Interesting Question ...

I have found the literature and essays at www.mckenziestudycenter.org/ to be of tremendous value for navigating bible study and Christianity “post evangelicism”. I will be curious to hear others’ recommendations.

I really appreciate this post. I actually emailed someone today asking for materials for non-Christian unchurched people.

I drive a taxi in Newcastle, Australia and seek to talk to people about God. On Nov 11th I begin church in the city’s gay bar.

All the material I have found is conservative and presumes too much knowledge. It all starts with the Bible and I am dealing with biblically illiterate people to a large degree.

Email me for more info on my ministry especially if you can offer advice and encouragement.

The pivotal question to ask for me has to do with our deeply held myths of G-d’s nature. When all is said and done, is G-d Punitive, or Graceful? We need to work out the implications of these deeply held eschatological visions.

I can’t say much concerning curricula, but the premier materials in my Library of Grace are:
1) Mercy and Judgment by F W Farrar:
Written in 1887, this is a thorough and orthodox look at Mercy and Hell in scripture, church history, and doctrine, a deconstructive tour de force at least 100 years ahead of its time.
2) If Grace is True by Phillip Gulley/James Mulholland:
A radical Anabaptist view untethered to mainstream Protestantism or Catholicism, in which the implications for Grace are magnificently presented in non-technical terms.
3) The Last Word And The Word After That.
Call me weird, but this ecclesiastical thriller had me on the edge of the bed. The quite brilliant third story in Brian’s trilogy not only flows with great narrative subtlety and depth, but highlights the pertinent historical, scriptural, pastoral and missional questions related to the deep anxiety around mans eternal destiny.

Coming soon to a prison near you…

Personally I highly recommend the Alpha course. Often confused as merely an evengelical course it is actually run in every denominational context from Anglican to Catholic and Pentecostal to non-denominational. When it’s done properly it creates a warm and loving environment in which people can explore the message of Jesus Christ. Time and time again I have seen beautiful new relationships formed and lives renewed whilst helping with a course.

The course can be run in all sorts of contexts and is run in numerous languages around the world, it is run in places such a churches, nightclubs, schools and prisons as well as people’s living rooms!

You can find out more information here -> www.alpha.org but I’m more than happy to answer any questions you may have.

With love,

Jon

Unfortunately, even in a prison context, I am afraid very few people come to the scriptures in complete “tabula raza” mode, so often what needs to be done with many is to strip away preconceptions of what scripture is, and perhaps more importantly, what is isn’t. ANKOC and Generous Orthodoxy threw down a gauntlet of sorts – a challenge to me to do that very stripping-away. I have used those books as a jumping off point (Thanks, Brian) in starting initial conversations with folks who are dipping their toes in the Kingdom. If I were putting together a curriculum today, I would be sure to include everything I could about the context of each book: Who (do we think) wrote it? When was it written? To what audience? What was the political and social climate of the day it was authored in? What was the book’s purpose? Who were its earliest readers? Setting up the framing story goes a long way towards introducing a part of scripture to a postmodern reader. I suppose it goes without saying that dogma is the enemy when one is trying to be “generous” about orthodoxy, but many studies have at their base implied dogma. Again – if it were me – I think I would boil my least common denominator down to the Apostle’s Creed, and add very little – if any – on top of that. Presenting controversial topics (we all know what they are) is not a bad thing, but I would do it with the following understanding, explicitly stated in the material: “This is a wonderful book, but it isn’t the whole story. Jesus sent his Holy Spirit to guide us to “all truth.” Even He understood that the truth in every situation could never fit in these pages. As you read and study the scriptures, please ask the Holy Spirit to reveal them to you.”

