Missio Dei Suburbia

ESV Study Bible - Article Reading Plan

One of the best single-volume resources for biblical-theological learning is the ESV Study Bible. Filled with articles, overviews of every biblical book, charts, maps graphs - the whole experience can be overwhelming.

But it doesn't have to be - here's a plan to work your way through all of the articles and resources in the ESV Study Bible in a year.

If you don't have a copy of the ESVSB, I'd encourage you to consider getting one and using this plan to help deepen your affections for God.

Download ESVSBArticleReadingPlan

Welcome to 2010 - Don't Turn Your Resolution into Religion

This morning on Twitter, Steve Timmis (who co-wrote the best book I know of on the topic of the local church) asked: 'It seems to be trendy to despise and ridicule NY Resolutions, regarding them as somehow unspiritual. But what exactly is wrong with them?'

Here's my take - there's absolutely nothing wrong with making resolutions as 2010 begins...just don't turn your resolution into religion. Nothing you do this year will make God love you more of less than he does right now.

But if you can become more intentional about life so that God grows as your great treasure...then resolve away!

Here are four of my favorite resolution blog posts from the past few days:

• David Powlison considers the question of resolutions
• JD Greear lays out the difference between 'resolved' and 'resolutions'
• JR Vassar talks about the opportunity to be more intentional in 2010 with your devotional plan.
• Luke Simmons opens up his closet and pulls out all kinds of ideas for following Jesus in the year ahead.

More on Theological Training

Two blog posts to follow-up on our previous conversation about seminary.

Bob Thune - who wrote the original post - follows up here.

Jeff Purswell, who oversees the Pastors' College for Sovereign Grace Ministries, talks about the core convictions behind theological training.

Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole World

Helpful article by one of my favorite writers, Christopher Wright, - '...we must believe, live, and communicate all that makes the Christian message staggeringly comprehensive good news.

Shoot 'Em or Save 'Em - The Decisions We Face as Missional Churches in the Deep South

Yep...

From Jared Wilson:

To the cultural Christian, there is nothing attractive about a small church that expects relational community, practices regular neighborhood service, highlights the cost of discipleship in every message, has a minimalist menu of programs to partake from, and gives most of its money away (precluding a "nice" facility and assorted bells and whistles). But I want to reach them. All Christians are family. I love the big-C Church dearly.

There are some who would say the missional communities should just write off their attractional brothers and sisters and focus on reaching the lost. I defy false dichotomies. And while I never poach (I've never invited members of other churches to mine before they themselves have first expressed interest in visiting), I pray and preach AND BLOG and try to live a life of witness so that my churched brothers and sisters will begin to crave the gospel and gospel-centrism in their congregations.

The more churched converts gospel-centrism receives -- we're talking about revival here, by the way -- the greater impact for the kingdom among the lost and "least of these" there will be, in the Bible Belt and beyond.

Read the rest here.

Missional Introversion

Here's what we believe:

• At the heart of God's mission is an act of sacrificial love. 
• God's love for us turns us into people who love like God.
• So our mission is marked by real yet symbolic acts of sacrificial love.

But a lot of us feel like David in Saul's armor - trapped inside someone else's good idea for us.

• Can we love someone without losing ourselves in the process?
• Can we love people if they drain us like an overworked car battery?
• Can we love people even though we're terrible in crowds?
• Can we love people by sharing our ideas through our words and the arts?

We're pretty sure that God made us this way. Did we do something wrong?

• Because we really, really want to love like Jesus.
• But we feel like we're never doing enough.

Monday Is For Fighting - Stealing Your Joy

As you read the Scriptures with your Fight Club, ask the question: what is this exposing in my life (most likely a good thing) that robs my affections for Jesus?

Matt Chandler on Walking With God

Here's an excerpt from an interview with Matt Chandler:

In this short video Matt highlights two main elements of a personal walk with God:

1. Answer the questions "how will I do this?" and "when will I do this?" when it comes to Bible reading, prayer, & solitude. Most men never get that far, never make a plan, and their walk with Jesus is sporadic at best.

