CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Charles

Sunday School With a Purpose and Plan

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Sunday school has been and continues to be a key element in the church’s role of making disciples. The concept of discipling covenant children has been a part of the church’s role of teaching and training at least since the establishment of the Synagogue at the time of the Babylonian captivity. The fact that so many churches are struggling with the idea of Sunday school is a direct reflection of our times. Brett P. Webb-Mitchell in his book Christly Gestures writes, “I propose in this book that the purpose of Christian education in the church is as follows: Christians live out of the true vision given to them by the grace of God in the writings of the Apostle Paul; the church-amid all the dynamics, controversies, and agendas within congregations and parishes-is the figurative body of Christ on earth and is thus the context of educating all Christians; therefore, the church is education-from the intentional or formal programmatic activities of Sunday schools, youth groups, and catechetical instruction to Kerygma and Disciple Bible studies,” (page 2). He goes on to say that everything a church does and is centers around education and discipleship.

It weakens the church’s role to speak of Sunday school in pejorative ways. It may be the churches best opportunity to “make kingdom disciples” if it teaches what is in accord with sound doctrine and teaches doctrine as life and life as doctrine. However, for Sunday school to be an integral part of the church’s role in making kingdom disciples, it must be thought of with that task in mind. It must have those trained and equipped for the role of teaching and training, and then it must have the right resources to assist. That is where curriculum comes into play.

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A church needs to use a curriculum that is biblically, theologically, and pedagogically sound. Many churches in North America do not always use a curriculum that follows that pattern. Hence children and youth, and maybe even adults, learn eclectically. A good curriculum has a clear scope and sequence in its design. For example, while its scope is to teach the Bible and cover all the biblical truths, it must also have a sequence that will carry you through the Bible in an age-appropriate manner with a clear design.

CEP has a curriculum, Great Commission Publications, that does just that. Its design (scope and sequence) will enable the church to disciple its covenant children in a way that equips them to be kingdom disciples. Its foundation is Scripture, understood redemptively from a covenant perspective, within the Kingdom of God world and life view. It enables a church, beginning with the toddlers and preschoolers through senior high school, to have a curriculum that moves the students along to spiritual maturity.

To have a disciple making Sunday school, your teachers must teach the Bible from the kingdom perspective with a definite plan to encourage the spiritual growth of the students. (The kingdom refers to Christ’s rule and reign over all of life. For further explanation see Making Kingdom Disciples, A New Framework, available from the CEP bookstore.) The process of making disciples begins with God’s covenant children at their baptism, assuming they received the sacramental sign of baptism near birth. Webb-Mitchell suggests that baptism is an “unofficial beginning of our education process.” It actually may mark the official beginning of making kingdom disciples.

CEP and GCP have people and resources available to local churches to make that process more effective, but it has to be a priority with the local church to follow through. For more information or samples of these resources, contact the CEP bookstore at 1-800-283-1357.

Elders, Executives or Servants?

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Equip2ndQtr2007.jpgThe question we are often asked in a variety of ways has to do with the role and function of leaders in the body of Christ, the church, and more broadly, in the kingdom. The question usually asked is, “Who are leaders and what are their performance expectations?”

In the opening lecture of our video series on the eldership, Elders, Executives or Servants, I point out that every organization has two kinds of leader-formal and informal. The formal are those who are in an official position of leadership, either by appointment or election. The informal leaders are the men and women that have substantial influence in the organization but do not hold an official leadership role. While organizations are quick to recognize the existence of the formal leaders, in our case the church officers, they have often failed to recognize the existence of the informal leaders. Some of you may remember the film Pollyanna. In that story a very wealthy and influential woman in the town, known as Aunt Polly, determined many things in that town, including things related to the church. She was an example of an informal leader with power and influence. We have been called into situations where churches are being ripped apart because of the conflict between the informal and formal leadership. In a few cases such struggles resulted in a church split.

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We have also been in churches where the formal leadership and the followers were in conflict over certain issues that jeopardized the church’s life. The lead article on the eldership clearly reminds us that God established leaders, formal leaders, to oversee or watch over the local church. The article clearly reflects that biblical nature and posture of the role of the eldership. This is important because when we think of the church and its mission, we are reminded that the church is both an organism and an organization, or an organized organism. Actually, that’s the only way we can think of the church on earth, because that is the way God designed it-a living organism with design and purpose. We might say that the church is a structured organism. Further, the Apostle Paul tells us that God orchestrated the church, each part just as he wants it. Some are in the position of leadership while others are followers; yet both are extremely important to the design.

