Communicorps :: The Word

In the last few years, I've become increasingly aware of both my own lack of knowledge and application in areas of God's Word, and the general lack of knowledge in the Word in the North American evangelical church. Simply put, as a whole, we might know a few "spotlight" Bible verses and have some stories we can tell of how God worked here or there in scripture, but an in-depth and fully-connected understanding of the Bible is not something that many, if any, of us strive for.

New! The Power of God's Word
One of the great failures of modern church communication is how little faith in and understanding we have of the power of God's Word. More...

Do we believe the Bible, really? I mean, we've given our lives over to Christ and are serving Him and our sole physical evidence of any of this is the 66-volume leather-bound book we hold in our hands. If we're going to live by it, don't we need to understand it more fully? And is it really even understandable? The Bible makes some incredible, even unbelievable claims by many standards. We can't say this book is "the truth" and then hold it at arms length and study and apply it sporadically.

Most importantly, and practically--what is it that we really need to understand about God, the Bible and our purpose on earth in order to live a life obedient to Christ and His Word?

The Word Curriculum. To answer these questions--most specifically the last one--I'm embarking on a personal study over the next 24-36 months. The result of that study will be published here as small group Bible study curriculum. My plan is to create 50 lessons, divided into three main topic areas, focused on "disciple-making".

I believe in my studies of the Word thus far that disciple-making is the central task to which Christ has called us, both locally and globally. I want to study, learn and share more about this topic. The areas I'll touch on include:

What Is a Disciple-Maker? What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ, and what is Jesus' method for knowing Him and becoming more like Him?

Reproducing Disciple-Makers. How does Christ indend for us to use reproduction and reteaching to see the Gospel shared and His church grow?

World Impacting Disciple-Makers. What does the Bible say about every believer's involvement in ministry locally and globally, our fellowship, and ministry to the poor?

Beyond North America. It is my intention as a study and share these truths to see this curriculum be culturally-neutral. The Bible itself is applicable in any culture and language. I want this teaching to be so centered in the Word that it too can be used beyond my own North American culture.

To that end, even as I am in the planning stages of this work, I'm already praying that God would lead people who can translate this teaching into other languages to consider participating in this ministry by helping me get this teaching into as many languages as possible.

Project Update: April 2010
The overall outline for the curriculum is completed (50 lessons), with topics and key scriptures in place. I am now working on the detailed outlines (learning points) for each lesson.

I have begun studying in preparation for writing the first 5 lessons, which I hope to complete in the spring of 2010. I then plan to post the lessons for download, study and feedback, make adjustments, and continue writing into the summer, completing the first section (17 lessons) by fall 2010.

Bloggity Goodness
The Communicorps Blog is my way of saying, "Hey, here's more content to look at that's not at this website and that I update more often." See, saying "blog" is much shorter. Go there now...