Chapter Four: Christian Family Values?

Chapter Four: Christian Family Values?

1. Bell outlines the stories of famous biblical characters with an eye to reminding readers of how fallible these characters actually were.  Why do you think God uses such fallible people? How does that understanding change the way you interact with other people?
   
   
2. Bell argues that Jesus seemed to have an ambiguous, even tenuous connection to his own family. He reminds us of the conflicts recorded in the gospels where Jesus needed to be about God’s will even if it conflicted with the expressed requests of his family. Have you had this experience? Have your faith and your commitment to God’s work and will for your life ever created conflict in your home? How did you handle it?
   
   
3. How do you understand Jesus’ call in the gospels to put our biological families second to our commitment to him?
   
   
4. Bell says that Jesus calls his followers into a new kind of family. “Jesus invites people into a larger family that is defined by commitment to the Kingdom of God rather than bondage to ancestral tradition.” What might that look like in a parish community? How can we live that call?
   
   
5. Bell reminds his readers that “We belong to each other since we belong to Jesus.” How does this challenge our understanding of friendship as something that’s dependent upon a shared affinity? What impact might it have on your relationships?