Youth Ministries

Great Commission Publications New “So What?” Youth Bible Study – Identity and Purpose

January 8, 2013 by Editor

Help Teens Discover their Master Plan for Life!

Do your teens groan when you say, “Turn to Genesis 1-3”?

Do they think they know everything there is to know about the biblical account of Creation and the Fall? Do they feel like they’ve heard the story of Adam and Eve a million times?

Your teens may think they know the stories from Genesis 1-3 very well, but the reality is that (for many), their understanding is limited and their knowledge is sprinkled with misconceptions, such as, Didn’t Eve eat an apple?

Genesis 1-3 is a compelling narrative with familiar names but it also deals with hard, profound questions about life-questions that need God’s answers. Foundational answers to basic questions such as Who am I? and What is my purpose? find their starting point in these chapters. They establish a solid footwork to deepen your teens’ understanding of God, the world, redemption, and themselves.

High school students are beginning to think of careers and marriage. They are wondering about themselves and how they fit into the world. They are also living in a very real present-struggling with school, family interactions, relationships with other teens, just to name a few.

In today’s culture, marriage is mocked, work endured, and the Sabbath not even considered. The individual is frequently presented as the center of the universe. And sin? If the word is even used, it refers only to relationships with others, not to a response to God, i.e., As long as you don’t hurt another person, you are not sinning.

So how will your teens find answers to such questions as:

What should I do with my life?
What makes life meaningful?
Is marriage all that important?
Waiting for sex until marriage-is that realistic?
What happens in the afterlife?

Challenge teens to explore these questions and learn truth when they use the newest So What? youth Bible study, Identity & Purpose.

During this time of transition from childhood to adulthood, teens are wrestling with making their faith more fully their own. We shouldn’t be intimidated by their doubts and questions; instead, use them as opportunities to look into God’s Word for answers and provide a framework for understanding who they are and how they relate to God, others, and creation.

The church should be a safe atmosphere for your students to struggle with these issues as they look at the Bible to see how it speaks to their world. Encourage them to express their thoughts and questions honestly. Depend on the Holy Spirit to deepen their understanding and grow their faith in Christ as they dig into God’s Word.

Try one free Identity & Purpose lesson at www.sowhatstudies.org

The Body of Christ: The Next Generations

July 24, 2012 by Editor

In our Christian education and Publications training events, we use the phrase “the whole Gospel for the whole church.” We have been asked what we mean by that, to which we have responded: Kingdom discipleship focuses on the whole truth of scripture, and its audience is the entire church at all age levels.

In Making Kingdom Disciples: A New Framework, we point out that Calvin’s emphasis regarding making disciples begins at the earliest stages of a covenant person’s life. The sooner we begin to self-consciously disciple our covenant children, the easier it will be for them to see themselves as covenant children belonging to God’s kingdom and that being a Christian is not only about going to church, or personally believing in Jesus, or reading or hearing the Bible, but every day of the week in all things we are to live for Christ. He is Lord of all. As we have said many times, discipleship involves “teaching to observe all things that God has commanded” and that is connected with baptism. It involves helping our children understand who they are, as well as who God is. As we teach them by the Word and example, our prayer is that they will soon claim for themselves that reality.

In the three previous issues of Equip to Disciple we have focused on: What is the kingdom? What is the church? How do they relate, and what is their respective roles in God’s sovereign plan? As the covenant family, we must obey the Lord’s command expressed in both commissions referred to in previous articles.

I have asked Ms. sue Jakes, our Christian education specialist who focuses on children’s ministry, and our youth and family consultant, Danny Mitchell, to give us their ideas about how a local church can implement a plan of disciple-making with our families, children, and youth. You will recall in the previous issue of equip to Disciple, we made suggestions for the adult education or discipleship strategy.

If nothing else will bring you to the throne of grace begging for mercy and wisdom, the responsibility of discipling children will. And the whole body of Christ has that responsibility. Before we consider each portion of our duty, we must pray that we would never hinder, but always aid, our children’s journey into and through the Kingdom. We must also pray daily for the children in our home and church, that the spirit will work in their hearts that they might become true Jesus men and women.

