This was our first small group with our church, Celebration Church, in Fairhope and we had a great team and a very good book! Oh, and the most unique and appreciated blessing we received that we did not expect, was the two young ladies from our church who provided child care right here in our home! They were amazing! We were very grateful!
Because we’ve reached the last chapter and are going into our Summer season, I wanted to make the resources available to our team and, maybe, hopefully, encourage the next season of small group adventurers to see the potential of this incredible book, one of a number of books, by author J. Warner Wallace.
Below, you will find links to websites and downloadable content to facilitate the directing of our small group.
The Book(s) (Though the small group was primarily about the book, “Cold Case Christianity”, there was a great “Participant’s Guide” available, too.)
Link to Purchase the Book
Link to Purchase the Participant’s Guide
Reviews (Part of my research when choosing the book for our small group)
“Cold Case Christianity… …Revised and Updated!” found at coldcasechristianity.com
“Homicide detective J. Warner Wallace applies ten common rules of evidence to make the case for Christianity in this completely updated and expanded edition of the apologetic classic that has changed lives around the world.”
“A Chapter-By-Chapter Summary found at lukenixblog.blogspot.com
“This is one of the latest books to examine the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament. Homicide detective J. Warner Wallace was an atheist before he began putting Christianity to the same tests that he places witnesses and suspects to in his investigations of crimes. He split his book into two sections. The first deals with the methods used in detective work. He uses his own experiences to illustrate and applies them to the different aspects of Christianity. In the second part, he specifically targets the reliability of the four gospels as eyewitness accounts of history.”
“A Short Analytical Summary and Critique of the Book” found at apologiaveritas.org
“Cold Case Christianity was written by cold case homicide detective J. Warner Wallace. His purpose was to train and motivate Christians to defend the Gospels by applying the rules of evidence used in investigating cold case homicides. His further purpose was to answer skeptics and critics of the Gospels that they might place their trust in Jesus Christ.”
“The Ultimate Cold Case” found at bethinking.org
“Read this book if you want to be prepared to speak to anyone interested in why they can trust the accounts they read in the Gospels. And buy another copy to lend out…”
Media (Media found in the process of researching the book to inspire and encourage our team)
“Here’s Everything I Promised From Our Time Together!” – Jim Wallace. (This is an online folder the author makes available to attenders of his meeting and readers of his books.)
“This is amazing material, especially for encouraging an intellectual perspective and firm foundation of the Word! Oh, when you first click the link it takes you to an audio file, “Accepting Our Duty As Christians.mp3”. Click on “Back to Home” in the upper left, to see more supporting information for the author’s books.”
“Cold Case Christianity” Chapter Introductions at Right Now Media. (Requires a login and password. Ask our Small Groups Leader for permission to use ours.)
“This was our launching point each week. Each section of the book was given a tantilizing intro by the author that inspired a deep dive into the material.”
“For Further Consideration of Each Chapter” (Some of these discussion questions come from a document or page on the Internet I couldn’t find again to give attribution.)
” May these inspire your own discussion questions for your own small group and/or give you little things to ‘hide and seek’ as you skim through the chapters that call out to you. Including the Word document so you may edit it and personalize it for your own team.”
“Podcasts” (Want to learn more, become even more confident in sharing your faith? Check out these incredible podcasts on many relevant subjects at CCC!)
“Unsolved Case Files | Ashcroft, Harmony – Cold Case Murder Mystery” (The incredibly fun conclusion to our small group! We utilized some of the actual tools the author shared with us in solving this cold case murder mystery! So fun!!)
“Unsolved Case Files puts you in the shoes of a cold case detective tasked with solving a murder that happened decades ago with only the original investigator’s case file. Think you can find out who really killed Harmony Ashcroft on May 8, 1998? Unsolved Case Files will let you find out once and for all whether you’re as good as the detectives on TV.”
From Rose: “A Legal Perspective of the Case of Joseph’s Garment” (on Instagram)
“Interesting video about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife as viewed through a legal lens from ancient near eastern legal culture! Thought I’d share since we’ve been talking about evidence and building cases. (Wow! That was great, Rose!)”
From Les: “Circumstantial Evidence and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”
“Just a little example of ‘Circumstantial Evidence’ from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. This is from “The Boscombe Valley Mystery.” Oh, and a real life ‘Circumstantial Evidence’ case that was a little too close to home for Jaclyn and I.”
For those of you returning, may you find this a refresher and reminder of our CCC small group. For you that are new, may you find here resources to assist you in starting a new small group this season at Celebration Church!