2007 Southeastern Minnesota Synod Assembly
Called Into God's Marvelous Light...To tell the story!
2007 Synod Assembly > News > Bible Study

Bible study gets people talking about "telling the story"
By Rev. Scott Olson

Rev. Dr. Elaine Siemsen leads the Assembly in Bible study. Photo by Rev. Todd Hawkins

“We tell stories because God tells a story, a love story” declared Rev. Dr. Elaine Siemsen. “Hearing God’s faith story culminates the hearing of our own stories.” To help the voting members share their faith stories, this year’s theme for the Southeastern Minnesota Synod, Dr. Siemsen led the group through a Bible Study written especially for the assembly. Siemsen, systematic theologian and Campus Pastor at Minnesota State University-Mankato, literally began at the very beginning with the creation story as told in Genesis 1-2:4a.

In the first session, Bible Study participants were challenged to ask two questions of the passage: “Why should we tell the story”; and “What is the content of the story?” Voting members had the opportunity to tease out the answers to these questions by gathering in small groups for discussion. Ultimately, what the Genesis story tells us, said Siemsen, is that “God desires a personal relationship with creation.” Furthermore, Siemsen said, “We are bound to God through God’s movement outward, not through our movement to God.” It’s all about an invitation from God, a message of Grace.

As the voting members moved into the second phase of the Bible Study, Siemsen reminded them that we have not yet moved to telling our faith stories. The emphasis in this session was now on the content of our faith stories (as they relate to God’s faith story) and the context in which they are told. But, Siemsen noted, “Before we tell our faith stories we need to hear the faith stories of others.” To underscore this point, Dr. Siemsen asked the participants to think of someone else in whom they’ve seen God at work. We do this, Siemsen said, because “Jesus tells the story of God’s incarnate love as he sees it in the lives of others.”

The Bible Study, “Sharing our Faith Stories”, follows a user friendly format of “hear” and “talk.” We listen to what God’s word has to say to us and then talk about what we hear. The Bible Study is available on the synod’s website for all who wish to use it. The only “condition” for its use, Dr. Siemsen said, is to pray for Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Siemsen was selected to lead the Bible study as part of the Assembly's celebration of 100 years of Lutheran Campus Ministry.

The booklet used in this study is available to download^PDF.

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