Yesterday, I shared an article from The Wall Street Journal about the loss of apprenticeship in preparing a young person for adulthood. It’s interesting that the writer recognized the difference between being book smart and wise with regard to life. 

The culture of the first century put a high priority on learning through apprenticeship. You see hints in this direction as you read the New Testament, particularly in how Jesus spoke of His relationship to the Father. But it’s also likely that in the early Christians’ desire to “make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Christ had commanded them,” their vision of “teaching” was somewhat different than what we mean by the term today.

Once they recognize the deficiencies of an information-only type of teaching, these leaders begin to downplay the need for verbally teaching people the fundamental doctrines of the faith. The result is a largely atheological ministry that inevitably leans toward a behavior-focused, moralistic message. The good news (powerful, life-transforming information) subtly shifts into good advice (“Just tell me how to live!”). And we wind up with a biblically illiterate mass of well-intentioned Christians being told each week what to do.

Camp 2

In response, other church leaders swing the pendulum back. We must teach people and teach them well. The problem, however, is that “teaching” in these churches is often reduced to conveying important biblical information. The assumption is that once we learn the right things, we will live the right way.

It seems to me that the real question is what we really believe. It seems to me that we do tend to have two creeds—the one which we believe in our intellectual assent, and then the one which we believe to the extent of acting upon it in faith. More and more it seems to me that the true level of our orthodoxy is measured by this latter standard rather than the former. And more and more it seems to me that there is no such thing as an abstract Christian dogma—that each Christian dogma can be experienced on some level.

Apprenticeship is serious business. Never downplay the importance of sermons, theological education, and deep Bible study. Just make sure you match all of these with doing life together, modeling a new way of being human, inviting people to come alongside of us and learn what it means to follow Jesus – not merely by what we tell them but also by how we live.

I came across an article recently in The Wall Street Journal titled “What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?” It explores the cultural changes leading to a contemporary vision of “adolescence.” Of particular interest to me was the role of “apprenticeship” throughout history.

In gatherer-hunter and farming societies, childhood education involves formal and informal apprenticeship. Children have lots of chances to practice the skills that they need to accomplish their goals as adults, and so to become expert planners and actors. The cultural psychologist Barbara Rogoff studied this kind of informal education in a Guatemalan Indian society, where she found that apprenticeship allowed even young children to become adept at difficult and dangerous tasks like using a machete.

In the past, to become a good gatherer or hunter, cook or caregiver, you would actually practice gathering, hunting, cooking and taking care of children all through middle childhood and early adolescence—tuning up just the prefrontal wiring you’d need as an adult.

The article then pointed out the loss of this way of learning and its impact on society today:

Contemporary children have very little experience with the kinds of tasks that they’ll have to perform as grown-ups. Children have increasingly little chance to practice even basic skills like cooking and caregiving. Contemporary adolescents and pre-adolescents often don’t do much of anything except go to school. Even the paper route and the baby-sitting job have largely disappeared…

Of course, the author is not making the case that children today are less knowledgeable than children in previous generations. The results appear to be just the opposite. Still…

There are different ways of being smart. Knowing physics and chemistry is no help with a soufflé. Wide-ranging, flexible and broad learning, the kind we encourage in high-school and college, may actually be in tension with the ability to develop finely-honed, controlled, focused expertise in a particular skill, the kind of learning that once routinely took place in human societies. For most of our history, children have started their internships when they were seven, not 27.

The author concludes by pleading for the return of apprenticeship as a way of helping teenagers move forward into adulthood.

Instead of simply giving adolescents more and more school experiences—those extra hours of after-school classes and homework—we could try to arrange more opportunities for apprenticeship. AmeriCorps, the federal community-service program for youth, is an excellent example, since it provides both challenging real-life experiences and a degree of protection and supervision.

“Take your child to work” could become a routine practice rather than a single-day annual event, and college students could spend more time watching and helping scientists and scholars at work rather than just listening to their lectures. Summer enrichment activities like camp and travel, now so common for children whose parents have means, might be usefully alternated with summer jobs, with real responsibilities.

Evangelicals are talking a lot today about prolonged adolescence and the problems caused by this new phenomenon. I wonder, though, if the need for apprenticeship goes beyond application to teenagers and speaks to the very nature of discipleship in general.

If knowledge and learning in biblical times took place primarily through the role of teacher and apprentice, then perhaps when the New Testament authors place such a strong priority on teaching, they are not thinking merely in terms of lectures and sermons. Perhaps their vision of teaching also includes the idea of apprenticeship. If so, how should this affect our view of discipleship today?

