The learning outcome for this lesson and its various parts was as follows: by the end of these workshops, students will be able to apply the foundational principles of BT to interpret passages of Scripture in personal Bible study. The first of the five teaching sessions began with five review questions regarding the previous lesson that students were required to answer in small groups.42 Transitioning then from a time of review of the “5 C’s,” students were assigned passages of Scripture to, as individuals, investigate using the “5 C’s.” Students were given thirty minutes per passage. The remaining class time consisted of students sharing their findings, and large group discussion to ensure accurate interpretation, understanding, and to offer responses to any questions that arose.
In the first two class sessions students dissected 1 Samuel 17 and Proverbs 2:1-6. In sessions 3 and 4, students analyzed Luke 4:1-13 and Colossians 1:12-14. Conclusion to the course came when the BTCT was readministered at the end of the four-week instructional period, on Thursday, October 7, 2021. Finally, students were given the opportunity to apply the knowledge gained throughout the course with a summative biblical theology paper that was received after their fall break on Wednesday, October 15, 2021.
Conclusion
This project was implemented through fifteen weeks of preparation and implementation. As both formal and informal feedback from participants began to come in, it was clear they by and large appreciated and found this course useful. The research data in chapter 5 demonstrates this project was successful in accomplishing its goals. The process was enjoyable and enriching. It is my prayer that the content of this course will bear fruit in the lives of students for years to come and will be utilized as a vital piece of the overall high school Bible curriculum at RSCA.
42 See appendix 5.
CHAPTER 5
EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT AND REFLECTIONS
Introduction
This final chapter evaluates the purpose, goals, strengths, and weaknesses of the ministry project detailed in the previous chapters to access its overall effectiveness. It also contains some ways in which this project might have been improved during its development and implementation phases, as well as several theological and personal reflections regarding the project. The following analysis and evaluation show that this project made a statistically significant difference in students’ knowledge of and ability to use biblical theology (BT) while reading Scripture.
Evaluation of the Purpose
The purpose of this project was to develop a high school biblical theology course as part of a curriculum revamp at Rock Springs Christian Academy (RSCA). RSCA recognized the necessity for a high school’s Bible curriculum overhaul that included instruction in the foundational discipline of BT to combat biblical illiteracy among its student population. This task required teaching students to learn how to see the big picture design of the creator God in his Word, and how each individual passage relates to the entire canon of Scripture. Instruction in BT is foundational for everything else the school desires to teach as part of its curriculum revitalization because it teaches students to read and understand the Bible how it demands and intends itself to be read so that students can engage with the world more faithfully and with greater confidence.
There is hardly anything more practical and important for the Christian life than learning how to read and interpret the Bible well. This is particularly true for the western
church’s young people who exist in a world of ever-changing cultural trends and norms.
Their world, emersed in social media, endless apps, and virtual reality resembles a “choose your own adventure book” concerning truth and morality. That is why a more robust hermeneutic is required to combat the competing narratives that rear their heads at ultimate reality and truth portrayed in Scripture. It is only through coming to realize that the Bible, in telling one unified story that culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ, tells a more beautiful, lifegiving, and satisfying story and portrayal of what is ultimate reality, that this world begins to lose its grip on human hearts. It is not by becoming an expert of the counterfeit that the real is recognized; rather, it is by constant immersion in the truth that the forgeries are revealed for what they are.
It was one of the goals of this course in BT to saturate students in the story of Scripture so that they would begin to discern how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes the way God’s people read their Bibles, especially the Old Testament. To say it another way, this project, through the power of the Holy Spirit, opened the eyes of RSCA students to see how, as the subtitle to Sally Lloyd Jones’ Jesus Storybook Bible puts it, “Every story whispers His name.”1 The emphasis on this interpretive commitment was an essential piece of this project. As the data revealed, a verifiably significant step was taken in the right direction through the development and implementation of this ministry project.
Evaluation of the Goals
There were three necessary goals for the purpose of this ministry project.
These goals reflect a progression of the steps taken to grow RSCA students in their understanding of biblical theology. This section offers an evaluation of each goal that guided this project and sought to make it meaningful and effective.
1 Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Page Whispers His Name (Grand Rapids: Zondervankidz, 2007).