Tasks

Class preparation. You must read or view material for class discussions (Bible reading, assigned book chapters and online lectures, etc.) before class. If you choose an additional book, stay caught up. Assignments draw on lectures, readings, and discussions, so you are accountable soon anyway. Don't fall behind!

Reading: (BTW, I buy most of my books used on eBay, where they're often cheaper than used on Amazon)

• The Holy Bible. ESV, NIV, or NLT preferred. NASB, RSV, or NRSV just fine. KJV, NKJV, TNIV acceptable. Message, Passion not acceptable for class purposes even if they're fine in other contexts. Others and non-English translations okay by permission.
• Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine, The Kingdom Unleashed.
• Keith Johnson, Theology as Discipleship.
• Selected shorter readings, on Canvas or linked from schedule.
• Potentially, one of the following. Choose one that interests you. Listed in order of popularity; difficulty :
  Matt Mikalatos, My Imaginary Jesus (review) for a zany whirlwind journey with a donkey and the Apostle Peter in Seattle pondering how our 'contextualizing' can domesticate Jesus as an idol.
  Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism for examination of common reasons for people today not to believe in the God is Christian faith, and then reasons that trust in God is warranted, or at least worth entertaining.
  N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope (reviews) for clarifying and exploring the significance of Jesus' resurrection for our faith, present, and future.
  Thaddeus Williams, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask about Social Justice for a theological critique of critical social justice theory.
  Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered (reviews) for fans of cross-cultural mission and contextualization (even American) in greater theological depth than The Father Glorified.
  Simon Chan, Grassroots Asian Theology: Thinking the Faith from the Ground Up for an Asian appraisal of contemporary Asian Christian theologies.
  Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline (reviews) to learn from a theological giant how thoroughly theology centers on Jesus Christ.
  Robert Barron, And Now I See (reviews) for lovers of literature and Roman Catholic theology.
  Steve Addison, The Rise and Fall of Movements for historical, theological, missional perspective on the trajectories of Christian institutions we tend to take for granted.
  Lesslie Newbigin, selected writings (on Canvas) for a theology grounded in God's cosmic mission respected in contemporary contexts. Read a decent selection as it interests you. If you prefer something more structured, I recommend the book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society which is a masterpiece.
  Michael S. Heiser, Supernatural: What the Bible Teaches About the Unseen World–and Why It Matters for highlighting the Bible's (and especially the OT's) 'spiritual cosmologies' and how biblical passages reflect them.

Lectures (uBlock Origin is a good ad blocker):

• Online (YouTube playlist here) surveys and analyses of key doctrines in the Christian tradition, for you to consider in light of the primary biblical sources you're discovering.

Active participation. Participation is qualitative as well as quantitative, and is not just awarded proportionately. The word 'attendance' is related to the word 'attention': If you're passive, off-topic, or checked out, you aren't participating or attending. IRL, if you miss a day of work every week, or just show up and sit at your desk doing nothing, you don't get 80% of your pay; you lose your job.

Read or watch assigned material before class in the order specified on the schedule. Assignments and tests draw on these sources as we have processed them in and out of class rather than just measuring your recall of the content.

Some students think they'll do fine coming to class unprepared to draft on fellow students or only reviewing the lecture outlines. In-class participation, test scores, written assignment scores, and final grades do not support that hypothesis. Capiche?

Participation in course practices in and out of class. 'Theology' that isn't rooted in personally knowing God is a pale imitation. "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5–6 ESV). 'Theology' that only examines God without following God is counterfeit: "Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22 ESV). Participating in our tasks in and out of class is essential for our theology's legitimacy. Course participation in whatever form it takes for you (or doesn't) goes into your final grade.

