The (Unofficial) Fellowship Bible Blog

Great online Bible study resource: Discipleship Journal magazine

A few days ago, I told you about my recent discovery of Bible Study Magazine and encouraged you to check it out.  If you're checking out magazines designed to help you grow in your faith and in your study of the Bible, I must also encourage you to check out Discipleship Journal magazine.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Discipleship Journal as one of the best periodical resources available to help you learn more in your relationship with Christ and dig deeper into the Scriptures.  I discovered Discipleship Journal about 15 years ago in a pastor friend's office, and over the years, it has been a resource and an encouragement as I walk with Christ.  I subscribed for a very long time, but I've since allowed my subscription to lapse.

WHY DISCIPLESHIP JOURNAL?

Discipleship Journal is published by NavPress, which is the publishing arm of the Navigators.  If you know anything about the Navigators, they are sold out to the study of the Bible and implementation of it in your life, and this is what Discipleship Journal is all about.  Discipleship Journal provides introductions to new ways to study the Bible and tools and resources for your personal Bible reading.   NavPress also believes strongly in small group Bible study and the magazine offers helps for leading others in a small group Bible study.  At one point in the past several years, we actually led a Bible study where week by week we took the study materials directly from Discipleship Journal and worked through the study together as a group and discussed what we'd learned.  The magazine also offers insights on church history and church fathers as well as personal articles on life issues of people who follow Christ.  It is an amazing read plus a great resource for small group leaders, and on top of it all, they hold art as a high value and produce eye-catching design and graphics for the magazine that captures the emotion of whatever that month's issue is covering.

BAD NEWS

But, alas, while writing this post, I came upon bad news.  I went to the Discipleship Journal website, and I couldn't find anywhere to subscribe.  I searched around for a while, and then I ended up emailing customer support to find out how to subscribe online.  I got an email back saying:

DJ has been discontinued both in the print and online forms. ... Unfortunately, we have had to make some significant changes at NavPress. In view of very challenging times in our economy and in the publishing industry, NavPress has made the very difficult decision to discontinue publication of Pray! and Discipleship Journal magazines.

RESOURCES STILL AVAILABLE

I was floored by this news simply because Discipleship Journal had been such a resource for me for about 15 years now.  This decision seems very recent as well, since the back issues area of the website shows a May/June 2009 issue of Discipleship Journal.  The light at the end of this tunnel is that, for now, the Discipleship Journal archives are still online and searchable at the DJ.com site.  You can search by any search term, or you can also download a PDF of the cumulative index of Discipleship Journal articles from 1981 to 2008 organized by topic, and then search for a specific article.  In my email conversation with them, it sounds like the archive is not completely up to date, but they plan on getting it up to speed and keeping it online.  They also still have online their page of Navpress discipleship resources as well as their catalog Bible studies for purchase.

ONLINE BIBLE STUDY RESOURCES

Discipleship Journal also has a great document that provides links to online Bible study helps, including Bible translations, lexicons, dictionaries, commentaries, writings of early church fathers, classic Christian writings, historical creeds and confessions, Bible background materials, cross-reference resources and more.  I've downloaded their version and uploaded it here just in case it goes down sometime in the future.  Click the links here to download:  PDF version or Microsoft Word version

DISCIPLESHIP JOURNAL BIBLE READING PLANS

Lastly, I can't talk about Discipleship Journal without giving high praise to their Bible reading plans. If you can't figure out how to get into the Word, the Discipleship Journal plan works for anyone no matter how much time you're willing to commit.  It's a fully adjustable plan that give you a plan and direction without so much structure that you give up when you fail.  It appears from the website that they are now charging for their plan in its different formats, but years ago, I turned their Bible study plans into PDFs for easy access.

Discipleship Journal Reading Plan 1 (click the name to download the PDF) offers up to four readings per day, spreading your reading throughout the Bible, in a monthly format.  If you read all four readings, you'll read through the Bible in one year.  But the magic of this plan is that you can choose how many readings per day you have, and it just lengthens the timeline to two, three or four years.  The readings are bite-size, so if your best pace is to read through the Bible in four years, just read one column.  Commit to as much or as little daily reading as you like, and start reading at any time during the year without difficulty.  The other thing to notice is that there are only 25 readings per month, which allows you to miss a few days without falling behind.

