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Letters from Jail: Ephesians – Part 5

5:21-33

How was the culture of the Ephesians like ours today? How was it different?

What does it mean to submit to one another? Notice that while Paul admonishes a wife to submit to her husband, he also says that the two are one flesh (5:31-32).

Ladies: How do you feel about verses 22-24? Guys: How do you feel about the standards in 25-33? Both: Which role is more difficult-the one prescribed for men or women? What experiences or parts of our culture make it hard to understand/obey these verses? How do these roles demonstrate our need to live filled with the Spirit (18)? Do these verses make marriage easier or harder?

From what we understand from these verses, what advice would you give a young Christian about marrying someone who is not a believer? How should these verses change the way people in our culture date? What should a man/woman be looking for as they pursue a spouse?

Notice how Paul wraps everything up in 5:33. Does a wife submitting to a husband make him feel respected? Does a husband loving a wife make her feel secure? Some psychologists say there are primary needs in men in women. Do you think that’s true?

6:1-4

How do TV shows today depict the relationship between parents and children? Does this reflect general cultural values?

What is expected of children here? What two motivations does Paul list? What is the significance of the phrase “in the Lord” (1)? As a child, is verse 3 more of a threat or a promise?

Cultural Notes: In ancient Greco-Roman society, the father had complete control of the family–including the right to kill a child even when the child was an adult (although this was rarely invoked). If a father sold a child into slavery and the child earned or was granted their freedom, the father could sell them back into slavery if he wanted. In the case of divorce, the children stayed in the father’s household. In Jewish culture, the Hebrew Scriptures allowed for execution of a disobedient child (cf. Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 21:18-21).

What two motivations does Paul give Fathers?

If you have children (or plan to have kids), how will you apply verse 4? If your children are grown, how have you grown in your understanding of this verse? As an adult, how should we apply this to our parents now? Doewas it still apply? How does it change with age?

Does Paul’s view uphold or contradict the thoughts of his culture?

Excurses: Do you think Christianity elevated or demeaned the status of women and children in ancient Roman Society?

Letters from Jail: Ephesians – Part 3

4:1-16
Factoid: Notice the verb “walk” (ESV) in v. 4. (Hint: the NIV translates the same word used in verse 4 as “live”. (See above discussion.)

After the last three chapters explain God’s plan and our new position in Christ, how does Paul admonish us to live? Why? Is it easy? How does following Christ give us a new perspective that helps with this goal?

Why might unity be such a big goal for Paul? Are Christians knows better for unity or divisiveness? Why is unity so hard for many Christians? Read More→

Book Review: Radical-Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream

To a degree, our culture blinds us from some biblical truths. We make assumptions about what it means to follow Jesus. It has been said that many people who claim to be Christians don’t follow Jesus. That is, we don’t always choose to become like Jesus; rather, we ask Jesus to follow us and become like us. Even those of us who set out to radically follow Jesus, develop blind spots in our lives. Radical challenges many of the assumptions we have about how we live our lives and inspires readers to live a radical life.

If you’re looking for a book to challenge you to a radical life of following Jesus–check this book out! In fact, there’s a year long challenge at the end! Find Radical here on Amazon.

Want to know more about the book, check out what the author, David Platt (Pastor of The Church at Brook Hills) has to say about it:

(Trouble viewing this? Click  check it out on YouTube: David Platt on Radical)

Want a free copy? Be the first to hit me up on Facebook, Twitter or with a comment below and you can have the extra copy the publisher sent me. Or Multnomah is giving more away while supplies last–so check it out here.

Btw, this book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Community in Young Adult Ministry

Occasionally I have written for a few other places–including a blog for young adult ministry. Here’s something I wrote for them earlier this month:

After traveling around the Northeast with other young adults to explore different young adult ministries, I came to a conclusion: Young adult ministry is small group ministry. Despite the great preaching we heard, every successful ministry we visited used small groups to build community. I’m sure someone will find a young adult ministry somewhere that has been successful in the long term without developing small groups, but as a rule, they are essential to forming young adults into disciples.