I appreciate Brian sharing this about prisons; I am pastor of a prison congregation. As far as the emergence being present in prison, it is a yes and no phenonmon. It is no because we have tons of modernism minded volunteers who give generously of their time to teach bible study and be with the incarcerated. But they bring a very un-generous orthodoxy to the men, who swallow it all. Although it is interesting, un-generous orthodoxy but generous ortho-praxy. One does not see the a lot of liberals , progressives, or emergents coming to prison. Many of the incarcerated are also thoroughly modern in their Christianity. Everything comes down to blood atonement, we are always 6 verse away from blood atonement. But where the emergence is strongest is men will explore more than one religion and can go to more than one kind of religious service. Interestingly we have a lot of Muslims who go to both Muslim and Christian services. My own worship service, while I myself am a Lutheran and somewhat liturgical, we combine a lot of pentecostal and baptist piety into the mix. I like to use Manna and Mercy for bible teaching. It is written by Dan Erlander.

We’re in the process of developing a missional discipleship curriculum that begins with a narrative framework. It doesn’t assume a biblical worldview but it does assume people want to follow Jesus.

We set the context for the process in a tribe, or a group of people working towards following and engaging God’s mission in a intentional community setting.

I really enjoyed Don Miller’s books. For those with no former knowledge of Christianity Blue Like Jazz is a great place to start. I also really enjoyed Rob Bell’s video series, Nooma. Both are great if trying to engage a younger crowd.

kudos on this- there is a huge need for some constructive fresh work to be done…..I am a huge fan of the book “The Drama of Scripture-Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story”. Link here http://www.biblicaltheology.ca/bluedescription.htm

This gestures toward some good stuff Mclaren did in a 50 episode podcast a couple of years ago on “wired parish” where he just worked through the narrative..sort of Following the NT Wright schema….anyhoo….look forward to hearing from others also.

To be really honest, I become skeptical with curriculum, but realize the need to some extent. I know that I too have wanted to have tools that would help in areas of discipleship and the likes, but cringe to think of some of the curriculum that I had growing up. I don’t know. I feel torn between the two…maybe someone should write a Post-Daily Bread that I could read every morning while I use the restroom…lol

I have served as a chaplain in a hospital, and currently teach Bible studies at a soup kitchen, in a church, and have just begun at a local penitentiary, and I think we need to be careful about curriculum. Whatever comes out must be highly adaptable to a given context, not even one prison population to another is the same. Also we have a great chance to get creative and write out own Bible studies, though some resources will be helpful. It will be a challenge to write a new, contextually adaptable curriculum, but I am sure there are those out there that are up to the challenge.
peace
Holmes

Matt,
I guess that is my concern more or less too. I wonder how a curriculum can work for those who are at different stations of life or their experiences are different? Sometimes I wonder if we use too broad of a brush we will alienate those who have questions for their context. Maybe you are right. A good curriculum must be adaptable.

Heard of Quadratos yet? It speaks to each person, where they are right now. And takes into consideration who wrote the gospel, who it was written to, and what was going on at the time, then looks at the pattern laid out for us to read them and why they were chosen. How that pattern works in our lives and continues to work in us and through us – the Living Christ here, present, with us and today, new. My dear friend, Dr Alexander Shaia, is amazing in what he has helped us to realize, live and pray.
Check him out at:
www.quadratos.com

Noah , Matt, Kathy
Matt; Post-Daily bread : excellant idea! I have many a memory of such devotionals poured over in such settings.

I understand being sceptical of curricula; because at best they provide frameworks. What you all seem to be saying is that true discipliship is intensely personal and involves much more than conforming to presented ideas. Ultimately the disciple develops the inner discipline of knowing and hearing God in his/her own mileau. I think Jungs idea of “individuation” – the development of true authentic faith – must be added to our current approaches which use lists of rules or principles.

So perhaps the goal of a curriculum is more about giving the discipler a wide frame of reference, and not as much for the disciple, whose main goal must be to develop an authentic faith, based on knowing they are loved.

