Teaching and Discussion on Current Issues

Aim: The GBC Elders plan to offer a short Sunday Seminar series in the fall and spring during the Sunday School period, at which time our adult classes will come together for teaching and discussion on pressing topics Christians face in our current cultural moment.  These sessions will allow us to address key issues, invite input and discussion, and provide guidance for how we might react to, and interact with, major challenges of following Jesus in today’s world.

Fall 2021 Session:

• Topic: “Loving God with All Your Mind:  Reasoning Well Together in the Church Family”
• Format:
  • Teaching by Pastor Peter during combined adult Sunday School sessions on Oct. 31 and Nov. 7, with brief discussion and Q&A (10:00-10:45 a.m.)
  • Extended discussion and Q&A on Tues., Nov. 9 (7:00-8:30 p.m.)
  • Overview:  Within the church community, it’s crucial to have open, honest, thoughtful discussion of biblical teaching and its application in daily life.  We want to cultivate an atmosphere—a church culture—that encourages both humble receptivity toward one another (i.e., listening) and a gracious assertiveness that communicates the truth in love (i.e., speaking).  Further, we want the major focus of our time, energy, and conversation to center on “first things”—the primary matters of God’s glory and grace and the gospel—and not on secondary issues.  To do this well, we need to continue to grow in loving God with our minds, and to express that love by reasoning together in calm, constructive ways.  This seminar series is about honing our thinking skills.  It will raise questions and offer illustrations to help us see how Christians have both stumbled and excelled when it comes to reasoning well together.

• Resources: Our primary resource is Scripture.  We’ll explore biblical texts and themes related to wisdom, truth, knowledge, discernment, humility, courage, and love, doing so with a view toward how believers should relate to each other in pursuit of these priorities.  The secondary resources listed below have been helpful to me in my study of the topic at hand.  I have not always agreed with each author, but I've often found the material provided to be enlightening and challenging. -Pastor Peter
  • Brett McCracken, The Wisdom Pyramid:  Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World (2021)
  • Trevin Wax, The Multi-Directional Leader:  Responding Wisely to Challenges from Every Side (2021)
  • Daniel Darling, A Way with Words:  Using Our Online Conversations for Good (2020)
  • Os Guinness, Fit Bodies, Fat Minds:  Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It (1994)
  • John Piper, Think:  The Life of the Mind and the Love of God (2010)
  • Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind:  How Should a Christian Think? (1963)
  • With a focus on church history and its ripple effects today:  Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (1989).  Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994).  Carl Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self:  Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (2020).  Frank Gaebelein, "Evangelicals and Social Concern" (JETS 25.1 (1982) 17-22).
  • With a focus on biblical interpretation:  Gavin Ortlund, Finding the Right Hills to Die On:  The Case for Theological Triage (2020). D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (1996).  Al Mohler, "A Call for Theological Triage and Christian Maturity" (2005)
  • A few other authors I’ve read, or read about (either in books or articles), include:  Neil Postman, Alan Jacobs, Jonathan Haidt, Tom Nichols, Tim Keller, James Sire, Russell Moore, Rebecca McLaughlin, and C. S. Lewis