GYC Conference 2023: But If Not

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Contra Mundum

Sebastien Braxton

Callie Williams

When Everyone is Watching

Heavenly Father, this meeting is useless without you.

The Bible says, except the Lord build the house, they that build it, build it in vain.

So God, we don't wanna build a seminar, we don't wanna build an experience that is not Jesus's doing.

So, Lord, we need you to take the reins of Cali in my mind, the heart of every person here, and we ask and invite your spirit to baptize us anew, to guide us into all truth, and to increase and inspire a deeper love for your Word, and to be faithful is our prayer in Jesus' name.

All right, so as Callie mentioned, we'll be doing our Bible study method structure.

For those of you, this is your first time in the seminar.

Basically, we'll talk about a Bible study method, which today will be the journalistic method, 1 of my favorites.

So I get to tell and Callie gets to provide the texts.

Next we'll do some method practice so you're actually going to study the Bible in this seminar.

You're gonna be able to apply it and you're gonna have the tutoring and the tutelage of Callie Boudicara and she'll be able to guide you into wisdom.

And then after that we'll come back and Callie and I will share our insights of using this Bible study approach to the text and the passage, and then we'll do our 5 questions in 5 minutes, and then we'll close.

Now that 5 questions in 5 minutes, is this on?

Here's a QR code or link you can scan this right now or go to that URL.

Go ahead and take a picture of it if you haven't already.

You can submit questions throughout the seminar, and then Callie will be our resident vicedirent to sort through those questions, make sure they're appropriate for our seminar in 321.

And now we're going to get to our Bible study method.

Okay, so let's talk about the journalistic method So a lot of times when we come to the Bible People don't recognize that a big part of communications in journalism is grounded so much in textual analysis But also on a three-dimensional level who was there?

Which window were you in All of these elements are present in journalism that's not always reflected in how we approach the Bible.

We just know that Eutychus fell out of the window.

There was a story about Paul preaching so long a guy passed out and fell out the window.

Well, journalistically, a journalist is like, wait, but how did that happen?

So we want to 0 in on detail, but your goal is to get to what's the real story here.

A journalist has no desire just to tell you facts for facts.

They want to tell you why all of those facts are significant.

And 1 of the heart of journalism is something we call don't bury the lead, which means if this is the crux of the story, you start with that.

So just this morning, I read a news heading of 14-year-old shoots his sister over alleged argument about Christmas gifts.

Well, you're gonna wanna know what that story is.

How did you end up shooting your sister on Christmas Eve over Christmas gifts?

So, first of all, in the journalistic method, you want to look at who is in the text.

So I recommend piece of paper, notes, phone, tablet, whatever you use, And I like to just go through the text and write down every single character, every single proper noun in the text and every single noun in the text.

Who is this person a group of, and who is this person connected to?

What do they – and we'll get into this in other elements – what do they do in the text, etc., etc.

But Callie is going to provide us some textual illustration.

Go with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 12.

I'm just going to practice on these 4 verses.

The Bible says, now about that time, Herod the King stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.

Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also.

Now, it was during the days of unleavened bread.

So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison and delivered him to 4 squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

So verses 1 through 4, someone tell me 1 person.

So all these people, those are 4 short little verses, but these are all these different people who are in here.

And seeing these from different perspectives, seeing all these different characters moving together, there's so much that happens at 1 time.

Now, remember these people as we go into the next questions, because these are the people that are going to be doing things or having things done unto them.

But these are the different perspectives we need to keep in mind.

So now a journalist not only wants to know who are the characters and the players involved, but what are the events, what's happening?

So this is where you list down, and I like, if you want to get really granular, like I'm a detailed person, I like literally track down every verb in the text, any action that ever took place.

But if you're not like that, like me, what are the events, right?

God created light, God created the atmosphere, whatever.

What happens to the characters, what's wrong with this picture, is a very, very critical question to ask about what's happening.

So again, you get very detailed what's happening on this, but what's going on on a large scale?

Where does this fit into the broader picture of salvation history?

So for different characters in the Bible, we may look at it only in a granular sense like Job, but not realize on a large scale this argument between him and 3 friends actually had eternal implications just because of a conversation or debate you had with a couple of your friends.

So this journalistic method helps you to list these things out.

What's the first thing that happens in verse 3?

Yes, because James was killed with the sword.

Yeah, so he's proud, so then he proceeded, he seized Peter also.

Then we have the detail about when it was.

When No One is Watching

We're also going to specifically focus on how we can be faithful in different contexts of our lives.

Okay, so now I have to do the seminar title and the session number.

