Tuesday, July 05, 2005

checkpoints

i ate lunch with j.t. today (in our never ending conversation to start something new around baton rouge) and he mentioned student life bible study's six year plan. the plan is what they want a student to know by by six years within their studies. here's what it looks like:
    CHRIST
  • the life of CHIRST
  • the basis of faith

  • covenant
  • law and grace
  • the foundations of ethical living

  • character
  • old testament people
  • the development of character

  • consecration
  • the theology of paul
  • discipline of a biblical worldview

  • community
  • the new testament church
  • essence of fellowship

  • commission
  • wisdom & prophetic literature
  • the frameworks for a passionate life

of course, you can also use andy stanley's seven checkpoints of youth ministry as an example. again this is what their student ministry wants it's teens to have experienced by the time they leave the student ministry. stanley's seven checkpoints are:
  • authentic faith
  • spiritual disciplines
  • moral boundaries
  • healthy friendships
  • wise choices
  • ultimate authority
  • others first

j.t.'s statement got me thinking about a study i had done four years ago. i went through the gospels looking at every time the word "disciple" occurred. what i discovered was that discipleship isn't so much a step by step plan as it is walking along side someone else who has been walking with CHRIST longer and deeper than you have yet experienced. during that study i mapped out the basics of what i think a disciple of CHRIST would ideally look like (i.e. nobody actually looks like this because none of us are "ideal" disciples). here's what i wrote out:
disciple
if i were to do this today i would word things a little and focus more on the "walk." yet i guess it is still close to what i use as a guide directing my goals for what i hope our students learn concerning being a disciple of CHRIST.

1 Comments:

  • Hi. The Student Life Bible Study is what our church decided to use with our youth. One of my concerns was whether or not most of the youth would be attending our church for the entire six years it would take to complete the study.

    Also, I agree with what you said about how everything today must be bulleted into checkpoints and lists. This seems to oversimplify what a true walk with God entails. Just because you learn the checkpoints does not mean that you have learned to walk with God and need no further instruction.

    It reminds me of Ben Franklin's autobiography. He says that once he achieved one of his goals, he would move on to another. But then, the first would fall into neglect as he achieved the second and he would have to return to the first again. He concluded that he would never achieve all of his goals and could not reach perfection. But he would still choose to do the best he could.

    I think the focus needs to be more on teaching youth how to truly study their Bibles and to realize they will be learning from the day they decide to follow Christ until the day they die. We should never assume that we have learned all there is to know.

    By Blogger DJBeale, at Tuesday, July 12, 2005 10:20:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home