In my doctrinal dissertation a number of years ago, in the section on leadership, I highlighted three major points regarding leadership that I found in the writings of Richard Hutcheson, a Presbyterian Clergy in Washington D.C.

First, we must have a theology of leadership. Part of this theology is recognizing that every leader has a distinct calling and gifts in specific areas, just as the church has a distinct mission. Second, there is the pragmatic side of leadership. Hutcheson said that leaders must know how to use the leadership and managerial skills in a way that is compatible with our theology, especially our understanding of the church’s role.

Third, leadership has an evaluative role. This means that the leadership is asking the right questions: How effective are we in carrying the mission that God has assigned to our church? Are we effectively carrying out our church’s mission? Are our leaders using their specific God-given gifts? Are we using our leadership and management skills theologically to set the vision for the church’s mission?

What this means is that the church’s leaders, while viewing themselves as shepherds, must be trained in the best of leadership skills, starting with doctrine and theology. Leaders of the church should also have skills and techniques to be capable of leading in the broader kingdom. However, to avoid the temptation of simply adopting the world’s way of leadership, or to take the very opposite “fundamentalist” approach of proof texting everything we do, we must work together to integrate all the principles of leadership that we know into our theological framework. As effective leaders, we do not simply adopt the ways of the world in carrying out our responsibilities, nor do we narrow our scope by feeling as though we have to quote scripture and verse for all that we do.

God’s body, the church, or any other kingdom entity, is not to be carelessly and sloppily arranged. The church is made up of people, and the Apostle Paul says that the church is more or less effective, “as each part does its work.” The role of the leadership is to help each and every part (person) know where he or she fits into the body and what function they are to carry out. That does not automatically happen. It requires knowing our mission, knowing our people, and knowing how to lead them forward in their mission and purpose. Any organization, especially the church, must know and demonstrate how leaders and followers work together to carry out and accomplish their mission of equipping people to live as kingdom disciples in a fallen world.

Salvation Belongs to the Lord

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Here is book that you must read, preach, and teach. John Frame has produced another outstanding kingdom-building book. Though the title could be a bit misleading, true and wonderful as it is, it is more than about salvation. It is an introduction to systematic theology. Before you disregard it as just another theology book, remember from Frame’s other books, he views theology as life and life as theology. Even though he says that this is a book for beginners in theology, it will challenge us all to think more biblically. He says he has written for a college-level audience which I believe would also include new seminarians.

Salvation Belongs to the Lord is unique in that it will challenge those engaged in full-time teaching and preaching, but it is also very readable for others in the church. He says that this is not a part of his Theology of Lordship series, but I believe it should be read before the others in that series. In a readable and understandable style, Frame gives us the big picture of the Sovereign God and Lordship over all things, including the church and salvation. I agree that understanding the big picture of God’s truth and reality will enable us to handle the details more effectively.

This is also a timely book in that we are living in a time when studying doctrine, at least in a systematic way, is not very popular. Systematics is a pedagogical device to help us understand more of God and his Word as it relates the parts to the whole and ties the teachings of the Bible together. Frame is right when he says, “the Bible is not a miscellaneous collection of ideas but a coherent, consistent system of truth in which major doctrines depend on one another.” I believe that is why it is difficult for people to know how to think biblically, because they cannot always connect the dots in the Scriptures. This book will enable the reader and student to do that better and more practically than many other books that have been written.

The book contains two parts. Part one lays the foundation for what he writes about in his Lordship series books. It is about the Sovereign and Triune God, His Word, His Son, and His Holy Spirit. Part two deals with the ordo salutis, salvation, thus the title.

In part two he opens up the doctrines of grace, including the means of grace. He also treats the topic of the church and kingdom clearly. For example, while the Reformers listed three marks of the true visible church, Frame suggests that several others should be part of that list: love among the brothers and sisters, worship, and the Great Commission.

He gives good insight into the government of the church. His conclusion on the “Nature of the Church” challenges us to remember that “the well-being of the church has more to do with the work of the Spirit than with the form of government.” His section on the Church and Kingdom is also helpful. For example, he says that God’s kingdom is synonymous with God’s sovereignty. “The church consists of those who have been conquered by God’s saving power, who are now enlisted in the warfare of God’s kingdom against the kingdom of Satan…The church is the headquarters of the kingdom of God, the base from which God’s dominion extends and expands,” (page 249).