So our title is Contra Mundum, which is against the world.

Well, let's say a word of prayer, and then we will dive into what lies ahead.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful to be here with you.

We're so grateful for the privilege and joy it is to study your word without fear.

I pray that in this time that we would learn more about who you are, We would see more clearly your character, your love, and how that directly impacts us today, of all days, and this moment of all moments.

Father, we ask that you'd empty us of ourselves and fill us with your Holy Spirit.

And we pray that you would open our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things in your law, and we would fall in love with you as we see you there.

We ask and pray all this in Jesus' name, amen.

So I just wanna give you a little bit of a heads up of what's coming down the pipeline.

So We're gonna, this is how, it's always gonna be split up, so if you come back in 2 sessions, and you're like, I wonder what their format is, it's the same way, so it can be very predictable.

So first we're gonna introduce a Bible study method.

Today's is, or this morning's, the first 1 is 2 C's and 2 R's.

So that's that time that you'll be sitting in your seat.

You can write on your phones, on a piece of paper, wherever you want to, but you're gonna practice.

It's gonna be quiet in here and there's gonna be nothing to do except recite the Bible.

Then Sebastian and I will share a few insights and then we're gonna do something that I feel is a little ambitious, but we're gonna try to answer 5 questions in 5 minutes, so pray for us, you know?

So there's gonna be a way that you can ask questions.

So this'll be the same thing for all of our sessions, QR code, a link there.

Yeah, you can scan that, take a picture of it.

You can submit questions at any time about maybe the passage or a way of studying the Bible or this is unclear or Sebastian said this super heretical thing, can you please clear that up for us?

You know, whatever strikes your fancy, whatever you wanna ask questions about.

So we'll have time for that at the end, but feel free to submit questions at any time.

This is gonna go away in 5432, well, maybe your neighbor has it, Okay.

So this time we're gonna go take our attention to the 2 C's and the 2 R's.

So I'll give a little bit of explanation for each 1 and then Sebastian will in turn give you an example from a Bible verse.

And it's this idea that you're sitting down with someone that has, maybe it's your grandfather, who has this story, and you're a little five-year-old, and you're like, why did that happen, Grandpa?

Did you like popsicles at that age, Grandpa?

You know, you're just asking those little kids, just ask all those questions.

You're trying to notice every single detail about a story.

So it's when you're approaching a text, you're noticing details, you're asking those questions.

This is incredibly important, especially the more and more familiar we get with scripture, the more our eyes kind of glaze over, you're like, I know that story.

This isn't exciting anymore, because I know what's going to come.

But it's taking the time to notice the very, very small detail, as well as the obvious detail.

The main questions we also continue to want to ask is, what does the text actually say, but also noticing, what does it not say?

What are we inserting because of tradition or because of what we just thought it may be said but that's actually not in the text itself.

So if you have your Bibles, go to the Gospel of John, Chapter 9, to apply this principle, to show you how this can unlock certain insights.

And so as Callie was saying, right, if you imagine that God is telling you the actual story, he's speaking the actual words that you're reading in the Bible, I imagine if God spoke to you wouldn't leave and just say, oh thanks, and then keep it moving, right?

How many of you would be like, hey God, can I ask a question?

Right, you would say, I need some clarity, right?

And so in very similar ways, we have to approach the Bible in the very same way.

OK, so I just want you guys to know you can talk to the preachers.

This is not just you listen and nod It's okay to talk.

So when Jesus speaks his people respond so in John 9 The Bible says in verse 1 and as Jesus did what what does your Bible say?

Passed by He saw a man which was blind from when?

From his birth so Immediately in this text right if someone's telling you this story.

Anyone else Any other questions you would ask based on this text remember what Callie put there right?

Where was Jesus going anyone else How long has he been blind What says from his birth, right?

So 1 clear question, right, I haven't heard yet, is why was Jesus passing by?

Clearly, the Bible writer wanted you to know this was not an intentional destination.

You know what you did on the way to this seminar Pass by a whole bunch of stuff Which means you were going somewhere you were coming from somewhere and what you're passing by was never your destination You following?

So the question is why was Jesus passing by?

Well look in chapter 8 right before this.

So the point is when you ask questions of the Bible, write them down.

A lot of times our insights in the Bible do not come from knowledge, they come from curiosity and questions.

Don't assume you understand what the text is saying.

You have to approach it as a little child.

1 of the greatest frustrations of doing family worship is the fact that my kids are going to stop you at every single statement and word that they don't know.

So I'm like, listen, when God comes down and it was the incarnation, right?

And then my 6 year old's like, Papa, what's incarnation?

