Practicum Report #1

From: Kevin Aaron
To: Stephen Howlett
Subject: Practicum Report #1
TIME SPENT THIS WEEK: 3 Hours total (SS= 1.5; Worship= 1.5)
MY CLASS THIS WEEK
The task of preparation. Since I am in charge of the Bible study I am working with, I had to do all the preparation for this Bible study. The study we are doing is from a serendipity Bible. Thus, there is not a whole lot of preparation involved. The text and questions are already designed. All I really have to do is go through and read it all to know what I am doing ahead of time and alter any questions I feel are weak or could use restructuring. But even in doing so, it takes time to prepare such a simple study. I never put thought into the time required to do a weekly Bible study. It gives a whole new appreciation for these people.
The Study. The study itself was not very long this week. Only 4 people were present: Adam, Caleb, Rebecca and I. We read through the passage of John 8:1-11 and discussed it. We looked at the questions and particularly enjoyed the question, “How does the way Jesus treated this woman help you face your sins?” For us it was a matter of thinking about our own sins. That is not an easy thing to think about and come to grips with. It was comforting, though, as Rebecca pointed out to realize that this passage shows us that we are all sinful and cannot be judged by others because they are also sinners. She had a lot of really good insight into the problem of judging others and was willing to open up to us about occasions in which she has judged others unfairly. We discussed the question of what would we do if the woman in the story came to our own church. It was tough for us to imagine someone condemning and wanting to stone someone these days for adultery. I could see how the church would be quick to condemn her actions and judge her for it though. Adam closed the study out for us with an awesome prayer about having the strength to not judge others, but always remain introspective of our own faith.
The Outlook. After the study, we discussed the outlook for the Bible study. We talked about the direction we wanted to see the study go in and how it should happen. First of all we agreed we wanted to get more people involved in the study. Then we agreed to take the next week to do another study, on the parable of the mustard seed, and then make decisions on what we should study after really thinking and praying about it.
Questions
How should we go about fixing the problem of low attendance?
What are some good areas of study for high school/college age youth?
Should we stick to a general topic of studies or should we skip from topic to topic as we would like to?