Our small group recently finished a short “book club” series using Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. We were trying to squeeze in a series after the end of our last study and before the Christmas holidays, which gave us only six weeks to work with. I decided to go with the same chapters that this study guide suggested, but I modified the questions to suit my own personality and the time available for our group.
For each week, attendees read a chapter of Long Obedience, the Psalm that went with the chapter, and thought about the 3-5 questions in the study sheets I made. Almost all of the study sheets contained instructions for how to focus on the Psalm by circling or underlining a particular characteristic of it.
This ended up being a good short-term group. The focus of the book is on the difficulties in life, and how God is with us during hard times. The chapters were short enough that the non-scholarly types could keep up. This is Peterson’s first book. It’s a bit less deep and poetic than his recent stuff, but his focus on obedience to God is fabulous and challenging. At least one member of our group of 10 liked the book enough to read the other chapters on his own.
Study Guides:
[...] posted the study questions we used on our small group [...]