Dear fellow travelers,

Recently, I began facilitating a study of the apostle Peter with a small group at my church.  In the first meeting, we brainstormed whatever words or phrases came to mind when we thought of Peter.  No right or wrong answers, just whatever came to mind.  Here’s what ended up on the whiteboard:

Impulsive	Denied Jesus 3 times
Man of action	Bold
Fisherman	Married
Rock	Andrew’s brother
Author of 2 Epistles	Apostle to the Jews
Jesus’ right-hand man	Tight with John and James
Seen as common	Prejudiced
Rebuked as “Satan” by Jesus	Fearless
Preached at Pentecost	Boastful
Walked on water	Helped write Mark
Faithful	Humble
Vocal & Decisive, often before thinking	Confident
Cut off Malchus’ ear	Learns from mistakes

One of the reasons Peter is so interesting to study is that he’s clearly as full of contradictions and spiritual immaturity as anyone is.  There are plenty of struggles and times of growth for us to identify with.  Few New Testament personalities, other than Jesus, are so fully revealed for all to see.  He’s a fellow traveler along with us as we strive to follow Jesus.

What words or phrases would you use to describe Peter?  What do you identify with from the above list?

As our study of Peter progresses, I’ll be summarizing some of it here, with the next one covering Jesus’ call of Simon, who became Peter.