Tips for Teaching This Week’s Session of The Gospel Project for Adults
Every week for Volume 4: From Captivity to the Wilderness, Ken Braddy, Lifeway’s director of Sunday School, will offer guidance to help leaders prepare to lead and teach each session of The Gospel Project for Adults.
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This week’s training notes:
This week, your group will be studying Unit 2, Session 4, A People Scattered, which explores the rebellious nature of sin as you study the Tower of Babel, or Bablyon, narrative from Genesis 10-11. Here are your three things to know, read, and do as you prepare for this week’s session:
Something to know
If you don’t use the Leader Pack every week, this is a great session for you to start because there is a very helpful handout called the Toledot Formula. This is a resource that we’ve put together based on information provided by the session’s writer that helps explain some of the specific language we see within Scripture around the idea of “generations,” which is what the Hebrew word toledot means. So in the handout, we explain the purpose of this language and what it means in specific contexts—whether it’s a list of names indicating genealogical development, or as part of a narrative which indicates a development in a specific family or people group’s history—as well as where we see this in Scripture, and its ultimate significance. So, if you don’t have the Leader Pack, I would highly recommend getting a digital copy of it today from lifeway.com.
Something to read
In the Additional Resources for this volume, you’ll find an article by Trevin Wax called Babel and the Beauty of a Thousand Tongues. This article points us to the powerful truth that just as God scattered people because of their desire to rebel against Him, making a name for themselves rather than worshiping and serving their Creator, God also unites those whom He scattered in Jesus. And that’s something we want to help our group members to see—there is a beauty in the diversity of languages that exists, that even though that is first seen as a consequence of sin, there is a day coming when people of all nations and people groups will give praise together to Jesus.
Something to do
When it comes to discussion around this passage, it’s tempting for us to look “out there”—to look at the idols to human progress that exist in our culture. And that’s fine, but when we come t the passage, we should also be looking at what we create as idols to our own greatness in our lives. And we all are tempted to do this—none of us are immune. Maybe it’s our social media accounts, or the number of people who are a part of our groups or churches. Maybe it’s our bank accounts or silly things like how many books we own. Whatever it is, as you prepare for your group time in this passage, I hope that you will take some time to explore that aspect of your own heart and mind, and that as you do, you will find greater fulfillment in Jesus as the Holy Spirit reveals areas of temptation in your life, and helps you to turn from them.
