An Educational Proposal for Southern Hills Church of Christ
Final Project
Amanda Pittman
Teaching Scripture in Context
Dr. Samjung Kang-Hamilton and Dr. Mark Hamilton
August 12, 2010

Pittman 1
Introduction
Christian education has long been a priority for the church, and the congregation that I currently serve is no exception. I prayerfully crafted the following educational proposal for Southern Hills Church of Christ based on information gleaned from my current involvement with the adult education ministry. The proposals are therefore shaped with that context and its general modus operandi as a primary consideration. The proposal will begin with a description of the context with emphasis on the educational ministry. Following that description, foundational elements of the underlying biblical theology will be given for the educational model and specific content and strategy suggestions are made.
Description of Context:
In order to present a broad picture of congregational life and educational ministry at Southern Hills, the description of context will begins with a summary of demographics. After providing basic statistics, the community life, mission, and the way those factors influence educational ministry will be described with a building metaphor.
With nearly two thousand members, Southern Hills is one of the largest churches of Christ in Abilene, Texas. The congregation employs seven full time and two part time ministers, and twenty-two shepherds serve the congregation.
1
Predominantly middle class, a relatively high percentage of the church members hold college degrees, and due to the presence of the universities in town a number hold advanced degrees as well. Also due to the three universities, August through May bring an influx of three to four hundred students to the very active campus ministry. Though the vast majority of members are
1 The full time ministers serve in the areas of pulpit ministry, involvement, missions, congregational life, youth ministry, children’s ministry, and church administration, the part time ministers in campus ministry and family counseling.

Pittman 2 white, a close connection with the International Rescue Committee brings a diverse group of refugees into the congregation through various outreach efforts.
The church began as a plant by the Northside Church of Christ and was first located on South 11 th
and Pecan. Within three years, the expanding membership prompted a short-term move followed by the construction of a new building in the current location, the then undeveloped southern fringe of town. The purchase of such large property in faith that both the city and the church would grow still serves as a defining moment for the congregation, which has indeed seen both types of growth. That building has since gone through several stages of expansion, the most recent of which concluded the summer of 2010.
The building serves in a unique way as a metaphor for elements of congregational life. Due to the number of renovations, the oldest part of the church remains clearly defined by a style sharply contrasting the recent addition. The services reflect a similar contrast of styles. The two Sunday services, Daybreak at 8:15 and Refresh at 11, reflect not only similar differences in style but also slight differences in theology most clearly evident in way the Lord the Lord’s Supper is conducted. The early service receives the elements while seated in the pews during a time of quiet reflection, while the late service, created to reach a younger demographic, rises to partake at tables scattered around the room during a time primarily of fellowship. With some exceptions, older members typically prefer the early service while younger members fill the pews during the second.
Combined Bible classes partial alleviate this bifurcation by serving as a community hub.
The most recent addition, an expanded foyer area and new connecting hallway, came about due to a need to alleviate traffic flow difficulties created by previous

Pittman 3 sprawling additions. In a similar way, the growth that caused the structural disarray occasionally causes administrative and organizational difficulties; recent changes in the organizational structure have been made recently as well. In one of those structural shifts, the minister previously overseeing adult education as a part of his overall ministerial duties handed over that responsibility to a newly formed adult education steering committee led by two Adult Education Coordinators.
2
A final feature of the building also relates to the church’s education ministry. As it exists now, the building is divided into several distinct areas, and the Bible classes seem subsequently as sharply defined. All children’s classes are held in the children’s wing, one end of a building nearly a fourth of a mile from end to end. The opposite end, the original worship and classroom area, accommodates the older adult classes. While some exceptions to this general definition exist, the division of the classes into life stage groups remains obvious, and little interaction occurs between the age groups. The division is further reflected in the disparate class topics and educational styles preferences across the educational landscape. Classes with few exceptions operate autonomously.
In conclusion, the church vision itself employs a building metaphor as members are collectively to be “God’s community front porch: inviting, including, and involving people in the life of Jesus.” This vision statement is frequently expressed in the congregational emphasis on domestic and international missions and service. This proposal, built on the biblical theology addressed next, hopes to suggest how the educational ministry can join those areas as both expression and support of that mission.
2 I serve as the single supporting member of that committee.

