Beyond Sunday School

About Beyond Sunday School

Many of us grew up hearing the good old stories. Noah's Ark, David and Goliath, and the like. But how do we go beyond those? How do we engage the Bible as adults beyond the Sunday School lessons?

Publisher

Daniel Rose

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Jan 2021

Latest episode

23 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

56 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Oct 2026

   Ragamuffin Gospel - Paste Jewelry and a New Law

   The Ragamuffin Gospel, Chapters 7 and 8 Manning puts a sentence in chapter 7 that stopped me cold. Many of us pretend to believe we are sinners, so all we can do is pretend to believe we have been forgiven. The result is pseudo repentance and pseudo bliss. In this session, we talked about counterfeit grace. Chapter 7, “Paste Jewelry and Sawdust Hot Dogs,” asks whether our faith is the real thing or a polished appearance. We considered Manning’s warning that the dangerous choice is not between Jesus and Barabbas, but between Jesus and Caiaphas, the respectable religious man who can fool us. We also wrestled with doing the right thing for the wrong reason, reverence for life when the life belongs to an enemy, and why the way we treat ordinary people on an ordinary day is the truest test of our faith. I closed the chapter with a memory of attending an open AA meeting with my brother and thinking that the church could learn a great deal from that room’s honesty. Chapter 8, “Freedom from Fear,” asks why we keep asking God for a new law. We want rules because we are afraid. We fear disappointing God, losing our place, and finding ourselves outside looking in. Against that fear, Manning sets Brother Roger’s assurance of salvation by the unique grace of Jesus Christ, the old Karl Barth answer “A.D. 33,” and the freedom of giving up our attempts to look and sound like saints. We finished with self gentleness, because the gentleness we offer others grows out of the compassion of Christ that we have first received for ourselves. We are off next week for our community lunch. In two weeks, we return for chapters 9 and 10. After we finish The Ragamuffin Gospel, we will move to Michael Horton’s Putting Amazing Back into Grace. It is a step toward a more theological discussion of grace, but Horton wrote it for normal folk, and it will give us plenty to talk about. Counterfeit grace and the difference between reality and appearances Jesus, Barabbas, and the respectable danger of Caiaphas Doing the right thing for the wrong reason Reverence for life, enemies, and ordinary people Corrie ten Boom and the practice of forgiveness What an AA meeting can teach the church about honesty Why fear makes us ask for a new law Karl Barth, Martin Luther, and preaching grace until we believe it Home as a safe place in the middle of our anxious wounds Why gentleness with ourselves is the core of gentleness with others Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, chapter 7, “Paste Jewelry and Sawdust Hot Dogs” Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, chapter 8, “Freedom from Fear” Dietrich Bonhoeffer and cheap grace James and authentic faith Corrie ten Boom Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov Derek Webb, “New Law” Brother Roger of Taizé Karl Barth and the answer “A.D. 33” Martin Luther and preaching the gospel every week Michael Horton, Putting Amazing Back into Grace Beyond Sunday School is a year of grace. We meet on Tuesdays at 12:30 PM at Peace Presbyterian Church in Flint. In this episodeMentioned

2. 