I’m open to ideas. More on this tomorrow…

In this 3-minute video for The Gospel Project, Matt Chandler explains the difference between a moralistic interpretation of the story of David and Goliath and a gospel-centered approach.

I love listening to pastors who exalt Christ everywhere they can as they proclaim the Scriptures. Christ-centeredness is one of the core values we are seeking to implement in The Gospel Project. (For more information, check out the website we launched late last week.)

The most recent 9Marks eJournal is about Sunday School as a legitimate method of discipleship for the church. Jonathan Leeman and I co-edited the eJournal, and I contributed an article called “Sunday School and Its Rivals.”

To be clear, I am not one who believes Sunday School is the only method that pastors and church leaders should consider. But too many times, I’ve seen this method belittled and dismissed without any serious consideration of its possibilities. On the other hand, I’ve seen lots of pastors and church leaders who inherited a Sunday School model but don’t know how to maximize its potential. Though Jonathan and I have differing views as to the best way to do Sunday School, both of us agree that this tool holds promise for the church that uses it well.

From the introduction:

Churches kick adult Sunday school to the curb for a host of reasons: they don’t have enough teachers; they don’t want to burden Sunday schedules; they believe it’s a relic of the past.

Basically, adult Sunday school is a dinosaur, right? That’s why young churches often don’t have them, and mature churches let them carry on as they’ve always done.

You file into the “Fa-Ho-Lo” class (faith, hope, love) that you’ve been attending for years. You chat with friends about Saturday’s college games for 10 minutes over a cup of Folgers finest. The leader calls for prayer requests and updates. That’s another 15 minutes. Then come the 35 desultory minutes of the study itself, which breaks down into 25% instruction, 25% marginally helpful remarks by classmates, and 50% rambling by two particular classmates.

If this is your experience with Sunday school, like you we’re tempted to kick the whole affair to the curb.

But wait! Do you know what you might be missing? What if we could use it to pack gospel-centered biblical content into our congregations? And equip the saints for the work of ministry? And change our church cultures in everything from dating, to evangelism, to knowing God’s will?

If we content ourselves with a 45 minute Sunday sermon for instructing the saints, we’re letting the Friday night movie beat out our time investment into them by double.

That’s why the two of us want to push the retro envelope and encourage you to reclaim adult Sunday school. If you don’t have it, get it. If you have it, consider how you might make more of it. In the immortal words of Huey Lewis, it’s hip to be square.

The two of us have slightly different ideas about how to structure a Sunday school program. Trevin wants to cycle good material through fixed classes. Jonathan wants to cycle people through good classes. But the big point of agreement is this: don’t be afraid to teach. And teach comprehensively and systematically. That’s our challenge to you.

Jonathan Pennington starts us off with a Sunday school apologetic. Ed Stetzer offers an interesting historical perspective. And Jamie Dunlop and Trevin consider several different advantages of holding adult Sunday school classes. Garrett Kell and Juan Sanchez get into the nuts and bolts of reform, and Jonathan, Jamie Dunlop, Michael Kelley, and Bobby Jamieson get specific about strategies for Sunday school. If you only have time for one article, jump straight to Jamie Dunlop’s on changing a church’s culture.

Bottom line, we invite you to consider what you might be missing.

Reclaiming Sunday School

• Why You Want Sunday School – Jonathan Pennington and Bobby Jamieson
• Why Sunday School Lost Its Edge – Ed Stetzer
• Sunday School and Its Rivals – Trevin Wax
• How Sunday School Can Change Your Church’s Culture – Jamie Dunlop
• How Sunday School Can Help Your Preaching – Jamie Dunlop

Reforming Sunday School

• Not Your Grandma’s Sunday School - Garrett Kell
• How to Reform a Sunday School Program – Juan Sanchez

How to Do Sunday School

• Whatever the Model, Don’t Be Afraid to Teach – Jonathan Leeman
• 5 Things Every Group Leader Should Do – Michael Kelley
• Sunday School for Dummies: How to Use and Develop New Teachers – Jamie Dunlop
• The Advantages of Curriculum – Bobby Jamieson

“Bible study won’t change your life.”

OK, I admit to indulging in a bit of overstatement to shock you into recognizing what should be obvious: just because you know the Bible doesn’t mean the Word will bear fruit in your life. It is possible to know the Scriptures, read the Scriptures, revere the Scriptures, and study the Scriptures and miss the point entirely.