Field work. Disciple-making movements are fundamentally practical as well as cognitive, so there will be regular things to do outside class, especially obeying what you have learned and sharing it with others who need it. For intance:

Mentoring. Our topic is intrinsically relational: "what you have heard ... entrust to faithful [people], who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim 2:2 ESV). You will identify someone for whom you are an IRL influencer—a younger sibling, a peer, a teammate—to mentor, duckling-discipleship style. This primarily involves teaching them how to discover as well as mentor others. (David Watson: "mentors make mentors.") I do not set the agenda for your relationship; God and you do. You should also lean in to a mentor of your own—a parent, teacher, coach, older sibling, etc., preferably from outside college who already influences you—and seek to discover more truly and equip yourself as a duckling.

Multiplication. Our topic is intrinsically missional: "freely you have received; freely give" (Matt 10:8 NIV). Begin a discovery Bible study (DBS) in a group of your own that includes people not in our class. You have several great options: (1) The 'creation to Christ' sequence (on the Waha app) is used among disciple-makers worldwide in introducing new audiences to the Bible's grand story. (2) Lists of six-week 'story sets' (relevant Bible passages) are here for you to use. (3) The '7 Journeys' story sets in Roy Moran's book Spent Matches are on Canvas. Your groups are of course welcome to continue with different topics, and I urge you not to give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:24–25) after the semester.

Learn-and-tell. Theology is proven and spread as God's people testify. What have you been learning, perhaps in your own reading and doing, that the others in class should know too? People are wired to learn from one another, so we will spend class time sharing what we're learning. Feel free to bring handouts if they're helpful.

Short written exercises (submitted on Canvas): These will help you reflect on course activities and material to increase their fruitfulness. You choose a number of these from the available options below. Submit at least three of the following, one by each due date:

• duckling (guidance/'mentoring') report
• do-and-tell report
• prayer and worship analysis
• worship service analysis and DBS comparison
• love's way exercise
• either Bible log or living theology log
• a book-specific exercise

They have no formal length requirements; if you insist, aim for roughly 1000 words. They of course require proper citation and quotation of any sources you draw on, the absence of which is academic dishonesty. Do not use any AI tools, which constitute academic dishonesty and will shortcut your learning process.

Let me anticipate the inevitable question: "What are you looking for?" I'm not looking for a command performance; I'm looking for you to have done what the assignment asks you to do. That will involve substantive engagement with the course material, primarily scripture and also both lectures and readings. I'm looking for signs you are really wrestling with and assimilating the course concepts.

A follow-up question, less often stated, is "Why are you making us do this?" It's a good question; I've dropped a lot of questions where the answer wasn't compelling enough. Each assignment is crafted with an aspiration that's mentioned in its prompt. That's what I'm after.

I keep using the word exercise, to help counter the high-school baggage associated with 'essay,' 'assignment,' 'writing,' 'paper,' and the like. These exercises are like problem sets, meant to give you practice working with the stuff. So just exercise! Write them in sweats or yoga pants if it helps.

Assignments are due on the date listed in the schedule.

The following are guidelines to give you an idea of how I will be evaluating these. But please please bear in mind the 'college value paradox' I will describe, in which some of the highest-level performance is actually much less fruitful in the long run than basics.

• Consistently excellent quality (something like "A"): all assignments complete, on time, full responses to question(s), uses sources broadly and appropriately, demonstrates unusually insightful or sophisticated grasp of the material, well written.
• High quality (like "B+"): complete, on time, full responses, uses sources broadly and appropriately, demonstrates sound and sophisticated knowledge of the material, well written.
• Consistently good quality (~"B-"): complete, generally on time, adequate responses, works with sources, demonstrates basic knowledge of the material, mediocre writing (some grammatical and spelling errors).
• Acceptable (~"C"): basic grasp and application of the material, but occasionally missing or late assignments, repeated failure to do what is assigned (e.g., not using sources well enough, tangential topics), poor understanding or misunderstanding of more complex concepts, or poor writing.
• Poor (~"D"): somewhat incomplete, generally late, consistent failure to do what is assigned, poor or no grasp of the concepts.
• Inadequate (~"F"): largely incomplete, failure to do what is assigned, or academic dishonesty.