Why another study about the life of Christ? Maybe you are as taken back by this question as I when it came up during my research. After being confronted by this inquiry, I had to spend quality time in prayer and thought. I concluded I could not answer the question. Instead, I turned to the Holy Spirit for guidance. The Spirit's assignment was turning a recently released 550-page project into the space of around 250-pages including over 450 discussion questions.
This study and its companion studies, Irreconcilable Differences, the birth, and death of everything through the eyes of science, faith, and religion and Are You the "I" in UNITY?, inform-invite-involve, compose a three-book series titled, The Great Commission for the 21st Century Congregation. This study, The Story of Faith, a movement, not an institution, centers roughly on thirty-three years of Christ's life on the Earth and then about seventy-seven years of building a faith that changed not just the world but, all time before and after this one-hundred and ten-year period. Information about the companion studies can be found by visiting www.bobgshupe.com. The information you will discuss and debate within this study will introduce you to more than just Christ and other major characters of the Bible you have studied in specialized discussions. You will also meet the minor participants who, in their own way, contributed as much or more in a short period of time as those characters we have heard about most of our lives. Why did I write this study? I was led to do so. In a time of infinite history and endless future events it is possible the church feels it has outgrown Christ. Time for a personal faith checkup. Welcome to the story.
