DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How would you summarize the information in this chapter in one or more sentences?
What statement by Bishop Carder really spoke to your mind or heart as very important for us to understand and remember?
RESOURCES
This discussion is on a chapter from Living Our Beliefs: The United Methodist Way, by Kenneth Carder (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2009). This book is available from Cokesbury.com, Amazon.com and other sources.
Discussion Questions:
1. What we believe becomes our God. In acting upon those beliefs we risk to lose the true meaning of discipleship.
2. “A disparity often exist between the beliefs we consciously affirm and those on which we act”. To me what is left out of the equation is not that we act upon on our beliefs but that the foundation of our beliefs is our experiences.
1.The God of creation is not the god of our lives. Doctrine must be held to prevent death.
2. “True religion is loving God with all the heart, and all the mind, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and loving one’s neighbor as one’s self.”
1.Man/woman’s god is a mass of external things, while God is internal and eternal. Things held by man/woman are of no value-only God’s love make love for Him and
others possable.
2.”Beliefs matter! They shape us.”
1. How our Methodists Doctrine serves three primary purposes. How our beliefs affect our living; and the identification of idols and how these rivals of God compete for our life and our very soul.
2. The emphasis in all of the Methodist traditions has been on evangelization, holy living, and mission. Sound doctrine and refined beliefs were critical components of Methodism as a renewal movement. Wesley’s challenge to the Church of England was not in the lack of clarity regarding basic Christian beliefs. It was the failure to live those beliefs. (25)