Posts Tagged Leadership
In Which We Humble Ourselves Before God and Our Elders, Who Exalt Us
This week we shift our study of wisdom from the “theological virtues” (faith, hope, and love) to what might be called the “blessed virtues” from the Beatitudes. We will follow Peter Kreeft (below) in contrasting them with the Seven Deadly Sins, beginning with Humility vs. Pride:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:3
Pride is the first and deadliest of the deadly sins. It can be defined as “trusting our own name rather than God’s” — relying on our own character and identity as the ultimate authority.
In contrast, humility is recognizing the painful fact of our own poverty of spirit, so that we empty ourselves in order to receive our heavenly King.
Assigned Reading
-
Peter Kreeft: Back to Virtue
- 6. The Beatitudes Confront the Seven Deadly Sins
- 7. Poor in Spirit vs. Proud at Heart
- Dick Hockett: Foundations of Wisdom
- 8. Pride, Humility, and the Fear of the Lord
- 3.2 (Truth) Example: Proverbs about the Tongue
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beatitudes, christ, devil, elders, exalt, glory, humility, Leadership, pride, satan, suffering, virtue
In Which We Are Rescued from Our Folly by God’s Love
Love is the primary virtue of the Heart. It is both a Decision that gives rise to Emotions, as well an Emotion that gives rise to Decisions — and it needs both to thrive. It can be defined as “the ability to pursue another’s glory — even at the cost of your own.”
Love is particularly needed by the Fool, whose emotional damage drives a cycle of self-punishment disguised as the pursuit of pleasure. The only way out is to purify our hearts by receiving God’s love and forgiveness, to the point where we love Him more than the false gods we’ve served — and discover what it means to genuinely love ourselves…
Assigned Reading
-
Peter Kreeft: Back to Virtue
- 5.C (Love) The Three Theological Virtues
-
Dick Hockett: Foundations of Wisdom
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addiction, christ, condemnation, disciples, folly, fool, footwashing, forgiveness, heart, jesus, judas, Leadership, love, name, pride, recovery, repentance, satan, servant, sin, virtue
In Which Our Souls Find Hope Amidst Suffering
Hope is the primary virtue of the Soul. It provides Reasons to encourage positive Emotions, and the Emotional energy to search for better Reasons. It can be defined as “the ability to joyfully pursue a higher purpose — even when painful.”
Hope is particularly needed by the Mocker, who is driven by both the need to control (due to fear) and the illusion of control (due to pride). Yet if they can unclench their soul enough to hope in God’s wisdom, Mockers may yet discover that true freedom comes from giving up control.
Though such learning usually only comes after great suffering…
Assigned Reading
-
Peter Kreeft: Back to Virtue
- 5.B (Hope) The Three Theological Virtues
- Dick Hockett: Foundations of Wisdom
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faith, glory, grace, hope, joy, Leadership, love, mocker, rejoice, soul, trials, wisdom
In Which Unseen Faith Transforms the Visible World
Faith is the primary virtue of the Mind. It enables us to base Decisions on Reasons, as well as to deduce Reasons from Decisions (axioms). It can be defined as “the ability to believe what is true — even when difficult.”
Faith is particularly needed by the Simple, who otherwise would only trust what they can touch and feel. Yet God’s invisible wisdom is in reality more powerful than all the armies of flesh and blood which rail against it. And thus pursuing that wisdom, in faith, is actually the most practical decision of all…
[click to enlarge image]
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abram, faith, fear, Leadership, love, mind, resurrection, simple, trials, trust, truth, virtue
In Which Our Character is Conformed to God’s Name, Via The Pursuit of Wisdom
In our first twelve-week series on Theological Foundations, we focused on what it means to be “baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit“, moving from sin to sanctification as the body of Christ entering into His Kingdom.
In this our second series, we focus on how we can appropriate that “name” in our own lives — as well as those of the people we lead and serve. This is the essence of Christian Character, the second leg of our “LEAD” tripod (the third and final one being “Skills for Service”, coming in Spring 2009).
