Worldwide Discipleship Association
New Curriculum for Reformed, Anglican, Episcopal & Orthodox Churches
This article summarizes features that will differentiate the new curriculum from the existing curriculum. (Unless otherwise indicated, page numbers refer to the Getting Started Leaders Guide PDF)
The operating assumption is that curriculum development is an exegetical, theological enterprise. Discipleship curriculum is applied theology:
Curriculum
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Systematic Theology
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Exegesis & Biblical Theology
1. The Russia curriculum will define the gathered local church as the real (spiritual) presence of Christ on earth. This is the central idea behind the term “body of Christ.” (cf. unit 7 which omits this main point of the body of Christ concept).
2. The Russia curriculum will present the sacraments as the real presence of Christ (of course, not as the corporeal presence of Christ as in transubstantiation; but as his real presence nonetheless and therefore as contributory to our salvation; as real conveyances of grace) rather than as mere metaphors or remembrances (cf. unit 3).
3. The Russia curriculum will present the gospel as the good news of a crucified, enthroned king and the hope of being resurrected with Jesus upon his return to live with him forever on the renewed Earth, not as “going to heaven when you die.” (cf. Getting Started Leaders Guide PDF pp 7, 8, 10 etc.) The New Testament generally avoids using the word “heaven” to denote the believer’s eternal hope. This is because there is a clear distinction between the intermediate state of the believer (going to heaven when you die), which is of secondary importance, and the final state of the believer (the ultimate hope of eternal life: rising with Christ when he returns to live forever on the renewed Earth.). The curriculum will avoid using the word “heaven” in a way that is generally foreign to New Testament usage. The Russia curriculum will not equate glorification with the point of physical death (Knowing God Leaders Guide p 77) but rather with resurrection upon Christ’s return.
4. The Russia curriculum will not refer to someone as a disciple based on their relationship with the group leader or membership in a small group (e.g. pg 12), because to do so with respect to an unchurched person obscures the biblical meaning of the word disciple: denoting a baptized, believing church member. The Russia curriculum will never refer to an unchurched person as a “new Christian” (cf. the RCAPS grid). The Russia curriculum will not offer assurance of salvation to someone without (from the outset) basing it on the biblical condition of being a baptized member of Christ’s body, the local church (cf. the first two units of Getting Started.)
5. The Russia curriculum will present Christ’s command to “love one another” as referring to relationships within the church rather than being a loving person in general (cf. Getting Started p. 20). Because to do otherwise misrepresents a chief sign of having become a Christian: the love of the brethren.
6. The Russia curriculum will describe a mature Christian as someone who habitually “eats and drinks with tax gatherers and sinners” that is, makes friends with unbelievers in order influence them to become disciples, that is, to become saved, baptized, responsible church members. Pursuing the conversion of the lost is the core meaning of the great commission. Similar to Perimeter’s Journey curriculum, we will present this aspect of Christ-likeness in “Phase One,” (i.e. in Getting Started). Developing a friendship with a lost person is different from and greater than merely serving them (cf. the maturity questionnaire. There are zero questions about significant friendships with lost people in this questionnaire.)
7. The Russia curriculum will present the gospel as a royal eschatological message anticipating the return of Christ, who is presently king over all his territory. In other words, the curriculum will make no allowance for dispensationalism (millennium, rapture, etc.). To present Jesus’ present kingship over Earth and his eminent and permanent return to Earth is part of the very core of the gospel. Thus the curriculum will be tacitly amillennial or post-millennial, teaching that Jesus will permanently return (1) to complete the new creation, (2) to raise the dead and (3) to judge the world and (4) to reign here forever with his brothers and sisters. Thus the curriculum will present the believers’ hope of eternal (resurrection) life while making no allowance for a hiatus where believers (as a group) are absent from earth. In other words, the curriculum will not teach (implicitly or explicitly) the premillennial rapture of the church. For example, Jesus’ objective for returning to earth will not be “to get us” but rather to reign here forever with us (Knowing God Leaders’ Guide, page 56). The curriculum will not teach that Jesus came the first time to pay for sins and will come the second time to become king (“How Emotional Problems Develop”, page 52; and Knowing God Leaders Guide p 51).” The curriculum will teach that Jesus is Lord (i.e. human king) today, not merely at some future point. The Russia curriculum will not present the character of God in the OT as being different or harsher than the character of God revealed in Christ (Knowing God Leaders Guide p 61). The Russia curriculum will not present dispensational exegesis of the book of Revelation (Knowing God Leaders Guide p 55). It will not teach that the purpose of Christ’s return to Earth will be to remove believers from the Earth (Knowing God Leaders’ Guide p 56).