The most strategic place for making Kingdom disciples in the local church is in the ministry to children. Not only are the children learning and growing, but also all who are teaching and leading are growing as disciples in the process. Most educators agree that one does not truly know anything until he teaches it, and as we teach the Word to young children we can expect it to be life-changing, not only for them, but for us. The foundation of our disciple making ministry for children should be the true teaching of the Word which conforms to what is being preached from the pulpit. Great Commission Publications’ Show Me Jesus curriculum teaches the whole counsel of God, seeing Christ in all of scripture, and trains the teachers to communicate the gospel story in every lesson. Whether this complete Bible curriculum is used in Sunday school or some other Bible instruction setting, it should be foundational in the training of the children in your church.

In conjunction with the knowledge of the Word which leads us to Christ, children must be indoctrinated, understanding what they believe and why. For centuries the church has catechized her children. We must not stop now, but if we have ceased this practice, we must begin again. Very few catechism programs in the church are successful without strong parental involvement. If you have a special program intended for catechism memory, parents should be guided in their home study and memory work with their children.

A kingdom disciple is not only one who knows King Jesus, but one who loves, serves, and thinks like King Jesus. How do we begin to take our children from the classical grammar stage of their faith into the logical and rhetorical living out of what they believe? A standard component of our ministry to children must be parental training. It is the serving, giving, loving, obedient parent who will most likely produce a serving, giving, loving, obedient child. Again, this is a heart issue, but no person can see a parent’s heart better than their own child. They are blessings in this way – always reminding us of our need of saving grace. As we know and see the needs of each individual child, the church’s ministry is to ask what we can do to aid the parent in bringing the child to Christ. This is the gospel message – Jesus came down to earth, becoming man, and we must meet every child and family where they are, while knowing that our God is faithful. He is most glorified when the most difficult circumstances are overcome each day by the work of his grace. True kingdom ministry is never trying to get around a special need, but looking for the power of God to work mightily in it.

As a child sees the gospel in everyday living, he must be given every opportunity to use his faith language. Children should be praying. They must watch us pray, pray with us, and then be encouraged to pray continually. serving the family, the Body, and the community is also using their faith language. As we find each child’s gifts by exploring what they love to do, we must then give them many occasions to serve others. Children should also have the opportunity to verbally communicate what has been imparted to them. Again, we tell them all that we know, but do they really know it until they have to teach it themselves? Often times we shy away from having older children teach younger, but this is still the best training ground if they are going to be disciple-makers themselves. And isn’t this the only true measure that we have made a disciple – that they become disciple-makers themselves?

Are we teaching our children to take every thought captive to Christ? Are we defining the culture through the Kingdom grid? The church and home must come together continually and ask these questions, holding one another accountable to the task of training our children by God’s Deuteronomy 6 method. We must talk of these things when we rise up.

Do our families begin the day with Kingdom talk, giving God’s purpose for the day that he has made? And when we sit down, are we reading the Word at home around the meal table, discussing truth and how we apply it to all of life? And when we walk along the way (or drive in the car), are we spending our time wisely preparing our hearts for Kingdom work, singing his songs, telling his stories? And when we lie down, do we remember his good deeds and pray for all those who we are called to remember and serve? Life is war and our children must be armed for it on every front.

It is time to raise our expectations for the next generation of Kingdom disciples. But as we raise our expectations we must also raise our commitment to the task to which God has called us. examine your home and church. Are we getting by with programs and ideas that we hope will work out in the end? Or do we have a clear vision about what we are to do and how we are to implement God’s plan for making Kingdom disciples? You can read this and be overwhelmed or overjoyed. We must be overjoyed that God would continually entrust us with his children and his promise. He will be God to our children and our children’s children. And as we obey him in his commission to make disciples by populating the world with the next generation of Christians, we must never be overwhelmed because he has all authority in heaven and on earth, and he is with us.

Most churches will at some point wrestle with the question of purpose for their ministry to the next generation. The answer to this foundational question becomes the destination point that the entirety of the youth program is moving toward. In the same way that a GPs needs the destination point in order to tell you how to get there, a youth ministry needs a desired outcome to be able to chart the best course of action. Without a well-thought out, biblically-informed, easily-understood purpose, your youth ministry will waste valuable time on programs that do little more than entertain the rising generation. For this reason, every church should not only do the work necessary to answer the question of purpose in ministry to youth, but it should regularly use that purpose as the lens with which the youth program is evaluated.

