Bible School -- an Equip-meet curriculum.

New believers and young Christians need to be properly instructed, trained, about the Bible.

Let's see how we could do that in 10 monthly half day-evening sessions.

Before dinner is the first segment, with the second segment after dinner, and optional conversation following over Port and cigars (only kidding).

February

1. Old Testament overview and textual history

2. Old Testament archeology and historical context (this might include intertestamental period)

March

3. New Testament overview and textual history

4. New Testament archeology and historical context (this might include the early church)

April

5. Pentateuch/Torah

6. Concept of 'God' in the OT

May 

7. Synoptic Gospels

8. John's Gospel 

June

9. The Former Prophets

10. The Latter Prophets

July

11. Acts and Romans

12. 1 and 2 Corinthians

August

13. Pre-exilic Writings

14. Paul's shorter letters

September

15. Post-exilic Writings

16. General Epistles

October

 17. Revelation

18. Who is Christ--who is God? 

November 

19. How does Salvation work?

20. Basic Christian Questions (intro to basic apologetics, but this would be the ground work for a weekend seminar the following February) 

On the following Sundays' gatherings, participants could be invited to, in pairs, give their reflections/thoughts on the material they had on the prior Saturday. 

Train, educate, or get out of the way!

Great video. I was one of those arrogant Calvinists! Happily no longer, so I know the feeling you are talking about.

What started me on the Calvinist path, many decades ago, was a Bible study group that an old (but not that close) friend invited me to join. In my church I was demographically and intellectually isolated. My friend's group was people of my age and all university qualified. Even here, though, the Calvinism was trickled. Firstly by recommending books (the tedious Puritans), and finally a Bible college where I did some summer courses and made some friends, including with the principal and his son. But what distinguished this church to mine was an emphasis on knowledge, on reading theology and 'pious' conversations about what we read.

My church was intellectually  barren. One deacon in discussion vowed to read the italics in his Bible with due emphasis, not being aware that italicized words were translators' additions. An elder, when I asked about a Schaeffer book, told me it had 'too many big words' (it didn't). In this church I was given youth teaching and 'leading' roles for which I was unequipped and given no training. In fact, no one was trained for anything. This intellectual (knowledge) vacuum made me ripe for not only Calvinism, but would have made me ripe for any cult that promised knowledge of the Bible. It also rendered me useless for the roles given. Note, this was way before the Internet age and resources were hard to find and expensive...and I was not even aware that they might exist.

Here's what I now would expect for all new Christians, or Christians from the age of, say 16: a one year course of maybe fortnightly sessions during school terms on Bible basics, an outline of church history, and a thorough grounding in soteriology, if not Christology at the appropriate level. It might also include 'workshops' on the basic questions Christians get asked. A couple of weekend 'consolidation' conferences could be added in.

Similar, but shorter courses should have been available, perhaps at the denominational/conference level on Sunday School teaching and youth ministry. These being ubiquitous and constant needs in 'volunteer' ministry.

The fact that most churches rely on either a weekly 'talk' (aka the sermon) and other forms of osmotic learning is a real derogation of the duty of the church to make disciples. Our biggest effort should be training to 'make disciples' rather than no training, which makes for ineffectiveness or complete passivity.

7 Big Questions Seminar References and Resources

This page is devoted to supplementary material for attendees of a '7 Big Questions' seminar. This is a full day seminar for churches (generally, it can also be given in two half-day sessions) to encourage and assist members in being able to think through answers to the seven most commonly asked questions of Christians.

If you have not attended a seminar, naturally, you are nevertheless welcome to use this page.

If you want to organize a seminar or inquire about hosting one, please send an e-mail to 7BQ_Seminars@email.com, with the subject line "I want to organize a seminar" otherwise it will be filtered out.

If you attended a seminar you have access to a moderated discussion group (provided through your registration e-mail address).

Thanks to 'Watcher' for allowing this page to be hosted on his blog.

The Better Church.

Following from a few recent posts on a church as a gathering where people are taught, edified and educated in the faith and its texts, rather than being the audience in a religious ritual, I thought this pattern might work.

Three times a year weekend conferences, teaching days, are held. They might be called 'Equips', 'Refreshs' or 'Recharges' (I hate the term 'Retreat': in the Army, retreat was generally not the done thing).