He also uses the term “missional church” to underscore the church’s task in making kingdom disciples. He highlights three elements that make up the missional church–worship, nurture, and witness.

Because of the value of this book, I would hope that a leader’s or teacher’s guide would be produced to assist churches in building this into their kingdom discipleship curriculum. Dr. William Edgar, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, made a descriptive comment on the cover of the book, “We can be grateful for such a powerful and clear exposition of the whole range of theology. It is at once vigorously orthodox and sweetly pastoral.”

Proverbs

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In an issue focusing on the rising generation, no better book of the Bible could be highlighted than Proverbs. This book of wisdom is full of advice and counsel directed to the young. If there is one message that comes through from Proverbs and should be part of the kingdom discipleship emphasis, it is that life and reality are all about the sovereign Lord who has created a life and reality that has structure, meaning, and purpose as we live according to his design.

One example: 3:1 ff “My son, don’t forget my instruction, and let your heart protect my commands. For the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.” Longman says, “…if a son obeys, he will find grace and good favor in the eyes of God and humanity. Or, perhaps to put the same thing in different words, to find grace and good favor in the eyes of God, and humanity, the son must pursue obedience.”

Longman gives the following quote from Bruce Waltke that reflects Waltke’s exposition of Proverbs 3:1-13, “In theological terms, the admonitions in the odd verses of 3:1-12 present obligations of the son, the human covenant partner; the argumentation in the even verses shows the obligations of the Lord, the divine covenant partner. The human partner has the responsibility to keep ethics and piety, and the divine partner the obligation to bless his worshiper with peace, prosperity, and longevity,” (page 130). I use this quote of Waltke from Longman because it summarizes Waltke’s comments in his commentary, but also demonstrates how the two commentaries interface with one another.

Not only would I encourage pastors and teachers to study and teach the book of Proverbs to their people, I would say that if you have these two commentaries, you have the best resources available for this undertaking. Both reflect painstaking exegesis, yet are written in a very usable manner. The appendix of topical studies contained in Longman’s work would provide a good action plan for teaching and studying this book. It selects key topics such as anger, appropriate expression of emotions and use of words, friendship, and women/marriage, to name a few. Longman says with the last topic listed, “A final word: As pointed out earlier in the commentary. Proverbs discusses women and wives and not men and husbands, because in its original setting the book was addressed to young men. However, modern women can certainly read the proverbs and apply them to their relationships with men.”

Both Waltke and Longman demonstrate in these commentaries the importance and relevance of the Old Testament for one’s Christian faith and life. Both books, while reflecting the best of scholarship, are equally useful and readable.

Longman said of Waltke’s work, “Everyone who seriously studies Proverbs needs to read this work.” I would agree but add the same words for Longman’s commentary. Both are successful at dealing with the original context and setting of Proverbs but also in making it applicable to our present day. Both commentaries reflect a consistency with other traditional commentaries but are also willing to consider new possibilities where appropriate

The Church’s Great Challenge

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The PCA, as a biblically reformed church, has a particular perspective on the Church and the kingdom. Being reformed in doctrine requires a strong commitment to covenant theology, and covenant theology gives special attention to the rising generation in its implementation. God has instructed us to make kingdom disciples by teaching his people to observe all that he has commanded, and that definitely includes our children and grandchildren, “that the next generation might know them, and the children yet unborn,”(Ps. 78:6). One of the things that makes the PCA distinct in this process is its focus is not simply on programs for the children and youth, but in helping them from the earliest to know what it means to be a child of the covenant and member of God’s church and kingdom and the difference that makes in the way a person thinks, lives, and perceives all of reality.

CEP Targets the Rising Generation


The fact that the PCA’s Strategic Planning Committee has identified this as one of the four areas of their focus indicates that our theology really does play the major role in determining our mission as a church. Though much of the PCA’s ministry to the rising generation is done locally, five PCA committees and agencies have ministries that reflect God’s commands regarding the next generation. Ministry to the rising generation has and continues to be a high priority within the PCA. It is and has always been the focus of Christian Education and Publications with its role of emphasizing the process of making kingdom disciples that know what they believe and why and are able to stand strong and firm in that faith.

