Practicing Resurrection: The Gospel of Mark and Radical Discipleship

Practicing The Gospel of Mark and Radical Discipleship, by Janet Wolf, presents this well-known Gospel through voices and experiences that are often relegated to the margins. Where we stand, what we see, who we listen to, whose
stories and voices we value or dismiss shape the way we understand the world and the Bible. This study incorporates the stories of those on the margins to uncover how the gospel is alive and well today—how God is, and always has been, calling us to live out the Word in a radical way.
The study begins in Mark 14 with the story of a woman who bursts into a gathering of male disciples to anoint Jesus, and, to the surprise of the disciples, is resoundingly affirmed. Throughout Wolf utilizes personal experiences and stories entrusted to her through her work in prisons and as a community organizer to invite us to experience the power that stories have to heal, transform, liberate, and unshackle. And she engages us in scripture through a participatory Bible study process, which raises up voices and perspectives that are too often silenced or unheard. She pushes readers to Good news for whom? Good news about what?
In five chapters, the study examines different passages in Mark and challenges readers to discover what radical discipleship looks like in their context. Each chapter ends with questions for personal reflection to help readers apply what they are learning in the study.

The Rev. Janet Wolf is an elder in The United Methodist Church and has served as a pastor of rural and urban congregations. In July 2012, she was appointed to work with Marian Wright Edelman and the Children’s Defense Fund on nonviolent
direct-action organizing to dismantle the cradle-to-prison pipeline, work that includes the organization’s Freedom Schools and the annual Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry. She is the author of “To See and To Be Seen,” a chapter in I Was in United Methodist Perspectives on Prison Ministry, edited by James M. Shopshire Sr., et al., and numerous other writings.