Assignment:
1. Mapping Prayer
Relate to contemporary life Jesus' example of praying.
General Instructions:
Read Matthew 14:23 (Mark 6:46); Matthew 26:36-44; Luke 5:16, 6:12; John 17:1-26.
While studying what Jesus taught about prayer, come follow in His steps and see how He prayed. A disciple can learn as much from the Living Word as from the Spoken Word.
This exercise may require you to stretch yourself. You are to create a mindmap. A mindmap is a visual metaphor representing relationships among the various parts of a central idea, in this case, the manner in which Jesus prayed.
At the center of your mindmap will be Jesus in prayer. From the various passages, discern aspects of how Jesus prayed. Draw them in various places around the center; connect each one to the center. Look for connections between the parts; draw connecting lines between the parts. Label the lines with a name of your choice that describes the connection. Feel free to group similar parts in segregated areas, use different colors, use branching, etc. Be creative. Be prayerful. This is the Spirit leading you to learn from Jesus.
2. Sharing the Gospel
Create a plan for contemporary life based on Christ's message of warning and urgency.
General Instructions:
Read chapter of Stafford
Creating life plans requires assessment. This exercise requires you to think about where you've been, where you are, and where you are going. And it requires you to measure your life against a standard. Jesus provides the best standards when making life plans. Experience Jesus' sense of importance and urgency about life and people.
The angel announced at Jesus' birth "Good News," from the Koine Greek word euaggelizo (Lk 2:10), and Good News it was! For that day the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world had been born. All was well.
Or was it?
The blissful thought of the mother and father sitting adoringly around the manger in a clean comfortable stable, surrounded by peaceful, quiet animals is a distant thought, far away from the scene of the cross on Calvary.
Yes, Good News it was, indeed, but not without a flip side.
The birth of the Messiah-Savior was a two sided coin. He also died for us.
He atoned for humanity's sins and reconciled us to God. But not all have heard that a person must draw near to God and believe in His only begotten Son.
How will they hear if no one goes? How will they hear if no one goes and tells them? Even if someone goes and tells them, why should it matter to them?
Consider the cycle of life: birth and death and resurrection. A person is born once and dies once, contrary to the beliefs of Hindus who believe the cycle is continually one of birth, death, and rebirth until the person gets it right and is liberated from this world.
Christians hold the precious gift of the Good News ready for the sharing. But with such a varied mix of philosophies circulating the globe, the sense of need for Good News may not be felt. After all, Hindus believe in second chances, and third chances, etc. Muslims believe if you live by the five pillars you will be accepted. Jews believe if they live by the Law, the will be counted righteous; and they make provisions for non-Jews to attain Heaven by living according to the seven requirements of the Noachide Code. Goths have no hope of any afterlife. Humanists, Mormons, and New Agers believe we can become our own gods.
The need for Good News? What need? Many people see none. But those who know Jesus know differently. Those who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved forever, but those who do not will go to eternal damnation. That's the need. We can't save ourselves, and we certainly need saving.
People need warning. The Good News needs to be balanced by the truth that without the benefits of choosing the Good News, the only other choice is a terrible one, one that lasts forever; forever is a long time. It never ends.
There are two parts to this assignment. The first is to create another visual. It can be a mindmap as before, or it can be a hierarchy, or a matrix. The group decides and creates it. Whatever the choice, create the visual to portray the results of an analysis of the author's description of warning and urgency attached to the Good News. Siphon through the 11th chapter of the Stafford text for his thoughts. Understand them in the context of today's Church.
The second part of the assignment is creation of a general plan for sharing the Good News within the context of the sense of warning and urgency developed in the first part. Make the plan general enough for many churches to use. Make it general enough for many evangelism teams to use. Recognize that everyone in the group will sooner or later be engaged in serving the Church and Society. That service may include leadership responsibility for others engaged in evangelism. If so, the plan you create will help you later as you guide them and deal with earthly and spiritual battles. Be sure to include prayer in the plan.
3. Messiah
Demonstrate theological thinking about Christ as the Messiah.
General Instructions:
The Messiah. A Jewish word. Yet, the Jewish people of His time in general didn't accept Jesus as such. Prior to Jesus, the Hebrew Bible called ... well, be surprised in your research who it called an Anointed One. After Jesus, Rabbi Akiva announced Bar Kochba to be a messiah. Bar Kochba failed to deliver the people. What were Jesus' claims about Himself? If He was the Messiah, why did He die a gruesome death, rejected by most of the people He sought to save?
Research the word Messiah. Focus specifically on its relevance in Judaism.
To achieve maximum points for content and analysis, the following elements need to be thoroughly addressed.
Begin by researching the meaning of Messiah.
Research its use and implications in the Hebrew Bible (i.e., Old Testament).
Research Jewish theology of the two comings of their Messiah.
Research other Jewish claimants to be the Messiah; include Bar Kochba.
Research the idea of the Messiah contained in the Gospels.
You will do later theological research in workshop five. This assignment sets the background for it.
Complement your research with at least 3 other scholarly sources. Include at least 3 resources properly cited.