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Recognizing the need to carry out God’s command regarding the next generation because they are tomorrow’s leaders in the church, home, community, and world, the goalis to assist local churches and parents in the process.The CEP staff regularly evaluates the situation regarding the rising generation. Through the training and resources we attempt to assist, coordinate, and make available those ingredients to fulfill our Lord’s assignment. For example, our annual children’s ministry, WIC, and YXL conferences are some of the training opportunities that we offer. CEP sets its focus to enable churches and families to be more affective not only in their own spiritual growth, but in their children and grandchildren as well.

Periodically, we bring together selected people across the church with particular expertise in children and youth ministries to brainstorm, discuss, and identify those areas that must be on the agenda. For example, we are in the process of developing a profile of what a typical PCA teenager, graduating from high school, should look like–what should they know, be, and do to serve God in his kingdom? This hopefully will assist churches and leaders to develop a process of moving them toward that goal.

Young people are facing some extremely difficult but important issues morally and ethically, especially in areas such as biotechnology. This is made more difficult because scientists operating in this area generally accept a dualistic view of life that separates values and morals from their work. Their mantra tends to be “if we can do it, it is alright to do so.” This manner of operation has already caused many problems that we have to face. Our young people must be taught and encouraged to think from a biblical perspective and have God’s thoughts as their guide.

CEP begins with covenant children through its Sunday school, teacher training, and commitment to help churches and parents in discipling children and youth. More than 60 percent of PCA churches are using our Sunday school curriculum from Great Commission Publications. CEP regularly trains and assists teachers and church leaders in developing their Christian education or discipleship program. Leaders of children’s ministries, as well as youth leaders, meet regularly for training opportunities conducted by the CEP staff. CEP offers counseling and consulting to churches and individuals involved in this ministry. CEP focuses on intensive, in-depth training for selected teenagers with leadership potential from across the denomination, helping them develop a kingdom framework with a biblical world and life view.

Resources are supplied from CEP’s staff, regional trainers, bookstore and electronic media to help local churches disciple the rising generations. Conferences on Christian schooling are an ongoing part of CEP’s ministry as well. CEP will be partnering with Briarwood Presbyterian Church to present a conference on Christian schooling. Check our website for details about that conference to be held June 2007 at Briarwood in Birmingham, AL.

A major focus of our mission of “discipling God’s covenant people” has been training older men and women to disciple the younger generations. CEP makes available to local churches and presbyteries training and resources to assist in making kingdom disciples. Producing resources and training defines CEP’s role in equipping for this task.

Christian Education and Publications will continue to expand its training and resources. Specifically, CEP will intensify efforts:

  • to bring together the church, home, and school as they minister to the rising generation. At our annual children’s ministry conferences we offer workshops on that topic. We are presently teaching at several cooperating seminaries.

  • to study the trends relating to the culture of the rising generation to assist churches in their discipleship ministry.

  • to give attention to the multicultural needs in the PCA, relating to training and resources.

  • to facilitate more effective ministries among women and men, as they relate to the rising generation. That was the theme of our recent 2006 WIC Conference in Atlanta with 4,000 participants.

PCA Committees and Agencies Target the Rising Generation


Not only does CEP have a key ministry to the rising generation, so does Covenant Collegeby educating college students to become more intentionally kingdom-oriented. All of Covenant’s career paths are focused on preparing students to see the totality of the Christian life and how to integrate their faith in all that they do. The college focus is to disciple students with a kingdom perspective and a biblically reformed world and life view.

Covenant College and CEP are presently partnering with our unique summer Youth Excelling in Leadership (YXL) conference for high school students. This conference attracts key teenagers from local churches who spend a week on the Covenant College campus. They are taught a biblical world and life view perspective and how that impacts their lives daily. Covenant College has also agreed to offer some scholarship assistance for college to those who participate in YXL. Covenant College is a valuable resource and we are pleased to be able to work with them in jointly ministering to the rising generation.

Covenant Theological Seminary is another PCA agency realizing the need to challenge and equip their students to consider fulltime ministry to children and youth. The seminary offers opportunities to study today’s youth culture both in urban and rural context as part of students’ training. It demonstrates a strong commitment through the youth ministry track to train people for this ministry and has worked with us in that task.

Ridge Haven, our PCA conference center, is also committed to the rising generation through its facilities and programs by bringing together cooperative efforts with other PCA committees, agencies, presbyteries, and local churches in this task. These efforts are seen in its summer camps and conferences, weekend retreats, and special events such as YoWAW (jointly sponsored by several of our committees and agencies for high school students).

