We’ve had a number of posts at Jesus Creed about the outcome-based model of education and how it can reshape both preaching and the entire educational program of a local church. Little did I know that Gary Parrett and S. Steve Kang were about to publish a hefty, new book that takes on the education of the Church. Their book is called Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church
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The first observation to make about this book is that it is complete: it is a thoroughly-informed biblical and theological analysis of the educational ministry of the local church. The authors are professors and this book emerges after decades of teaching this very topic — so it has been brewed and tasted and approved and tested. They wear their Reformed theology lightly enough that any theological orientation could benefit from the book because the book’s focus is not its theology but how to educate the church in a theologically robust manner.
I can but provide a light sampling of what you will find in this book:
Purpose: a mission to fulfill (the poetry of God and building up the body)
Proclamation: a message to obey and teach (the faith once delivered to the saints, the glorious gospel, and the CORE content is the Story and the Faith)
People: of teachers and learners (teachers and building a community of learners)
Practices: strategies for teaching and forming (visions of Christian teaching, from generation to generation, worship and formation, and then two long chapters on the commitments expected of a congregation)
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