Some Questions
- ‘Walls or no walls’. are you an Ezra or a Nehemiah? Who are your friends and allies, and what are your priorities? (See Day 1).
- In current debates about faith communities, humanism, a secular society, disestablishment, etc, to what extent do we pay attention to those many people who have a considerable divine perspective but find the religious experience they have been handed down is either meaningless or untenable and want to turn somewhere else? What have we to offer?
- Engage in discussion to separate the tensions that arise from population movements and from the various factors which tend to get tied up with the practical problems. If Haggai were around what questions world you want to put to him and what answers do you think he might give?
Some Activities
- Try writing a letter to Haggai. What questions would you want to raise with him? For what would you want to say thank you.
- How do your feelings chime in with those in the opening verses where Haggai describes the state of the nation? Make a list of the questions our society ought to be asking. See if you can suggest some answers and discuss them with your friends.
- Discuss the questions arising from Genesis 9: 8-17 (Day 6) all of which are still very much live issues today for both believers and unbelievers.
- Find a poem, story, picture or piece of music which does for you what Isaiah 35 may well have done for Haggai. Encourage your friends to do the same and then spend an evening together when you can share your treasures and sources of inspiration.