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Square One Ryan Joy Square One Ryan Joy

“How Did We Get the Bible?”

Trust the Origin of Scripture

It’s hard to get far into a new Bible study without establishing why we look to the Bible. Answering that question requires explaining what the Bible is and how we got such a special book from God. In our second Square One session, we focused on some of those issues, asking, “What does the Bible have to do with me?” To support you in questions that might arise in leading that conversation, we wanted to give a little more information on how we got the Bible.

How did God inspire the Bible?

Here’s the Bible’s description of how God wrote the Old Testament: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets ...” (Heb. 1:1). The culmination of God’s revelation came in his Son (Hebrews 1:2) but Jesus never wrote any books. Instead he gave the church apostles and prophets (Eph. 4:12ff) as the church’s foundation (Eph. 2:20).

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Square One Ryan Joy Square One Ryan Joy

“4 Ways to Use Square One”

Guide Someone on Their Journey to Jesus

We’ve worked the past few months to create a series that can take someone from square one — knowing next to nothing about the gospel — into discipleship. As we launch our Square One series, I want to share a few suggestions on different ways you can use these resources.

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Bible Bracket Ryan Joy Bible Bracket Ryan Joy

“Meditating on Four Favorite Verses”

Celebrate the Bible’s Impactful Verses

This year’s Bible Bracket featured 64 beloved verses. After all the matchups and votes, one verse was left standing. All of our one seeds — the “chalk” favorites to win, John 3:16, Genesis 1:1, Matt. 7:21, and Ps. 23:1  — went down early, some in the first round! It left us with a surprising but fantastic Final Four. 

But the point of all this isn’t the fun of drafting and voting. It’s an opportunity to engage with each other and ourselves in reflection on the Word of God. Let’s meditate at the Final Four and consider why they hold such meaning for so many people.

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Getting to Square One Ryan Joy & Bryan Schiele Getting to Square One Ryan Joy & Bryan Schiele

“Guiding Gospel Conversations”

Set Yourself Up for a Successful Study

Just when you thought we were done with our Getting to Square One Guided Study, in Episode 226, we’re back at it, diving deep into some practical stuff about leading gospel studies. We hope this will be helpful as we gear up for our full Square One Guided Study this season. Think of this as a little behind-the-scenes chat about how we approach guiding these conversations.Here are the seven key questions we tackled:

1. How Do You Get Started?

2. How Much Should You Prepare?

3. What If They Ask a Hard Question You Don't Know the Answer To?

4. How Do You Set Expectations?

5. How Do You Guide the Conversation?

6. How Do You Ask and Answer Questions?

7. How Do You Conclude a Study?

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Bible Bracket Ryan Joy & Bryan Schiele Bible Bracket Ryan Joy & Bryan Schiele

“It's Draft Time! Bible Verses Edition”

Choose Your Favorite Bible Verses

In Episode 225, "Okay, So We Need to Talk" we dove headfirst into our annual Bible Bracket draft, and this year, we tackled Favorite Bible Verses. It's always a fun and challenging process to narrow down the vastness of Scripture into a bracket-style competition, but we think we came up with a pretty solid list this time around.

For those new to the Bible Bracket, here's a quick rundown of how it works:

  • Four Regionals: We've divided 64 verses into four thematic regionals:

    • Timeless Wisdom

    • Precious Promises

    • Hard Truths

    • Trust Builders

  • Single Verses Only: This year, we decided to make things extra challenging by only allowing single verses. That means no multiple verses strung together.

  • Snake Draft: We take turns picking our favorite verses in a snake draft format. And even though we're not competing against each other, we tried our best to get the ordering right (this time)!

  • Voting: Once the draft is complete, we open up the voting to you, our listeners! You can head over to biblegeeks.fm/bracket to cast your votes and help determine which verse will "reign supreme."

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