In youth ministry, our first inclination is to judge a program by numbers. Our second inclination is to try to decide the effectiveness of what we do by determining how much fun our students had at a particular event. unfortunately, we are often further down the list of ministry critiques before we start analyzing our program based on whether or not Kingdom disciples are being produced. It is a sad indictment for any church that would believe that their ministry to the next generation is doing its job because 100 youth went on the ski trip or they all had an awesome time at the lock-in. That is not to knock the value of these types of events in a youth program. Youth need places within the body of Christ to have fun. However, the call of the Church is to make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded. This is the basis and purpose of our ministry to rising generations. It is also the standard by which we should judge our youth programs. How does your annual trip to the slopes of Colorado help your church develop your youth as Kingdom disciples? Or, for that matter, how does helping with recreation at VBs help a teenager become a Kingdom disciple? By asking these kinds of questions, your church can more effectively use its resources to grow the next generation into a generation that seeks after the Lord.

Whether your church decides to continue, cancel or add a ski trip to Colorado is a decision that can be made at any point. There are any number of disciple-making reasons to decide to go, and any number of reasons that a church would decide not to. In other words, the methodology of disciple-making in youth ministry can vary from church to church. One example that several churches in our denomination are dealing with, concerning their youth programs, has to do with summer mission trips. Traditionally, youth ministries go on a summer mission trip. There was a time that many of us felt that that the more exotic the locale, the more effective the trip would be. Getting students out of their comfort zone; so we scoured the globe for just the right comfort-stretching location. In an attempt to be missional in our “Jerusalem,” the trend over the past few years has been to look closer to home for our summer youth mission experience. Both types of trips can be effective in helping grow your students into Kingdom disciples. Your youth ministry decision-makers can make that call. The kingdom disciple-making principle here is that the youth of your church need to be engaged in outreach ministries; ideally, both global and local, but the ministry context of a particular church and available resources will drive that decision.

There are several other kingdom disciple-making principles that should be part of any youth program. Before we go further, it may be helpful to give a working definition of a Kingdom disciple. A Kingdom disciple is someone who thinks God’s thoughts after Him and applies them to all of life. That is what your church should be striving toward with its youth ministry. That is the answer to the question of purpose for next generation ministries. The next step is to think about the kingdom disciple-making principles that come from our purpose and should be part of your youth program. From these principles, your church should make its programmatic decisions.

1. Knowing the Word: every church needs to work to effectively teach the Word of God to its teenagers. using biblically strong material like Great Commission and Publications’ So What? youth Bible studies is important. However, you also need teachers of the Word who know how to apply it to this generation of teenagers. This requires that adults be willing to spend adequate time in teaching preparation, time listening to the struggles and joys of their youth, and time learning what is going on in youth culture. At most, we will have three or four opportunities (sunday school, sermon, youth group and discipleship group) each week to teach the Word to the students in our church. That is maybe four hours out of each week. This is why we must take every opportunity to teach the next generation seriously. At the same time, we need to be equipping our youth with the resources to study, understand and apply the Word on their own. Neglecting this step can cost your students dearly as they move out into the world without the ability to understand and apply the Word without someone telling them how.

2. Teaching the Word: students need opportunities within the safety of the Body of Christ to teach the word of God to younger children and youth. Teaching the Word not only forces the student to learn it but also moves them into the process of becoming a disciple-maker. This is a scary thought for some churches because teenagers are… well… teenagers, and they say and do teenage things. Relax. God has been using our weakness to perfect his power since… well… adults ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and evil and were cast out of the Garden of eden.

3. Modeling the Word:This is so important that doing it justice in a few short sentences is not possible. The bottom line is that the next generation needs adults in their lives who will form meaningful relationships with them for extended periods of time. And here is the crazy part: youth desire relationships with adults who will listen and speak into their lives. This is not just a biblical mandate for God’s covenant people but modern-day research is saying the same thing. You can read researchers like George Barna, Christian smith, Walt Mueller, and Chap Clark to verify the claim that was just made. The youth in your church need…YOu.

