The Grand Sweep: 365 days from Genesis through Revelation

Many, many, many mainline Protestant and Catholic churches follow what it called The Revised Common Lectionary in their preaching and worship. That is, we read Scripture in a prescribed order, with a passage from the Old Testament (or Hebrew Scriptures), the Psalms, the Gospels and the New Testament each week in a three year cycle.

The Revised Common Lectionary is absolutely fabulous for a lot of reasons. However, this year, the Riverside UMC is tossing caution to the wind and leaving the lectionary behind.

Why?

Well, we find that the lectionary requires its users to be pretty familiar with the Scriptures of the Christian tradition at the outset, and many Christians — of both the new and lifelong varieties — simply lack that knowledge.

We lament that, but we’re ready to do something about it. The Grand Sweep, a program written by a United Methodist preacher and teacher named J. Ellsworth Kalas, is designed to take us through the whole grand narrative of the Bible in 365 days of Bible study and 52 weeks of preaching.

So, we invite you to join us on this fantastic voyage. Come to worship Sundays at 10, check out our Bible Study Thursday mornings at 10, or participate in our online reflections and conversation at The Grand Sweep blog: http://www.umcriverside.org/blog/