Discipleship Journal Reading Plan 2 (click the name to download the PDF) is a simpler book-at-a-time reading plan with the option of two daily readings.  If you read both every day, you'll end up reading through the Bible in a year.  Or just read through 1 column at a time, and you'll read through the Bible in two years.  Again, only 25 days per month are planned, and this plan even has written time periods to take a day and reflect on your readings.

Kindergarten Christian

I love getting to hang out with little kids.  Their complete sense of wonderment and excitement at even the smallest thing reminds me of a time when I truly thought that anything was possible.  If in my mind I could reason it out and absolutely believed in it, anything I could imagine could happen.  Sadly enough now the world doesn't seem quite so optimistic to me, but looking in my past does make me take time to step back and wonder what kind of mindset we should have when examining our faith. 

The idea of having a "child-like" faith is an enticing one.  The fact of the matter is that children just believe.  Whether it's that there is a monster in their closet, Santa can fit down the chimney, or that babies are delivered by storks, a kid will believe it as absolute fact even while adults know it couldn't be any further from the truth.  The same applies to their faith in God and when a little boy comes up to you and says that Jesus loves him, that boy believes that with all that he is.  How difficult of a struggle is this for the grown ups you work and fellowship with to grasp.  There are always exceptions to the rules and nothing can be absolutely certain, right?  But the truth is that Jesus himself said in Mark 10:14, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."  I think that it is their ability to whole hearted-ly embrace something, to accept something as absolute truth that Jesus is talking about.  Children can love God with everything they have because they know that God loves them.  However, even knowing this I struggle with the foundation of what my faith is based on and what it takes to make a child feel like they know.

About a year ago Becca and I got to volunteer in the children's's ministry first teaching a Kindergarten class and then later a class of third graders.  After teaching the third graders for a while I used to joke with Becca about how I missed the kindergartners because I could always "trick" them into behaving.  If I could make behaving fun I could get them to sit down and work on their weekly lesson.  This is a great opportunity in the hands of someone with the children's best interest in mind but it also leaves kids highly susceptible to bad influences which is why we try so hard to protect the little ones we love.  My fear is that we as a church whole (not just FBC) are developing only Kindergarten Christians.  Kindergarten Christians can be led to Christ; we can utilize their emotions and their fears, their love and their struggles to have them develop the relationship they need so that they will believe.  However, the same people who have been brought to the church through some emotional experience can be easily pulled away using those same emotions.  Kindergarteners are not ready for the real world but I think we set new believers out into the world only after telling them how things are and not asking them to search within themselves to ask the right questions and base their faith on something more than just a he said/she said foundation. 

So what should we be doing?  Is it ok to have Kindergarten Christians?  What can we do to make sure our church members don't just feel their faith but also believe and know their faith?  I'll talk about some of my ideas in the next post, but in the mean time I'm always interested to here others comments and questions. 

Recent find: Bible Study Magazine

A few months back, I noticed either Mark Driscoll or The Resurgence promoting a deal for subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine.  Mark Driscoll was being featured on the cover and in an article in the most recent issue, and so they were offering a special deal.  After doing a little research and thanks to the good price, I jumped in on a subscription.  I've since received two issues of Bible Study Magazine, and I like it and can recommend it.

Bible Study Magazine is produced by the makers of Logos Bible Software, so they have a vested interest in getting you into BIble study.  You'll notice Logos ads and references in the magazine, and in that manner, they get their promotion, but there's plenty more in the magazine.  It usually includes a cover story written by or about a figure of the Christian evangelical world, talking about Bible study methods or how they integrate their study into their work.  Beyond that, though, there are resources for any and every level of Bible fan.  They include a good basic Bible study on a passage in every issue, plus they dive into archaeological finds as they relate to biblical matters.  They have in-depth studies of passages, both Hebrew and Greek, as well as summaries of major ideas and people in the Bible and reviews of new books and commentaries.

I have found Bible Study Magazine good reading on both a light reading and intellectual challenge level, and I encourage you to check it out.  I also found another good review of Bible Study Magazine online at GoingToSeminary.com.  It's a new magazine and for now is only published once every 2 months, and you can subscribe at the Bible Study Magazine website for $14.95 per year.

Churches in Greene County

I found this interesting article at the Greene County Library website.

The Main Event

The weather looks like it is going to be great this time around...