These could work over a cycle of 5 years, so 15 weekend sessions that cover the Bible, theology, apologetics.

The first year of the cycle might go:

1. Bible: overview of the flow of the whole Bible and how it all fits together to the coming of the Kingdom of Christ.

2. The theology of redemption and salvation that also flows through the Bible.

3. The 7 basic questions of Christian faith.

In subsequent years the Bible Equip would cover the text, archeology, and life-application of transformed thought (Romans 12:2)

The theology cycle would discuss the theological themes in the Apostles creed and the discussion about them: a bit of historical theology thrown in.

Apologetics would include deeper looks at the 7 questions, but additionally the issues that come from Arian groups (Muslims, JWs, Mormons), atheists, and 'new-pagans'.

Year 6, we start again. Perhaps varied format, new presenters/facilitators, etc. There should also be continuing teaching in the basics of Christian life (say a 7 week course), and in practical skills for conducting small groups, evangelistic groups, etc.

Will this happen? Hope so, but not optimistic.

T R A I N

Mostly we 'teach' people when we think we are 'discipling' them. And the teaching is often by the least effective form: lectures.

We need to understand that it is training we need to deliver. Training is different from teaching and a playlist is here.

In this video Wallace speaks about his training model adopted from his police career: TRAIN

T - test: find out what people don't know: use simulations (role plays) to test what people believe.

R - raise expectations: require more (not just turning up at church meetings)

A - arm people with content: make the case that God exists, is good and the only way to resolution of life's disconnections.

I - involve in the battlefield of ideas: at university, for instance, have novices raise discussions with the various groups touting their ideological wares: Muslims, Marxists, Animal 'rights', etc. (set 'involve' appointments about 6-8 weeks ahead to encourage preparation: learning, thinking, discussing.

N - nurture: continually support, encourage and coach the people around you: in fact, each other!

And, the bonus: you can use this model in any context, work, your club, at home!

A weekend away

Most Christian 'conferences' I've attended are terribly biblical. Usually they amount to a set of sermons: similar content, but longer; so even lower content density than from the pew.

But Christian conferences should spring from Romans 12:1-2. "Transformed by the renewing of your mind" should be the aim.

They could do a couple of things. Give a a Scriptural basis for our thinking about life and the world. Our personal philosophy and its function to critique the world and enable point target evangelism.

Some of the work of Stand to Reason heads in this direction, but not entirely, it is, in the end, Calvinistic (and to that extent not Christian, in my view), and does not take the Doctrine of Creation set out in Genesis seriously. It dilutes and de-historicises it with a materialist time scale.

Ironically, the one who really lays out the path for such a conference would be Francis Schaeffer (ironic because he's both reformed, although not entirely Calvinistic, I think, and rather unclear on his historical location of the creation).

I've just re-read his ground-breaking and re-orienting trilogy The God Who is There, Escape from Reason, and He is There and He is Not Silent. Add to that Return to Freedom and Dignity and Death in the City and you have content for a three day conference that studies, reflects on and activates his thoughts in our contemporary setting.

The conference would presume attendees having read at least the trilogy.

It would be fabulous!

Letter to a minister

Dear Agamemnon,

I think the current preaching program is the first time in more than 50 years of attending churches that I've encountered a program on 'commending Christ'. Excellent.

I think it lays the ground for a more concerted offering that might be considered.

People really learn behaviour change through engagement. Just listening to a talk rarely does it.

Could we look at a series of seminars on Communicating Christ? These would include pre-reading, a short presentation followed by facilitated discussion (such as described by Brookfield -- https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.396.577&rep=rep1&type=pdf ) then break into syndicate groups to work up presentations and engage in practice.

I think the questions that would need to be covered would be:

Why do I: believe the Bible, think Christ resurrected, Yahweh exists.
What about evil in the world?
Doesn't science (evolution) disprove the Bible/Christianity?

The big five.

To a more aware enquirer, the Trinity might be a question as well...that could be a bonus! Or, we could figure out 7 topics...the perfect number.

The important thing would be to get past personal testimonies, as useful as these can be, to the grounds of belief. Why these things are justified true beliefs based on (public) objective evidence.

Another or allied approach might be that of Greg Koukl's. His book 'Tactics' describes an enquiry-dialogue approach to 'talking the gospel' that is of broad applicability.

You might be aware of his work, but here are some links that could be of interest.