4. Living the Word:The youth in your church need to learn how to live and function in community. Youth group gatherings can be good places for this to happen. They can force students to deal with conflict, with other personalities and with the opposite sex within a structured environment. However, they need to learn to do this within the multi-generational Body of Christ as well. This means constantly isolating the youth from the rest of the church stunts their growth as functional members of the Body.

5. Spreading the Word:Youth need to be trained and have opportunity to be engaged in outreach ministry

6. Praying the Word:studies show that Christians stink at praying. studies also show that we, adults, are reproducing ourselves in the next generation. If A + B = C in this case, then the next generation is not going to be known as a praying generation. Do your students know the value of praying? Have they seen it modeled within the youth program?

Any point when multiple kingdom disciple-making principles are happening at once is a special youth ministry moment. This is often one sign that a youth ministry is thinking in terms of Kingdom disciple-making. One example of how we do this at CeP is our YXL (Youth eXcelling in Leadership) conference where all six of these principles are happening in one conference. The website www.yxl.pcacep.org has information about all three YXL conferences. Youth sunday school is a place in the local church to re-imagine by using the kingdom-disciple paradigm. It is a time that should be more than just about knowing the Word. How many other of the principles should come into play if we just ask the question “How effective is our youth sunday school at producing Kingdom disciples?”

For a multitude of reasons, raising the next generation is not an easy call God has given to His people, but it is a critical call. At the same time, it is a call that we should delight in helping to fulfill. Perhaps the greatest delight is that the call comes to the whole Covenant Community, not just a handful of brave volunteers or paid staff in your church. It is only when we join together as God’s people that will we most effectively grow the next generation into Kingdom disciples. May God find us to be faithful stewards of this call!

The teens in your church are total Bible experts, right?

June 26, 2012 by Editor

The teens in your church are total Bible experts, right?

The latest survey data says that 85% of American homes have a Bible in them-and, on average, each home has 4.5 Bibles.

Let’s do the math: 85% of 311 million American homes is about 264 million … times 4.5 Bibles per home …. That is 1,189,575,000 Bibles in America. And that doesn’t even count the ones online, on phones, in stores, etc…

So that means the teens in your church are total Bible experts … right? But can they articulate thoughtful responses to these questions:

What makes the Bible unique?
How can you be sure it’s God’s Word?
What’s the point of poetry or prophecy?
What’s the big story of the Bible?
And most important: What’s the Bible all about? Or, even better, WHO is the Bible all about?

The newest study in the So What? youth Bible study series, Treasuring God’s Word, is designed to help your students explore the Bible from beginning to end, to grow in their love for Christ, who is the Word, and to understand how to apply it to their lives.

The first three sessions are devoted to the Bible itself: what makes it unique, how we can trust it, and the internal and external evidences for its accuracy and reliability.

Next, students look at the big story of the Bible using key words and icons-studying its storyline from beginning to end in just three sessions. That’s the whole Bible in three weeks! It’s a great way to get a “big picture” view of the Bible. Whether for students who are very familiar with the Bible or new Christians who need help piecing it all together, these sessions will give them a handle on the who, what, when, where, and why of God’s rescue plan through Christ.

In the third unit, teenagers will study four types of literature: narrative, poetry, prophecy, and letters. This important section will teach them how to read different genres and learn how to interpret and apply each to their lives.

The last three sessions focus on applying the Word. As James writes, “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.” Teens will see how knowing the big story of the Bible is an effective way to share the good news of Christ with others.

Youth leaders can use these 13 sessions for three months or easily break it into three- and four-week chunks because each unit has its own study booklet.

At the end of each study session is a devotional journaldesigned to get students into God’s Word during the week. It’s also a great tool for midweek meetings. Students may use these devotional questions to apply and pray through the truths they learned in Scripture during the session.

For more than 50 years, Great Commission Publications has served the church with biblical resources. Interactive, flexible, dynamic-the So What? youth Bible studies are designed to help teens take ownership of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Our ultimate objective is to see Christ’s church strong and prospering … filled with believers who “glorify God and enjoy him forever”!

Download a free lesson from Treasuring God’s Word and learn more today: http://sowhatstudies.org/studies/study-treasuring-gods-word/

Should the Church Separate, Identify, Transform, or Effectively be Salt and Light in the World?

