Faith and Knowledge

Marks of a Good Homiletic Idea:

1. Simple to remember

2. Catchy and memorable (like a slogan)

3. Keep it connected with a response

4. State it so that it sounds like you are talking to them (your audience)

5. Keep it positive (not negative)

Rule of Life 

What is a rule of life?
A pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness
- Patterns : attitudes, behaviors, or elements that are routine, repeated, regular
- discipline: training and practice
- The purpose: to help us grow into holiness; image and likeness of God; a caterpillar into a butterfly
- 20m of spiritual reading in the morning 15 m of self-examination in the evening…...


Making choices
What am I deeply attracted to, why? -seem natural to our personality?
Where do I feel God is calling me to stretch and grow?-a strong negative reaction?
What kind of balance do I need in my life? A balance exercise for spirit, mind, and body / The rule of benedict: prayer, study, labor(3H prayer, 3H labor, 3H study…..)


Spiritual Discipline:  
Spiritual reading, Prayer, worship , fasting , self-examination, spiritual direction, hospitality


Realistic commitment is an expression of humility. 
Personal circumstances 
- a parent staying at home
- A demanding job with long hours of work
- Retired 
- A chronic illness or disability
- A full-time student


Keeping ourselves accountable
- write it down 
- Choose one person to share your rule with
- Seek support from your faith community


Spiritual life is a joint intention
- The personal and the corporate
- The inner and the outer
- The divine intent for us and our own intent to love and serve God

The Spiritual Yearning

What is worship?

Worship form the Heart
▫ Heart : the seat and center of the whole person, the core of personal character (thought, emotion, will, intuition, imagination); motives, desires, intentions
▫ Respond to God's glory and love with our entire being : feeling, intellect, body
▫ Joins inner reality with outward expression


The nee to Gather
- Individualism
- Rooted in community(cradle)
- Support personal disciplines
- Prayers of others
- The body of Christ
- Remember who and whose we are
- The Lord's table: a family of believers
- Rites and sacraments; the most fundamental of all christian practices
- The seasons of J 's life and the life of the early church
- A united front to overcome the corporate power of darkness, deception ,and destruction in this world
- Challenge: the physically disabled, homebound parishioners.

Keeping Sabbath
- Keep it holy: 'set apart' time to respond
- Sunday: "little Easter", the Lord's day
- Commanded to rest from ordinary labor and activity
- Relevant to contemporary life: need rest 
- To free us inwardly for full-hearted worship
- Mini-Sabbaths, extended Sabbaths

Worship as Problem
- A source of frustration
- Passive recipients of the limited worship forms of particular churches and leaders
- People: bored, preoccupied, uninterested in visitors, eager to escape from fellowship -> feel unaccepted
- The preached word: meaningless, dull, exaggerated, a heavy does of ideology, preacher's personal view, endless 
- anecdotes; speaks down, harangues, fails to connect to daily experiences -> feel weary
- No space for our prayers
- Non-sacramental tradition; Holy Communion
- Other sources of dissatisfaction


Practice for deepening worship
- Preparation: daily meditational, daily prayer; self-examination; weekly bible study with the same passage for sermon
- During worship : come 10' early; pray for worship; be prepared to hear God speak; listen to the words of hymns and Psalm; "Amen" in prayers; pray silently; bring individual concerns; freedom to respond; simple gestures; reflect symbols of faith.
- Beyond worship: talk your experiences and suggestions; feedback

For worship leaders
The overall integrity of the service is your responsibility
Scripture reading
The place of our physical senses
 How your people participate physically 
Sung Psalm responses, simple chants
Experience worship when leading it: ask S.O. …

Relationship with God 

- journey from illusion to prayer




Meditation
-Psalm 119:9-16

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy word.
10 With my whole heart I seek thee; let me not wander from thy commandments!
11 I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
12 Blessed be thou, O Lord; teach me thy statutes!
13 With my lips I declare all the ordinances of thy mouth.
14 In the way of thy testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on thy precepts, and fix my eyes on thy ways.
16 I will delight in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word.

11 hidden God's word in mind?



Illusion of immortality = idol
- Giving an eternal value to the things we own, the people we know, the plans we have, and the successes we "collect."
- Sentimentality : when we load our fellow human beings with immortal expectations, separation or the threat of it can release uncontrollable sentiments.
- Violence : when the hidden illusion of immortality becomes dominant in our intimate relationship, it does not take much to turn our desire to be loved into a lustful violence.



To reach a really nonviolent intimacy
-  we have to unmask our illusion of immortality, fully accept death as our human destiny and reach out beyond the limits of our existence to our God out of whose intimacy we are born.



