Forming Faith Blog

Choose Your Path (Mark 6)

Posted on January 23 2024 by Gregory Rawn

The assigned passage from Mark 6 contains three short episodes: Jesus in Nazareth, the mission of the Twelve, and the murder of John the Baptist. Which will you choose?

A yellow, rustic signpost against a cloudy sky. Which direction will you choose?

One of the main tricks this week is to choose which story or stories to cover in the assigned Bible passage. Not only are there three distinct stories, but they go in three different directions.

  1. Jesus is rejected at Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6a)
  2. Jesus sends out the Twelve (Mark 6:6b-13)
  3. The murder of John the Baptist (Mark 6:14-29)
Choose One

The first choice is whether to try to tackle all three or to focus on one of them. For our Living the Word (Narrative Lectionary) products aimed at a younger audience, we focused on the sending of the Twelve. This story continues the theme of the power of God’s kingdom that the last two readings taught as well as provides an example of a discipleship step we all can emulate. With a younger audience, it is helpful to have a singular focus point, rather than split the focus into three.

Which One?

If you choose to focus on one story, the question is: which one? Here are my thoughts.

  1. Rejection at Nazareth: Relationship-oriented. When is familiarity not a good thing? How often do we maintain our own opinions on a person without paying attention to how they have matured and changed? We have previously seen the power of faith; what is the power of disbelief? Where is the good news here?
  2. Sending the Twelve: Mission-oriented. This would be a natural time to share about any missionaries or similar workers that your congregation supports. Also, how do Jesus, the church, and our personal community equip us to be sent out? Is everyone sent out to do the same thing as the Twelve were? How is our mission good news for others? For us?
  3. John’s Head: Adults-oriented. Of the three readings, this is the one that I assume will catch participants’ attention the most. It has your family drama, political intrigue, betrayal, sex, and murder. This story has all the makings of a tabloid article or soap opera. It is harder to find the good news here or kingdom-actions to emulate. My cynical takeaway is to never give anyone a blank check. For the reasons listed here, this is trickier to teach young children.
Choose All Three

An older audience can follow three stories and even reflect on why they are placed next to each other. One thought to consider is the theme of authority. The people of Nazareth rejected Jesus’ authority, which was seen so clearly in Jesus’ ministry prior to this. Jesus gave authority to his twelve apostles to continue the work of the kingdom. And, finally, Herod proved irresponsible (and Herodias vindictive) with their political authority, the power they held over life and death.

Choose Faith Formation

No matter which story or stories you choose to cover, it is important to keep the focus on faith formation. Don’t forget that preaching, worship, fellowship, education, and many other ministries all fall within the category of faith formation, at least how I define it. With a focus on faith formation, I would recommend working with the following characteristics:

  • Multi-sensory: How many senses can you engage in your experience (sermon, worship, class, etc.)? Challenge yourself to add one more sense than you would typically engage. Note: don’t count what people always see as “vision” nor what they always hear as “hearing.” Do something new and perhaps unexpected.
  • Dramatic: How do you add drama to this experience, making it memorable? This does not mean that you need to put on a show. Quiet experiences can be just as memorable as noisy ones.
  • Relational: How can you take this opportunity to encourage relationship-building among your participants? This can be a combination of direct conversation and cooperative participation. You can sometimes build relationships as well by working side-by-side as you can with a conversation.
  • Contextual: It doesn’t really matter what other people have done at other churches. It’s great to get ideas (even faith formation products) from the outside, but it is important to respect and adapt everything to the specifics of your context.

May you experience the power of God’s kingdom this week!

In Christ,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Download a Free Activity for 2/4/2024
Free Resource

During the main Narrative Lectionary year (this year: September 10 to May 19), we provide a free resource download from one of our products to help you in your faith formation ministry. This week, download the Prayer Requests activity from our Living the Word: Small Groups (NL) resource.  

This is a revision of a blog post originally published for February 9, 2020.

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