THE BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL BASIS FOR TEACHING
Moses reinforces the seriousness of the commands God gave the Israelites at Sinai – he strongly emphasized that obedience to them would be the basis of their success in the land that Jehovah gave them. Peter Craigie writes: "Therefore, Deuteronomy must be understood in the context of the Israelites' past history and the perspective of their future history."2. Craigie summarizes: "In the first three chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses' address contains an account of God's experience in history, set within a generally chronological framework."5.
Moses tells the people not to forget their history—to learn from both the victories and the tragedies of the past. Weinfeld is right when he points out, “Because the memory of revelation is crucial. Religious life, however, did not consist only of remembering the experience of God in the past [history]; memory worked instead to produce constant obedience to God's law [doctrine], which in turn would lead to a constant experience of God's presence and activity.
Craigie says: “The details of the experience of God at Horeb/Sinai are very vividly recalled. It is one of the four Old Testament books that are most quoted in the New Testament.”16.
Just as Moses taught Israel about their unique role in God's economy, so must the church be taught about her place in God's plan of the ages. This means that God's people today should understand and honor their spiritual heritage as members of the body of Christ. However, the first part of the psalm - the part we are reviewing - is a reminder of the nation's history and how God has brought great victories in the past.
It is this opening passage of the psalm that supports the statement that it is important for believers to be consistently reminded of their spiritual legacy. The living God is the God of history and it is clear that God's people of the OT knew their religious history. These issues, while important and worth pursuing, are nevertheless beyond the scope of the purposes here.
Second, verses 6-11 relate the historical event directly to the life of the Corinthians and s. They were written as a warning to us who live at the end of the world."
METHODOLOGY USED IN IMPLEMENTING THE PROJECT
Preparation Period
The questionnaires were returned, evaluated and tabulated and the results provided a baseline of the congregation's total knowledge on the project's topic, which in turn helped to build an appropriate curriculum. First, there was a need to quantify where the congregation in general stood in relation to this perceived lack of knowledge, which quantification would lead to the creation of an appropriate teaching curriculum to address the need. The stated goal was to see the church-wide questionnaire completed by at least 65 percent of the Sunday morning adult attendees (about 150 people).
Most of those who completed the questionnaire provided the code, but the codes were never formally used in the progress of the project. The total number of questionnaires submitted represented about 48 percent of the adult members of the congregation, which was judged to be sufficient to give a generally clear sense of the church's collective knowledge on the subject. Furthermore, the congregation's overall score of 53 percent indicated that the initial assessment of the congregation's lack of understanding in this area was, in fact, quite accurate.
That is, the congregation's cumulative knowledge of why they identified as Baptists, or attended a Baptist church, was relatively weak. However, in the opinion portion of the questionnaire (Likert scale ratings), almost all responses were about the importance of learning about the Baptist heritage in the. Of the 310 possible choices on the questionnaire's Likert scale scores, only 4 selections were on the disagreement side of the scale (1 percent).
Education in truth prevents deception.” These clearly worded statements are representative of the majority of comments on the studies. As mentioned in Chapter 1, one of the goals of the project was to teach the small group study to a select group of no less than 20 adults from MZBC. After much deliberation about the most appropriate way to select the participants for the study, an "open" sign-up sheet was posted on the church's information center as the fastest way to recruit the students.
There was initially some concern that the voluntary registration approach to filling the class might skew a demographically representative cross-section of the congregation in one direction. However, this concern was overcome when, demographically, the study group was reasonably representative of the congregation as a whole, which generally skews toward middle-aged suburbanites and semi-rural residents. Of the 30 students who completed the study, 12 were male and 18 female; 19 had several universities or were graduates (including 3 with a master's degree), 11 had secondary education; and about half were under the age of 55 (with age 50 being the approximate average age of the congregation).
Developing the Curriculum
The stated goal of the curriculum evaluation was to have a minimum of 90 percent of the indicators in the evaluation rubric at the "adequate" level or above. This goal was achieved as all but three ratings were given "exemplary" ratings; the other three were rated "sufficient". Only one comment was offered with a "3". enough") points, for the criterion, "Each lesson contains points of practical application in the Christian life".
This “3” rating was accompanied by the following comment: “I would like to see some really practical charts included, such as 'How to choose a good church' or 'When it is time to leave a church .'” While this was a helpful comment, it was found that the inclusion of such charts was beyond the scope of the project objectives. Other comments from the expert panel focused on grammar, sentence structure, formatting, word choice issues, and many of these recommendations were incorporated into the final curriculum where appropriate. The final lesson series for the project was titled “Being a Baptist” and consisted of nine classroom sessions over a twelve-week period.3 The lessons covered the fundamental doctrinal characteristics of historical Baptists (as described), as well as a very brief overview of Baptists throughout the Church History from Apostolic Times to Modern Times.
Being Baptist” lesson titles, main topics and primary scripture references Session Lesson Title Main Topic(s) Primary Scriptures.
Implementing the Small Group Teaching
The course would also provide a summary of the distinctive doctrines that identify Baptists as such. The New Testament churches of today will essentially embrace what the Churches of the Lord did in the first century AD.
It was explained that Baptists only practice baptism by immersion, because this is the correct definition of the New Testament word baptízō, and this was the practice of the New Testament church. Initially in the lesson was an investigation into the twofold biblical understanding of the term "church" as found in the New Testament. A close examination of the New Testament reveals that there are three basic titles assigned to the primary spiritual leadership office in a local church.
The second part of the lesson on the two offices of a church focused on the office of deacon. This session kicked off the final two-week training session, looking at Part 2 of "Being a Baptist" ("The Distinguished Baptist Heritage"), a brief overview of Baptist history. That is, regardless of the name Baptist, most (though not all) Baptist historians have tried to point out that Baptist churches, in the main, have tried to follow the New Testament church model.
The class discussed the establishment and development of the New Testament church and its distinctive doctrinal features. The class understood how with the death of the apostles, biblical authority replaced apostolic authority. This session concluded the teaching portion of the project with the second lesson of Part 2 ("The Great Baptist Heritage"), a concise summary of Baptist history.
Hubmaier, a leading light (and eventual martyr) of the Anabaptist movement and a man who greatly influenced Baptists. The continued persecution of Christians who adopted Baptist beliefs and ways was also explained. The results and analysis of the data collected from the small group after the study are discussed in the next section.
Analyzing and Evaluating Results
EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT
Would Do Differently
In general, modern Baptists can trace a spiritual lineage all the way back to the New Testament churches. In the space below, briefly evaluate the teaching you have received about Baptist history and doctrinal specifics. Baptist History: From the Establishment of the Christian Church to the End of the Eighteenth Century.
