In Part 4, we descend from the great heights of a theological conversation about the person of God and into the details of our everyday lives. We will ask the question, “what does it mean to reflect God’s image both individually and corporately?” We will answer this in five ways: by worshipping, by praying, by reading the Bible, by belonging to and participating with the Church, and by working for renewal. As we move through these five ways of reflecting the image of God, our hope is that a vision for a counter-cultural life of faith will take shape - a life that is defined and ordered by God’s story, our deep longings and His character and not by the temptations and pressures of our contemporary society.
Foundations, Part III: Staring at the Sun
In Part 3 we descend from the grand meta-narrative of the world and the over-arching themes of human existence to the particular story of the God of the Bible and His historic people - the nation of Israel. We hope to answer a few questions:
● Who is God?
● What is the role of the nation of Israel in God’s story?
● Who is Jesus?
● What is the role of Jesus in God’s story?
● Who is the Holy Spirit?
● What is the role of the Spirit in God’s story?
Assigned Reading for Part IV:
Read "Part III: Reflecting the Image" in Simply Christian by N. T. Wright.
Foundations, Part II: Echoes of a Voice
In Part 2, we will take a step back and look at four areas of our contemporary life that point towards something. What that something is is not immediately clear to everyone - but we can perceive that there are clues ingrained into the fabric of the universe and our lives that act as “strange signposts - pointing beyond the landscape of our contemporary culture and out into the unknown.”
These four signposts are things that we all have in common, they are echoes that every human being can hear. They are: the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships and the delight in beauty.
Assigned Reading for Part III:
Read "Part II: Staring at the Sun" in Simply Christian by N. T. Wright.
Foundations, Part I: The Drama of Scripture
The story of the Bible can be summarized by four major movements that all point towards the one, grand, over-arching theme of the entire Bible. The four major movements are: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration → The creation of the world by God, the total fall into the corruption of sin by human rebellion, the redemption brought about by Jesus' death and resurrection, and the restoration of all things by God in the last days. To what theme do these movements point? → That God, as the main character of the Bible's story has been and is on a mission. He created the world and humanity for a purpose. When the world and humanity fell into corruption by human rebellion, He pursued humanity like a Father looking for a lost child. When humanity rejected Him, He became one of us so that He might absorb the punishment our rebellion deserves. He still pursues rebellious human beings today and for the purpose of welcoming them into His family. He has promised to, one day, restore the whole universe to peace, goodness, justice, and beauty. This is the story of the Bible and the mission of God.
Assigned Reading for Part II:
Read "Part I: Echoes of a Voice" in Simply Christian by N. T. Wright.