The Main Event is a church wide party. There will be baptisms, music, food, small group competitions, children’s games and lots of fun. It will be THIS Sunday, May 17, from 3-7pm at “Summers at the River”. If you have not picked up a free ticket, you can still come simply by sending an RSPV to becca.murdaugh@fbclife.org

Directions to “Summers at the River”: From Springfield, go south on 160 to Highway AA. Turn right (West). Go 1/4 mile to Fox Hollow Dr (look for the fire truck). Turn Right into the parking lot.

Worship in Church: What's the Point?

What is the point of worship in church?  What is the role of worship at Fellowship Bible Church?  FBC is a seeker-sensitive church with a variety of people ranging from Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, those raised in church, those burned by church, and contemporary and traditional church goers.  With such a mixture of people, what should the worship look like?  Contemporary praise songs?  Traditional hymns?  Secular covers?  Country?  (we are in the Ozarks).  

Some claim that worship for a seeker-sensitive church should be relaxed and not too serious or deep.  The music should make people feel comfortable, thus allowing their hearts to be more open to the message of the teaching.  Others claim that no matter what type of church it is, the worship should be authentic, powerful, and meaningful, with the sole purpose of worshiping God.  By doing worship this way, seekers will see the glory of God through the church's worship, thus bringing them closer to God.  

Where does FBC fall on the worship scale?  This is a question I've been wrestling with for a long time.  The worship should be authentic and real with the sole purpose of glorifying God, but in no way should it make nonbelievers feel uncomfortable (such as speaking in tongues).  There must be some aspects of the worship that allow seekers to easily connect and engage, whether that be a secular song they are familiar with or a great analogy in the sermon.  

Along with prayer for better communication in our church, I call for prayer for the worship in our church.  Pray that our services will engage seekers and at the same time show them the beauty and glory of God through the worshiping of our congregation and humility of our worship leaders.  

Gospel and Community

From Steve Timmis, author of Total Church...

The Church is called to a dual fidelity:

• Faithfulness to the word
• Faithfulness to the gospel community  

 

 

No Main Event Today

Due to all the rain this weekend and the potential for more rain this afternoon, there will be no “Main Event” today. The make-up day will be on May 17th from 3-6pm. Please pass this information on to anyone you know that may be planning on attending today.

Hope to see you in two weeks!

Ian

In the Image of God

Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves.....Then God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genisis 1:26-27, NLTse)

These verses from the first page of the Bible are among the most remarkable in all of scripture. The God who existed before all that is decides to create the cosmos. He then sets about speaking into existence seemingly infinite expressions of life. But this is not the end. Before taking vacation time, God says, "Let's cap off our masterpiece with a living creature that is like us. Let's make one that is in our image!" (This is where the music rises and crescendos. Think "Thus Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. You may remember this piece from the beginning of the film 2001.

Theologians have long looked for ways to understand what it means that men and women were created in God's image. If indeed, God emptied himself by becoming a man and then submitting to death on a cross in order to rescue men and women and all creation, it must be that we are of more value than it is almost possible to imagine. The most expensive painting sold to date is a Jackson Pollock that went for One Hundred and Forty Million Dollars in 2006. (This was before the stock market crashed. I imagine the seller is feeling pretty good these days. One wonders about the buyer.) An image created by Jackson Pollock smearing colored oils onto canvas has an amazing value. An image created by God's shaping of earth into a man and animated by his breathing into it has even greater value. You and I are worth exactly the life of God. Every human being that has ever come into existence is worth the life of God. Osama Bin Laden and the Craigslist Killer are worth the life of God. Beings bearing the image of God are of infinite value.

We are worth so much to God that he sent his only begotten Son to die for us. This causes me to want to know as much as I can about what it means that I have been made in His image.

The Bible uses the Greek word Eikon when it speaks of creatures made in the image of God. The apostle Paul describes Jesus as the perfect Eikon of God. If we are ever to know what we are, we must first know what God is. The early chapters of the Bible tell us three things that God does; (1); He creates, (2); He relates, and (3); He rests. God is a creator, a relator, and one that rests. Maybe these verses telling us what God does are a clue as to who we Eikons of God are.

I previously wrote about the Eikon as a creator in my piece called "The Mind of the Maker". I'll write next time about the Eikon as a relator.

In His Image