The goal of character formation is to bring our “whole person” into alignment with the “whole name” of God — His identity, character, and purpose. We can define the whole person using the “triplet” model below, which has:
- Our Spirit at the center…
- … working through our Heart, Soul and Mind… (cf. Mark 12:30)
- … which together produce Emotions, Reasons, and Decisions…
- … that manifest in actions of our Body
While all models are imperfect, and there are many other ways to picture the human
psyche, this diagram will help us understand the role of Wisdom in character formation — and how we fall short…
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character, faith, fool, goodness, heart, hope, Leadership, love, mercy, mind, mocker, psyche, self, simple, soul, spirit, wisdom
As mentioned earlier, the LEAD! Bible Study is a tripod, built on three legs:
- theological education
- character formation
- skill development
Having finished writing the lessons for Part A, we now turn out attention to the second trimester (which the class will start in January). This blog post is for the initial outline; as before, the final version will be part of the living syllabus at http://2transform.us/lead/
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anger, character, envy, faith, fool, generosity, glory, gluttony, greed, hope, humility, Leadership, love, lust, mocker, peace, pride, purity, reconciliation, self-control, shame, simple, sins, sloth, virtue, wisdom
In Which Christ Comes Back to Judge and Remake the Earth, and We Receive Our Reward
The End. Christ’s Return is the completion of our theology. Faith will be made sight, all nations will bow before Him, and we will dwell in the fulness of the Father’s eternal presence as His kingdom comes at last. Our sin will be no more, for the Spirit’s work of salvation and sanctification is finished as His bride is conformed to His character.
Though not everyone will be happy about it…
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book of life, death, eschatology, hell, judgement, Leadership, revelation
In Which We Become the Church, As We Grow Into Christ Our Head Via His Gifts
Continuing the theme of Sanctification, we explore how we are discipled into the name of Christ through His body — the Father’s principle vehicle for forming His Kingdom, by His Spirit. Specifically, we see how the fact that we serve One God requires us to worship Him as One Church.
[Note: I am now using the New King James Version for my interlinear; hopefully this will increase the readability.]
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apostles, christ, church, disciple, ecclesiology, evangelists, faith, headship, Leadership, maturity, pastors, paul, teachers, unity
In Which We Are Set Apart For Obedience to Jesus, And Suffer For It — Becoming Holy in The Process
This week we round out our discussion on salvation and conviction by focusing on sanctification, or holiness, words that include being both “set apart” and “made righteous.” The overall idea is forming God’s character in us the way we were originally created to be, before mankind was corrupted.
The process of sanctification is central to our calling as disciples and leaders, yet often poorly understood. Let us dig into God’s word to try to find out what all it involves…
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baptism, faith, faithfulness, Leadership, obedience, peter, rejoice, resurrection, salvation, sanctification, trials, word
In Which Jesus Sends the Comforter, and We Are Convicted By Him
This week we move from the Father and the Son to the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This also continues our theme of God restoring His Image by saving us from our rebellion. And as usual, there is a heavy price to be paid…
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comforter, disciple, father, fruit, gift, god, godhead, holyspirit, jesus, judgement, Leadership, r, repentance, righteousness, son, spirit, trinity
In Which We Receive the Gospel, And Are Saved By It
Our series so far — indeed, the first half of human history — is but a prelude to the coming of Jesus Christ. In Christ we have the word of God made flesh, the perfect revelation of God’s character, a tangible representative of the Trinity, and a reminder of what we were created to be.
Yet even more glorious than all that: Christ is Our Lord, and has become our much-needed Savior…
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christ, disciple, epistle, gospel, jesus, Leadership, salvation
In Which We Reject God’s Dominion, And Pay The Price
When God created the world, He gave us (mankind) dominion over all the plants and animals. But it was not an unconditional grant: rather, we have a responsibility to take His already “very good” creation to the next level, by filling the earth with His image.
And if we fail in that responsibility, the price is high…
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blame, curse, death, eve, feminism, gospel, Leadership, paradise, satan, sex, shame, son, spiritual warfare, teaching
In Which We See God Creating His World, and Our Place In It
The overriding theme of our journey has been exploring what it means to be “baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Having dealt (however superficially) with the ontological aspects of that “name”, we now focus on the narrative aspects. In particular, we will focus on the arc of “creation corruption and redemption” found throughout scripture (and literature), as manifested through the persons of the Trinity. Starting with the Father, and Creation…
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authority, baptism, commission, disciple, Leadership
In Which We Discover The Persons Who Make up the Godhead, and How They Relate to Us
We believe in one God, consisting of one substance — one name, one identity, and one character — sometimes called the Godhead. Yet, that name is expressed through three distinct persons, as illustrated by the classic diagram on the left. Theologians use the term “Trinity” to describe this paradoxical mystery, which is explicitly described in the New Testament and often alluded to in the Old.
In this lesson, we will be focusing primarily on the Economic Trinity (“How God Acts”) rather than the Essential Trinity (“What God is”). See the “Explore” section for other perspectives.
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authority, baptism, commission, disciple, Leadership
[Renumbering so we can start at 1, instead of 0]
In Which We Discover What God Looks Like, And Why Moses Wants to See More of Him
Continuing our discussion of God’s name — which we are supposed to be baptized into — we turn from the incommunicable aspects of His identity to the communicable aspects of His character.
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authority, commission, disciple, Leadership
[NOTE: the official syllabus is now on the "Lead" page; this post is obsolete, but kept for the sake of historical continuity].
[Yes, I should probably have written this before the first lesson, but better late than never...]
In thinking about it, I ought to take my Curriculum one step further, and actually identify the passages and key learnings for each lesson. Not only will this help ensure I’m on the same page as my pastor, but it would enable others to write some of the lessons (since class starts on September 4th!).
I’ve also cross-referenced these lessons against two common systematic theology books:
In addition to providing a sort index to the topics covered, this allows students and teachers to use those as supplementary textbooks.
- Draft 1 – Sunday, 24th August
- Draft 2 – Tuesday, 26th August: Added “Doctrine” “Essentials” chapters for each lesson
- Draft 3 – Friday, 29th August: Added “Doctrines” chapters for each lesson
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apostles, authority, bible, canon, christ, church, commission, disciple, father, glory, god, god's word, heaven, holy, jesus, kingdom, Leadership, psalm, relationship, son, spirit, teaching, theology, Transformation, trinity, will
So, the good news is that our church is gearing up to start LEAD! on September 4th, and already taking applications! That’s also the bad news, since I’ve only finished three classes. :-(
Still, it only takes me about four hours per class, which is two late night waiting-to-feed-Rohan sessions (assuming he behaves), so I should be able to keep up.
The real problem is that my lesson topics have gone in a completely different direction that originally envisioned. More, my pastor has a slightly different vision for how things should fit together. Given the time timeframes, it is essential we get on the same page (and stick to it, if possible).
Here’s my current vision for what is now being called “Theological Foundations”. Hopefully my pastor and I can converge on this syllabus soon (once he’s no longer busy with his new grandson :-)
[Updated and ratified 8/19 with John Isaacs]
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authority, father, glory, god, god's word, history, jesus, kingdom, law, Leadership, purpose, relationship, sin, son, spirit, theology, Transformation, trinity
In Which We Discover Who God Is, and Why That Matters
In the previous lesson, we discovered that God wants us to disciple all peoples into His “name.” This week, we discuss the first aspect of God’s name: His identity.
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angel, bible, Leadership, moses
[Based on feedback, this study will actually become the first lesson, prior to God's Commission]
In Which We Discover How God Speaks to Us, and Why We Ought to Listen to Him
[Updated Sunday, August 3rd]
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authority, baptism, bible, canon, commission, disciple, doctrine, god's word, Leadership
In Which We Discover God’s Call For Us As Leaders, And What Theology Has To Do With It
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authority, baptism, commission, disciple, Leadership