December 2, 2011 by Charles

I have had people ask why it is so important to think from a kingdom world and life view perspective. Why is it important to have a right kingdom paradigm? Jesus said, “Seek first my kingdom…” The kingdom is our priority, if we listen to, seek to please, and serve Him. Of course, that requires knowing something about the kingdom in both its diversity of activities and roles, as well as its unity of purpose. Keep in mind, we are not speaking of the kingdom of God or kingdom of Christ in geographic terms, but rather of the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus as King over His kingdom. Things will change with His final return.

First, I would say that having the right kingdom perspective keeps our focus on the sovereign Lord and King. Life is really about Him and his will in the ultimate sense. We are here at His pleasure, and if we are in His favor, it is by His grace and mercy.

Second, a right view of the kingdom helps remind us that as Christians our lives are whole, not fragmented or chaotic. It avoids the mistake of saying one part of life belongs to the Lord and another part belongs to us, as though there is a part of life and reality that does not belong to the Lord. Life cannot operate with such a dualistic nor even antithetical view between the spiritual and the natural. There is no sacred and secular dualistic approach to life from a biblically reformed position.

Read entire issue of Equip to Disciple, 4th Quarter 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

Third, being kingdom focused in the wholistic sense, enables us to see that the special and general kingdom are actually one. As one kingdom, it includes the kingdom of darkness (with a little “k”), which should help us remember the church’s mission, as delineated by Jesus in places such as the Great Commission, is the spiritual mission of making kingdom disciples that requires discipling in a way that helps Christians know how to be in the world but not of the world. That is critical.

In Making Kingdom Disciples, A New Framework, we pointed out something we have learned, especially from Ecclesiastes. You can be a Christian and think like a Christian, or you can be a Christian and not think like a Christian, or you can be a Christian and sometimes think like a Christian and sometimes not. The church’s assignment is to enable those in Christ to be like Him, to think His thoughts, as both David and Paul have reminded us (Ps. 139:17, Rom. 12:1 & 2), and know how to be a witness for Christ to the world, as salt and light Christians, in a manner that does not compromise His truth.

Kingdom discipleship focuses on the transformation of the mind, not simply in an abstract way, but in a manner that enables Christians to know what God would have them to do in life, as they move outside the special kingdom (the church) into the kingdom general to live with a Christian perspective (see illustration on page 8). The key is to have a kingdom focus that understands and knows what it means to acknowledge King Jesus as Lord of all. Of course, you do not have to be a Christian to live in the kingdom general because it encompasses all of life and reality, but to be a Christian living in the kingdom, you must have a Christian perspective and commitment as you live each day. No matter whether you are a school teacher, a technician, a historian, a scientist, an artist, a politician, etc., God requires that we bring His will and the mind of Christ into all those areas of life. If the church is following His instructions regarding the discipleship of all Christians, young and old, we will be better equipped to live in this world in a way that brings honor and glory to our God and does so in a way that demonstrates a Christian influence in all things. Paul said, “Whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).

As Abraham Kuyper demonstrated in his Lectures on Calvinism, and as does Robert Munger in his popular allegorical booklet My Heart, Christ’s Home, all of life belongs to Him. There is not one square inch that does not belong to Christ, as Kuyper said.

At this point I want to plant this “seed” and continue to water it as we move forward. One of the main concerns preachers and teachers should have, whether formally or informally, teaching the Word to children, youth, and adults, is this: “Are my students or members getting the truth and understanding that being a Christian involves more than the basic and essential personal relation with Jesus? Do they understand that Christianity is a way of life, not only at church or even at home, but in the world as well?”

You may have read or at least heard at some point about a book by Reinhold Niebuhr entitled Christ and Culture. He presents differing thoughts and views on how Christians should relate to their cultural setting. In that book Neibuhr lays out three possible models as they relate to the Christian and culture. The first is called the separational model which refers to Christians withdrawing from the world. The second is the identificational model which refers to Christians living in the world and often identifying, even compromising, with culture. The third is the transformational model which suggests that Christians are responsible to try to transform culture, its structures, laws, etc., seeking to end up with a Christian culture. You recognize that third model in some of the more recent movements such as “reconstruction theonomy” or “the moral majority” or “the new religious right movement.”

