This study approaches discipleship in the same way you would approach the Grand Canyon or Chartres Cathedral in Paris. What is the application of the Grand Canyon or Chartres? The question is odd. You don’t apply the Grand Canyon, you worship there. You don’t apply Chartres, you are stunned by the beauty. You let it fill your soul. You stop talking. You are silent as your soul expands. The only reason for talking is to share the experience of entering and beholding beauty. Likewise, my hope is that the book of Ruth first fills your soul, then overflows into your life.

The book of Ruth also disciples by drawing you into a story. The immersion into the story changes you. It offers the opportunity of remapping the story of your life, of drawing you into a life of love, of hesed. We are shaped by the stories we enter. I can’t think of a better story to enter than the story of Ruth. Let it capture and re-map your heart with God’s normal!

I hope that because of your study of Ruth you will see the world with new eyes. In particular, I hope you see…

1. Love. What is love? What is the cost of love? Why do we shy away from love? What does it mean to love without an exit strategy? I hope that your heart is captured in a new way by love.
2. Gospel. How does understanding the love that we see in the book enrich and anticipate our understanding of the gospel, of God’s love for us? How is the gospel a journey that we go on? I hope that your appreciation of the gospel deepens.
3. Community. How do we create community? What is the glue that keeps us together? I hope that participants will stop searching for community and like Ruth and Boaz learn to create community through love. The great modern idolatry is inclusive community. But community remains elusive because the only true community is based on love, and love that lasts is always rooted in Christ.
4. Feminine. What does it mean to be feminine? How do we survive and even thrive in a world (as this one was) dominated by men? I hope that both men and women doing this study have a new, enriched view of the feminine.
5. Masculine. What does a godly man look like? What characterizes him? How do you combine gentleness and power?
6. Lament. How do you relate to God when he seems to have deserted you? How does faith encourage us to lament? Why do we dislike the idea of a lament?
7. Prayer. What does a praying life look like? Do we wait for God to act or do we act? What does it mean to live in a story?