Dr. Curtis K. McClain, Jr.
Biblical Languages
Humanities Division
Fall 2000
A foundation survey of the skills involved in Christian ministry studies. The skills include the theory of Christian ministry, the practice of Christian education, and the ongoing work of Biblical exegesis.
Texts:
Blackaby, Henry and Claude
King. The Power of the Call.
Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1997.
Downs, Perry G. Teaching for Spiritual Growth: An Introduction to Christian
Education. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.
Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas
Stuart. How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
1993.
Objectives:
·
The
student will develop Bible study skills that prepare them for doing in depth
and high quality biblical interpretation throughout their college education and
into their ministries. 2 Timothy 2:15
·
The
student gains an understanding of the doctrine and practice of Christian education that prepares them
for leadership in the local church. 2
Tim. 3:16-17
·
The
student wrestles with God’s call on every Christian into ministry and how He
also calls some Christians into particular church-related Christian
vocations. Gen. 12:1-3
Scope:
The
three general areas of beginning ministry preparation: Bible study skills,
Christian education, and the call into vocational ministry.
Attendance:
Each class day the student can earn twelve and one-half points for timely class
participation. Points will be deducted
either for late arrival or early departure.
A maximum of one hundred points can be earned this way. If this grade fails to exceed sixty points,
that student will fail regardless of other grades. In case of excusable absence, the student may perform a written
make-up assignment averaging one point per one hundred words.
Schedule and Due Dates:
8/22 Introduction,
Biblical Study Skills
8/29 Glorieta on the
Mississippi
9/5 Fee Test, Fee Due,
Biblical Study Skills
9/12 Biblical Study Skills
Test, Downs 1-9
9/19 Downs 1-9
9/26 Downs 1-9 Test, Downs
10-16
10/2 Downs Due, Downs 10-16
10/9 Downs 10-16 Test,
Blackaby Due, Blackaby Presentation
Tentative Grade Scale: 900 possible
Attendance: 100 pts.
100-94%
= A; 93-84% = B; 83-71% = C; 70-61% = D; Below 61% = F
Book reports:
Fee and Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth:
Design the report as follows. Chapters 1 & 2 can be summarized in 1 ˝ -2 pages. Chapters 3-13 each deal with a different type of literature in the New Testament. For each type of literature take ˝ to 1 page and write 5-7 statements that you should call “Keys to interpreting _________” (i.e. epistles, parables, prophets … etc.). Form these statements from your analysis of what you think are the most important ideas to keep in mind when interpreting each type of biblical literature. End the report with your own analysis of Fee and Stuart approach and suggest ways that their material can be applied in your ministry. I’m especially interested here in your thoughts as to how harder work at discovering the author’s intentions with what he writes can bring greater clarity and unity to the church seeking to faithfully interpret and apply Scripture to its life together. Due: 9/7/99
Perry Downs, Teaching for Spiritual Growth:
Answer the following questions. Strive for accuracy, thoroughness, and clarity.
Chapter
1: Foundational Questions
·
What
is the purpose of Christian education?
·
What
are three different but interacting ways the Scriptures speak of faith? (Name and describe each in a brief
statement, pp 17-19).
Chapter
2: Teaching in Biblical Perspective
·
How
important was teaching in the Old Testament, the New Testament and in the early
church?
Chapter
3: Modeling Our Teaching After Jesus
·
What
was Jesus’ primary aim as a teacher?
·
On
what basis did Jesus accept or reject students?
·
What
teaching methods seemed to be foremost in Jesus’ ministry?
·
What
was the role of content (i.e. a body of propositional truth or doctrine) in
Jesus’ teaching?
Chapter
4: Understanding God, Understanding
People
·
What
are several implications of the problem of human sinfulness for Christian
education?
Chapter 5:
The Renewal of the Mind
·
Consider
the following statement Downs records, “We don’t have any theology; we just
love the Lord.” Is this an adequate and
helpful perspective on what it means to be a Christian? Why or why not?
·
What
is dead orthodoxy”, and how did it contribute to the backlash against the
renewal of the mind in Christian education?
Chapter
6: Developmentalism
·
What
is the fundamental weakness in the psychoanalytic or depth psychology
perspective of people like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Anna Freud, and Erik
Erikson?
