Discussion Questions
Each week there is a question for discussion sent out by email with an introduction to the topic for the week. These questions sometimes vary to suit the interests of the class.
The following are questions which have been used previously and may be taken as a guide to what is coming up.
For some topics more than one questions is suggested, but you only have to address one.
Your answer to the week's question should be sent to the group email address by Thursday of each week.
Welcome and introductions
Share with others in the class who you are, why you are doing this course, how you expect to be relevant to you and one thing you would like to find about about Presbyterianism that has always puzzled you.
Module One: Foundations.
Week 1: The Celtic and Medieval Backgrounds
Choose a figure of importance to Celtic mission or the Medieval church and discuss the relevance of their mission methods to your context today
Read and comment on the article by Donald Meek.
Week 2: The Reformation to 1564
What might we learn from the Anabaptists?
Reformation Sunday comes round every year. What would you say to a congregation of young people about what it was like being a Christian in a church in Scotland from 1559 to 1564?
Week 3: The Reformation to 1622
Construct a timeline of about 20 key events and personalities which help provide an outline of the story from the time of Luther until the death of John Knox.
Was the absence of a significant overseas Reformed mission a
question of theology or of opportunity or both?
Week 4: Confessions and Covenants
Is there much difference between Calvin and Calvinism?
What should be the relationship of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand to the Westminster Confession of Faith today?
How is the intended role of our church's focal identity statement different and similar to the role of the Westminster Confession? (See http://www.webelieve.org.nz/)
Lesson 5: What is Presbyterianism?
How are Presbyterians similar and different to other Christian churches?
How would you explain to congregation thinking of joining the PCANZ what it would be to be Presbyterian?
Module Two:
Towards a Global Church.
Week 6: Revival and Party 1690 to 1796
In what ways did the 18th century prepare the way for the rise of
the
missionary movement from William Carey's enquiry onwards?
Do you think Meek's helps us understand what revivals are about or does he miss the point?
Week 7: Renewal and Disruption 1796 to 1843
Why did a third of the ministers and people leave the Church of Scotland in 1843?
Week 8: Merchants, Migrants, Missionaries, Converts
Compare the role of settlers and missionaries in the spread of Presbyterian Christianity in the 19th century
Identify a particular group of people of interest to you in the spread of Christianity in the 19th century and discuss why you think they were important.
Week 9: Presbyterians in New Zealand to 1901
Why was worship in the 19th century settler churches effective
in its time?
Choose an event or personality in the 19th century Presbyterian Church in New Zealand and say why they were important.
Week 10: Presbyterians in New Zealand to 2000
How has the place of women in leadership changed in the church?
What might youth ministry in our churches learn from the rise and
decline of the Bible Class movement?
Module Three:
Diversity and Renewal.
Week 11: Leadership for ministry and mission
How would you explain ordination to youth group which believes they
should be able to baptize new converts and celebrate communion
together?
What is the key leadership issue for your congregation today and what are the options?
Week 12: Sacraments and Ceremonies
A church has people who believe in infant baptism and people who believe in infant dedication and believers baptism. How would you help them understand each other?
What is done to prepare new believers and those considering confirmation
for confession of faith and membership in
your congregation?
What do we need to be doing about making initiation into faith, fellowship
and membership more frequent and more memorable in our congregations
Week 13: Worship: Word and Song across cultures and generations
What do we need to do to avoid culture wars in worship?
What would a
missiological theology of worship for post-moderns look like?
If we have moved from
worship being the praise of God in the context of the teaching of
the Word of God, to worship being the sense of being lost in
adoration through music, is there a way forward? Does there need to
be?
Has contextual worship with theological integrity lost out to the competing globalisations of classical forms and Western popular music, or are those traditions adapted more faithfully to the gospel and to context than we realise in different cultures?
Week 14: Community, change, controversy and mission
Should we spend time discussing theological differences or should we just take a vote and get on with mission? Or is there another way?
When there is disagreement in your congregation how do you seek to resolve it?
How important are a) matters of process (clarifying the issue, deciding who has authority to decide, discussion, motions, debate, decision), b) matters of theology (bible, understanding of God, Christian values and ethics) and c) practices of discernment (prayer, listening for the Spirit)?
How can missiology help us manage change?
Week 15: Theology and mission
Describe the ideas of a theologian who has been helpful to your understanding of the mission of the church.
What could churches in New Zealand learn from the post-communist experience of the Reformed Church in Hungary? (see article in the reader by Laslo Medgyessy)