Tactics 1: https://youtu.be/aTzh6oVbsKk
Tactics 2: https://youtu.be/dPH7O6saijY
Tactics 3: https://youtu.be/C_NnFJak-B8
Tactics 4: https://youtu.be/Qszn4Gg69Tw

Being a disciple

Jen Wilkin on making disciples. An important part of this is to study and know the Bible.

In summary:

Have curricula for different levels: new believers (or even the 'I'm just interested' - could be part of a community service offering), more experienced believers, really experienced believers. Her church also has an extension program that gives college credits: or it can be done as an auditor for 1/5 the fee.

Involve the learner:

1. self study of the passage
2. discuss with a facilitated group impressions of the passage
3. lecture with following discussion from a trained Bible teacher

Make Bible learning an essential part of your church Sunday program, maybe with a repeat session through the week.

The SPAACE acronym:

1. Structure: design environments that honour the commitment and are predictable and ordered.
2. Predictable: calendar follows the rhythm of people's lives - same every year.
3. Accountability: participants expectation to prepare, attend and participate. Facilitators/convenors follow-up to make it work, and to be 'made' to work themselves. No pedantic 'checks' on people. Classes charged to lift the bar, with 'skin in the game'. People don't commit to free things.
   
4. Accessibility: content and process attuned to the audience (year 8 reading level). No 'big' words, or technical theological words that are unexplained. Scholarships for those who cannot afford the fee. Provide child care to remove the challenge for mothers (and fathers). Lower the bar on participation, rise the bar when you are there.
5. Community: encourage, make 'space' for people to get to know each other and build trust. These are 'mid-sized' environments. Bigger than small groups, smaller than general gatherings. But learning is the main aim.
   
6. Excellence: we do what we say we'll do; we gather 'feedback' from participants. If it is new, be consistent, but minimize change for the first two years.
   

Similar structure probably needed for apologetics, communicating the faith and general theology.

Newly Christian

 OK, so that's volunteers, what about those who are newly Christian?

The steps of faith after a profession of faith.

1. Preparatory classes for Baptism

Reading James' letter. A session on the Apostles' creed (except 'descended into hell') and three or four pastoral sessions discussing relevant passages from the Bible and prayer.

2. Post Baptism

For the next 18 to 24 months the person is a 'novice', but we don't call them that. During this period they will be asked to accept no significant responsibility for spiritual practice. They might be asked if they would be interested in public reading of scripture and similar.

They will be taken through the Apostles' Creed in detail, with study of the relevant scriptures.

A session  on the Bible: its history, structure and over arching description of the reality we all are in.

Shared reading with the pastoral helper of Genesis, Joshua, Isaiah, Mark's gospel, Acts and Revelation.

These sessions start usually with a Psalm and end with some Proverbs verses, for example, from Proverbs 3, 8 and 9.

We might also work through Koukl's Tactics, Relativism and the Story of Reality, with discussion. We don't agree with all that is written in 'Story' but discuss it anyway.

As soon as possible, we encourage the novice to join a small Bible/prayer group.

At the end we suggest they read (re-read) Wright's Simply Christian and Lewis' Mere Christianity.

How to check out a church

If you want to check out a church, seek responses to these quotes:

a.     The Humanist Richard Kilty asks if evolution and religion are reconcilable, complementary or both. He answers by expressing that, “We are not dealing on this amorphous level, instead we want to know about the antithesis of man in evolution and man in Christianity. And we do have an anti-thesis: Acceptance of evolution precludes the fundamentals of Christianity, to wit, Garden, Adam and Eve, Fall, Redeemer, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. Acceptance of evolution requires the concatenation: fish-amphibians-reptiles-mammals-apeman-man with all transformations occurring naturally. This dichotomy is irreconcilable.”

b.    Kilty goes on to conclude with acute insight that the two are not reconcilable, that a child taught evolutionary concepts (including long ages), will have his belief in God disturbed: “How subversive is evolutionary theory to Church dogma.”

c.     Another atheist looks at the long ages supposedly expressed in the fossil record, and concludes, quite logically, that as this indicates death on a high order, a loving God cannot exist: “We astute rationalists have no qualms regards the predation of primeval organisms as having commenced as dire necessity well over one billion years ago or more under the most inhospitable of prevailing conditions...The fossil record bares no record of lenity throughout the bulk of an estimated 70 kilometres[sic] deep accumulation of sediments in the whole of the visible fossils geological sequence...benevolence has no place in the realms of reality or survival of the fittest.”

