Session 1: The Journey

Session Overview

Key Elements

• Key Passage: Genesis 11:27-13:18
• Scripture Memory: “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourning.” Psalm 119:54

Introduction

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6

“We must inescapably understand our lives in narrative form, as a ‘quest.’” Charles Taylor, Sources of Self

Life is felt and experienced as a journey. We are all heading somewhere. As our lives are oriented toward a particular destination—a destination of destruction or eternal glory—our lives take a certain shape. We embrace life as a journey of faithful submission to God or estranged exile in alienation from God. The former involves a submission to God while the latter staunchly asserts our own autonomy and independence. The spiritual import of pilgrimage resonates with humans because our lives are experienced as a journey. We participate in physical travel. Many cultures walk as the main form of transport. For the older, we can chart the various seasons and phases to our lives. The chance to find relief in vacation, holiday trips, and respite retreats is a telltale sign that sometimes a trip can be rejuvenating. In life, we hope for progression and development. Ultimately, we aim (even the wanderer) for some journey’s end.

Additionally, the motif of journey is important for our role and responsibility as church leaders. The image of metaphor facilitates an intriguing and poignant way to invite people into the faith. Moreover, disciples will simultaneously occupy various places in their faith development. Wise leadership pays attention to this differential. Journey works against a long-felt divide of the clergy-laity. If the Christian life is a pilgrimage than Christian leaders are own their own journey of faith as fellow pilgrims. There is no room for authoritarian elitism or hypocritical pastoral care. We offer guidance to the Christian community as fellow pilgrims on the way. The perspective of pilgrimage cultivates teachers who are patient and empathetic that the journey occurs over time while at the same time cautionary and warning that moments of compromise can take us off the path with devastating consequences. The image of pilgrimage is of great benefit to the Christian and the Christian leader.

The captivating narrative of Genesis 11:27-13:18 depicts Abram’s journey from exilic wandering to maturing faith. A companion with is father on an aborted journey to the promised land, Abram eventually received his own call to follow God to the land of promise, Canaan. Initially, he devotedly expressed practiced his faith as a nomadic traveller to Canaan. Eventually, he faces difficulties and challenges that gravely challenge his faith and his integrity. Ultimately, he matures in his walk of faith, reestablishing firm foundations of his relationship with God and his companions. Abram comes to settle in the land of Canaan. On a pilgrimage of faith, Abram gains a foretaste of God’s promises, but their ultimate fulfillment wait a future time.

Abram’s journey of faith is instructive for our own. As we explore the nature of the Christian life and the responsibility as ministry leaders, the motif of pilgrimage is vitally important. Its usefulness in formation is matched by its theological viability. The more we dig into the essence of the Christian life as a pilgrimage of faith we not only start to see a clear pathway to minister to others, but gain a healthier perspective of our own faith journey. Importantly, these two are connected. To the degree that we can be aware of our own progress in the journey of faith we will be able to better serve our companions in the Christian community. To this end, we explore the father of our faith in his initial journeys as a means to advance in our own.

Biblical Interpretation: Hearing the Word

Study the Text: Christian disciples ground themselves in God’s inspired word. In this movement, you will study the details of the biblical text in order to accurately understand what God’s word says.

Observation Questions

Read (or listen to) the whole passage of Scripture. Discuss the questions below for each section of the story. Pay attention to the details of the text to recall what the passage is saying. Use the focus verses to guide your conversation.

Storycraft

Theological Dialogue: Discussing the Plot

Explore the Text: We grow as Christ’s disciples when we root our lives in the truth. In this movement, you will explore the important teachings of this biblical passage.

Discussion Questions

Have someone in your community share their summary of the biblical story. As a community, discuss the following questions together.

Biblical Commentary

Read the following commentary of the biblical passage. Use this explanation to help gain a better understanding of the biblical narrative and important biblical principles that the passage teaches.

Passage Introduction

Introduction

The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to a journey of faith. The saving work of Christ has invited us to be his disciples who follow after Christ. Throughout history, God’s people have experienced and understood the life of faith as a journey. The metaphor of life as a journey is theological roust and pedagogical sound. That is, the image of life as a journey invokes the God-oriented and spiritually-formative nature of the Christian experience. To best lead God’s people (let alone to live faithfully as Christians) it is important to understand the multifaceted dimensions of life as a faith pilgrimage. Toward this end, we turn to the father of our faith to understand the nature of the Christian life as a journey.

The fascinating narrative of Abram’s travels in Genesis 11:27-13:18 not only recounts the epic journeys of the father of our faith but gives us insight into the nature of the Christian life as a formative pilgrimage of faith. In this story, we witness a journey toward the promised land miscarry at the leadership of Abram’s father Terah. After his father’s passing, God summons Abram to his own journey of faithful obedience. Abram begins his journey in exemplary fashion but takes a dangerous detour which threatens the wellbeing of his companions. Returning to the foundations of his call, Abram resettles in the land of God’s promise. Although circuitous, Abram’s journey resonates with our own pilgrimage of faith. May we attend to his pilgrimage in order to learn about the nature of the Christian life and how to best minister to God’s people journeying in this walk of faith.

Broken from the Start: Human Pilgrimage as a Painful Exile

Biblical Narrative (Genesis 11:27-32).

Abram’s journey begins in a broken world. Abram was born and raised in a distant land “in Ur of the Chaldeans” (Genesis 11:28). His father is Terah, his brothers Nahor and Haran, and his nephew (born to Haran) Lot were part of the same family (11:27; cf. 11:26). Terah was the patriarch of the family and they lived “in the land of his kindred” (11:28). Eventually, Abram married Sarai (11:29). The situation of this family began to deteriorate. In a great plight of shame and sorrow, “Sarai was barren; she had no child” (11:30). At some point his brother Haran dies (11:28). Terah had taken his family from Ur to Canaan but only made it as far as Haran where they settled (11:31) and Terah eventually died (11:32). Terah started having children at seventy years of age (cf. 11:26) and died at 205 years of age in Haran (11:32). Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran (cf. 12:4) at his father’s death (cf. Acts 7:4) suggesting that Terah could have been around 135 when he gave birth to Abram.

In this initial depiction of Abram’s journey, his family is displaced from their homeland after unfortunate and painful experiences. Their aim for a (new?) life in Canaan was stillborn as the family acquiesced to live in Haran. In fact, might not this land of Haran share the name with Abram’s late brother as a signal/representation of an incomplete and aborted mission. If Canaan represents any semblance of a renewed Eden—which is what the original Israelite audience may have anticipated as they read this on their own journey into the promised land of Canaan—than the fact that Terah and his family stopped short of the land of promise is telling of life in a fallen world. Additionally, Sarai’s barrenness is left unresolved in this part of the narrative, leaving her in contrast with Eve as “the mother of all living” (3:20). Abram must grapple with the death of his (elder?) brother and father. In a short span of verses we learn that the human generations are under duress in their earthly pilgrimage in a fallen world.

Biblical Principles.

Sarai’s barrenness recalls the grueling barrenness of the cursed ground (cf. 3:17-19) and foreshadows the severe famine that will come upon the land (cf. 12:10). Unable to enjoy the bliss of unending life, Haran’s death represents the unfortunate curtailment of life that all humans face in a sinful world (cf. 3:22; 5:1-32). Terah’s incomplete journey—aiming for Canaan but settling in Haran—resembles the banishment of Adam and Eve from Eden (cf. 3:23-24) and the cursed vagrancy of wicked Cain (cf. 4:12-16). In capsule form, Genesis 11:27-32 rehearses the fractured and fallen creation riddled with the devastating effects of sin.

Barren, landless, grieving, and displaced, Abram and his family embody the starting point for all humans. A journey of pain, the pilgrimage of every human begins with brokenness, lostness, and estrangement. Because of the disobedient act of our first human parents—Adam and Eve—humans are all born into this world “east of Eden” (Genesis 4:16; cf. 3:24). No one is born as a “blank slate.” We have all inherited a human condition and groaning cosmos entrenched in sin. The faint memory of paradise reminds us that the current status of the world is not part of God’s original design. Thus, life in this fallen world will never quite satisfy our divinely-calibrated aspirations for paradise.

More an exile and expulsion than an idyllic journey of sweet fellowship, the human pilgrimage takes on the distorted shape of an alienated wandering. Rather than enjoying God’s presence, we are estranged from his presence. Though remnants of Eden give us joy during our earthly existence, life seems prematurely shortened. Haunted by a sense of homelessness, we even feel displaced in our homeland. Moreover, our efforts to aim at a recovered paradise—in the case of Terah, the promised land of Canaan—stall as we settle for a lesser land.

A Long Distance Call: Divine Summons as an Invitation to the Journey of Faith

Biblical Narrative (Genesis 12:1-3).

Settled in the land of Haran (some distance from Canaan), Abram and his family experienced the death of the patriarch Terah (11:32). The loss of Haran in Ur compounded with the loss of Terah in Haran. After Terah’s short-lived journey and subsequent death, God summoned Abram to his own journey which would take him and his family from their new “home” in Haran and traverse to another country, a more adequate homeland (cf. Acts 7:4). God told Abram to “go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (12:1). It is later revealed that this undisclosed country is indeed the land of Canaan (12:5, 6; 13:7, 12), the very land Terah had set out toward when he left Ur.

Alongside Abram’s pilgrimage call to a new land, God gave him grand promises. God told Abram that he would make him into a great nation, bring upon him blessing, and increase his renown and reputation (12:2). Abram’s journey, however, was not for his own benefit. God intended that he would be a blessing to others (12:2). In fact, God ensured Abram, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (12:3). Abram’s faithful journey from Haran to Canaan would have worldwide consequences.

Biblical Principles.

Abram’s call instructs us in regards to the Christian journey of faith. Abram’s journey was initiated by God. Through no resourcefulness of their own, all Christians enter into the journey of faith at God’s initiative. God moves towards us before we ever move toward him. Had not God intervened in Abram’s situation (and that of his kindred), he and his family would have consented to the self-made homeland of Haran (or some commensurate equivalent), settling for something less than the land of promise. In fact, the place to which Abram would journey would be a place God would show him (cf. 12:1). Without God’s gracious intervention in our affairs, we cannot enter into the journey of faith nor chart the right course ahead.

Abram’s journey would require faithful trust, sacrificial obedience, and steadfast endurance. God called him to leave the comforts and security of his country, kindred, and father’s house (cf. 12:1). As with Abram, the journey of the Christian life involves a repositioning of our faith, renouncing our trust in temporary and earthly things and fixing our confidence in the security of a relationship with God. This trust in God’s call involved Abram’s obedience. Faith is of to no avail if it does not turn into active faith. Moreover, Abram’s faith would not be realized in a moment. That his call was a pilgrimage to a land meant (as for us) that his faith would need to grow and endure over the course of his pilgrimage.

Knowing that the pilgrimage would be fraught with hardship, God galvanized Abram’s devotion with his own divine promises. In the journey of faith, although God calls to full devotion, the success of the journey is dependent upon God. God does not call Abram to make himself into a great nation. He does not employ Abram to chase his own blessing. He is not interested in Abram seeking his own renown. In fact, when Abram takes the reins of God’s agenda things go disastrously wrong (cf. 12:10-20; 16:1-16; 20:1-18). Instead, God promises to accomplish these things for Abram as he trusts him in faith. The promises of God (promises in the case of Abram and Christians which are sealed in a covenant relationship) secure God’s people in the journey of faith. For Christians on pilgrimage with God, God’s promises fuel perseverance in the face of hardship, expose fragile moments of unbelief, bind the community of faith together in unity, grow us into transformed people of a new nature, and testify to the watching world the brilliance and grace of true and living God.

In this sense, Abram’s pilgrimage was as much a missional purpose of global scale as it was a journey of faith for himself and his own family. God was concerned about Abram’s own growth in faith and his orientation to the land of God’s promises. However, God was also concerned that Abram participate in God’s agenda to restore his fallen creation. In this way, Abram was an agent of God’s redemptive work as he followed God’s call on his life. The pilgrimage of faith is more than a matter of personal interest. God summons us out of the land of brokenness, sin, and certain death and orients us to a land of promise. As we seek our true and eternal homeland, we grow in faith as we serve God’s redemptive purposes in the world.

And He Journeyed On: Understanding the Christian Life as a Pilgrimage of Faith

Biblical Narrative (Genesis 12:4-9).

In response to God’s call, “Abram went, as the Lord had told him” (12:4). At seventy-five years of age, Abram acted in obedient trust (12:4). He journeyed to Canaan with his nephew Lot, his wife Sarai, his servants, and his possessions (12:4-5). Eventually, “they came to the land of Canaan” (12:5). In contrast to Terah’s aborted mission (cf. 11:31-32), Abram arrived at the destination. But, arriving at Canaan and possessing the land of promise were two separate realities. Abram did not immediately take possession of the land because “at that time the Canaanites were in the land” (12:6; cf. 13:7). They passed through the land and arrived at Shechem at “the oak of Moreh” (12:6). There God appeared to his servant Abram and told him that he would give this land to his offspring (12:7).

In response to God’s appearance and revelation to Abram built an altar to God (12:7). Then, Abram continued to journey to the hill country in between Bethel and Ai (12:8). There he “pitched his tent” and again “built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord” (12:8). Itinerant and mobile, Abram journeyed on further “toward the Negeb” (12:9). This series of journeys stitched together depicts an itinerant nomad who experiences God’s presence, trusts in his revealed word, calls upon God, and offers himself in worship and devotion.

Biblical Principles.

When God told Abram “to your offspring I will give this land” (12:7) there was a double promise that must be fulfilled: the promise of land and the promise of offspring. It was one thing to bring Abram to the land of Canaan, but for him to occupy and possess the land as part of God’s promise would take an unfolding plan of God’s sovereign working. In fact, that the Canaanites were dwelling in the land presented another obstacle to the fulfillment of God’s promises. That Abram would inherit God’s promises through his progeny, meant that (even more than understood before) only God could accomplish this work. Along the journey, God progressively revealed more to Abram with greater clarity. That the life of faith is a pilgrimage means that we are not privy to the sum total of God’s plan on the front-end of the pilgrimage. We are called to trust God to show us the paths which we should walk in progressively unfolding ways, knowing that God has us on a journey that he alone can orchestrate.

Certain things sustain Abram along his God-designed journey. Arriving at the land of Canaan and seeing the Canaanites possessing the land, one might assume a very human reaction that would question the legitimacy of God’s promises. However, God makes a move toward Abram. He appears to him and reveals more details about his promise. In response, Abram builds altars along his journey and calls upon God’s name (12:8). The journey of faith enjoys communion with God, relies upon God’s revealed word, seeks God’s presence, and responds in worship and devotion. Abram marks the progress of his journey by deposited altars along the way, reinforcing his trust and devotion to God. Never abandoning his people, God meets with his people on their journey of faith, showing that the journey of faith is a call to journey with God. The experience of being in relationship and dependence upon God is as important as the destination.

Dangerous Excursion: Facing Threats in the Journey of Faith

Biblical Narrative (Genesis 12:10-20).

Next, Abram encountered significant difficulty along his journey. At some point “there was a famine in the land” (12:10). In response, “Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land” (12:10). For the original Israelite audience about to enter Canaan, they would be aware that Egypt represents slavery and bondage as much as Canaan represents the land of promise and blessing. The severity of the famine and sojourn to Egypt are compounded by Abram’s own fleshly schemes that follow. Feeling vulnerable to the forces of Egypt, Abram is concerned that the Egyptians would see how beautiful his wife Sarai is and kill him to take her (12:11). Consequently, Abram instructs Sarai to tell everyone that she is his sister (12:12). Thinking of his own wellbeing, he engineers this scheme “that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake” (12:13).

In fact, the Egyptians did find Sarai beautiful and took her into Pharaohs’ house (12:14-15). For the sake of Sarai, Pharaoh “dealt well with Abram” and provided for him “sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels” (12:16). In contrast, God “afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai” (12:17). Pharaoh confronted Abram over his deceptive scheme to lie about his wife (12:18). Then, Pharaoh sent Abram and Sarai out of Egypt along with “all that he had” (12:20).

Biblical Principles.

This story tells of God’s provision and protection of his chosen servant while simultaneously highlighting Abram’s fearful and fleshly maneuvering that nearly compromises the wellbeing of his wife. In this leg of Abram’s journey, he takes a dangerous detour into a foreign land. In the journey of faith, we can expect to face difficulty, dangers, temptations, and detours. The pressure of the famine, the power of the Egyptian rulers, and the vulnerability of being in a foreign land heavily converged upon Abram. No less do we face dangerous elements in our own journey. In the pilgrimage of faith we are certainly to face earthly powers whose powers seem greater than us. We fret over harsh circumstances in our environment. We wander into detours and employ deceptive means to facilitate our own survival. We face temptations with varying degrees of success and failure. Lest we think that the journey of faith is an invitation to frictionless bliss, this episode reminds us that the journey of faith is

The challenges along the way are of formative value. While God blesses Abram, he does not condone his self-seeking activity. Abram is exposed as much as he is enriched. His exemplary display of faithful obedience (12:4-9) is contrasted with a story of compromise and failure (12:10-20). While God does not abandon his people, this is no excuse to remain stagnant in our faith. God enlists us on a journey that will expose us under the pressure of temptation, trial, threat of persecution, and the constant feeling of being a marginalized outsider.

If not attentive to our own fragility, we might be tempted to act like Abram, manufacturing scenarios, bending truth, and compromising our companions for our own safety. Our journey of faith invites us to reform our character as much as pursue the promised destination.

Final Arrival: Living as Pilgrims in the Tension of Foretaste and Fulfillment

Biblical Narrative (Genesis 13:1-18).

Escaping with his life, family, and divinely supplied provisions, Abram left Egypt and went to the Negeb (13:1; cf. 12:9). At this point (despite his disobedience and because of God’s gracious blessing), “Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold” (13:2). Abram returned back to the area between Bethel and Ai “where his tent had been at the beginning” (13:3; cf. 12:8). Importantly, this was the place where Abram “had made an altar at the first” and it prompted him to call “upon the name of the Lord” (13:4; cf. 12:8). After his dangerous detour in Egypt, Abram was returning to foundational principles of devotion he had learned at first.

At this time, Abram and Lot had so many flocks and servants “that land could not support both of them dwelling together” because “their possessions were so great” (13:6). In fact, there “was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock” (13:7). There was still an obstacle to possessing the promised land because “at that time the Canaanites and the Perizzites were dwelling in the land” (13:7).

Wanting to ameliorate the strife between their herdsmen, Abram offered Lot to take the land in any direction he had wanted and Abram would go the other direction (13:8-9). Lot saw that the Jordan Valley “was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt” (13:10) and so he journeyed east to dwell in this land (13:11). Though occupied by enemies, Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan (13:12). In contrast, though seeming to offer promise of God’s paradise, Lot dwelled in the land near wicked Sodom (13:12-13). Affirming Abram along his journey, God again spoke to him and said that the entirety of the land of Canaan God would given to Abram and his offspring (13:14-15, 17) and his offspring would multiple innumerably (13:16). Then, “Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord” (13:18).

Biblical Principles.

After his detour in Egypt, Abram retraced some portions of his previous journeys. Importantly, he returned to his altar around Bethel. In the journey of faith, often our progress forward to a destination will involve formative returns that reorient us to important milestones of our faith. It is significant that Abram made a return to his journey “at the beginning” (13:3) and “at the first” (13:4). As we press forward along our journey of faith, we must never forget the foundations of the pilgrim’s call. These formative beginnings not only highlight the fact that progress is involved in the Christian life (for there to be a beginning means we should see some advance and growth) but also reminds us of the cyclical nature of the journey. While we advance in our faith we will often need to return to the foundations of our faith. In fact, we only advance in our pilgrimage of faith by frequently returning to the foundations of our faith.

This episode reveals the inner desire for a God-appointed destination. Having lost the paradise of Eden, all humans are in pursuit of some semblance of the world as it should be: a retrieval of God’s originally created world. However, what we envision as a return to paradise may not offer what it seems to promise. For instance, although Lot aimed for a land that was “like the garden of the Lord” it was fundamentally more “like the land of Egypt” and wicked like Sodom (13:10, 12-13). Lot’s misjudgment represents the miscalculation made by many. Instead, although fierce enemies occupy the land of Canaan, it actually holds the hopes of God’s promise. The Christian journeys in faithful confession that only God’s ways hold the paths to a full and final return to paradise.

Knowing God’s hand was upon his journey, Abram dwelled in the land of promise. Although Terah “settled” in the land of Haran in an aborted pilgrimage of the promised land (11:31), Abram “settled” in the actual land of promise (13:12, 18). Even though the promise did not come to full fruition in his life (and only will in the final coming of Christ), Abram’s journey of faith is at once a foretaste of God’s promises with an accompanying yearning for fulfillment. This is similar for the Christian pilgrim: we enjoy foretastes of God’s promises but await ultimate fulfillment at the end of the age. In this sense our pilgrimage can enjoy the experience of this present life as it longingly hopes for a better life to come.

A Pilgrim’s Progress: Implementing Pilgrimage Nuance into Christian Teaching

What pedagogical value does the metaphor of pilgrimage bring for the teaching responsibility in ministry?

Viewing the Christian life as a pilgrimage humanizes the teaching endeavor. Teachers, ministers, church leaders are caretakers of human beings: alive and breathing yet decaying under the effects of sin, autonomous yet interdependent, noble yet fragile, made for much more yet often settle for far less, etc.

Formative nature of pilgrimage: characteristics

Stages

Distinctively Christian

Overview

In what ways is the Christian life a pilgrimage?