·
What
is the fundamental weakness of behaviorism as advanced by B. F. Skinner?
·
How
do the humanistic psychologies like developmentalism offer a more balanced
perspective that is more compatible with a Christian perspective? What is developmentalism, and how can a
biblical perspective on it contribute
to the development of a Children’s or Youth Ministry?
Chapter
7: Cognitive Development
·
What
is the concern of Jean Piaget’s genetic epistemelogy with cognitive
development?
·
What
three factors did Piaget believe stimulates cognitive development? What are the four main stages of cognitive
development? (Be familiar with the
details associated with each of Piaget’s categories).
·
Why
might understanding cognitive development be helpful for Christian
education?
Chapter
8: Moral Development
·
Understand
what character education, values clarification, moral behavior, and moral
conflict are as approaches to moral education, how they are helpful and how
they are ultimately inadequate as Christian approaches to moral
development?
·
Who
is Lawrence Kohlberg, and what is his cognitive-developmental approach to moral
development?
·
How
is his work possibly compatible with Scripture?
Chapter
9: Faith Development
·
What
are the six “Stages of Faith” through which human faith may progress as
understood by James Fowler?
·
When
assessing Fowler from an evangelical Christian perspective, what is right and
what is wrong with his “Stages of Faith” model?
· Who is Richard Baxter, and what was his vision for Christian education concerning the importance of a systematic and personal approach to teaching God’s truth for the spiritual health of a congregation?
·
What
are the focuses of preaching and of teaching, and why are both critical for
spiritual growth?
·
What
are several educational implications for the church of engagement with the
truth for spiritual growth? (pp135-39).
Chapter 11:
Learning and Early Childhood Influences
·
What
is operant conditioning, as advocated by B. F. Skinner, and how is this
approach demonstrated in Deuteronomy 11?
·
What
is the limitation of a purely behavioristic approach to learning?
·
What
are several realities, related to content to be believed and a world-view to be
acquired, that should be included in the training of children? (pp 146-51)
·
What
is the main tenet of social-learning theory, as expressed by Albert Bandura?
·
What
are symbolic and exemplary models according to social-learning theory, and give
an example of each that can serve as models for the Christian.
·
How
important is observational learning in Scripture? See John 1:14; 1 John 2:6; John 13:13-17; Phil. 3:17; 4:9; 1 Cor.
1:11; 1 Peter 5:3. Why is the way you
live before others important to what you want to teach others?
·
Name
what you believe to be the main strength and main weakness of the socialization
model of nurture in Christian education? (pp 160-64)
·
What
does Downs mean when he says that both mind and heart are primary, but that the
primacy ascribed to each is different in kind? (pp169-70)
·
How
is categorization, as understood by Jerome Bruner, useful for thinking and
functioning cognitively?
·
How
does using categories in thinking relate to and promote the importance of
systematic theology in Christian thinking?
·
What
are expository teaching and discovery learning, and how do each contribute to
the process of Christian education?
·
Chapter
14 is great, but there will be no study or test questions from it.
·
What
is the organizing theory in
curriculum theory?
·
What
should be the organizing principle of the educational ministry of the church?
·
Name
and summarize the four basic approaches to the evangelization discussed in the
appendix.
·
Name
several general guidelines that are helpful for developing a theology and
practice of evangelizing children.
Henry
Blackaby, The Power of the Call:
Answer questions at the end of each
chapter. Write the questions out as you
go. Now, this book and some of the
questions are too slanted toward people who are or will be pastors. That is a weakness, since God calls us to so
many different vocations as ministers.
However, Blackaby’s insights are good enough for me to want all RRED 273
students to work through it and just hear his thoughts from the perspective of
your particular calling in ministry.
You may need to rework some of the questions to that end too.
Selected
Bibliography:
Carson,
D. A. and John D. Woodbridge. Hermeneutics, Authority, and
Canon. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986.
Dockery,
David, Kenneth Mathews, and Robert Sloan.
Foundation for
Biblical Authority. Nashville: Broadman and
Holman, 1994.
Fee,
Gordon. New Testament Exegesis: A
Handbook for Students and
Pastors. Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1983.
