A digital discipleship course on Mark's Gospel

On the Way

Sixteen sessions through Mark, in two parts of eight, hinged at chapter 8

Mark's gospel is the shortest and the strangest. It opens at speed, it breaks every literary rule of its day, and it ends — in the manuscripts that scholars trust most — with the women fleeing the empty tomb in fear. There is no resurrection appearance. The ending is the beginning of the discipleship the gospel asks of us.

This course works through Mark in sixteen sessions over the course of a year. Part One — Who is this Jesus? — runs through the chapters before the structural pivot. Part Two — The Way of the Cross — runs from the pivot to the empty tomb and through Holy Week into Easter.

Each session has three layers: preparation at home in the days before; ninety minutes together in a small group; reflection and practice through the week that follows. The materials draw heavily on Ched Myers' Binding the Strong Man and on Wesleyan and liberationist readings of the gospel.

Part One — Who is this Jesus?

Session 1 Entering the Gospel Mark 1v1–20 Session 2 Authority and forgiveness Mark 1v21–2v12 Session 3 Tax collectors, fasting, Sabbath Mark 2v13–3v6 Session 4 Alternative Israel Mark 3v7–35 Session 5 The parables Mark 4v1–34 Session 6 Across the boundary Mark 4v35–5v43 Session 7 Prophets, bread, and enough Mark 6v1–56 Session 8 Clean? Unclean? Do you still not understand? Mark 7v1–8v21

Part Two — The Way of the Cross

Session 9 Do you still not understand? Who do you say I am? Mark 8v22–9v13 Session 10 The shape of failure Mark 9v14–50 Session 11 What does community look like? Mark 10v1–31 Session 12 Servant and seer Mark 10v32–52 Session 13 Into the temple Mark 11v1–12v34 Session 14 Scribes, widow, apocalypse Mark 12v35–13v37 Session 15 Holy Week undressed Mark 14v1–15v20 Session 16 To the end and back Mark 15v21–16v8

The two mottoes

Discipleship is the only form of faith in Jesus Christ.

True discipleship begins where our old familiar world ends.

Both from Ron McCreary. They run as the spine of the course.