Go woke and go broke - spiritually

Melissa Dougherty gives the run-down on five new age teachings in the church.

They are not really 'new age'. The New Age is over, we are now in a culture that is entirely pagan. The 'New Age' has gone mainstream.

But that said, here they are:

1. The Law of Attraction
2. Oneness
3. Religious Pluralism
4. Universalism
5. Mysticism

The 'law' of attraction: what you put your positive energy into wanting, the universe will send it to you: sort of like a pantheistic sugar daddy that includes you, because you are part of the divine, right?

Wrong! We are re-born, regenerated, to follow Christ, not the desires of the world, and its fake gods.

Although it does have an element of truth. If you keep an objective in mind you will work towards it, sort of a self-coaching. Just try it. Here're some sample objectives: read the Bible through in a year. Spend at least 30 minutes each day in thoughtful Bible study and  prayer. Visit one 'shut-in' or single dweller a month. Get goin'.

Oneness: everything in the universe is 'one'. Wrong Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Or, we all have to agree all the time. Don't disagree, don't challenge, question or 'judge'. Just misread the Bible how I do, and agree with me . No, just remember the Bereans. Acts 17:11.

Religious pluralism: we each have our own truth, and there are many ways to salvation. Au contraire John 14:6. Jesus makes exclusive claims. He alone is the Messiah. He alone is the creator who is outside the cosmos entered into his creation.

Universalism: all are saved irrespective of being in Christ or not. Disregards the sheep and goat distinctions in reality and who God is. Everone is a 'child' of God. But no, we start as a child of wrath, and are only adopted upon repentance.

Mysticism: getting hidden knowledge by 'contemplating' God as your special pet. Linked to 'oneness' above. Richard Rohr is the chief current peddler of this twaddle.

Her conclusion is correct. These pagan ideas come into the church because teaching, reading and living out the word of God is not the priority.

Do churches encourage with not only words, but with behaviour and programs, the reading of the Bible?

Do ministry leaders echo this teaching in their own ministries and demonstrate in their own practice?

Melissa goes more on this in another video.

7 Lies to light up.

After the 5 basic questions to be able to answer, there are 7 lies contemporary society peddles that you will need to be alert to and be able to discuss with your children, or reflect upon yourself.

They are discussed by Bible Thinker.

• If I feel it, it must be true
• Follow your heart
• Love is affirming everything I feel
• Faith is the opposite of knowledge
• Humans are the product of blind, unguided, evolution
• You are the one you've been waiting for
• A good God wouldn't judge.
  

 All of them are dealt with in the video, although the one on evolution (also in the top 5 questions) needs some further work.

The deficit view of evangelism

Many churches seem to mistake their mission for social service to the community at large, rather than  proclamation of the gospel.

Most denominations do undertake the complex, demanding and high skill work of some form of social service. However, these days, such endeavours have become co-opted by governments through grants, behaviour requirements and open recruitment for staffing.

This has had perverse outcomes. I've encountered Anglican 'charities' with service outlets (homes for adolescents) staffed by self proclaimed witches, and a Roman Catholic charity, with a similar clientele staffed by people who parade their sexual appetites (outside of marriage of course, where one doesn't need to 'parade' such), and blithely support a 16 year old drug addict to finance her habit through prostitution.

These are clearly of no charitable or evangelistic or even social benefit at all.

If we do 'social' work, it should have two arms: pure charities that do Christian work with a Christian ethos, and support for church members who fall into need.

Paul's collection for the church in Jerusalem was not for the Emperor worshipers. It was for his fellow Christians.

So we come to the local church.

I see so many running a deficit view of evangelism. Out to repair peoples' failings, limitations or socially defined 'needs' in the slender hope that they'll become church members.

Futile, on the numbers.

We need to equip the church to do evangelism at the grass roots. Every Christian needs to know and be able to explain what they believe and why, and to engage others in conversations in the knowledge of the 5 basic apologetic topics: 

1. Resurrection of Yeshua
2. Existence of God (extending to 'miracles' and prayer)
   
3. Veracity of the Bible
4. Science vs Faith (really, creation vs pagan evolution)
5. Problem of evil (the problem for atheists, not us)

They should also have a basic grasp of how to discuss with Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, modern (western) pagans, Muslims and Eastern pagans (Hindus and Buddhists).

Handbook of Christian Faith

Nice little book by Schwarz.  Not so little for those who don't take to reading so readily (an increasing number these days, I daresay, given the dominance of visual cultural media).

Nevertheless, if you are going to read one book as an overview of Christian faith, this is quite good.

In fact, I would have treasured this as a young Christian. I was baptised at 12 years old, or maybe 11, but this was a capstone on my belief over my childhood and not due to a sudden conversion.

As it was, I was in a quite non-intellectual church of an non-intellectual denomination, so, few books in sight. The view was, 'the Bible is the only book you need'. In one way correct, but reading the books of people who've thought deeply about their faith is always worthwhile.

My one gripe with Schwarz is his seeming leaning to the the religious evolution school of thought, and his reflexive use of the term 'story' for the accounts of the Bible. Except for the writings and the letters, the works up to Esther in the Old Testament are accounts of events, as are the Gospels and Acts.

He claims that here are two creation accounts. Not so, of course. More properly, the 'creation' is Genesis 1-3. It starts with the global statement, the headline, 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth'. We start with the entirety of the creation. The rest of chapter 1 zooms in to the earth, the place of our habitation and fellowship with God. Chapter two enlarges on Genesis 1:27. Chapter 3 is then how this pans out (poorly) as how the creation will now play out, with some very important parts.

In chapter 3:8 we see God embarking on drawing man into fellowship. But man has rejected him. But its not all bad: the ultimate defeat of the anti-god (3:15c) and God's clothing them, protecting them, with the first death in 3:20.

He mealy-mouths his way around Genesis 1-3 as well, reducing it to a pious 'story' that, even though he seems to regard it has having no objective factual content, holds that it manages to teach something. How he knows this, I fail to grasp. He fails to make the connection between his (unwitting?) Neoplatonist treatment of the section and its real world significance.

Theistic evolution vs creator

Theistic evolution merges the creator with the creation to the point of indistinguishability.

It represents a direct contradiction of all that Genesis 1 stands for.

Personhood is absorbed into material and destroyed as a meaningful component of reality.

Unscrambling the new/old world view

I mentioned  PJ a couple of posts ago.

I linked to his talk at the ACL conference of 2019. In it he mentioned an article on the topic.

The article might have been this one.

His YouTube playlist is here.

PJ's website is at TruthExchange.

One of the items is an audio series on paganism.

Talking to young people

Letter to a friend who is a SRE teacher.

A couple of turns of phrase, possibly unconscious on your part, caught my eye.

Now, please don’t think I’m being overly critical, but words betray meaning, at least to the sceptical listener, so I’d like to make some observations, if I may.

You wrote as many Christians would, “As a Christian I…”

This usage runs the risk of being heard as perspectival. That is, ‘as a…whatever’ a certain view flows. The view’s attachment to reality ceases to become an issue, the ‘view’ being perspectival is merely subjective in the perception of the listener and in the final analysis runs the risk of being regarded as an uninteresting piece of the speaker's fantasy life (at worst).

The Bible teaches us what is truly real. As Schaeffer puts it ‘true truth’. That is objective truth. We know things about reality because God has spoken. His logos being the initial engine of creation, and thereafter the consistent revealer of what is true about the world, himself, and us.

In answer to the question, “is there any hope for the world” the answer is, the only hope is that we turn to Christ in repentance because the world is the scene of humanities' rejection of him and all goodness. Naturally, it’s a mess. By the grace of God, Christians’ influence and thinking has lead to great improvements in the lot of humanity, and day to day many people do great things for others because we all have the imprint of being in God’s image: morally aware souls that make real choices of significance; but this world as it stands has no hope in itself.

‘Jesus is in control’, being part of ‘speaking as a Christian’ becomes a perspectival triviality. Of course, all things are worked together for good for those who love God, but not all do. Jesus will sew up history, which he will bring to a climax in the judgment of evil and re-creation of the world and all that is, as the setting for us to enjoy him and his creation forever.

Embedding our discourse in the flow of biblical history: God (creator), Humanity (the fallen ones), Jesus (the creator’s taking human form), Cross (his triumph over death and sin), New Creation (all things made new), enables descriptive and coherent answers to questions. This is far better than quips which for the non-believer are deluded, and the young believer meaningless because they are often left contextualized by a world given its core definition by humanist-materialism, or the self-centred subjectivism of post-modernism.