Still: When Speaking Truth to Power

Heavenly Father, as we approach a word, we dare not come without praying and asking the Spirit who inspired the word to guide our minds and understanding as we seek to study it.

Lord, this particular topic is unique because many of us are young people, are individuals without a lot of power politically, positionally, and yet we may be required by being faithful to you to speak truth to power.

So we invite your spirit to bless us with this, be in our thoughts and be in our understanding in Jesus name.

So for our session this is going to be our structure, as is typical for those you've been here.

We'll introduce another Bible study method today, which will be the interpretive journey for this session, 1 of my favorites.

Then we will give you time to practice that.

This 1 we expect probably a lot of questions in applying it, kind of anticipated.

This 1 is definitely more aggressive, often used by theologians.

If you ever read a theological paper or a book or a dissertation, they probably follow a similar method.

And then we'll give our insights utilizing that method, and then we'll do 5 questions in 5 minutes, and then we will close.

Now, for those of you also who don't know, we have a Q&A, so you can submit your questions.

Scan this QR code, go to that website, and you can enter your questions throughout the entire seminar.

Eventually, Kelly, who will be our resident filter-er person, will make sure that no crazy questions gets through.

People start saying, like, why are you so tall?

I thought that you were a better preacher than this.

So in this very sense, you can submit those questions, scan this QR code, go to that website.

But we just want to let you know so you can get your questions in and they can get through for approval.

So that's sort of the structure for today.

And we're gonna go ahead and jump in to our Bible study method.

So I hope you're ready to take notes, pay attention, and apply.

So for this session we're gonna talk about the interpretive journey.

For those of you who are visual learners like myself, here is a picture to keep in mind.

It's okay if you forget what this looks like.

But the basic idea here is that we're on different sides of the situation.

And so there's things that separate us, but there's things that there are as a principle that comes across.

So we're gonna walk through that just a little bit.

So our first question we want to ask is, what did this text mean to the biblical audience?

Always and forever, they are the first audience, right?

Because they're the ones that were at that time.

And so we're all important, you know, Jesus loves us, but we were not the first audience of whatever this story is.

And so we need to first ask, what did it mean to the biblical audience?

And so now Sebastian will show us an example of that in the text.

So we're going to walk through these steps back and forth.

So Callio will introduce it, and then I'll walk us through the text.

So if you have your Bible, go to John chapter 1.

John chapter 1 and we're going to go to verse 29.

John chapter 1 and we're going to begin in verse 29.

It's like, wasn't really that great, actually.

So John 1, 29, the Bible says, the next day John saw who?

Jesus coming unto him, and he saith, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the what?

Now, this first question is what did it mean to the biblical audience?

The first 1 is the 1 experiencing the event.

Jesus was an actual person who was actually walking to him and he actually said it out loud and there are people who heard him.

Then there's the audience who was reading the gospel of John when John actually wrote it for them.

So when we talk about what did it mean to the biblical audience, we have to say what did it mean to John and Jesus and all the people who were actually at the event?

It's just Like when we talk about what happened at the first GYC.

Well, if you were there, it's different than someone talking to you on a documentary, right?

So in the same sense, we have that audience, and then we have John recorded this story, which is not found in any other gospel, by the way, for a very specific audience.

So the question is, what did it mean to the biblical audience?

So I'm from Chicago, and I've never ever heard a human being Walk up to another human being and call them a lamb and it was a positive thing Right.

So we say well if you're stealing from someone or you got led into a trap or a beatdown We're like, yeah, you got led as a lamb to the slaughter But no 1 ever said behold the Lamb of God Let alone a lamb at all and why would God have a lamb is God a shepherd Does he own sheep and he's a human being right?

So being called an animal if we try to interpret this text like when I first came into the church as an atheist, I was a little confused.

You come in, people waving their hands, oh, lamb of God.

Like, the lamb of God, sweet lamb of God.

Except, you know, in curry goat, you know, Jamaican food, we cook lamb, you know.

So for the biblical audience, this is what they're connecting with.

So we got to say what did it mean to them?

So in essence when they heard the Lamb of God, what would a Jew be thinking if they heard the word lamb?

So you would come and bring the lamb, but a lamb was a specific kind of sacrifice in Leviticus.

So this sin offering, and then it says this lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

Do you know animals that take away sins from the entire world?

So clearly they recognize this to the biblical audience, Jesus was a human representation of the sanctuary symbol that had been in their culture for thousands of years.

Every lamb you brought that took away sins in the Old Testament, he is actually not a lamb.

He is the lamb of God, but when you brought a lamb, what did you have to bring?