SEPTEMBER 2011 celloutlines
celloutlines | overview
Bible Lives Welcome to September – the start of a brand new academic year – and the continuation of our exploration into this year’s theme of Lives / Lives! This month’s cell groups are all about Bible Lives. We are going to look closely at four characters from the Bible, explore their stories, and find out what their lives can teach us about ours. And this month you will have the opportunity to plan many of the activities yourselves, not just leave it up to your cell group leader! These cell notes will help you discover some key skills of Bible study, bringing the black and white of the Bible text into colourful life in new and fresh ways. In order to help you with this, we will use many of the ideas and concepts from Shelf Life, ALOVE’s new Bible study resource. If you were at Youth Roots or Summer School you should already have your own copy of Shelf Life. If you don’t have one yet, talk to your cell group leader, because Shelf Life is an essential part of this month’s cell groups. We would suggest that you read Shelf Life before you come along to your first cell group this month. So, who are the four characters that we are going to look at this month? Well, out of the many who applied, we have narrowed down our successful candidates to Jonah, Ruth, Daniel and Hannah! Don’t worry if you have never heard of these guys before, you’ll know them very well by the end of the month. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that, if you have heard about them a hundred times in Sunday school, you already know all there is to know about these people. This month we are going much deeper than a Sunday school story to allow these guys’ lives to change our lives! Week One:
Lives of Forgiveness and Grace: The Story of Jonah
Week Two:
Lives of Friendship and Loyalty: The Story of Ruth
Week Three:
Lives of Faith in Action: The Story of Daniel
Week Four:
Lives of Fruitfulness and Blessing: The Story of Hannah
We would recommend that you take the time to read the stories of Jonah, Ruth, Daniel and Hannah in preparation. You could simply look them up in a children’s Bible storybook, or find their stories in the Bible itself. Jonah, Daniel and Ruth have their own books in the Bible, and Hannah’s short story can be found just after Ruth in 1 Samuel chapters 1 to 3. They are all in the Old Testament. Our cell groups this month will, as always, be split into four sections and follow the same format each week. However, this month the sections are a bit different. They are: 1. Welcome: Introduction and Icebreaker A chance to get to know the theme, relax and get ready for a time of serious Bible study! 2. What’s his/her story? This is where we will take time to really get to know the character and the events of his/her life as the Bible describes. You can do this through things like reading the Bible text, re-reading the story from a children’s Bible story book, looking at video clips or images created by artists. This section also includes research into the context of the story, thinking about things such as the person’s background, family, and culture; his/her relationship with God; what the world was like when he/she was alive; anyone else continued over >>>
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove