What does it truly mean to engage with Scripture in community? It's more than just discussing theology or sharing feelings. Redeemer is a church in Manchester that wants to invite all people to bring the core of who they are to Jesus.
Understanding the Building
Imagine a building with multiple floors. This simple metaphor can help us understand how we function as human beings and how we ought to approach Bible study in our core groups.
The Three Floors
Top Floor: Actions — The things we do, the way we move forward in life
First Floor: Thoughts — Our beliefs, our theology, our thought life
Ground Floor: Feelings — Our emotional life, how we experience the world
Often, the flow moves from feelings to thoughts to actions. What we feel informs what we think, which then informs how we act. But life isn't always that linear.
We Can Enter at Any Floor
Sometimes we start at one floor and move to another. Take running as an example. You might start running (action) without particularly enjoying it. But after doing it consistently for a couple of years, you begin to like it (feeling). Eventually, you realize it's good for you (thought) and start telling others about it.
This is completely normal. We can enter the building at any floor, and that's fine. We need to talk about all these aspects of our lives.
What's Happening in the Basement?
Here's what we don't want to miss: underneath all three floors, below the waterline, is the engine room that powers everything else. The Bible calls this our heart.
The heart is where we experience our deepest desires and passions—the things that motivate our feelings, thoughts, and actions. Everything bubbling above the surface finds its source here.
According to Scripture, the heart is the essence of who you are, what makes you you. It's what gets recreated when Jesus makes us a new creation. As Proverbs 4 tells us, we must guard our heart because everything else in our life flows from it.
Applying This to Core Groups
When we come to the Bible in our core groups, we want to engage whatever floor people enter on—and that's completely fine. But we must make sure we don't miss the heart. We must engage what's going on inside of us at the deepest level. This is how we get to be “gospel formed”.
More Than Just a Bible Study
A core group should be comprehensive, addressing all aspects of who we are. But here's the challenge:
If we only talk about theology, we end up with a Bible study. That's fine, but a core group is something more than just a Bible study.
If we only talk about our emotional lives, we function more like a support group. We should certainly support and encourage each other, but we can't only be that.
If we only talk about what we're doing, we become like an activist group, focused solely on accomplishments and actions.
The only way a Core Group can be all of these things is if we engage the heart. If you think about it, that's what the word "core" means—the core of you is your heart. That's what the Bible says.
Why the Heart Matters
The Place of True Confession
The heart is where we can truly practice confessing to each other. Without engaging the heart, we might have well-thought-out theology, do lots of good things, and even feel good about it. Yet we could still be stuck in addictions—to pornography, alcohol, or other things. We might not truly enjoy our relationships the way we ought to, or we might go through the motions without engaging the core of who we are.
Confession brings our heart to the text. It's an essential part of the process.
The Gateway to Real Prayer
If we aren't engaging our heart, we can't pray in the way the Bible calls us to pray—prayer with all of who we are. We can pray with the right theology, the right emotions, and toward the right things. But without engaging the heart, we miss real prayer, the kind that overflows from who we truly are into the world.
Where Mission Begins
This is not just for us, this is for others. There are other people in our lives that need us to be living in this radical, Jesus’ centric way. This is the hope that we pray for when we pray “in Manchester as in heaven.”
Bringing Our Lives to the Text
Whether you come in on the ground floor, the first floor, or the second floor—all of that is fine. We need to talk about feelings, thoughts, and actions. But let's not miss the heart. This is how we avoid becoming what Jesus calls ”whitewashed tombs” and enables us to do what Proverbs 4.23 tells us: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
These are the questions we can be asking each other. This is what it means when we bring our lives to the text. This is what we want to continue doing together as a core group.
So as you gather, remember the lift model. Enter wherever you need to, discuss what needs discussing, but always take the journey down to the basement—to the heart—where transformation truly happens.
There is more info on reading the Bible in our Read the Bible course. Let’s be a church in Manchester that is always bringing the core of who we are to Jesus.