Ferguson,
Everett. Background of Early Christianity.
Grand Rapids:
William B. Eerdmans, 1993.
Geisler,
Norman, ed. Inerrancy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980.
Hayes,
John H. and Carl R. Holladay. Biblical
Exegesis: A Beginner’s
Handbook. Atlanta: John Knox Press,
1987.
Hendricks,
Howard G. and William D. Hendricks. Living by the Book.
Chicago:
Moody, 1991.
Kaiser,
Walter C. and Moises Silva. An Introduction to Biblical
Hermeneutics: The Search for Meaning. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1994.
McCartney,
Dan and Charles Clayton. Let the Reader Understand: A Guide
to Interpreting and Applying
the Bible. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1994.
McQuilkin,
J. Robertson. Understanding and Applying the Bible:
An
Introduction to Hermeneutics. Chicago: Moody, 1983.
Osborne,
Grant. The Hermeneutical Spiral: A
Comprehensive Introduction
to Biblical Interpretation. Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1991.
Torrey,
R. A. How to Study the Bible. Springdale, PN: Whitaker, 1985.
Virkler,
Henry A. Hermeneutics: Principles and
Processes of Biblical
Interpretation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.
Anthony,
Michael J. Foundations of Ministry: An
Introduction to Christian
Education for a New
Generation. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992.
Anderson,
Andy and Linda Lawson. Effective Methods of Church Growth:
Growing the Church by
Growing the Sunday School. Nashville: Broadman, 1985.
Clark,
Robert E., Lin Johnson, and Allyn K. Sloat, eds. Christian
Education: Foundations for the Future.
Eldridge,
Daryl. The Teaching Ministry of the
Church: Integrating Biblical
Truth with Contemporary
Applications. Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 1995.
Edge,
Findley. Teaching for Results.
Revised Edition. Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 1995.
Hemphill,
Ken. Revitalizing the Sunday Morning Dinosaur: A Sunday
School Growth Strategy for
the 21st Century. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996.
Martin,
Glen and Gary McIntosh. The Issachar Factor: Understanding the
Trends that Confront Your
Sunday School and Designing a Strategy for Success. Nashville: Broadman and
Holman, 1993.
Nettles,
Tom J. Teaching Truth, Training Hearts:
The Study of Catechisms
in Baptist Life. Amityville, NY: Calvary
Press, 1998.
Powers,
Bruce, ed. Christian Education Handbook.
Revised Edition.
Nashville:
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Reed,
James E. and Ronnie Provost. A History of Christian Education.
Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 1993.
Smart,
James. The Teaching Ministry of the Church. Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1954.
Stubblefield,
Jerry M. The Effective Minister of Education.
Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 1993.
Wilhoit,
James C. and John Dettoni. Nurture That is Christian. Wheaton,
IL: Victor
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Wilkinson,
Bruce. The 7 Laws of the Learner: How
to Teach Almost
Anything to Practically
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Brister,
C. W., James Cooper, and J. David Fite.
Beginning Your Ministry.
Nashville:
Abingdon, 1981.
Dobson,
Ed, Wayne Gordon, and Louis McBurney. Standing Fast:
Ministry in an Unfriendly
World. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1994.
Exiley,
Richard, Mark Galli, and John Ortberg. Dangers, Toils, and Snares:
Resisting the Hidden
Temptations of Ministry. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1994.
Ferguson,
Sinclair B. Discovering God’s Will.
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Goodman,
Thomas. The Intentional Minister: Four
Powerful Steps to
Determining, Implementing,
and Fulfilling Your Ministry Priorities.
Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994.
Goodman,
Thomas. The Intentional Minister: Four
Powerful Steps to
Determining, Implementing,
and Fulfilling Your Ministry Priorities.
Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994.
Green,
Michael. Freed to Serve: Training and
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Hughes,
Kent and Barbara Hughes. Liberating Ministry from the Success
Syndrome. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale
House, 1987.
McKenna,
David L. Renewing Our Ministry.
Dallas: Word Books, 1986.
Neibuhr,
H. Richard. The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry. New
York: Harper
and Row, 1956.
Nouwen,
Henri J. The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society.
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Stowell,
Joseph M. Shepherding the Church into the 21st Century: Effective
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