Helping Church Read Bible and Culture

Posted on April 23, 2009

We just finished a class called Interpreting Scripture and Culture in a church that is very unchurched. The goal was for people to learn how to read their Bibles well, while also reading their culture well. In short, we are trying to plant a self-theologizing church.

It was a six week course that laid out a Trinitarian, Christ-centered approach to interpretation, followed by five weeks focusing on genres. This method taught them to depend on the Spirit, begin with the Text, move to Theology, and end up at Culture/Life.

Here is the syllabus for the course. I drew from various resources, many of which are just rolling around in my head, but the actual books and articles I returned to included:

Biblical Interpretation

  • How to Read the Bible as Literature – Ryken provides a literary perspective that is typically neglected by hermeneutics books. He helps every genre come to life, to activate our imaginations, to enter the world of the text with intrigue and anticipation.
  • A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible – Stein has decades of experience and offers a basic, accessible approach to reading the genres of the Bible well.

Cultural Interpretation

Pointers

Although it was a small class, we all learned a great deal, worshiped during our study, and grew in our understanding. Here are a few things I learned:

  • Don’t call it Interpreting Scripture and Culture and people will be less intimidated. Call it Reading Bible and Culture Well or something.
  • Use Fee & Stuart’s Reading the Bible for All It’s Worth for required reading again. It was well received.
  • Continue to insist on homework and have the students run the last class.

Pastoral Wisdom w/ Driscoll @ Gospel Coalition

Posted on April 22, 2009

Some of Mark Driscoll’s most recent talks have been packed with pastoral wisdom. Do not miss his talk A Call to Endure which deserves to be heard or watched by pastor and wife together. He calls us to endure: emotionally, physically, spiritually, parentally, spiritually. Some of his insightful points include:

  • The only person that can truly pastor you is your wife.
  • Your personality calcifies as you get older apart from the gospel you will become a calcified version of yourself.
  • The one idol your church will let you worship is ministry. Don’t lose intimacy with Jesus.

In his 1 Timothy address at GC, Driscoll lays out three types of people pastors are called to interact with: positives, negatives, neutrals. He reaches deep into his own experience to bring pastoral empathy and ministry wisdom.

Read his notes here.

Tightboards.com

Posted on April 21, 2009

Every once in a while, you meet someone so cool, so noteworthy, you just have to tell others about them. Luke is one of those people. He is a forward thinker, an Oxford Blue (played basketball for them), a gospel-centered missional hipster, an entrepreneur, and an all-round great guy. He started numerous businesses. I’ll highlight a couple: TightBoards.com.

Tight Boards has been newly redesigned and carries sand, skate, surf, and snow gear. He specializes in Burton Snowboards and sells some of the coolest watches out there, Nixons. Also, check out his SandalSuperstore.com which carries almost very imaginable sandal around, at good prices.

Yeah, if you haven’t figured it out by now this is a shameless plug for my brother and his businesses. He’s a great brother, friend, partner in ministry, basketball player, and businessman. Oh, and if you need better search engine placement, SEO is his main gig. Check it all out, better yet buy some stuff and hangout with him!@

The Gospel in 3 Dimensions

Posted on April 20, 2009

On Sunday we launched a new series called The Gospel and the Gospel as a follow up to our previous series on The Gospel and Character. The gospel is both simple and complex. We affirm that it is simple enough for a child to grasp but complex enough to ponder for all eternity. This new series focuses on some of the complex, doctrinal content of the gospel in order to come to a greater appreciation of its simplicity. In this article, Tim Keller lays out three perspectives on the gospel (Doctrinal, Personal, Social). We have taken his observations and worked them out quite a bit in order to set up a holistic, gospel framework. We use the word “dimensions” instead of “perspectives” to emphasize that each dimension is non-negotiable. If we receive and reflect only one-dimension, we distort both the gospel and our lives. Very often, Christians pick one or two dimensions and end up dishonoring Christ and his gospel. Our hope is that in understanding the fullness of a three-dimensional gospel, we will more profoundly live it out. If you want to grow in your comprehension and reflection of the gospel, I highly recommend that you take advantage of these resources: