Importance: 10%
The Big Idea
A place to dump my random unstructured ideas and thoughts.
Interesting Resources
Conference and Meeting Notes
Notes from Hartung Conversation 4-12-23
Book Notes
Notes from The Starfish and the Spirit
Random notes
Personal motivators
Curiosity
Creativity
Connection
Minimize status
How do these connect with the commissions
Avoid letting motivations twist into obsession compulsion
Moment and story based learning about God. Focus on major memories and personal stories we want people that have around there understanding and relationship with God
The three pronged approach of scripture itself should be what shapes they way we teach and tell the story of everything. Torah (narrative and law), nevaim (prophets), ketavem (writings). Narrative, poetry, and prose discourse
Popular Books
How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth: Fourth Edition
by Gordon Fee & Douglas Stuart
Read the Bible for a Change: A Follower’s Guide to Reading and Responding to the Bible
by Ray Lubeck
Academic Books
The Lost World of Scripture: Ancient Literary Culture and Biblical Authority
by John H Walton & D. Brent Sandy
An Introduction to the New Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation
by David A. deSilva
Narrative is the foundation of our biblical understanding. We see normal broken humans living there lives. We see God and his revaluation of dealing with and working through these broken people.
Poetry takes the messy and engages it. We see the prayers of the faithful in the Psalms. The vision of the world as it is and will be through the prophets. Poetry peels back the layer of our normal perception of the world and calls us to look deeper and see God in the midst of the messiness of life
Prose discourse takes the logical, the
Both poetry and prose discourse look back at the stories to explain and grow our understanding and experience of God. Paul speaks of Jesus and his life giving sacrifice. But without the narrative of Jesus on the cross the discourse is flat and disconnected. The psalms pray to a God who feels far away yet is worth praising and waiting for. Without the stories of Gods faithfulness these prayers are gibberish. Narrative is the base from which the other forms of scriptural communication derive and deepen meaning.
The logical progression of Scriptural introduction then is: narrative, poetry, prose discourse. Yet we often jump straight to prose discourse in the way we even teach the narrative or think about the poetry. An alternative model could be pulled from the organization of the New Testament itself. Narrative, discourse, poetry. While Old Testament has barely any prose discourse other than legal an ceremonial statements. Regardless of exactly how this shakes out it seems clear that prose discourse is not the primary means of communication that the Scriptures present the word of God through. How should that shape the way we think about teaching God’s word to a world that has increasingly less time to sit and debate with level heads?
Poetry
Art
Reading
Calisthenics
Gardening/plants