The Broken Way Bible Study Guide: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life
By Ann Voskamp
4/5
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About this ebook
In this six-session video Bible study (DVD/digital video sold separately), New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp takes us on a personal journey along the broken way. The broken way beckons you into more time, more meaning, more authentic relationships. There’s a way, especially when things aren’t shaping up quite like you imagined, that makes life take the shape of more—more abundance, more intimacy, more God.
Ann Voskamp asks the following questions not one of us can afford to ignore:
- How do you live your one broken life?
- What does it mean to live cruciform and learn to receive?
- What do you do if you really want to know abundant wholeness—before it’s too late?
There’s a way of honest, transformative power. Dare to take the broken way—to abundance.
Sessions include:
- How Do We Live This One Broken Life?
- Living Cruciform
- Learning to Receive
- Real Koinonia
- Embracing Inconvenience
- Who We Serve
Designed for use with The Broken Way Video Study 9780310820741 (sold separately).
Ann Voskamp
Ann Voskamp is the wife of a farmer, mama to seven, and the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Broken Way, The Greatest Gift, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, and the sixty-week New York Times bestseller One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Named by Christianity Today as one of fifty women most shaping culture and the church today, Ann knows unspoken broken, big country skies, and an intimacy with God that touches tender places. Cofounder of ShowUpNow.com, Ann is a passionate advocate for the marginalized and oppressed around the globe, partnering with Mercy House Global, Compassion International, and artisans around the world through her fair trade community, Grace Crafted Home. She and her husband took a leap of faith to restore a 125-year-old stone church into The Village Table—a place where everyone has a seat and belongs. Join the journey at www.annvoskamp.com or instagram/annvoskamp.
Read more from Ann Voskamp
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Broken Way (with Bonus Content): A Daring Path into the Abundant Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Thousand Gifts 10th Anniversary Edition: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One Thousand Gifts Devotional: Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One Thousand Gifts Bible Study Guide: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breath as Prayer: Calm Your Anxiety, Focus Your Mind, and Renew Your Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Are Free: Be Who You Already Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WayMaker: Finding the Way to the Life You’ve Always Dreamed Of Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Be the Gift: Let Your Broken Be Turned into Abundance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's Not What You Think: Why Christianity Is About So Much More Than Going to Heaven When You Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Praying the Scriptures for Your Life: 31 Days of Abiding in the Presence, Provision, and Power of God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daily Joy: A Devotional for Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSurvival Guide for the Soul: How to Flourish Spiritually in a World that Pressures Us to Achieve Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Way of Abundance: A 60-Day Journey into a Deeply Meaningful Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Broken Way Bible Study Guide
32 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As I read this beautiful book, I am drawn further and further into the ministry of Jesus. He came for the oppressed and the needy and the sick and the tired. He came to give Himself upon the Cross for all of us.Ann Voskamp writes of being the gift to those we encounter in our walk upon this earth, on the path that God has set for us. By being the gift, we give with our open hands, not closed fists and fearful. We can become less needy and less sick and less oppressed and less tired because we are giving of ourselves from the heart molded by God and through the Gift of Jesus.I highly recommend this powerful and insightful new book of bestselling author, Ann Voskamp. I have been so blessed to be on the book's launch team. WOW!!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Broken Way is at its core a book about suffering and the Christian experience. Everyone experiences "bad brokenness" which is the scars and pain that come from suffering that is part of the human experience. The question is how can this be overcome. Voskamp suggests "good brokenness" which is a life of selfless service to others and ultimately to God. This giving is an aggressive form of love that does not look only for those who can repay but especially for those who can't. Giving without any thought of receiving. Loving with complete risk of hurting. All of this is to offered despite our own brokenness. In the sharing of our love and our lives and even our own brokenness, we become genuine Christians and receive the healing that we desire. It takes boldness to love in this way because of the threats of rejection, loss, and, consequently, more pain.As for an evaluation, there is no way around it. This book is bad. The flaws come in two forms: thinking and writing.Voskamp is a limited thinker. First, she doesn't really understand the Biblical texts that she occasionally cites. Often her ideas are sound, but she draws them from the wrong texts. Furthermore, she uses the Biblical passages as springboards. After establishing a foundational idea from a text, she proceeds to go well beyond what the text ever intended and well beyond what it can bear. In fact, much of the book is Christian self help with little other support than her own experience. Second, she knows nothing at all of Greek, yet she builds entire chapters on her faulty trivialities. The Greek words do not mean what she says that they mean. It is as simple as that. Third, she struggles with organization. One of the most challenging parts of the book is discerning how one idea relates to the next. Fourth, she does not use words according to their long accepted definitions. "Brokenness" to Christians has long meant "attitude of contrition and repentance." That is just one example of a new usage that she has developed. It can be rather jarring since she does not always provide a clear indication that the word is being used in a nonstandard