First Meeting

We had our first meeting at South Shore Baptist Church (SSBC) in Hingham on Tuesday evening May 6th. Eight of us met to discuss some ideas related to where we might go with an ecumenical Bible Study. We started with the thought that we would focus on the life and letters of Paul. We talked about a number of potential "big ideas", but eventually settled on sticking to the life and letters of Paul. We still haven't decided on the frequency that we will meet, the location, or the details or structure of the Bible Study, but some of the considerations included:
1. Don't want "just another Bible Study". There are a lot of those already, especially at SSBC. Yet sticking to a Bible Study format and bringing Paul's themes to bear on our lives can be done in interesting ways. Especially as we try to focus on his words in light of the themes of unity, ecumenism, and evangelism.
2. We will not be meeting every week, but for the short term every couple of weeks should work. E-mails and other conversations will continue between the scheduled meetings.
3. Leadership will be shared and will probably rotate among interested people.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well everyone got along at this first meeting. I had expected a little bit of contention and a little bit of suspicion, but I believe that all there maintained a charitable mutual respect and a genuine desire to work together to spread the gospel of Christ and to try to find ways to show the world that we Christians are perfectly capable of working together.

One point that we all agreed upon is the statement of Paul in Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Catholics and Evangelicals had no problem with that general sentiment.