Genesis is the first book of the Bible. It is a book of beginnings - the beginning of the universe and how people spoiled it, and the beginning of God's plan to restore it through the beginning of a nation. It teaches that God was before time and created the whole universe; it teaches about the goodness of creation and the advent of death and sin; and it speaks of God's calling of Abraham to be the father of Israelite people, through whom one day, Jesus would come.
In the ministry context, Genesis provides an excellent spring board to understand how the whole Bible is integrated because it explains key concepts including creation and sin and death and tells stories that demonstrate grace and salvation. It is a book that some Christians and many non-Christians find difficult to believe and exploring concepts of genre and world-view can be helpful here. Indeed there is significant disagreement among Christians regarding the historical nature of Genesis. Questions naturally arise such as:"Was there a garden?","Was there really a serpent that could talk?","Was there a world-wide flood? Or was it a local flood?","Was there really a tower of Babel?". Disagreement arise partly because of the way in which the book is read, in particular, which genre the reader feels most appropriately fits the book. Some Christians, especially in the Developing World and the United States, read the book as literal history, and thus understand the world to be around 8,000 years old. They see all of the Creation story to be factually accurate like a newspaper report. At the other end of the spectrum, other Christians see the genre, at least of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in a more parabolic or metaphorical way. These Christians do not necessarily believe in a literal Adam or Eve, but see the creation story as making a number of points, including God as creator, with humans rebelling against their creator. Having trust that God speaks through Genesis is an important step in having a firm faith in the Bible, however, it is also helpful to recognize the reasonableness of both those who see Genesis more literally and those who see Genesis 1-11 less literally.
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