I just compiled it for you (it was all in separate documents by lessons still). I now have it linked on the Paid Subscribers PDFs page. Thanks for your support! I welcome any feedback you would like to give, any errors you see, suggestions, etc. Everything is till "beta mode." Blessings!
This is awesome! Thank you! I'm thrilled to dig in! I'm already in full-on planning mode for next year and your resources are very helpful. I'm also planning to use your study guide for Genesis to help me and my scholars dig and engage.
I think the danger I run into is looking for a system to plug into so that I don't have to think during the school year (eek!)- when we know we want to be thinking people! Your guides offer a framework but also force me to think through the work I'm doing with my students (who are individual persons) while also allowing me to focus. We ought to be guides, not robots. Thanks for helping toward that end.
Good stuff, Jacob. On a related, but slightly different, matter, do you see biblical or historical info on the extent to which early Christians evangelized outside of their inner circles such as their homes or personal conversations?
We are involved in a Vanguard Presby church plant that is adamant that our duty is to go out into the public square and preach the gospel. I struggle with attempting to focus distracted market square shoppers, ppl attending a sporting event, etc on the gospel with a bullhorn or stopping them for a conversation.
What does the historical record say about this?
IMHO, the bible stresses the uniqueness of each believer's gifts of the Spirit. We are not all street preachers. Thoughts?
I have not by any means researched this topic deeply (as concerns the early church’s practices of evangelism) but I will share my thoughts if you’d like. The primary thing I would say is that I think the Bible makes an important distinction between those who are set apart for vocational ministry and those who are not.
1 Corinthians 12:27-30 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?”
This passage clearly suggests that not all Christians are to be fulfilling ministerial roles not are they all gifted by the Spirit to the same kind of service within the body of Christ. Why insist that everyone should be street preaching and working as an evangelist but not also preaching on Sunday mornings? If everyone is supposed to do the same thing, doesn’t this negate the point of 1 COR. 12?
Ephesians 4:11-12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”.
This passage is helpful because it categorizes “evangelist” as a ministerial role appointed by Christ’s calling. Again, not everyone is called to this position.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”
This passage tells us the normative role of Christians, to live quiet and peaceable lives, work hard and mind your own affairs, love your spouse, raise your kids in the Lord, have a pure conscience and good and decent conduct before non-Christians.
1 Peter 3:15-17 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.“
This passage summarizes the average Christian’s responsibility. Be ready to answer questions and offer the gospel and a case for it when people ask you. As we work alongside and live alongside non-Christians we will be afforded natural opportunities to share about Jesus. We should take those opportunities and even reasonably prepare for them. But it is not the average Christian’s job to be a professional evangelist. Not that it’s wrong to have a fire in your belly to share the gospel if you aren’t ordained to ministry, but I don’t believe ministers should be making average Christians feel like they must be on soap boxes or going door to door to be faithful. We take Jesus with us everywhere we go, opportunities to share will come, be faithful to those opportunities.
It’s reasonable to pray for more good opportunities and that we might have our eyes and ears open to perceiving those opportunities, but I do not think you should necessarily be forcing those opportunities. Spirit called and gifted evangelists and pastors should intentionally seek to create opportunities. The lay person should be faithful to Christ in their work and family and neighborhood and open to what comes their way.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful, biblical response. It is quite consistent with my conclusions in the issue, leaving me to question the premise of the new denomination's very foundation.
Please pray for me and my husband as we pursue a faithful church home.
I had to look up the denomination you referred to, I hadn’t heard of it before. I do pray the Lord will lead you to faithful local church to be a part of. May the Lord bless you as you search. Some people see them as “controversial” but for my money I would check out a CREC church if there are any in your area. There are no perfect churches or denominations of course.
Ct doesnt have any crec churches, and Reformed churches in general are scarce. Many have gone woke (pca) or are spiritually dead (opc). Grace Reformed Baptist in east haven is excellent, but we are not comfortable with their requirement to rebaptize. We vusitwd for about a year, but reallt wanted to find a church where we could be members. We could well wind up back at grbc, but not as full members.
I generally like OPC as a denomination, but the local church in hamden has major problems. Long sordid story there. We had hoped to build a home up in NH to become members of Grace OPC in Laconia, but we couldn't afford to build up there, so we sold our lot.
Once you're retired, no mortgage is essential. It is super expensive up there due to their lack of the usual northeast taxes. Pastor Andy at Grace is excellent, and that little church is vibrant, even in the rocky ground of the granite state.
So we are still up in the air with finding a good church family in CT. Looks like we will serve here. Hope somebody will bury us, lol.
Hi Jacob!
Is there a pdf somewhere for these lessons for your paid subs? I'd like to just print them off to have them in one spot.
Hi,
I just compiled it for you (it was all in separate documents by lessons still). I now have it linked on the Paid Subscribers PDFs page. Thanks for your support! I welcome any feedback you would like to give, any errors you see, suggestions, etc. Everything is till "beta mode." Blessings!
https://stgb.substack.com/p/pdf-study-guides
This is awesome! Thank you! I'm thrilled to dig in! I'm already in full-on planning mode for next year and your resources are very helpful. I'm also planning to use your study guide for Genesis to help me and my scholars dig and engage.
I think the danger I run into is looking for a system to plug into so that I don't have to think during the school year (eek!)- when we know we want to be thinking people! Your guides offer a framework but also force me to think through the work I'm doing with my students (who are individual persons) while also allowing me to focus. We ought to be guides, not robots. Thanks for helping toward that end.
Good stuff, Jacob. On a related, but slightly different, matter, do you see biblical or historical info on the extent to which early Christians evangelized outside of their inner circles such as their homes or personal conversations?
We are involved in a Vanguard Presby church plant that is adamant that our duty is to go out into the public square and preach the gospel. I struggle with attempting to focus distracted market square shoppers, ppl attending a sporting event, etc on the gospel with a bullhorn or stopping them for a conversation.
What does the historical record say about this?
IMHO, the bible stresses the uniqueness of each believer's gifts of the Spirit. We are not all street preachers. Thoughts?
Hi,
I have not by any means researched this topic deeply (as concerns the early church’s practices of evangelism) but I will share my thoughts if you’d like. The primary thing I would say is that I think the Bible makes an important distinction between those who are set apart for vocational ministry and those who are not.
1 Corinthians 12:27-30 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?”
This passage clearly suggests that not all Christians are to be fulfilling ministerial roles not are they all gifted by the Spirit to the same kind of service within the body of Christ. Why insist that everyone should be street preaching and working as an evangelist but not also preaching on Sunday mornings? If everyone is supposed to do the same thing, doesn’t this negate the point of 1 COR. 12?
Ephesians 4:11-12 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ”.
This passage is helpful because it categorizes “evangelist” as a ministerial role appointed by Christ’s calling. Again, not everyone is called to this position.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-12 “Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”
This passage tells us the normative role of Christians, to live quiet and peaceable lives, work hard and mind your own affairs, love your spouse, raise your kids in the Lord, have a pure conscience and good and decent conduct before non-Christians.
1 Peter 3:15-17 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.“
This passage summarizes the average Christian’s responsibility. Be ready to answer questions and offer the gospel and a case for it when people ask you. As we work alongside and live alongside non-Christians we will be afforded natural opportunities to share about Jesus. We should take those opportunities and even reasonably prepare for them. But it is not the average Christian’s job to be a professional evangelist. Not that it’s wrong to have a fire in your belly to share the gospel if you aren’t ordained to ministry, but I don’t believe ministers should be making average Christians feel like they must be on soap boxes or going door to door to be faithful. We take Jesus with us everywhere we go, opportunities to share will come, be faithful to those opportunities.
It’s reasonable to pray for more good opportunities and that we might have our eyes and ears open to perceiving those opportunities, but I do not think you should necessarily be forcing those opportunities. Spirit called and gifted evangelists and pastors should intentionally seek to create opportunities. The lay person should be faithful to Christ in their work and family and neighborhood and open to what comes their way.
Hope that is helpful.
Thank you so much for this thoughtful, biblical response. It is quite consistent with my conclusions in the issue, leaving me to question the premise of the new denomination's very foundation.
Please pray for me and my husband as we pursue a faithful church home.
I had to look up the denomination you referred to, I hadn’t heard of it before. I do pray the Lord will lead you to faithful local church to be a part of. May the Lord bless you as you search. Some people see them as “controversial” but for my money I would check out a CREC church if there are any in your area. There are no perfect churches or denominations of course.
Ct doesnt have any crec churches, and Reformed churches in general are scarce. Many have gone woke (pca) or are spiritually dead (opc). Grace Reformed Baptist in east haven is excellent, but we are not comfortable with their requirement to rebaptize. We vusitwd for about a year, but reallt wanted to find a church where we could be members. We could well wind up back at grbc, but not as full members.
I generally like OPC as a denomination, but the local church in hamden has major problems. Long sordid story there. We had hoped to build a home up in NH to become members of Grace OPC in Laconia, but we couldn't afford to build up there, so we sold our lot.
Once you're retired, no mortgage is essential. It is super expensive up there due to their lack of the usual northeast taxes. Pastor Andy at Grace is excellent, and that little church is vibrant, even in the rocky ground of the granite state.
So we are still up in the air with finding a good church family in CT. Looks like we will serve here. Hope somebody will bury us, lol.