   16 Oct 2026

   Ragamuffin Gospel - Wonder and Grace

   The Ragamuffin Gospel, Chapters 5 & 6 I asked for wonder. He gave it to me. In this session, we worked through chapters 5 and 6 of The Ragamuffin Gospel together — and they turned out to be two halves of one movement: wonder, and then what wonder produces. Chapter 5, "Cormorants and Kittiwakes," is about the role of wonder in the life of grace. My thesis going in: wonder is a result of a depth of knowledge of grace. We have to keep rediscovering grace if we want to keep moving through the world with awe. We talked about the geese and the red trees and the light beams, about dandelions that become bouquets, about science edging God out of his own creation — and about how the church has sometimes done the same thing to grace, turning it into a math problem when it was meant to be a mystery. Featuring the Rabbi Heschel story, Fiorello La Guardia's courtroom grace, and a man they called Science Mike who found his way back to faith through the waves of the Pacific. Chapter 6, "Grazie, Signore," is about what gratitude does with that grace. It doesn't freeze you — it frees you. We dug into the parable of the dishonest steward (the point is apathy, not morality), why God's will is a football field and not a shoe size, the difference between healthy and unhealthy guilt, and why the master wanted his servants to take risks with his money. Manning closes the chapter with one of his best lines: "Only love empowers the leap in trust." Next time: Chapter 7. When was the last time something ordinary stopped you? Wonder is what grace looks like when you're paying attention Children don't blow through it The gospel of grace in the world of grace When science loses its sense of mystery We made grace a math problem Troubadours, not theologians "Get busy living or get busy dying" Grazie, Signore: gratitude as freedom God's will is a football field, not a shoe size Healthy vs. unhealthy guilt The leap in trust Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, chapters 5 ("Cormorants and Kittiwakes") and 6 ("Grazie, Signore") Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — "I asked for wonder" Fiorello La Guardia and the $47 courtroom collection Mike McHarg, Finding God in the Waves C.S. Lewis on fairy stories and dragons The dishonest steward (Luke 16) — "the point does not concern morality, but apathy" The talents (Matthew 25) — "the master wanted his servants to take risks" Charles de Foucauld's prayer of abandonment Job — "if we take happiness from God's hand, should we not take sorrow too?" Beyond Sunday School is a year of grace — working slowly through The Ragamuffin Gospel together. New sessions posted as we go. ChaptersMentioned

3. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Tilted Halos

   The Ragamuffin Gospel, Chapters 3 & 4 Jesus is, like, totally intense about ragamuffins. That's how Brennan Manning first heard it — from a couple of valley girls — and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. Because it's funny, and it's also exactly right. In this session, we worked through chapters 3 and 4 of *The Ragamuffin Gospel* together. Chapter 3 asks who the gospel is actually for. Manning's answer starts with that long, beautiful list: the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the hungry, sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, the persecuted, the downtrodden, the captives, the little ones, the least, the last, the lost. In short: Jesus hung out with rabble. With us. But his love for failures and nobodies isn't an *exclusive* love. He ate with Pharisees too. And that changes everything about how we think about the table — then, and now. We spent a lot of time with Manning's line that whatever we've done in the past, good or evil, great or small, is irrelevant to our stance before God today. It is only *now* that we are in the presence of God. That took us straight into the faith-and-works conversation — the scorecard we all secretly keep, the thief on the cross, and why the real issue underneath it all is trust: what are we trusting in to be forgiven? Our deeds, or Christ's righteousness? Then, in chapter 4, we loosened our halos a bit. Manning says the disciple who lives by grace rather than law has been converted from mistrust to trust, lives with genuine gratitude, and practices rigorous honesty. We talked about being afraid of being found out, about telling the truth on the terrible days the way my friend John did through his cancer, and about gratitude as the only possible response when we finally believe we can't earn this. We closed with Manning's litany from Romans 8: Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? Your weakness? It can't. Your inadequacies? They can't. A difficult marriage, loneliness, economic hardship, mistakes, fears, uncertainties? They can't. Nothing can. **Next time:** Chapters 5 and 6. --- ### Chapters - Who is the ragamuffin gospel for? - Poor in spirit — even with a good life - "It is only now that we are in the presence of God" - Faith, works, and the scorecard - The scandal of Jesus' table - Tilted halos: trust, gratitude, honesty - Nothing can separate you ### Mentioned - Brennan Manning, *The Ragamuffin Gospel*, chapters 3 ("The Ragamuffin Gospel") and 4 ("Tilted Halos") - Ephesians 2:8–10 - James 2 — faith shown by works - 1 Corinthians 3:15 — saved as through fire - The wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13) - Erma Bombeck: "I have nothing left. I used all the gifts you gave me." - Alistair Begg on the thief on the cross *Beyond Sunday School is a year of grace — working slowly through The Ragamuffin Gospel together. New sessions posted as we go.*