Vision and Goals

I believe God sees this course as a fellowship. We are a team brought together for a season of growth through mutual training, challenge, equipping, and discipline. All these serve the ends that every participant gain new and lasting appreciation for the theological beliefs of the living Church of Jesus Christ, and new and lasting skill in the Church's practices of theological reflection requisite to faithful and powerful service in the Kingdom of God.

The messianic community was Jesus’ top priority during his earthly career, and it remains so today. The doctrines of ecclesiology and eschatology are essential to a proper theological understanding of life in the Body of Christ and its wider world. They are informed by and in turn inform the ministries of all God’s people as they respond to God’s grace in worship, evangelism, and hospitality. This course will deliberately foster connections between the doctrine of the Church and Last Things and the eschatological life of the Church. Students completing this course will have demonstrated (1) a basic understanding of theological topics and issues in their biblical, traditional, and contemporary expressions; (2) an ability to reflect theologically upon them; (3) their fundamental pastoral, spiritual, missiological, and academic implications; (4) skills towards developing their own theology in critical dialogue with various views; and (5) a theological appreciation of ecumenical and cultural diversity. More specifically, the course intends its participants:

To hear and understand the good news of the Kingdom of God that has arrived in Jesus Christ. This involves grasping the centrality of Jesus Christ and his gospel to Christian worship, doctrine, and life.

To learn to work together as colleagues in theological education in a fellowship whose relationships and tasks embody the Kingdom. These tasks require and foster strengthened academic discipline, particularly regarding good writing, listening, and critical reading.

To gain opportunities to respond to that good news by becoming more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. In the context of this particular class, they manifest themselves in active corporate and personal engagement with the discipline of orthodox Christian theological enquiry. In the wider context of the Christian faith, they invite full commitment to Jesus as crucified and risen Lord: Son of the Father, Way to eternal life, redeemer of the world, King of all kings, firstfruits of the new creation, giver of the Holy Spirit, head of the Church, and final judge. In the practical context of the life of that faith, they set disciples alongside one another as fellow workers and witnesses to the apostolic faith once authored and soon to be perfected in Jesus' reign.

To become familiar with the historical, theological, ecclesial, and biblical shape of the Christian tradition that conserves, pursues, and deepens its appreciation of the Kingdom. Historically this means weighing various Christian communities' visions of the identity, character, and work of the God of Jesus Christ in the world's creation, redemption, and perfection. Ecclesially it involves deliberate efforts to connect Christian theology with Christian practice, centering both on the life of the worshipping Church. Biblically, it means gaining facility in faithful, responsible, imaginative Christian biblical practices.

I describe the general goals of all my courses in my rules of the game.