Reformed University Ministries is another indication of the PCA’s commitment to the rising generation. RUM establishes ministries to college students in their environment to help them know the meaning of being a kingdom disciple and seeing all of life under the Lordship of Christ. They develop opportunities through both corporate and personal ministries to students, some of whom are struggling with a variety of things such as postmodernism, the rugged individualism of Western thought, and the need to be involved in ministry either in the local church or other areas of opportunity.

RUM sets forth a clear message and ministry that seeks to connect the rising generation with solidly biblical and reformed theology with special emphasis on their place in God’s kingdom and especially in his church.

Mission to the World is also a part of helping churches expose their young people to other cultures and ministry needs through its short term missions programs. Thousands of PCA young people have been able to experience another culture through their ministry.

Conclusion


We are attempting to impact the rising generation throughout the PCA by reflecting a clear priority to minister to them. As the committee responsible for coordinating discipleship by providing training and resources, we believe we have never faced a more challenging moment where the rising generation is concerned. With the obvious revival in spirituality, Christianity is viewed as only one among many options. With the dualistic philosophy permeating our Western churches and society in general, the Lordship of Christ is not clearly understood. Connecting Sunday with the rest of the week is not the focus. In this context, the future offers a multitude of opportunities. We have a growing sense of challenge to minister to the rising generations, plus, we are becoming more and more aware that we can be more effective working together than alone. It is true that the whole is larger than “the sum of its parts,” and that is clearly evident as we think of the rising generation.

We will continue to challenge local churches to focus on discipling all their people, especially their younger generations, with a kingdom world and life view. Our role is to encourage, challenge, and assist you in that process.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven…whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea,” (Matt 18: 1-6).

Rapture Fiction and the Evangelical Crisis

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You might be surprised to see CEP reviewing a book on fiction, let alone a book on the rapture, but we find ourselves in a situation where many of our people are reading this fictional series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. There is a hunger in the church for information about the Second Coming of Jesus, and they are going to whatever sources that are providing it, even if it is not accurate. Gribben has written a book that is very helpful in dealing with the content of what is in the current fictional series, both for the professional as well as they person reading these works. This book is not an attack on dispensationalism. Instead, it deals with the three main flaws in how the books cover conversion, the church, and the Christian life. Since 1995, this series (and others) has sold over 60 million copies, and has produced movies/DVDs as well.

One reason this book should be read in the PCA is that Gribben gives a good background to the whole dispensational position and how it has evolved over almost 200 years.

The chapter I really enjoyed was what he called “The Origin of Rapture Fiction.” I did not know that such works have been around since the early 20th century. Gribben goes into detail how each era these works reflected the political situation, finding a different “antichrist” and “mark of the beast” in the current day.

Gribben gives many examples of how the books give a very watered down presentation of the Gospel in the ways people are brought to “conversion.” The importance of the church is greatly distorted in that many pastors are “left behind” only to discover too late that they never really understood the Gospel until now (true in many churches, but not in all as implied). People who come to conversion during this period find they fellowship with other “tribulation saints” rather than with a church. “Rapture fictions underplay the significance of the church, its continuing status as the Body of Christ, and the importance of its means of grace, both in the ‘church age’ and in the tribulation.” (86) This distorted ecclesiology is evident from the poor understanding of the Christian life. These novels celebrate the individual as individuals instead of seeing every convert as part of the Body of Christ. The books celebrate the wisdom of men rather than the Scripture. The novels stake their reputation and credibility of Scripture on the accuracy of the authors’ predictions. “This is a gross manipulation of truth.” (93)

“If this modern evangelicalism has lost sight of the contents of the gospel, is unsure about the purpose of the church, has no appreciation of the significance of the sacraments, can imagine a life of faith without God’s law or suffering under Christ’s cross, it is an evangelicalism unworthy of the name. More seriously, it is an evangelicalism unworthy of the Savior. That is the tragedy of Left Behind – and the devastating consequence of the wider evangelical crisis.” (108-109)

What is clear is that Christians are reading these books en mass. It is hard enough to read historical fiction and be able to discern what is historical and what is fiction. It is even harder for believers to read Rapture Fiction and be able to discern truth from fiction.

The Church of Jesus Christ has a great future to look forward to in the New Heaven and New Earth, yet so little time seems to be spent teaching about this future. What is evident from the sales of these books is that people are hungry to know what lies ahead, and knowing what lies ahead should lead us to living life now under the authority of our Lord. We need to be teaching our people to discern truth from error/fiction. Here is an area of great need and concern. This book can help.