2. Keep a watch on what stirs or stifles your affections for Jesus. Matt carefully watches his heart to see what increases his affection for Jesus - and he makes more room for these things (for example, getting up early and going to bed early are personally important for him). He also looks for those things that steal his affection from Christ or deaden it, and intentionally removes those from his life (his example was that he has to not follow sports closely because he starts caring too much).

Should You Go To Seminary?

Bob Thune challenges some long-standing assumptions and suggests that we might need to consider some other avenues for theological training.

Here are some of the concerns and solutions that Bob lays out in his post...

Concerns:

• Seminary pulls pastors “off the streets” for 3 or 4 years to isolate them in a sterile academic environment. While this might be great for paper-writing, it’s really bad for missional living.
• The nature of the business means that seminaries are always juggling the best interests of students, faculty, donors, and accrediting agencies. These players are never in agreement, which means that no one is ever happy.
• Seminaries seek to accomplish theological training apart from immersion in a local church. Though most require their students to be active in a church, seminaries tend to be a breeding ground for Monday-morning-theologians who want to critique the church rather than serve it.
• Because professors are pressured to publish and gain tenure, the classes they teach are often little more than laboratories for their latest projects. One seminary student in our church told me that every one of his classes this semester uses a book written by the professor.
• Seminaries have to pay the bills, which means it’s in their best interests to keep students around as long as possible. Seminaries continue to promote the M.Div. as the “flagship” degree – even though a 2-year M.A. with well-chosen electives is often just as good, and about $15,000 cheaper.
• Seminary graduates tend to exit with heads full of theology, but without worshipful hearts or authentic relationships with non-Christians. I am aware this is an over-generalization. But unfortunately it’s an accurate one.
• Because of a seminary’s need to cater to a diverse student body, most seminaries can’t offer a truly systematic theological education. Students end up having to piece together the fragmented bits of data they’ve accumulated in so many haphazard, out-of-sequence courses. The idea of a cohesive “body of learning” is all but lost in the modern academy.

Solutions:

• The primary place for pastoral training and development should be within the local church. Good, theologically astute elders can guide aspiring leaders through a year or two of seminary-level reading and study without ever removing them from their church body. Rather than paying thousands of dollars for a packaged seminary education, aspiring leaders can get exactly the same level of reading and study (minus the classroom interaction) for free, with the added bonus of mentorship and community with others in their local church.
• Regionally influential churches should band together to host theological training academies, similar to what Mars Hill/Acts 29 has begun to do with Re:Train (NOTE: Or Porterbrook Southeast, beginning in the Deep South in Fall 2010). Cadres of a couple dozen students can fly top-notch professors in, wine them and dine them, and pay a hefty honorarium for their labor, and still come out way ahead of the $400 or $500 per credit hour that seminaries charge.
• Theological students should use technology to access “the best of the best” teachers and theologians. Many seminaries offer lectures for free through iTunes U. Others allow students to audit classes via videoconferencing. If you want to learn systematic theology from Wayne Grudem, church history from John Hannah, and apologetics from John Frame, why not?
• Seminaries should continue to hire and equip the best and brightest academic minds in Christianity to do battle on the field of ideas. We need good theologians doing high-level academic work, and seminaries provide an important context for that. But rather than paying the bills by lassoing directionless Bible-college grads for a 3-year M.Div., they should focus their recruiting efforts on doctoral students, pastors who want ongoing training, and “a la carte” students who would pay to access the wisdom and expertise of the most talented professors in a given field. Seminaries could cut all the “adjunct” faculty and retain only the best and brightest thinkers.

Read the rest of the post here and fire away with questions or comments.

Making Choices: Campus Ministry or the Local Church

JD Greear lays out a very helpful path for college students trying to figure out whether to focus their time and energy on campus ministry or the local church:

Some students will, from the beginning, know they want to minister to kids, seniors, the poor, etc., and that being involved in the ministries of their church will be a better fit for that. That should not be discouraged or looked down upon! On the other hand, some students are designed and called by God to focus more of their ministry on their peers. They may always keep their Bible study and ministry focus on campus and this is fine as well. This is how i was: not only for all my years of college, but several years afterward as well, I led Bible studies and ministry on campus. Students should be given freedom to explore their ministry callings and plug into the ministries that best fit them.

Read the rest of the post here.