The Gospel Coalition

I realize it’s been a few months since I last gave you an update on my new position at LifeWay and the development of a new curriculum for small groups and Sunday School classes. Here’s some news about where we’re at in the process.

Working at LifeWay

First off, the transition from pastoral ministry to working at LifeWay has been interesting. A few of you have asked me to reflect on the journey. I can’t include here all I have to say about temporarily leaving the pastorate, the lessons we’ve learned, and our search for a new church home. I’ll save all that for a later post. For now, here’s an update on the development of the curriculum.

1. Initial Vision

My first two months at LifeWay (November-December 2010) were primarily focused on helping develop the vision for the new curriculum. In conjunction with Ed Stetzer (General Editor), Philip Nation, and long-time editors like Dwayne McCrary, I began mapping out what topics this curriculum might cover. We put together some different options, some focused more on systematic theology, others focused on a variety of approaches, etc.

We also begin putting on paper the core values we want to keep at the forefront of this curriculum. “Theologically robust” (which we renamed “deep, but not dry”), “Christ-centered,” “Grand-Narrative-Focused” and “Mission-Driven” are the important elements we want to see in every quarter and (hopefully) every lesson. We took these buzz words and fleshed out how they might apply to a curriculum.

2. Advisory Council

In January, we gathered in Dallas and Chicago in order to meet the members of our Advisory Council. Ed Stetzer and I pulled together a group of pastors, educators, and authors who gave direction and offered insight into the curriculum. Here’s a list of the council members:

• D.A. Carson
• Matt Chandler
• James MacDonald
• J.D. Greear
• Eric Mason
• Juan Sanchez
• Jay Noh
• Collin Hansen
• Kimberly Thornbury
• Joe Thorn
• Danny Akin

The meetings with the Advisory Council were very helpful. The group helped us refine the vision, make needed adjustments, and craft a three-year cycle that brings together systematic theology within the framework of the Bible’s grand narrative. After both meetings, we went back to the drawing board – affirmed in our general direction, yet helpfully challenged in some of the particulars.

3. The Name

By the end of 2010, we had settled on a name that we thought was descriptive of the curriculum. “GospelEPIC” replaced the initial title, “Telios” (Greek for “mature). There was a increasing rumble among the team that the name still needed some work. The word “epic” had been placed on Lake Superior’s “banished words” list. Not only that, it was increasingly becoming associated with “Epic? Fail!” (The picture out to the side is what one reader imagined when thinking of Ed Stetzer and “GospelEPIC.”)

We asked Ed’s blog audience what they thought, and they were mostly united in their distaste for the title. We offered four other possibilities, and readers liked three out of the four. All this to say… we’re narrowing in on a name, but haven’t made the final decision.

4. The Writers Meet

In late February, the writers for our first quarter came together to talk through the content. As the meeting got underway, I realized we had assembled a solid group of writers to help us kick off this curriculum:

• George Robinson (professor of missions and evangelism at Southeastern Seminary, who has done extensive work on the evangelistic tool, The Story)
• Jared Wilson (pastor in Vermont, author of LifeWay’s Threads study, Abide, and the forthcoming Gospel Wakefulness)
• Christian George (long-time writer for LifeWay, author of Godology: Because Knowing God Changes Everything)
• Juan Sanchez (pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, TX and member of our Advisory Council)

As the writers get to work on the first quarter, I’m putting together the plans for the second and third quarters. Our goal for the next quarters is to journey through the Bible in 26 weeks. George Guthrie (Union University professor and author of Read the Bible for Life) is helping us think through how best to accomplish this task.

We appreciate your prayers as we put together a tool that we hope will benefit local churches. The new curriculum launches in Fall 2012. Please pray that it will be useful to churches as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission.

The church we’ve been attending just recently hosted a Secret Church type event for college students. I’m excited to think that dozens of college students would stay up all night digging into the Bible. Here is Thom Rainer interviewing David Platt about the Secret Church movement:

People are hungry for the Word. There’s really nothing special or creative about it. It’s just the study of the Word and then prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters. The Word itself does the work!

Last World War I veteran dies.

Zach Nielsen with a helpful warning against tribalism:

But this fact comes into a clearer light when a high profile leader comes out with something controversial, heretical, or just plain dumb. You’ll have a certain group of people who are very quick to be defensive and you have another set of people who are very quick to rejoice and assume the worst.  We like our teams and when someone from the other team falls it can be a source of much pride.  In my heart I know I am guilty of this.

Learning from Buchanan: Why Was This President So Awful?

Americans lavish attention on their successful presidents; yet there is much to be learned from our presidential failures. Buchanan did not suffer from feebleness or age or the insufficient powers of 19th century executives. Rather, he failed because he used that power with such partiality as an activist, ideologically driven executive. He had chosen sides in the great crisis and did not listen.