The importance of prayer
- All that has been said about solitude and hospitality points to someone higher than our thoughts can reach, someone deeper than our hearts can feel and wider than our arms can embrace, someone under whose wings we can find refuge(Ps90) and in whose love we can rest, someone we call our G
- Prayer as a loving intimacy with G is the ground I which solitude and hospitality are rooted. 
- A spiritual life without prayer is like the gospel without Christ



How to pray
- "Make yourself a rule always to be with the Lord, keeping your mind in your heart and do not let your thoughts wander; as often as they stray, turn them back again and keep them at home in the closet of your heart and delight in converse with the Lord." - Theophan the Recluse(19C, Russia)



What prayer is…
- Gift: we have to learn how to pray while we can only receive it as a gift
- Breath: prayer is God's breathing in us, by which we become part of the intimacy of God's inner life, and by which we are born anew. 
- Presence and absence: the mystery of God's presence can be touched only by a deep awareness of his absence; e.g. lovers
- A patient waiting



Challenges
- Absurdities of life: a crisis of war, sudden poverty, illness or death
- We are reminded of our illusions and asked to convert our protest into prayer



Three rules for prayer
- A contemplative reading of the word of God; "we should be willing to let them penetrate into the most hidden corners of our heart"
- A silent listening to the voice of G: need quiet time in the presence of G: slowly, very slowly, we discover that the silent time makes us quiet and deepens our awareness of ourselves and God
- A trusting obedience to a spiritual guide: our G is greater than our own heart and mind, and too easily we are tempted to make our heart's desires and our mind's speculations into the will of G. - (mentor system)



The prayer of heart 
- The prayer of the heart requires first of all that we make G our only thought. 
- When we have localized in the center of our inner being the empty space in which our G-filled mind can descend and vanish, and where the distinctions between thinking and feeling, knowing and……



Prayer and community
- Prayer is the language of the Christian community
- When prayer is no longer its primary concern, and when its many activities are no longer seen and experienced as part of prayer itself, the community quickly degenerates into a club with a common cause but no common vocation.
- Without community, individual prayer easily degenerates into eccentric and eccentric behavior, but without individual prayer, the prayer of the community quickly becomes a meaningless routine.




Discussion
- Did you notice the illusion of immortality inside of you? What kinds?
- What did you newly learn about prayer from the reading?

Christian Education : Contemplative Listening


- "A long, loving look at the real"(William McNamara)
- A full bodied, loving presence to the person before you, as well as to what is said and what as yet 
           remains unsaid.
- Seeks to honor the presence of the HS in the speaker and between the listener and speaker.
- Warm, loving, engaged, and prayerful silence



Bracketing
- Putting oneself aside to attend fully to the othre: self-forgetfulness
- Your own pearls of wisdom: "Let me tell you how I dealt with this same kind of thing-it worked really 
           well"
- Your own similar stories….



Contemplative responding: sounding box
-  I heard you say….
- "It seems that you…. 
- "I noticed that you….
- "there seems to be a pattern…..

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 

Relationship with others

Hostility
- Strangers : people who are unfamiliar, speak another language, have another color, wear a different type of clothes and live a life style different from ours, make us afraid and even hostile.
- Assumption: that strangers are a potential danger and that it is up to them to disprove it. 
- Back-stage hostility: doctors, priests, lawyers, social workers, psychologists and counselors.


Hospitality in the Bible
- Ab received three strangers at Mamre(Gen. 18:1-15)
- The widow of zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah(1kings 17:9-24)
- The two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger(Luke 24:13-35)


Henry Nouwn said….
- Friendship for the guest
- The freedom of the guest
- The creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy
- Not a fearful emptiness but a friendly emptiness
- Not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place 
- Stumbling blocks 1) occupation     : busy 
                               2) preoccupation : worries and concerns
- "we can offer a space where people are encouraged to disarm themselves, to lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and to listen with attention and care to the voices speaking in their own center."


Forms of hospitality
- Parents and children: children can ask questions without fear and can experiment with life without taking the risk of rejection
- Teachers and students: fearless communication with each other; revealing and affirming
- Healers and patients: diagnosis as knowing by listening their life stories


Good Hosts
- Need boundaries and confrontation
- The poverty of mind: a learned ignorance; recognizing the incomprehensibility of the mystery of life 
- The poverty of heart : not filled with prejudices, worries, jealousness; humbleness


Discussion 
How do I experience hostility?
How do I experience hospitality?
Have I experienced the journey from hostility to hospitality? How?

Bible Exegesis 6 tips 

1) Translation

2) Lexical analysis 

3) Textual criticism

4) Grammer / syntex issues - Gesaresu, Juon, William, Waltke and O'conner

5) Structure - scene 1, 2, 3….

6) Historical-literary context 

Spiritual Life_Relationship with Self; Practice – Self-examination

[Nouwen, Ch.1-3]


The danger of final solution
“Friendship and love cannot develop in the form of an anxious clinging to each other.”
“The desire for ‘final solutions’ often forms the basis for the destructive….