All three models revolve around how to be a Christian, in Christ, and how to live in the world in a way that does not compromise the Christian faith nor keep Christians from failing to serve God’s purpose in their lives. As the late Robert Webber once wrote, the issue is, “How can I be a Christian in this dog-eat-dog world?”

We respond to those three paradigms like this (by the way, there is some truth in each of the three though they are ultimately flawed in light of God’s Word):

First, the separation model reminds us that we are not to be of the world, in the sense that our morals, values, lifestyles, and ideologies are not to be determined by the world’s philosophies. However, the Bible does teach that we are to go into the world, yet doing so in a way that enables us to have a holy influence, by not withdrawing our Christian witness.

Second, the identification model opens the door to be both in the world and of the world which usually translates that the world has more influence on us than we have on the world. Again, we can and should use much in our culture as a means of serving God and bearing witness to Christ, but not to the point of comprising any part of God’s truth. We live in a fallen world and our culture is not free from the kingdom of darkness influence. Actually, we live in daily spiritual warfare. A further point to remember about this second model is that the more we are like something, especially what we are speaking against, the less influence we will have in that circumstance to make a difference.

Third, the transformation model indicates that Christians have the responsibility to build a Christian society which is done not only by word and deed but by legislation as well.

As we understand the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Christ paradigm, we realize that while the kingdom is very present with us, there is also along with that now aspect, the not yet eschatological fulfillment that will happen only with the return of Christ. At that time everything will be transformed into the new heavens and new earth, but not until then will we see complete transformation.

If the above remarks are true, then what is the church’s collective and the Christian’s individual roles in the kingdom? In one sense, as many have said, the church is presently the most visible form of the kingdom; however, we must remember that while the church is that special part of God’s kingdom (see the diagram from the first article in Equip to Disciple, particularly in their roles of making disciples), it must do so in a way that enables Christians to live in the world, unspotted from the world, as “salt and light” Christians. And, we must realize, and not expect, the church, to move beyond its assignment into the general kingdom. For example, while the church must “teach us to observe all things that Christ has commanded,” including how to think from a Christian perspective regarding government or the state, the church does not make political statements that take it outside the kingdom’s special realm and task. Would that the kingdom general were more like the church but not the church like the kingdom general, in all the aspects of life and reality, at least not until Christ returns. However, I think we could say that if the church is faithful in carrying out its disciple-making role, there certainly should be a noticeable Christ-likeness in all areas of life from Christians.

We need to realize that while this approach will not end in cultural transformation, and God does not require that of us, it will enable Christians to be in the world but not of the world and to have, by God’s common grace, a godly influence on those around them without communicating a “holier than thou” attitude. That attitude may in fact give us an opportunity to speak prophetically to that situation or circumstance.

For example, in a certain high school mathematics class there appears to be cheating on tests and homework. It seems as though almost everyone is doing it. The Christian young person understands that he must live the truth, do his work, and trust the Lord for the results, even when his friends make it easy for him to follow their pattern. You see, that test or homework assignments are not about the student, they are about God whom the Christian represents in that class and what He expects from His students.

Or take the business man compiling his yearly taxes. He knows from some of his associates how to end run the system and violate some of the tax laws, but because his primary mission in his business is to serve Christ and seek to honor Him, he will not allow himself to follow their example.

Or think of all the wife or husband swapping going on in today’s world. Everybody does it and who cares, so what’s the big deal? Christians must care because God has clearly spoken His mind and will regarding sexual behavior and marriage. We do not participate in those activities that violate God’s revealed will. Why? To make us acceptable to God? No, because God, having already chosen us in Christ, desires that our motive be to please Him by living a godly and holy life.

Developing this world and life kingdom focus means that sermons and Bible studies must be presented in such a way that helps the people to be able to make that kind of world and life view connection. We must know that people in the pew and in our classes struggle to make that connection. They often need help in doing that. So, rather than saying or being tempted to think, “The only way I can survive in this life is to compromise the Christian faith in the marketplace,” we stand strongly and firmly in the Lord and say, “Because of Christ, I cannot compromise His truth even if I am the only one not participating.” That’s where the church’s role to equip Christians to think like a Christian and to live like one, no compromise, but rather to live in a way where all for Jesus comes into play.