Dallas Willard observes in The Great Omission, “As much as I believe in the power of preaching for conviction and decision, I would be naive to believe that preaching alone produces disciples. If preaching could produce disciples, the job of making disciples would be done.”1 Community is necessary for spiritual growth and it’s part of the answer to making disciples—but just forming small groups of people will not create the life-change. The New Testament specifies no particular structure of small groups for the Church. Small groups are not essential for their structure but for the life produced in them. Building community in the local church is not essential because of a perceived social need, but because it is the life God intends for His followers as Christ transforms their lives.

While small groups form the backbone of most successful young adult ministries, small groups of people are not inherently spiritual. One of our local papers publishes an annual guide containing all kinds of small groups to join. You can walk the mall, wear red hats to dinner, and learn to knit or play folk music with others. I’ll admit that I’ve never actually gone to any group in the guide. While there are undoubtedly believers in some of these groups, they are not Christian Communities. What makes Christian small groups spiritual is that we celebrate Christ in our midst. In our young adult small groups and in one-on-one discipling relationships, we’ve noticed that young adults are hungry for spiritual food and in depth Bible study. We need to be careful to create opportunities for them to grow spiritually—giving them more than they can find in a local knitting group. Jesus must be the center of our community if we want to create life-giving communities of faith.

So, how do we form groups centered around Jesus? Here are a few questions to think through as we move in the right direction: Do we pray about what our groups need to study? Or do we choose coolest thing without thinking about where the group is spiritually and what they need to grow? Are we stuck moving from one curriculum to the next and dealing topically with books of the Bible? Should we take a break from curriculum and consider studying a book of the Bible in depth?

  1. Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’ Essential Teachings on Discipleship (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006), 5-6. []

Book Review – Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity

Primal by Mark Batterson

I’ve got to say that I’m a big fan of Mark Batterson. (You can be his fan on Facebook!) His writing weaves together stories that challenge thoughts and inspire action. Primal reminds readers to strip away the superficiality that weighs down our faith and keep us from truly living and experiencing the life God calls us to live. This is a great read if you want inspiration to refocus your faith on God. This book, like his others, inspires readers to live with hearts focused on God while living as part of God’s solution to the problems of the world.

It comes out soon and would be a great Christmas present for someone you know-or yourself!
An official description:
In Primal, Mark Batterson strips away every distraction and complication, focusing on the essence of Christianity, the Great Commandment. Batterson explores the foundational elements of loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And when you learn how love God with everything you have, it’ll change your life. And probably your world. So start 2010 with a bang.
You can get it from…
The Publisher (Multnomah)
…and a lot of other places!
And now the obligatory disclaimer:
This book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah-yeah, I got a free book, but I would tell you if if I didn’t like it!

Pursuing People

Since I have been working on a large writing project (which I will share when it’s finished), I have not been blogging much. But I came across the blog here and thought I’d pass this along.

I can’t help but read this and think about Jesus when he encounters Matthew at his tax collector’s booth (Matthew 9:9-13). I doubt Matthew had ever thought that Jesus would want to come, eat and hang out with him. My guess is there are few cultures, if any, that love tax collectors. I’m also guessing that there are a lot of people who don’t feel like “religious people” would be interested in them. So, I imagine Matthew was as shocked and surprised as the religious elite were. When criticized by the religious people for hanging out with the “wrong people” another time, Jesus replied with this story:

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:4-7)

I wonder sometimes if we, as the Church, are pursuing people like Jesus pursues people? To make it more personal…if you’re a follower of Christ, are you pursuing people with the love and compassion that Jesus pursues people?

Intro to Inductive Bible Study & Observation

This series is on inductive Bible Study corresponds to a class I’m teaching. You can find an introduction to the class here. If you’re in the class or not, I hope you join the discussion–but most of all, I hope you explore the text. Years ago, if you told me that studying the Bible would change my life, I’d probably think you were crazy. Now, I know it to be true!