I am thinking all this through with a particular class of person in mind – those at the bottom of the heap, whose view of a punative God is deeply entrenched.

nic,
I completely agree with your statement that a curriculum is a wide frame and it is up to the disciples to develop the relationship. Maybe I have been critical on curriculum based off of the fact that those who were the teachers of said curriculum would often be very lazy and teach the curriculum and not develop relationships. In my youth group days that is what happened year after year. Most curriculums that I have encountered, is very black and white. This could of course only be my story as a recovering right wing fundamentalist (please see Pensacola Christian College). I guess I am just more in favor of relationships that encourage growth and knowledge than a book, material, or tool that can encourage laziness and discourage relationships. I found real resonance between Neo and Dan and my own journey. I am always in desperate need of finding more “Neos” in my life that will lead me to a place of encountering the God-Man more. Sometimes it is Shane Claiborne while other times it is Kierkegaard. At best though, it is a relationship that encouraged me along the way.

To the chaplain’s initial question: Didn’t Tim Keel develop some reading guides with questions that were included, for a season, in the hardcover boxed sets of ANKOC? It’s also worth noting that Jossey-Bass has just released Brian’s trilogy in paperback – important for this conversation because many prisons don’t allow hardcover books for safety reasons. Wouldn’t it be cool to get the trilogy into the hands of our prisons and chaplains?

It would be interesting to develop a web-based curriculum, one with hyperlinks to many different sites with various points of view and directed at various groups, in this way the teacher would have one place to go, but be able to pull from many different resources. This is just one of a number of options which may be helpful.
peace
Holmes

Holmes,
That would be amazing! That way, people who share the same context would be able to relate and share ideas.

Jonathan Brink, I am interested in that material. Keep me posted at Facebook, please? Also, Philip Yancey’s book “The Jesus I Never Knew” would be a good book to go through a chapter at a time. You could have the chapter as homework (with emphasis on showing up whether they read the chapter or not) and pertinent Biblical text as related to the topic(s) in the chapter. I would include accountability time in this group, with the “what we say here, stays here” mandate, if possible. Meaning, the women can share things they are struggling with with the group as needed, knowing she is free to do so.

I have written a curriculum which attempts to establish small covenant groups for training in theological reflection. It is untested to date and I’d love to have folks try it and give feedback. If this might be of interest to folks, let me know.

I am also currently developing a curriculum which engages Dorothee Soelle’s work on mysticism (using her book, Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance). It has been a wonderful resource and I’ve found the conversation is definitely leading us to look at theological positions, opinions, and mythologies in a broad context.

I took a 52-week course called “A Year in the Bible” which starts with several weeks of learning how to read and interpret the Bible for yourself. I am now on my second time through as a small group leader and am working at making this material more widely available on the web. We use Fee and Stuart’s “How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth” and Stein’s “A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible” along with material written by the instructor, Trace James.

I prefer a Bible study which teaches active Spirit-led reading of the Bible while keeping it solidly in its historical context. Ask first what the text meant when it was written by its original author. Then read it again with Truth at your side and respond in faith.

This, to me, is more richly rewarding and keeps me coming back to the Word on a regular basis. It keeps the Bible alive. Using someone else’s pre-interpreted material as if it was Truth, or trying to apply the Bible to our individual lives without Him, is where we often miss the point.

The overall story of the Bible is creation-fall-redemption-________?? What is the fourth one? Salvation? Restoration? Consummation? Grace?

What about “response”! In my mind, it is not about sitting around in our salvation sofas waiting for Heaven to come. It is all about responding in faith to bring about the redemption of creation … here … now … together in community. It is all about our bringing Heaven down to Earth by working together to discern and respond to His will. Our Bible studies need to reflect that.

I realise this may not be seen! Lots of comments.

I am involved with marginalised youth (and some older people) in Australia and have found that many of these guys are “tabula rasa”. I think maybe Australia is different to the US in this respect. I have struggled for 4 years now to find appropriate resources for young people who have no background in the church and are also part of a post-literate culture.

In short we haven’t found much. The didactic, chalk-and-talk approach of things like Alpha and other programs like it are virtually useless, other more traditional book based studies don’t work either.

We have found that topical discussion based around Jesus principles and inviting the young people we are involved with into our lives to walk with us as we try and live the gospel, have been the two most succesful methods. Having said this it hasn’t been an easy journey and I am interested in any suggestions anyone has regarding resources that will hold the attention of post-literate young people.

My email is ahrigg@gmail.com

Cheers,

Andrew