Take the liberal scholar who knows the Greek New Testament better than most orthodox pastors. He can quote whole sections of the Bible in its original languages. Definitions of biblical words tumble out of his mouth as he effortlessly places everything in historical context. And yet he does not believe in the Jesus he reads about in the pages of the Bible. Sure, he is endlessly fascinated by the communities that gave us such an interesting artifact of study. But to him, his job is to immerse himself into a world of fables and dreams. The Bible is an epic story with no bearing on reality today.

Or take the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day who were steeped in the rich traditions of their people’s history. The leaders knew the Scriptures backwards and forwards, yet they had missed the signs pointing to the most important chapter in the Story that God was writing – the chapter that had been foreshadowed by the prophets and Bible writers for thousands of years. That’s why Jesus could say: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life!” (John 5:39-40). He doesn’t condemn them for their meticulous knowledge of the Old Testament. He mourns the fact that they’ve missed the point of it all.

Even today, it’s possible to get so wrapped up in searching the Scriptures that we miss what God is trying to teach us. Consider would-be prophets who scour over the prophecies of Revelation trying to pull out clues and codes about the European Union or the next major ecological catastrophe. Caught up in the thrill, the writers lose sight of Revelation’s main purpose: to unveil Jesus!

Others get bogged down in theological discussions (Calvinism vs. Arminianism, anyone?) until they eventually start coming to the Scriptures to look for more ammunition for their next debate. The Bible quietly gets twisted into a divine reference book designed to uphold a beloved system of theology instead of God’s divine revelation designed to shine light on a glorious Savior.

And then there’s the common type of Bible study that begins with us at the center and brings God into our world to address our already-defined needs and problems. We look at the Bible as a book of divine instruction, a manual for succeeding in life, or a map for making sure we get to heaven when we die.

These ways of studying the Scripture will not result in life transformation. Why? Because they’re missing something. Better put, they’re missing Someone. 

Bible study alone is not what transforms your life. Jesus transforms your life. Of course, He does this through His written Word to us. So we must affirm that life change doesn’t happen apart from God’s Word. But the reason God’s Word changes our life is not because of our personal study but because in the Scriptures we are introduced to Jesus, the Author. That’s why every page ought to be written in red, as every section is breathed out by our King and points us to Him.

It’s possible to amass great amounts of biblical knowledge, to impress people with your mastery of Bible trivia, to creatively apply the Bible in ways that seem so down to earth and practical, to dot your theological i’s and cross your exegetical t’s – and still miss Jesus. Scary, isn’t it?

That’s why it’s not enough to be “Bible-believing” or “Word-centered,” because, after all, the Bible we believe and the Word we proclaim is itself Christ-centered.

The purpose of our Bible study is to know God and make Him known. The Bible unveils Jesus Christ as the focal point of human history. All creation exists by Him, through Him, to Him, and for Him. Our Bible study should exist for Him too. That’s the only kind of Bible study that will change your life.

A few weeks ago, Tim Keller offered some helpful insight into the motivation for obedience, when he answered this question:

What should be the motivation of Christian obedience? What’s the broad motivation of why we should obey the Bible and obey the Lord?

Beauty and duty.

If we were completely sanctified, we would only do what God has said in His Word, strictly out of desire to please Him. We would never do it out of fear. We would never do it out of coercion. It would only be out of joy. That’s how it ought to be.

The fact is our hearts aren’t right. So sometimes we have the do the right thing because we know we should.

If you have an anger problem, ultimatley if you are a Christian, you have to say, Why do you get so angry? Maybe you get angry because of inferiority feelings. How do you deal with those inferiority feelings? You’re going to have to use the gospel in your heart. You have to remind yourself of who you are. In the end, the only way to overcome anger is to use the gospel in your heart until that insecurity is gone.

However, if you have an anger problem and you want to pick up a rock and hit somebody in the head, and actually your heart isn’t right, I still think you should not do it. Just because you might go to jail. Just because your family is going to be so unhappy with you. Just because God says no.

In the long run, you should always do the right thing out of love for God out of joy for God. But in the short run, very often you should use any means possible to do the right thing, which means tell yourself, I’ll probably go to jail if I do that. God will be mad at me (which He will be, by the way, if you do that). Even inside being a Christian, you’re beautiful in Him and in Him there is no condemnation, He is still angry at his children, I think, who He loves, when they do something wrong.