Since I use Google Docs to type up the notes each week, you can view the all of the handouts here.
(If you’re not familiar with Google Docs, it’s basically an online word processing program. Check out the Wikipedia article on Google Docs.)

We went over the basics of the purpose of Inductive Bible Study and the purpose of this class–to increase proficiency at studying Scripture using the Inductive Bible Study Method and teach how to write questions in order to take people through the process with you. It’s geared to people who want to learn to study the text in more depth or who want to lead discussion of Scripture in Small Groups or Bible Studies.

After this class, the participant should be able to:

  • read Scripture with greater depth of insight,
  • be skilled at using basic tools (books & online resources) for Bible study and
  • be capable of writing & leading Bible studies.

Session 1 – Introduction & Observation

What is Inductive Bible Study? Inductive Bible Study is the process of entering into the text of Scripture in order to

The Inductive Method basically involves four steps

Observation: What do I see?
Interpretation: What does it mean?
Application: How should we respond?
Personalization: How will I respond?
Studying the Bible
Read–many people are never transformed by the Bible, because they never read the Bible with an open heart and mind
Slowly–we often rush through reading, but the process of reading is more important than getting done
Patiently–some passages might not be understood immediately, we need to take time with them
Thoroughly–often we miss significant things because we gloss over the details
Reflect–take time to think & pray for insight
Record–keeping a journal or record will help you process  passage
Repeat–sometimes the depth of meaning in a passage is discovered only after spending significant time with a passage
Observation Questions to Ask:
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Exercise-we began here in a group exercise…
Observations in Mark 1:1-8

Homework: make observations for Mark Chapter 1 and we’ll discuss this week! I hope you can join us if you missed it this week!

Looking for Churches-the Interview Project Continues

I’m hoping to take some time off soon. As I do, I’ll be looking for new communities of faith (churches) to visit. And, if the pastors are agreeable, I’m hoping to do some more interviews. I am formulating some new lines questions instead of focusing on preaching this year. (Although, it might be fun to interview some churches with video venues and satellite campuses.) If you have any suggestions for churches I should check out–especially in the Northeast–let me know. (I can travel outside of the Northeast, but my travel budget is limited.) Please leave comments, email of Facebook me.

Preaching to Young Adults-The Interview Project #3

ADVENTURE #2: FRONTLINE (VIENNA, VA)

Frontline is a high energy, huge auditorium worship experience complete with smoke, lights, a live worship band and everything else expected in a contemporary large-scale worship event. In addition to meeting in the main sanctuary of McLean Bible Church, they offer multi-site experiences at Tysons Corner (Vienna, VA), Arlington (Rosslyn, VA) and a live simulcast through the Internet. The Gathering, the college ministry division of Frontline, does not have a separate service. Instead, they rely on Bible Study groups on or near the college campuses served by Frontline and meet in places attractive to students like Panera Bread and Starbucks.

Sermon Evaluation

Content and Delivery
John McGowan, who directs The Gathering, spoke the night we came to observe and interview. He began with a personal story told in such Read More→

Simple Small Groups

Since I am currently working on how to build community (and the leadership structure that supports it), most of my reading lately has been on small groups ministry. This morning, I finished Simple Small Groups, by Bill Search.

The author contends that healthy small groups must maintain a harmony of three patterns–connecting, changing and cultivating. (Connecting=forming deep relationships. Changing=becoming more Christ-like. And cultivating=living missionally.) Maintaining harmony between these three patterns will help groups remain healthy and be more likely to continue. Each section contains some good questions for group leaders to ask about their groups. This would be a good book to recommend to a small group leader or coach of small group leaders.

Personally, I am looking at how to structure training for group leaders in my church. Since our church uses the words connect, grow, serve and share to describe a balanced life of following Christ, I have been thinking of structuring the training around these concepts. In many ways, serve and share can be combined to form what the author intends for the word cultivate–living missionally. Although I love the word cultivate, it might be easier for our purposes here to retain the previously mentioned four words.