The Whole Story: A Griggs Groups Study
Something New-ish
It’s 2026 and we’re excited to kick off a fresh season of Griggs groups.
In one sense, we’re doing what we’ve always done. We’re meeting on Wednesday nights, in our building, worshiping together, then breaking up into groups all over the property to discuss the scriptures.
In another sense, we’re doing something new. Usually, we pick a book of the Bible and read through that book chapter by chapter until we finish it. This Spring, however, we’re reading select chapters all throughout the Bible so that we can get a birds eye view of the scriptures overarching story — the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.
Here’s our reading plan for Spring 2026
There are 3 main reasons we’re doing this
1. The Bible Tells One Story
The Bible is written in such a way to tell one, big, grand, overarching story and that is the story of God rescuing and restoring his sinful people through his Son Jesus.
Jesus himself is the one who taught us this. After his resurrection, Jesus meets up with some of his disciples who are walking away from Jerusalem, heading back home, and confused about the crucifixion of their Leader. They don’t really get that the climax of the story had come at Golgotha and the opening of the Garden Tomb. So Jesus fills them in…
Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. - Luke 24:25 ESV
Yes, there are hundreds of mini-stories but they’re like pieces of a puzzle that ultimately serve us when they’re put together in such a way that reveals the big picture.
If we don’t have a firm grasp on the big picture and the grand story, most of the little pieces of the puzzle will make no sense to us and our daily devotions will be filled with confusion rather than filled with good news.
2. To Strengthen Our Biblical Literacy
Biblical literacy is our ability to navigate the scriptures as a whole. It’s understanding where we’re at in the story when reading a given passage. It’s being able to see and interpret a passage in light of it’s context within God’s grand narrative.
If we go to read Philippians 4:13 — “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” — and we don’t know where we’re at in the story, we can mis-interpret this verse to mean that we can get rich, become president, or see our highschool football team win the championship.
However, if we realize this verse comes…
after God’s promise to send a suffering savior in Isaiah 53
after the death and resurrection of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
after the starting of the church in Acts 2
and in the middle of the apostles struggle to reach the uttermost parts of the earth with Jesus’ gospel…
Then we interpret it much differently. Now, we see that it means we can hold onto our mission even if we’re suffering persecution - which is, at least in part, what the verse actually means.
We want to be a church that rightly interprets every verse, thus we must be constantly re-establishing our knowledge of the Bible as a whole.
3. To strengthen our faith
Understanding the big story of the Bible grounds our faith. Christianity is not built on vague spirituality or moral improvement, but on real events in history. What’s promised in Genesis actually happens in Exodus. What’s prophesied in Isaiah actually happens in Matthew. All this despite all our sin and Satan trying to actively sabatoge God’s plan.
Seeing how all the Biblical moments throughout all of human history connect, strengthens our confidence in the gospel.
Knowing things like this — That the Old Testament is fulfilled in the New Testament — guards us from a distorted faith.
If we don’t know this, we isolate verses from the Old Testament, and we unintentionally harm our hearts along with the hearts of others.
For example, we may be tempted to think God will crush us, because like Achan, in Joshua 7, we have stolen something. Or maybe we see that Achan was sentenced to death by God in Joshua 7, and we start to wonder if we even want to believe in or follow a God that is so harsh with law-breakers.
Walking through the whole narrative reminds us what God truly is like. God graciously and powerfully provided victory for Achan and all of Israel, knocking down the walls of Jericho (in Joshua 6) Himself. Yet Achan chose to disregaurd God’s provision and enrich himself, even at the risk of hurting others, after seeing such an astounding miracle with his own eyes.
In Joshua 7 we do see that God has wrath for sin but also love for sinners. The New Testament reveals how he (God the Son) was crushed for us, forgiving us for everything we’ve stolen. That we can trust him because he came to seek and to save the lost and have mercy on those who have broken God’s laws. You have to know the whole story to know the whole of God’s nature and character.
So that’s what we plan to do. To go through the whole story…
Over these 15 weeks, we’ll move from the beauty of creation, through humanity’s fall, into God’s covenant promises, and ultimately to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We’ll see the birth of the church, the spread of the gospel, the ongoing struggles of God’s people, and the sure promise of coming glory.
This story doesn’t just explain the past—it gives meaning to the present and hope for the future. It tells us who God is, who we are, and what He is doing in the world right now.
If you’ve ever felt like you only know pieces of the Bible, this study is for you.
If you’ve ever wondered how the Old Testament connects to the New Testament, this study is for you.
If you’re longing for a deeper, more rooted faith that can withstand suffering and doubt, this study is for you.
We invite you to join us as we walk through the story of redemption together—not as spectators, but as people who have been written into the story by grace. Because, In Jesus, it has become our story too.
We’ll leave you with these quotes from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones; a resource we can whole-heartedly recommend to ALL ages…