In the long run, beauty is your motivation. But in the short run, do it because it’s your duty to do the right thing.

Most of my readers know that my family and I have made a major life change in the past few weeks. On November 1, I started a new job as editor of a new curriculum being developed by LifeWay. I want to take this space to thank those of you who have written us emails and assured us of your prayers during this time of transition.

Some of you have asked for specific information about the new curriculum line. Last week, Ed Stetzer invited me to take part in his “Thursday is for Thinkers” weekly feature. There, I laid out my vision for this exciting venture. I am re-posting those thoughts here, in hopes that I’ll receive additional feedback from Kingdom People readers.

A Vision for Small Group Curriculum

Think about your best small group or Sunday School class experience. What made it work? Most of the time, people will talk about the fellowship and Bible Study. Both of these are vital components for successful small groups. As an editor, I want the Bible Study component to be the very best it can be for Sunday School classes, and that’s why I’m excited to help develop a new curriculum for LifeWay Christian Resources.

Here’s what I envision (and I’d love to get your feedback!):

1. Deep, but not Dry

The term that has been used to describe this new curriculum is “theologically driven.” That’s not to say that other curriculum options aren’t theological, only that these weekly lessons will be known primarily for digging deep into biblical theology.

I think it’s best to expect a lot out of those who attend a small group or Sunday School class. We need not adopt a “No Child Left Behind” mentality, as if we can and should go only as deep as the least knowledgeable person in the group. We don’t think this way in real life. When our son was still on baby food, we didn’t stop eating steak and potatoes. Neither did we stop feeding our son solid food when our daughter came along. Instead, we gathered as a family and ate together (some of us more than others!).

As a teacher, I want to provide a feast and let people draw the sustenance they need. We may have to “cut up the meat” for new believers and make sure that the truth is accessible. But the key is to put the biblical ingredients together and provide the meal. Fill up the plate! The important thing is that everyone has been fed and is sufficiently nourished when we finish.

2. Christ-Centered

I don’t want a week to go by without Jesus being present in our lesson. Jesus is the hero of every Bible story. He’s present in all its pages. The Scriptures are His word to our churches.

Tying everything to the gospel doesn’t mean that every lesson will end with a bullet-point presentation and the Sinner’s Prayer. But a Christ-centered lesson is drenched in gospel truth. Everything revolves around Christ’s death and resurrection and our need to repent and believe.

Sunday School and small groups are – at their best – evangelistic. We invite newcomers to our small groups and welcome them to our fellowship.

But being evangelistic does not mean staying superficial. A gospel-centered curriculum leads us Christians deeper into gospel truth, but never past the gospel. We never stop needing to repent and believe. There is a way to be theologically driven and still accessible to non-Christians, and that’s by massaging the gospel into every lesson.

3. Story-focused

Being Christ-centered naturally brings our focus to the overarching Story that the Bible tells in four parts:

• Creation
• Fall
• Redemption
• Restoration

In my experience teaching Christians in their twenties and thirties (some who grew up in church, and others who did not), I have discovered that though they may be familiar with certain Bible stories, they are not always sure how the stories fit together into the Bible as a whole. By focusing on the grand narrative of Scripture, I hope that our curriculum will help us connect the dots and think as Christians formed by the great Story that tells the truth about our world.

4. Mission-driven

Telling the story of the Bible is impossible without leading to mission, as the story of the gospel reveals the heart of our missionary God and his desire to save people of every tribe, tongue, and nation.

Too many of our Sunday School classes and small groups view our weekly meetings in terms of consumerist expectations. We come; we sit; we receive teaching; we leave. Even groups that prize participation can fall prey to the same temptation. We come; we sit; we talk; we leave.

A gospel-centered curriculum should be driven by the character of our missionary God seen most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ. Our weekly gatherings are not the goal of the mission; they are the means by which we connect with one another and learn God’s Word in order that we might be equipped to love God and neighbor while spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

The goal is not to fill our heads with theological truth but to fuel our hearts with passion to join God on his mission to bring people to himself. Keeping a focus on how the gospel leads us to mission is a crucial aspect of how we apply the Bible to our lives.

Disciple-makers know great joys. We also know great heartaches. But sometimes, it’s the people who bring you the greatest joy who eventually cause you the greatest heartache.

Perhaps you’ve been in my shoes. You led someone to Christ, and you faithfully sought to pour your life into them. You discipled them to the best of your ability. You welcomed them into your home. You sought to live an exemplary life before them.

But after a period of time, they turned around and went back to their old life. They left you and your church.

So you prayed for them. You pleaded with them. All to no avail. They fell back into their former worldliness and disappeared. And week after week, their absence shouts at you:

You failed them.

You mistook their initial enthusiasm for true conversion.

What kind of minister are you? You couldn’t keep them on the narrow path.

See what happens when you open your heart and life to someone?

Eventually, God brings another person along for you to disciple. But you find that – this time – it’s just a little harder to pour your life into them. It’s harder to give your all when it comes to their growth and discipleship. You don’t verbalize your thoughts, but your heart has them:

What’s the use of pouring your life into them if they wind up like the other?

What if they let you down too?

What if they are only here for a season?

The ache you feel for your earlier disciple keeps you from fully engaging the next one the Lord has for you.

You are not alone. The Apostle Paul once counted Demas as a fellow worker. But in Paul’s last letter, he tells Timothy:

Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…

It’s not hard to read between the lines and sense Paul’s sorrow. He wants to see Timothy (at least partly) because Demas has deserted him.

Of course, Paul’s biggest concern is that Demas’ soul is in peril. His former disciple’s love for the world is a demonstration of his lack of love for God. Make no mistake: Paul is concerned with Demas’ soul and destiny.

But that’s not all that grieves the Apostle. Paul needs companionship, partnership, and encouragement. So he tells Timothy to come to him soon. Paul is saying, I need you, Timothy. Demas is gone. In other words, It hurts. Bad.

Perhaps you’ve discipled a Demas before. If so, then you know the hurt that accompanies their desertion. You are deeply disappointed by their decisions. You can feel your spirit deflate whenever you think about where they are right now. You may even question your effectiveness as a minister.

In that moment of grief, you’ve got two choices. The first choice is to let your hurt turn into bitterness. The root of bitterness will keep you from giving yourself to the next person God brings your way. Bitterness constructs a wall around your heart in order to guard you from future hurt. Go this direction and you will never have another Demas to deal with. But you won’t ever raise up a Titus either.

The other choice is to stay grounded in the gospel, the only news that brings joy in the midst of pain. That’s what Paul does. He doesn’t turn bitter. He doesn’t deny his sorrow. Instead, he leans on other partners in the gospel and tells them, “I need you.”

Armed with faith in the power of the gospel and confidence that God’s plan cannot be thwarted, Paul moves forward. He keeps making plans. Bring the parchments. Bring Mark too. Bring my cloak. Hurt or no hurt, Paul maintains a steadfast joy in the sovereignty of God as he keeps on pursuing the kingdom and proclaiming the gospel.

Pray for your Demas. Weep over him. Beg God for him. But don’t let Demas steal your joy. Don’t let Demas rob you of your passion for discipling others. God will continue to bring people to you. The reason you can keep working is because the gospel never stops.

People like Demas will come and go. Yes, your next disciple may be a Demas. But it could be that the next one is your Timothy.

Guest Post by Robert Sagers

Many books are recommended to “put in a church member’s hands,” but then perhaps few are. But David Platt’s, Radical is truly, really and truly, a book to put in a church member’s hands. Or anyone’s hands.

I thought about that book a few weeks ago, while at the gym with a friend. At 24, my friend was lifting weights for the first time, and he was eager to copy every move I made. It struck me how imperative it was that I teach him how to lift with good form. And I realized just how sloppy my own form, over time, had become.

There’s a sense in which, Platt argues, each of us, in Christ, is a teacher (Matt 28:18-20). Each of us is called to disciple. And that can be frightening, for teaching confronts us all with our own ineptitude and shortcoming. Teaching can make us realize just how sloppy our form, over time, has become.

And that’s one of the reasons we must teach, we must disciple:

This raises the bar in our own Christianity. In order to teach someone else how to pray, we need to know how to pray. In order to help someone else learn how to study the Bible, we need to be active in studying the Bible. But this is the beauty of making disciples. When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level. (Radical, pgs. 100-01)

Discipling other believers—to see them spend time with another person, not with another program—knocks us out of our comfort zone, and it helps us to crucify our own failures, to strengthen our weaknesses.

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat,” Jesus says, “so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do” (Matt 23:2-3). True discipleship, at its best, will move us beyond the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the Pharisees.

Weeks later, my friend and I are still lifting together. His weight training form is getting better—and so, it turns out, is mine. Platt is right, of course: teaching others really does help us to raise the bar for ourselves. And if such is the case in the things of the gym, how much more in the things of Christ?