notes in the generous space provided on each page. The Creating Participant Guide contains the following episodes:
Episode 1: Creating the Covenant
Relationships with people in our lives are key to faithful living. Covenant is about the family God creates and the power of love that overcomes evil. We are broken and miss the mark. Substitutes for faithful love destroy our relationships. Yet God's response to broken relationships is to restore us to wholeness. Through the shared practice of reading and interpreting the Bible scripture in holy conversation, we sharpen our understandings until they become more accurate and relevant. And we learn about God's gracious love and how to share it with others.
Episode 2: Torah--Genesis
Genesis answers the question: Who are we in the scheme of things? Covenant relationships are a metaphor for life together before God. This life is characterized by both gift and responsibility. Broken relationships in these stories are countered by forgiveness and generosity.
Episode 3: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers
Passover is a bittersweet celebration of Israel's liberation. The covenant at Sinai creates a people with instructions for living in harmony. These instructions are ever in need of reinterpretation in new situations, much like amendments to a constitution. God is holy and calls the people to be distinct and set apart in their faithfulness.
Episode 4: Gospels--Matthew and Mark
The Gospels are similar to Greco-Roman biographies but with a saving twist. They paint a portrait of Jesus' significance for first-century readers living under Roman rule before and after the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. By arranging the events of his life, death, and resurrection in distinct order, these writers depict Jesus as both the suffering "human one" (Mark) and a new teacher like Moses (Matthew). Jesus comes to bring and embody a new covenant reign (kingdom) of God's saving love in the world.
Episode 5: Romans and Galatians
The letters of Paul substituted for his presence and represent his attempt to deal with controversies and provide guidance to churches from a pastor's perspective. For Paul, God's grace expressed in Jesus' faithfulness on the cross is a saving gift with no substitutes. The Spirit's presence, too, is a gift that marks the community of faith and produces fruit for faithful life together, making us more gracious to ourselves and others.
Episode 6: Hebrews
The book of Hebrews is a masterful sermon written by an unknown author to a struggling community.The writer encourages them to live lives of gratitude for God's saving work in Jesus. Hebrews embraces the imagery of sacrifice in the Old Testament to describe Jesus' pioneering cosmic work of redemption. Replacing fear with trust, Jesus--our faithful forerunner--made it possible for us to approach the holy with confident expectation of God's favor.
Episode 7: 1 and 2 Corinthians
Paul's letters to the church at Corinth address very concrete issues in a culture that honors the freedom of superiors to do as they please. Paul counters this with the mind of Christ, patterned by the logic of self-giving love. This "logic of the cross" balances freedom with Christ-shaped responsibility to live in ways that benefit both self and community.
Episode 8: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel
These books retell the story of Israel and its responsibilities as a rescued, covenant people. As they transition to a new life in the promised land, the first commandment (no other gods) is restated positively: love God with all your heart and strength. Life in the land after Moses and Joshua is characterized by a cycle of faithlessness, crisis, cries for help, and temporary rescue. The last tribal chieftain/first prophet Samuel will anoint kings for an unruly people when the real king missing in Israel is God.
More Questions? Visit http: //covenantbiblestudy.com/ for more information.
About the Author :
Shane Stanford (MA, Duke University; Doctorate, Asbury Theological Seminary) is Senior Pastor of a 5,000+ member church in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Stanford is the author of numerous books, including The Seven Next Words of Christ, The Cure for the Chronic Life, and The Eight Blessings: Rediscovering the Beatitudes. His memoir, A Positive Life, details his life as an HIV+ and HepC+ hemophiliac, husband, father, and pastor. He is the co-host of the Covenant Bible Study program, now used in over one thousand churches. Dr. Stanford married Dr. Pokey Stanford, and they have three daughters. Michael E. Williams is senior pastor at West End United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of numerous articles, stories, poems, and books and is general editor of The Storyteller s Companion to the Bible series. A frequent guest-speaker and workshop leader at regional, national, and international events, Dr. Williams has been a featured storyteller at the National Storytelling Festival and has taught at the National Institutes of Storytelling. Christine Chakoian is Pastor and Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest, Illinois, one of the largest congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be led by a woman. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Yale Divinity School, and McCormick Theological Seminary (D.Min). She is an editor and writer for Feasting on the Gospels, a contributor to the Day1 radio program, 30 Good Minutes television show, and the Presbyterian Outlook magazine. David L. Bartlett was Professor Emeritus of Christian Communication, Yale Divinity School, and Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA. Director of the Malcom X Institute of Black Studies, Associate Dean, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN William P. Brown is William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA. His teaching focuses on the use of scripture in the life of the church and the world, particularly in the context of ecology and justice. Recent books include The Seven Pillars of Creation: Bible, Science, and the Ecology of Wonder, Wisdom's Wonder, and Sacred Sense. Jaime Clark-Soles is Professor of New Testament and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins School of Theology. She speaks and preaches frequently in churches and contributes to various online resources, including workingpreacher.org. She is the author of several books, including Reading John for Dear Life: A Spiritual Walk with the Fourth Gospel and Engaging the Word: The New Testament and the Christian Believer. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religion and Disability. As an ordained Baptist minister, she has served in both parish and hospice settings. Chaplain, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Hiram College, Hiram, OH Magrey R. deVega is the Senior Pastor at Hyde Park United Methodist Church in Tampa, Florida. He is the author of several books, including Almost Christmas, Embracing the Uncertain: A Lenten Study for Unsteady Times, One Faithful Promise: The Wesleyan Covenant for Renewal, and Songs for the Waiting. Magrey is also the Leadership Editor for the Covenant Bible Study by Abingdon Press, overseeing the weekly small group classroom experience. He is a graduate of United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, and Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the father of two daughters, Grace and Madelyn. Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible, Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado Judy Fentress-Williams (AB Princeton; MDiv and PhD Yale) is Professor of Old Testament at Virginia Theological Seminary since 2002 and taught previously at Hartford Seminary. She is author of several publications, including the Abingdon Old Testament Commentary: Ruth. J.F.R. King Professor of Religion, Professor Emeritus of Religion, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX. Associate Pastor, Belmont United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN Associate Professor of Old Testament, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX Vice President of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Old Testament, Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria, VA Matthew Skinner is Professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary and has contributed to various resources for scholars, church leaders, and laypeople interested in the Bible's connections to faith and life. He is the author of Intrusive God, Disruptive Gospel: Encountering the Divine in the Book of Acts, A Companion to the New Testament, and The Trial Narratives: Conflict, Power, and Identity in the New Testament. He has written about the Bible for websites including Huffington Post, Working Preacher, and ON Scripture and he co-hosts Sermon Brainwave, a popular weekly podcast that offers assistance to preachers as they interpret biblical texts to prepare their sermons.
Thomas B. Slater is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Language & Literature at McAfee School of Theology. He teaches introductory and advanced courses in New Testament studies and New Testament Greek. His Ph.D. is from King's College London. He is an ordained elder in the Georgia North Region of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and holds positions on denominational committees. Daniel L. Smith-Christopher is Professor of Theological Studies and Director of Peace Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. A widely published scholar, he is the author of A Biblical Theology of Exile, Subverting Hatred, and Religion of the Landless, as well as the commentary on Daniel for The New Interpreters' Bible. A.B. Rhodes Professor of Old Testament, Louisville Theological Seminary mail checks and correspondence to home address: 308 E. Market St., Jeffersonville, IN 47130 Adjunct Professor of New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Chicago, IL Associate Professor of Old Testament Language, Literature, and Exegesis, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA Theodore Hiebert is Francis A. McGaw Professor of Old Testament, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL. He was an editor and translator of the Common English Bible. A leading scholar among theological educators, he has done groundbreaking work in the study of Genesis. Shane Stanford (MA, Duke University; Doctorate, Asbury Theological Seminary) is Senior Pastor of a 5,000+ member church in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Stanford is the author of numerous books, including The Seven Next Words of Christ, The Cure for the Chronic Life, and The Eight Blessings: Rediscovering the Beatitudes. His memoir, A Positive Life, details his life as an HIV+ and HepC+ hemophiliac, husband, father, and pastor. He is the co-host of the Covenant Bible Study program, now used in over one thousand churches. Dr. Stanford married Dr. Pokey Stanford, and they have three daughters. Christine Chakoian is Pastor and Head of Staff at First Presbyterian Church in Lake Forest, Illinois, one of the largest congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be led by a woman. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Yale Divinity School, and McCormick Theological Seminary (D.Min). She is an editor and writer for Feasting on the Gospels, a contributor to the Day1 radio program, 30 Good Minutes television show, and the Presbyterian Outlook magazine. -- Alejandro F. Botta, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Boston University School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Ave., Box 371, Boston, MA 02215-1401 http: //www.bu.edu/sth/faculty/staff/botta.html Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible, Boston University School of Theology Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois
Associate Professor of New Testament, Palmer Theological Seminary, Eastern Unviersity, King of Prussia, PA Dr. David A. deSilva, an elder in the Florida Annual Conference, attended Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary and earned his Ph.D. in Religion at Emory University. He currently serves as Trustees' Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary. He has written over twenty books, including Unholy Allegiances: Heeding Revelation's Warning, The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude, An Introduction to the New Testament, and Introducing the Apocrypha. He also served as Apocrypha Editor for the Common English Bible and has published extensively in journals, reference works, and adult Bible curriculum. Teacher and Former Assistant Professor of New Testament, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, TX Associate Professor of Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