The solitude of heart
“to live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude.”
“a man or woman who has developed this solitude of heart is no longer pulled apart by the most divergent stimuli of the surrounding world but is….

A creative response
- not reaction but response
- Positive understanding of unexpected interruptions
- Compassion
- Healing
- Solitude _ compassionate solidarity

Who am I?
- A false sense of self; self-rejecting
- Vacillating between false self and true self
- Self-identity should not be based on what one accomplishes or on what others thing.
- True self; self-acceptance as a beloved son or daughter of God


Examen(Examination)
Matthew 7:1-5
1. "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 
2. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 
3. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 
4. How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 
5. You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. 


Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion
- Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of G and of ourselves.
- -Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of G.
- - Without ….



Practice: The Awareness Examen
-The Awareness Examen helps us look for the traces of G’s actions in our daily life. It is usually done in the evening looking back over the day, but you may also use it to pray about meaningful period of time (such as a week or a year), or discrete event ()such as a meeting or a class). Allow between five and 15M for this ….

- Give thanks for all G’s gifts and benefits 
-  Ask for light
-  Review the day: thoughts, words, deeds, desires, consolations, desolations
When did I listen to your voice today?
When did I resist listening to you today?
- Express gratitude, sorrow, and purpose of amendment 
- Ask for the graces you desire for tomorrow

Textual Criticism

Textual Criticism tries to identify the original text of the Bible (Lower Criticism).

Textual criticism is the discipline that requires the exegete to know not only the languages, but all the  information about the manuscripts and the versions. 



A. the Hebrew Manuscripts

I. 1900-300 B.C. Scroll and Leather 
II. 300 B.C. - 135 A.D. Greek LXX(Septuagint) - the 
III. 135 A.D. -1000 A.D.  

/ BHS is based on leningrad codex, Kittel
/ BHQ - Biblia Hebraica Qiunta,




- the earliest Hebrew text -400 b.c.
- The standard Hebrew text -70 A.D.
- The Dead sea Scrolls - 200 B.C.
- The Masoretic Text(MT) -900 A.D.(textus receptus)
- The Samaritan Pentateuch(SP)




B. The Ancient Versions
The LXX- translated between 295-132 bc
Receptus 

The Aramaic Targums - Aramaic translations of certain books or larger sections of the OT 
- Targum Onqelos - the official Targum of the Pentateuch
- Targum Jonathan - the prophets minus Daniel and the Minor Prophets

The Old Latin and the Vulgate - the Old is probably a Jewish translation based on the LXX.
= the Vulgate was translated by Jerome from the Hebrew text. 

Moral and Faith Development in Christian Education

Interpret the situation

Analyze other one's situation? Not myself? 


Moral Development 


Social Learning Theories of Moral Development
Development of Prosocial behavior
Imitation and Modeling


Cognitive Developmental Theories of Moral Development
 Piaget's Moral Judgment
 1) the rules of the game
 2) Moral realism
 3) the idea of justice

Heteronomous rules


Kohlberg's Moral Development
- Kohlberg: he changes Piaget's conception of moral growth. 

*Level 1) Preconventional Morality(Ages 4-10)
Stage 1 - Concern with obedience and punishment
Stage 2 - Concern with satisfying needs

*Level 2) Conventional Morality(Ages 10-13)
Stage 3 - Desire for "good boy" or "good girl" image
Stage 4- Concern for law and order, doing ones' duty, and showing respect

*Level 3) Postconventional Morality(Ages 13 to young adult)
Stage 5- concern for the legitimate rights of the individual
Stage 6- concern for ethical principles
Stage 7- Agape? 


Heinz Dilema

Other cognitive developmental theories
Stage 0 : Egocentric perspective-taking 
Stage 1 : Subjective perspective-taking
Stage 2 : reciprocal perspective-taking
Stage 3 : Mutual perspective-taking
Stage 4 : Sociental-symbolic perspective-taking



Early chlidhood(B-5) - Commitment of Love Jesus
Later Childhood(6-11) - Commitment of Life to Jesus Christ
Adolescence(12-16) - Commitment to the basic Tenets of the Christian faith of the Christian Heritige
Early Adulthood - Commitment to live the faith
Middle adulthood - Commitment to deeper the faith
Later adulthood - Commitment to the eternal




Type of S.F.
Positive: progressing S.F.
Negative : 
1) Arrested   
2) Regressed 
3) Unaddressed (1) delay acceptance (2) Never heard

Compressed
1) Commitment to the present - late salvation
2) Commitment from the present - Anticipated death(or early death)

[5 Characteristics of developmental thought] 