While it is true that Christians live in or may come from different cultures, one being family, another church, another the marketplace, in public and in private, the kingdom disciple, equipped and trained by his church and his own personal studies and devotions, realizes that his life is all about King Jesus. Even as he is trapped in the tension and temptation to be like the world, he realizes giving in to temptation is not God’s will for his life. And remember, as the Apostle Paul said in Romans 12: 1, 2, as we think with a transformed mind, transformed by the Word and Spirit, we will know what God would have us to do.

That, my friends, is what kingdom education or discipleship is all about. Equipping Christians to live for Jesus in a way that serves His purpose through us to this generation. And the earlier we understand that in our Christian lives, the greater our desire will be to serve and please him and consequently experience His power within us. As He said to Pilate on the night of the trial, “I have come to bear witness to the truth.” Those words from Jesus, at that crucial moment in His life, have a message for us. From cradle to grave we are to be people of the truth. That’s what the church is all about-the truth. Paul calls the church the ground and pillar of truth. God’s truth in all of life, helps us through encouragement, instruction, and fellowship as we seek to live for him each day.

We must work and pray for the church to maintain its spiritual role of making kingdom disciples in order for those disciples to live as a Christian in today’s world. One depends on the other even as both the kingdom general and the kingdom special work to serve the same end or purpose which is “seeking to bring honor and glory to God in all things.”

(In part three we will attempt to describe and design the church’s role in discipling God’s covenant people.).

The Task of Christian Education

December 2, 2011 by Editor

Editor’s Note: This past summer the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, with whom we partner in our Great Commission Publication venture, celebrated its 75th anniversary. The OPC and the PCA formed the partnership in 1975. The following comments are from the oldest living OPC Minister and a former member of the GCP Board. With the permission of New Horizons, we have excerpted a portion of an address Dr. John Galbraith delivered at that assembly on the topic of Christian Education.

…One thing that was very important to that first Assembly (OPC) was the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And to do it, the assembly immediately set up three committees to help the congregations as then existed and those that would be formed. Those committees were the Committees on Home and Foreign Missions and Christian Education. The Committees on Home and Foreign Missions had one message. They were obeying Jesus Christ, who said specifically what we were to do. He said in Acts 1, “Ye shall be my witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In Matthew 28, he said, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach.” That was not just a missionary goal. That teaching included the Bible, the entire content of the Word of God. We came to think of that then, and to call it the Reformed Faith, after the Reformation.

Now, there is a difference between the two missions committees and the Committee on Christian Education that should be noted. Those two missions committees do their work and carry on their ministries outside the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. They preach to those who are without. The Committee on Christian Education, however, teaches and preaches to those of us who are within. This is a monumental task because it means the Committee on Christian Education teaches those who are to teach. It is a committee to teach teachers.

Read entire issue of Equip to Disciple, 4th Quarter 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

But, a lot more than that, it is a committee that goes from the cradle to the grave. It picks up through the ministry of Great Commission Publications. It picks up through children who haven’t yet gone to school and it leads congregations to teach the scripture to those little, tiny tots. It teaches the scripture itself, and what we believe the Scriptures teach, in the Catechisms…

…I say to you that the work of the Committee on Christian Education is the basic agency of the General Assembly. It is not more important than missions, not at all. How could you beat the importance of those words of Jesus, “Go and teach”? Those are not just important; those are essential, and we must not give them up. But what I am saying is that the Committee on Christian Education has helped our churches to teach those people who go out as missionaries and teach the Word.

We should be thankful on this occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of our church. God has been good. We have missed many times in our aims. We have sinned. Let’s not forget that. We cannot boast that we are the perfect church. We are so far from it. But there is one thing for which we can give God thanks: for moving us to desire, seek, and be faithful, as far as we are able, to God’s Word.

God has given us a promise in Isaiah and in Habakkuk that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the water covers the sea. The hymn writer picks up that thought. He changes the venue a bit. He says, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run.” We believe that. We sing that. God has called upon us to maintain a faithful and energetic Committee on Christian Education….

…I say to you, “Keep standing fast.” That doesn’t need any exegesis. You know exactly what it means. Stand fast in the faith once delivered to the saints. Stand fast on the Word of God, and then get going on the things that God has given us to do. Teach our people well. Teach them to do their job, and to do it well. And to that I think I can say only my own amen and say also, to God be the glory…

The Kingdom Misunderstood, Part 1

August 15, 2011 by Charles

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two part article dealing with the misperceptions many Christians have of the kingdom of God. What is ther ole of believers in the kingdom, how are they to impact the broader kingdom? Are there really two kingdoms?