• Rebellious Vagrancy: Human life begins as a sinful exile estranged from God.
• Divine Mission: God rescues us from exile by embarking on a redemptive expedition.
• Directional Shift: Faith in Christ involves a radical reorientation in our life’s trajectory.
• Progressive Growth: Christian growth/maturity unfolds in discernible stages over time.
• Homeless Wandering: Citizens elsewhere, pilgrimage involves formative dislocation.
• Deep Desire: Displaced from our final abode, disciples have deepened longing for God.
• Difficult Roads: Being fit for another world, disciples expect painful pathways.
• Nimble Living: Pilgrims practice purposeful detachment from transient things.
• Redemptive Vocation: On pilgrimage, Christians focus their lives in purposeful mission.
• Navigational Tool: Christian pilgrimage refactors scriptural engagement.
• Community Venture: Christian pilgrims enjoy the camaraderie of faithful companions.
• Reliable Guides: Wise disciples connect with trustworthy guides for the journey.

Conclusion

Abram’s journeys greatly assist us to understand core elements of the Christian life as a journey of faith. His initial journey with Terah highlights the painful and estranged exile all humans face born into a sinful world. Abram’s call to journey from Haran to Canaan emphasizes that we can only enter into the journey of faith at God’s gracious initiative and summons. As we enter into the life of faith, God galvanizes pilgrims of the faith with his promises and invites them to be redemptive agents in the world. Abram marks his journey toward Canaan with altars, he calls upon God, experiences God’s presence, and relies upon God’s progressive revelation. Facing difficulty and temptation along the journey, Abram takes a detour into Egypt where his fleshly maneuvering seeking to compensate for his vulnerability threatened the fulfillment of God’s promises and wellbeing of his companions had God not graciously intervened. Leaving Egypt, he returns to foundations of his faith and comes to settle in the land of promise. In this he experiences a foretaste of what awaited ultimate fulfillment.

As teachers, ministers, church leaders, and shepherds, we are responsible to help guide God’s people in the journey of faith. We must be aware of the human peril people face as long as they are estranged from God. Helping them to understand God’s covenant promises, we are called to invite them into relationship with God and walk in faithful obedience and dutiful devotion to God’s ways. Our role in their lives should also be to prepare them for and guide them during difficulties and temptations along the journey. Ever diligent to reinforce the foundations of the faith, our calling is to keep God’s people focused on the destination while we recognize that our own formation is part of the journey process. All in all, we can best serve God’s people in establishing them in Christian maturity when we understand how the Christian life plays out as a journey of faith.

Personal Reflection: Entering the Story

Apply the Text: God calls his people to follow what the Bible teaches. In this movement, you will discuss how to apply God’s word to your lives.

Reflection Questions

Encourage one person to share how this story has impacted. Use the reflection questions to examine your life in light of this biblical passage.

Spiritual Practice

Take a Hike

Viewing the Christian life as a journey of faith provides a rich metaphor by which we can understand our own spiritual development as well as assist in the development of others. Abram’s own journey presents a splendid example of various facets of pilgrimage which inform our understanding of faith development. Entering into life as exiles, God summons his people to follow him on a journey of faith. Although detours, dangers, and distractions abound, Christians live as pilgrims who view life as a transient experience on the way toward a final glorious destination. While Christians can (and should) find much joy in this life, they enjoy God’s blessings in this life as a foretaste of the the enduring joys to come. Understanding the nature of the Christian life as a pilgrimage aids disciples in their faith development and it enables Christian leaders to effectively lead those under their care. Consider the following activity as a means to consider your own development in the journey of faith.

One of the ways to reconnect with the idea that our faith formation is a pilgrimage is to practice an actual journey. Plan for a time to take a hike, go for a walk, or plan a longer trip for the expressed purpose of contemplating life and ministry as a journey of faith. Use the space below to reflect on the experience.

Ministry Practice: Rehearsing the Script

Minister the Text:God wants us to use his word to edify the Christian community. In this movement, you will utilize this biblical passage to minister to other believers and build them up in their faith.

Reflection Questions

Look at the infographic below. Use the questions to think about how to minister this text to other believers.

Missional Outreach: Publicizing the Truth

Witness the Text: In word and deed, God calls his people to testify about the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. In this movement, you will utilize this biblical passage to reach out to unbelievers.

Reflection Questions

Look at the infographic below. Use the questions to think about how to use this teach to reach out to unbelievers.