1. A ground plan

2. Development is from simple to complex

3. Development is invariable

4. Development results as a person is involved with the environment

5. Development goal-oriented = maturity





Problem with developmental thought

Content vs. structure

• Omnipotence(almighty)
• P210, Ockham uses two important terms 1) the absolute power of God(potentia absoluta), 2) ordained power of God(potentia ordinata)
• Creation is the will of God. (decide to create)
• Redemption / Incarnation on the cross, Phil ch2. self-limitation
• Love always create more love ? / in order to relationship
• Creation is not just making thing but is for relationship between Creator and creature….(freedom to love, freedom to reconcile…….)
• creation is the expression of God's nature.
• God's action in the world.
• Always God is provider. Sovereignty of God

• Through OT, many reference about creation ….    Jer. 50:1
• God as the Creator and the redeemer(not separate in the Bible)

• Ex nihilo / Gen ch.1  1) God said … "let there be…..." 2) Day (Time frame)
• Creation  - Chaos and order / "creation as ordering"
• Nature is not divine, human beings not divine.

Self-Counseling Case Report



1.Main Problem

Describe your current life difficulties and sufferings as specific as possible.



2.The Counseling Theory & Critiques

Explain the basic concept of the counseling theory that you apply to resolve your problem and make some critiques according to Christian viewpoint.



3.Analysis of the problem

According to the explanation above, analyze your main problem.

1)    The theory you choose says……

2)    Christian way of understanding is…



4.Self-Intervention Plan or Recommendation for Development

Make some self-intervention plan for yourself.

1)    Cognitive Area

2)    Emotional Area

3)    Behavioral Area

4)    Relationship Area (with God & People)

Counseling Skill List




1. Active Listening
2. Self-Disclosure
3. Probing(Questioning)
  Open/ Closed
  Miracle/ Scaling


4. Suggestions &  Recommendation
5. Empowerment &  Compliment
6. Normalization


7. Empathy
8. Clarification
9. Paraphrasing


10.Confrontation
11.Interpretation
12.Summarization


13.Structuring

 Church Planting & Development


I. Course Description
A study of primary theories for church growth and development, including biblical principles, church growth theories, and house church movement, church planting movement and natural church development movement. Some case studies of prominent church growth phenomena will be researched.

 II. Course Objective
1. To aid the students to understand the nature and purpose of the church; to lay the foundations of church planting, growth, and development biblically, theologically, historically, culturally, and missionally.
2. To help the students learn the principles of church planting, growth, and development; to implement those principles to make a culturally relevant church in diverse cultural settings without losing the core of being the church.
3. To familiarize the students with the major theories of church planting, growth, and development; to appraise their relative strengths and weaknesses; to expose the students to the actual/virtual sites and some case studies in contemporary trends.
4. To encourage the students to work on their own church proposals as potential church planters; not to clone others but to create their authentic ministry; to incorporate what they learned into their current ministries and future plans.

- Required Books
Malphurs, Aubrey. Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century. Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1992, 1998.
McIntosh, Gary L., ed. Evaluating the Church Growth Movement: 5 Views. [contributors: Elmer Towns et al.] Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
Platt, David. Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream. Colorado Spring, CO: Multnomah, 2010.


Preparation for Church Planting
1. Introduction
Foundations of Church Planting

2. Biblical-Theological Foundations
3. Traditional-Historical Foundations
4. Cultural-Missional Foundations
      Reading Discussion / Radical (Interaction Paper)
Theories, Trends, and Models of Church Planting
5. Church Growth Movement

6. Natural Church Development

7. House Church/Cell Church Movement

8. Seeker-Sensitive/Purpose-Driven Church Movement
9. Missional Church Movement
10. The Conception Stage
11. The Development Stage
12. The Birth Stage
13. The Growth Stage

14. The Maturity Stage

15. The Reproduction Stage



BIBLIOGRAPHY
Recommended Lists (provisional)
Van Engen, Charles. God’s Missionary People: Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1991.

Guder, Darrell L. The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.
McGavran, Donald A. Understanding Church Growth. Third Edition. Revised and Edited by C. Peter Wagner. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.
Wagner, C. Peter. Church Planting for a Greater Harvest. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1990.
Schwarz, Christian A. Paradigm Shift in the Church: How Natural Church Development Can Transform Theological Thinking. Carol Stream, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 1999.

Schwarz, Christian A. Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches. St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2000.
Conn, Harvie M., ed. Planting and Growing Urban Churches: from Dream to Reality. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1997.
Pritchard, G. A. Willow Creek Seeker Services: Evaluating a New Way of Doing Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996.
Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Church: Growth without Compromising Your Message & Mission. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Gibbs, Eddie. Churchnext: Quantum changes in how we do ministry. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Yancey, George A. One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches: InterVarsity Press, 2003. 
Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for new generations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
Logan, Robert E., and Steven L. Ogne. The Church Planter’s Toolkit: A Self-Study Resource Kit. ChurchSmart Resources, 1991.