NBS: Learning to Live For Jesus in a World Outside our Control

“NBS has been a great addition to my week. My husband and I have enjoyed the set-aside time to discuss and learn God’s Word together with other believers. It’s been a huge blessing in the midst of the pandemic when many are lacking social interaction. Every Wednesday night, after NBS, I leave feeling refreshed as I remember that the Body of Christ is still very much alive and at work regardless of our present (COVID) circumstances.” - Maria Swang, Neighborhood Bible Study Participant

By: Grant Dailey

“We really are...examples of God’s determination to bring the world back into a right relation with its Creator. Under such a story, life ceases to be the grim, just-one-damn-thing-after-another, sort of existence we have known before. The little things of life...are redeemed and given...significance (Hauerwas, 37).”

Last week concluded the first term of Spring Neighborhood Bible Study. This season we are engaging the topic of “How to Live Your Life in Christ,” using the book Resident Aliens as a starting point for discussion, while always coming back to the teachings of scripture as our focus. Though written in 1989, the book addresses the apropos subject of how the church, living as “aliens and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11), should respond to a world that seems increasingly outside of our control and influence. Rather than assuming the “Constantinian” position that we should have the dominant say in how society carries on, the authors consider what it means for the church to hold an ethic as a people that derive their citizenry from heaven (Phil 3:20).

Neighborhood Bible Study provides a venue for neighbors to unite around the pursuit of learning God’s word. This semester NBS participants are reading the book Resident Alien, studying related scriptures, and exploring what it means to follow Jesus in a world that’s increasingly outside of our control. Pictured, is Institute Alumni, Grant Dailey, seen teaching a class during our first session.

I had the pleasure of teaching these first three weeks, challenging participants to not give into the stress and anxiety that comes when we feel our society is slipping out of our control. We follow Jesus, putting us in the position of being “the light of the world,” an example our world desperately needs in order to have a sense of purpose (Matt. 5:13-16). As such, we do not prop up a cultural sense of “freedom” that culminates in the selfish, individualistic entitlement to buy and consume more, choosing instead the freedom that obligates us to serve in love (Gal. 5:13). We are citizens of heaven, with a unique story connected to the narrative of God’s people in scripture. We need to see ourselves as “God’s own people...proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). As the quote from the book above highlights, we get to model for the world just how meaningful life is when we join God in his story and commit to follow Jesus.

Neighborhood Bible Study will continue for six more weeks. It’s not too late to join if you are interested - sign up here and prepare for a practical and engaging study of God’s word!

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But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

-Philippians 3:20

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(1) Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Resident Aliens, 37.