We'll be going through the Gospel of Matthew as a church this summer during the Sunday morning bible studies and sermons. Starting in July, we'll have 9 weeks (through August) and we've broken up Matthew into 9 sections. Each section corresponds to a "choice" that the gospel calls us to as followers of Jesus. We are also producing a book that will tie-in with this series.

Joey Whelan and I spent most of yesterday planning this series. I don't want to give away too much information, but below are planning boards we created to clarify and outline our thinking. (Picture quality is not great; there was a lot of glare and we used webcams to take the pictures.)

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CHOICES outline
This picture is the outline for the CHOICES series. You can see Matthew broken down into 9 sections. Each section corresponds to a "choice." For example, we've called section 6 (chapters 17-18) "Choosing Relationships over Conflict" because those chapters highlight that theme.

We're looking forward to this study of Matthew. If you'd like to begin preparing, start reading Matthew. You can start today, and read X chapters each day and read Matthew that many times during June. For example, if you read 2 chapters of Matthew every day, you can read it twice in June.
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I don't want to spoil what we're doing, but the big project we're working on for this series is a kind-of Choose Your Own Adventure book. We're doing this to highlight the aspect of choices. In a CYOA book, you can undo your choices at any time simply by going back in the book. But not in life, and not as a follower of Jesus!

This picture shows the branch outline for the entire book. We're planning on a 50-60 page book complete with illustrations that, if everything goes according to plan, will be available at the beginning of July as a tie-in for the series!
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Branch outline of half of the story
This last picture shows the branch outline of half of the story. It includes descriptions that accompany the choices. The previous picture showed only the choice branch structure.
We're really excited about this series and we hope you join us in our enthusiasm. Please leave some comments, and if you start reading Matthew, please comment on this blog about your reading!
 


Comments

Mom
06/07/2009 19:53

Pretty impressive, I like the idea of a choose your own adventure, am very interested to see the finished project, your site is shaping up to be pretty imformative, and very well done, M

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Jeremy Hoover link
06/08/2009 05:24

Thanks for posting, Mom! I'll make sure to get some extra copies of the book for you. It's written; we just need to put it together now. We really like it.

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Deborah Dale
06/10/2009 04:04

Hi Jeremy, I've finally had a chance to look at your website. I am delighted to see what you have done with it so far. Uncle Paul has been very busy with work lately but I will remind him to look at your site. You are very talented and I am hopeful that this will be a great encouragement to Christians and non-Christians alike. We know an older couple in Bayfield (members here in Stratford) who are unable to get to worship because of age and health. Your sermons would be great for them to listen to on Sunday mornings. I wish you great success this summer and in the future. Love Aunt Deborah

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Jeremy Hoover link
06/10/2009 05:34

Thanks for the encouragement, Aunt Deb! I really appreciate it.

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