Introduction

I begin by introducing you to Bill and Mary Wright. Bill is a 34 year old husband and father of two children, Terry 10 and Susan 7. Mary is a stay at home mom and has home schooled her children for a couple years, though they are presently attending a Christian school that meets in their church. Bill and Mary are active church members and clearly demonstrate a love for the Lord that is obvious to others.

Bill is a member of a successful law firm. He teaches a young adult Sunday school class in his church and is very active in civic events. He is on the church’s board of officers. You might call the Wright’s the quintessential Christian family.

Bill majored in political science in college and later entered law school. Presently, he is an active member of the bar. For several years Bill has had a desire to become more involved in politics. His friends have suggested that on a number of occasions, so has his wife Mary. He represents the more conservative line of political thinking and is certainly an advocate for rule of law in our country.

Read entire Equip 3rd Quarter, 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

But as Bill thinks about this, he wrestles with a dilemma. He is a Christian and believes in church and state separation; therefore he wonders how he can be a good Christian and involved in politics at the same time. He has been taught by the system to think of religion as belonging to the private area of his life, including family and church, but politics is more for the public arena. He does not want to compromise his Christian faith by involving himself in an area that would require him to keep his religious beliefs, his Christian faith, to himself.

Bill’s situation reminds me of another occasion when I was teaching a seminar to leaders from several churches. The topic for the day was making kingdom disciples. I spent some time developing the point that there is actually more involved in making disciples than is often reflected and practiced by many today. I was explaining how being a Christian involved more than merely having a personal relationship with the Lord, than reading the Bible, praying, and witnessing. My point was that Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life, which many Christians fail to understand, especially today.

Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life

In trying to be as clear as possible, I said there is a sense in which you are no more spiritual when teaching a teenage Sunday school class on John 3:16, than you are teaching an eleventh grade mathematics class. The Bible teaches God’s special truth in what we would call the spiritual realm and the mathematics class teaches God’s truth in that broader realm. I continued–the only way you can know what John 3:16 means is for God to teach it to you and the only way that you can know that 2 plus 2 is 4 is because God is the author of all truth. Both are true because they come from God, as the God of all truth. Jesus commanded us to “make disciples” and we do that according to him, by teaching to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded, and by necessary inference, he has taught us. (Matthew 28:19 & 20).

If we see God’s truth wholistically, we are to be spiritual in everything that we do, 24/7 both in an out of the church. I am aware in saying this, many Christians do not understand this discipleship process. Their paradigm has been based on a wrong view of the church and kingdom, as well as discipleship itself. We will show this later, but for now, some see the church and kingdom as two separate entities while others see them as one and the same. While we believe neither of those are representative of the Bible’s teaching on the church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, it is so important to understand what the two are and how they are related, especially as they impact our worship and service of God.

On another occasion I was speaking at an annual convention of Christian school leaders. On the program was a young man who had also been influenced by the teachings of Francis Schaeffer. At that time he was serving in a staff position in Washington, D. C. He said in his address, that we would be pleased and amazed at how many of our members of Congress attend regular Bible studies. (This was several years ago). But then he said, you would be disappointed to see some of those same people move into the legislative hall and fail to incorporate those biblical truths into the issues with which they were dealing.

There is a false scenario that has penetrated our western world, including many of our churches, and it has caused people to see life from a dualistic, even fragmented perspective, thus creating Bill’s dilemma and keeping that 11th grade math teacher from seeing himself as a disciple maker in teaching math.

My purpose in this series of articles is to understand and evaluate the fallacy of Bill and Mary’s thinking about politics, and their misunderstanding of the church and Christianity, the false dichotomy reflected in the math class, and the failure of those politicians in Washington to know how to apply biblical truth to their civil responsibilities.

I want us to consider how the above examples have grown out of a wrong paradigm regarding education, especially Christian education and disciple-making but especially a wrong paradigm of the church and the kingdom of God (“The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” Psalm 103:19; “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.” Psalm 145:13).