way. Fifth, her sensibilities are thoroughly grounded in the current world. She likes all of the right things. She dislikes all of the wrong things. She advocates for the right causes. Most of this is not examined though it may be that Voskamp simply does not have the space to explain which can be understandable. For example, she talks about hosting a homeless stranger in her home as an example of selfless service. The implicit idea is that she has done well by entering into someone else's brokenness and providing love and healing. She has borne inconvenience for another's good. What if this man were a sexual predator? What if she or her children were assualted? Some "brokenness" is self created and plain evil. Some aren't looking for healing; they are looking for targets. Wisdom and love go hand in hand and a healthy dose of what use to be called prudence would be a necessary corrective. Sixth, she is a sloppy theologian. She writes a paragraph about Christology that would probably be heretical if it were taken at face value. This lack of precision is not allowed in other Christian writings for good reason. I do not see why it should be excused here.As to the other issue, writing is simply disciplined and edited thinking. The flaws in thinking work themselves out in the writing as well. Voskamp writes in a very trendy style that is somewhere between poetry and prose. If it is poetry, it is usually below average. The metaphors are often undeveloped and occasionally cliche. Instead of taking one picture and developing it, she rapid fire produces a dozen metaphors. Certainly this may be a style, but I'm not sure it's a good one. If it is prose, then it needs to be tightened. She often takes a page to express what could be said in a paragraph. Once again, this might be a matter of style. To be fair, some of her word pictures are both memorable and though provoking. As for her personally, Voskamp is not afraid to use herself as the standard. Whether the depth of her pain, or the height of her self-giving, she sets herself forward as the prototype all while proclaiming that she is nothing special. Unfortunately, it can come across as disingenuous pride. No doubt the book will be a best seller. Already the right people have given the right reviews so that the right crowds will buy it in bulk. Women will be told to read it and reread it. That is to bad. This book isn't worth it.
Book preview
The Broken Way Bible Study Guide - Ann Voskamp
Read This First
Someone has brought you a bouquet: cornflowers and fragrant freesia. You put them in your favorite vase, a Chinese-patterned porcelain with a graceful swelling around its middle. You turn to take the bouquet to the dining room table, but at that moment one of your children tugs on the hem of your shirt. Startled, you lose your grip on the vase, and it falls. Crashing on the kitchen tile, the vase shatters. Porcelain and flowers litter the floor in a spreading puddle of water. The vase is broken into more than a dozen pieces, broken beyond redemption.
Perhaps that’s how you feel: broken beyond redemption. Many of us do. It’s a lie. Broken, yes, we are broken, and we won’t be fully whole in this lifetime. But beyond redemption, beyond fruitfulness, beyond beauty, beyond an abundant life, no. No human person is so far gone that God can’t work in and through us if we let Him.
In fact, brokenness is His chosen way of working through us. God deliberately chooses broken people to be His vessels, and He calls us to be broken and poured out for others. As we follow Him step by step along the road before us, bad brokenness is broken by good brokenness.
So let’s sweep up the broken shards of our lives, mop up the water, and breathe a deep draught of the scent of those flowers we’ve been gifted with. And let’s begin taking steps down the surprising road He has laid out for us, the road named the Broken Way.
THE WAY AHEAD
This discussion guide is created to be used in a group of four to ten friends. If you have more than ten people, consider dividing into smaller groups of four to six for your discussion. You want an intimate enough group that even shy people are willing to share their thoughts and talkative people don’t dominate. There are cues for the discussion leader at the beginning of each section, so you won’t need special training to facilitate the conversation.
This guide contains six sessions to go with six video segments. You can meet weekly for six weeks or at a slower pace if you prefer.
Each session contains these six sections:
This Session: An introduction to the topic you will be exploring in that session.
Open Up: An icebreaker that will help you get to know others in your group while you start discussing the topic.
Video Notes: Key thoughts from the video segment, along with space to write your own notes of what stands out to you in the video.
Talk About It: Questions for your group to discuss. You’ll interact with the Bible, the video, and your own stories.
Closing Prayer: A time to share your prayer requests and pray for one another, with special focus on the topic you’ve been discussing.
Between Sessions: Questions, activities, and journal prompts for you to complete on your own before the next session. Ideally you’ll spread these exercises over several sittings rather than trying to do all of them at one time.
For group meetings, each of you will need a copy of this study guide, a pen, a Bible, and an open heart. For the solo work between meetings, you’ll need:
A copy of Ann’s book, The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life (Zondervan, 2016)
A pen
Extra paper or a journal, in case you need more room to express your thoughts
FOR DISCUSSION LEADERS
If your group is sharing the responsibility to lead discussions, assign the six sessions to their respective facilitators up front so that group members can prepare their thoughts and questions before the session they are responsible for leading. Follow the same assignment procedure should your group want to serve any snacks or beverages. Have people volunteer up front to bring refreshments for a given meeting so they know which meeting they are responsible for.
As discussion leader, your primary job is to keep discussions on track with an eye on the clock to be sure you get through the whole session in ninety minutes. You may also need to keep the conversation shared fairly by drawing out quieter members and helping more talkative members to remember that others’ insights are valued in your group.
You might find it helpful to preview the session’s video teaching segment and then scan the discussion questions that pertain to it, highlighting various questions that