Your first lesson, ‘what is the Bible’ would be a wonderful one to participate in. Most people these days regard it as a collection of disconnected ‘verses’ and rules, much as the Koran is. It must be quite a challenge to dislodge this and profile the Bible as a vast collection of literature written over many centuries that have given us a grounded realist way of thinking about the world. A collection so profoundly influential that it was the foundation of modern science, and concepts of justice and charity, gaining expression in the generosity of Christian-influenced nations in seeking to benefit others, as fraught with corruption as this project was with the fallenness of humanity. It did this through great stories and texts written by some of the towering geniuses of all time: Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Solomon, Paul, John, Luke with Moses, and Paul as the high peaks of these intellectual mountains.

Apart from this, it's a great read that people have found endlessly fascinating to study for the past 2000 years.

Blessings as you continue this year’s work.

Now what to do? Another holidays disaster.

Once again, a holiday disaster for our young people: houseparties and ministry opportunities dashed by yet another corona scare.

Instead, as one church did last holidays, time for a few 'days in'.

You could do three over the next three week, a full day together on the church premises learning, discussing, and recreating together, with intensives on, say, apologetics, society and its discontents, the gospel and its aberations (I think of Mormons and JWs).

Easy.

7 books - as foundation for Christian life and thought

In his recent podcast, Greg Koukl, of Stand to Reason gave a list of 7 books that together a sound Christian structure to thought and practice.

I've set out lists of recommended books, but Greg's is better. Mine are too 'me' and possibly not always helpful to others.

Here's Greg's list .

1. The basics of Christian faith

   C. S. Lewis - Mere Christianity*

   Greg Koukl - The Story of Reality*

2.  Single volume theological reference

   Millard Erickson - Christian Theology*

3. Christian Apologetics

   F. Turek and N. Giesler - I don't have enough faith to be an atheist

   W. L. Craig - Reasonable Faith*

4. Spiritual reflection

   C. Spurgeon - Morning and Evening

   A. Bennet - The Valley of Vision

5. Practical engagement

   G. Koukl - Tactics*

6. Spiritual life

   John Owens - Spiritual-mindedness

   C. Lungaard - The Enemy Within

7. Bible study

   G. Fee, Stuart - How to Read the Bible for all it's Worth

*I have in my library and have read them, except Erickson.

Today at church

The sermon took an excursion into Critical Theory, I think, without realizing it.

Somehow from Psalm 8 (with references to Psalm 139, from memory) we lurched into personal identity games as played out these days. Lots of talk about 'gender' and sexuality, sexual expression. Plenty of room here for shining the biblical light on the topic, but no. None!

No comment as to our identity is in Christ and is given emergent substance by our service: contributing our gifts to the church. Our 'identity' is of no interest, but our service to others, our worship of God is.

No criticism of the current obsession with 'identity' in parts of the media and the dominant cultural demonstrations as being a self-obesssion, bordering on narcissism: a 'look at me' game.

No rescue from the in the gospel explored.

No reference to God making man male and female, or of Paul teaching that in the church even that distinction is irrelevant to our contribution to the church life. But then, being a Sydney Anglican church they couldn't say that as the SAs hold that Paul was wrong and there are distinct service areas in the church for men and women.

The sermon played right into the covert Marxism of 'Critical Theory' with narry a comment, analysis or rebuttal. No evident knowledge of its roots in the Frankfurt School and the French deconstructionists and their motivating program. Naive from start to finish.

Yet, Neil Shenvi has such good work on this area. All disregarded, if it was even known about. Stand to Reason also has some content.

There was question time at the end, and my pet peeve: every questioner was told their question was 'a good question'. Like the speaker was there to judge questions instead of answering them to the encouragement and dignity of the questioner*.

Finally the main minister took the rostrum and explained that the answers to questions of life are to be found in the Bible, and, 'please, come and see us if you have challenges finding the answers you seek.' Whew, we are a Biblical church, then.

This article on 'transitioning' 'gender' might also interest. It should have been mentioned.

 

*On handling questions.

If you need to say something other than just answer the question, you can say "Thank you for the question', or 'let me think a moment'...or 'I'm sorry I didn't cover/was not clear about that in the talk'