09/03/2026
Long post incoming. TLDR: We’re starting a new Bible study on September 20 after the church service. Come join us strangers.
New Bible Study: Christians in a Strange New World
The modern world says, in many different forms: “Look within, discover the real you, express that self outwardly, and expect the world to recognize it.” The Christian confession begins somewhere else: “I believe that God has made me... Jesus Christ has redeemed me... the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel.” The Christian self is therefore not invented from within. It is received from outside: created by God, named by His Word, redeemed by Christ, sanctified by the Spirit, located in vocations, joined to a concrete body of believers, and destined for the resurrection of the body.
How did our culture come to think that personal identity is something we create for ourselves—and how should Christians respond? This Bible study will explore questions of identity, freedom, sexuality, the body, technology, human worth, and Christian life in an increasingly post-Christian culture.
The study draws especially from Carl Trueman’s “Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution,” together with its accompanying study guide, and John T. Pless’s LCMS resource “A Small Catechism on Human Life.” We will use these resources alongside Scripture and Luther’s Small Catechism to understand both the ideas shaping the modern world and the distinctly Christian alternative: our lives are not self-created but received as gifts from God, redeemed in Christ, and lived in love toward our neighbor.
No reading or purchase of the books is required. Each week will provide the necessary background and focus on discussion and the study of God’s Word.