Pittman 4
Theology of Scripture
As Parrett and Kang note in their introduction, one of the oft-neglected questions for teaching ministry is what precisely is to be taught.
3
Though they dealt thoroughly with content, it is important to give attention to the nature and function of the text from which that content is drawn.
4
A full biblical theology for education ministry would quickly consume more space than allotted. With that in mind, two foundational and mutually informative suggestions for the underlying biblical theology will be made here.
First and foremost, Scripture is the story of the Triune God who reveals himself in the creation, redemption, and judgment of the world.
5
Scripture warrants the designation as story because uniting the diverse perspectives and forms of scripture is a narrative plot:
God’s redemptive work in the midst of diverse people and places spanning from creation to the eschaton.
6 The diversity of scripture, both in terms of literary form and historical situation, does not prohibit unity, but it does suggest a different locus for that unity than
3 Gary A. Parrett and Steve S. Kang, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church. (Downers Grove, Ill.: Intervarsity, 2009),12.
4 The importance of such considerations for the construction of a teaching ministry is supported in part by reader response theory. The view of the nature of the text being read will inevitably effect what is found. Frances M. Young, Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture (New York:
Cambridge University, 1997), 10.
5 This assertion is shared by the members of the Scripture Project who include it in the first of their theses on Scripture. Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays, “Nine Thesis on the Interpretation of
Scripture,” in The Art of Reading Scripture (ed. Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays; Grand Rapids, Mich.:
William B. Eerdmans, 2003), 1-5. The identification of scripture as story requires a couple of contrapuntals. To begin with, viewing scripture as story does not insinuate that all individual parts of scripture are themselves stories, a point which should be become immediately evident when faced with psalms or genealogies.
Beck rightly points out that nearly one half of scripture is in fact story, but his classification of God as storyteller omits the fact that in the same sense God is also lawgiver, prophet, psalmist and sage. John A. Beck, God as Storyteller: Seeking Meaning in Biblical Narrative (St. Louis:
Chalice, 2008), 1. Moreover, this view does not suggest that narratives have greater inherent revelatory potential than other literary forms. Finally, this assertion does not suggest that scripture is a story in the same sense as most novels, with one clear unified plot and several defined primary characters. Richard
Bauckham, “Reading Scripture as a Coherent Story” in The Art of Reading Scripture (eds. Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2003), 38-53.
6 Davis and Hays, “Nine Thesis,” 1-5. See also Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith , 25.

Pittman 5 might be found in other narratives.
7
The Triune God to whom Scripture continually points serves as the unifying element and constant character woven throughout the story.
8
Whether forming covenants with forefathers, granting wisdom to the sages, placing oracles in the mouths of the prophets, delivering the Israelites from their enemies, or entering the world as an infant, Father, Son, and Spirit hold together every passage and pericope. Thus scripture is a theological narrative, the story of a God who due only to his great love and mercy chooses to reveal himself in relationship to a chosen people.
The narrative designation of scripture holds several implications for education ministry. First, teaching ministry must begin with reading scripture for theological meaning.
9
Such an emphasis does not neglect the ways in which scripture speaks to human experience, but it does set those concepts in an appropriate perspective. In the biblical narrative, human experience is portrayed in relationship to God; God is the initiator of the covenant, humanity the respondent. In many cases, the specific instructions given to God’s people are rooted in God’s nature and actions toward them.
10
A second implication suggests that because the conclusion to the story projected by
Scripture, the eschaton at which the world will be fully judged and restored, has yet to
7 Bauckham suggests Gerard Gennette’s distinction between story and narrative as a means of coping with the literary diversity of scripture. A literary narrative may tell events in different orders, tell only selected events, or tell some events repeatedly than they occur in the story. The diversity need not be an obstacle to gaining a sense of the unity. Bauckham, “Reading Scripture as Coherent Story,” 38-53.
8 Bauckham makes a helpful point, stating the biblical text can never hope to fully describe the
God to which it points. With that in mind, the repetition that conservatives often feel the need to explain away, such as that seen in the four gospel accounts, does not indicate error but four separate attempt to describe the same indescribable reality. Ibid., 44
9 Davis describes this move as reading with theological interest, offering it as a correction to a solely historical critical reading. The emphasis remains sound when applied as a corrective to other narrowly focused readings. Ellen F. Davis, “Teaching the Bible Confessionally in the Church” in The Art of Reading Scripture (eds. Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B.
Eerdmans, 2003), 9-26. Reading with a focus on personal salvation could be one such narrow reading.
10 Deuteronomy 10: 12-22 provides one example of instructions rooted in the nature of God.
Jenson states the point well: “the drama we inhabit with this omnipotent author constitutes his life as it affects ours.” “Robert W. Jenson, “Scripture’s Authority in the Church” in The Art of Reading Scripture
(eds. Ellen F. Davis and Richard B. Hays; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 2003) 27-37.

Pittman 6 take place, we ourselves live and act within that same narrative. Realizing our own role within that story promotes the intentional grounding of contemporary experience in the
God portrayed by scripture. Furthermore, increased understanding of this story grounds the engagement in teaching ministry, and indeed all ministry, in the work of God portrayed. God’s reconciling work, seen most clearly in Christ, was passed on to the church and prompts the teaching ministry of the church.
11
The relationship between scripture and the church to which that ministry is given that will be addressed next.
The Bible and the people of God have and continue to exist in a reciprocal relationship, a relationship central to the conception of scripture’s inspiration and authority.
12
To begin with, the authors and compilers of scripture arose from within the nation of Israel and later from the New Testament church. In contrast to the prophetic model of inspiration, which emphasizes the inspiration of particular individuals, this model of inspiration asserts that the Spirit’s inspiration worked with the entire community of faith.
13
As Achtemeier demonstrates, the reappropriation of earlier traditions by the community in the creation of new texts lessens some of the need for a clear distinction between the two centers of inspiration.
14
Secondly, the people of God
11 See II Cor 5:19; Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, 17; 28.
12 It is this reality that canonical criticism aims to take seriously by focusing on “the two way process by which the tradition functioned to define the communities and communities continued to shape the traditions. Mary C. Callaway “Canonical Criticism” in To Each His Own Meaning , (eds. Steven L.
McKenzie and Stephen R. Haynes; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999) 143-155.
13 This view does not suggest that no singular individuals participated in the processes but merely expands the view of inspiration to the community rather than limiting it to individuals as the prophetic model does. Stanley L. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God , (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B.
Eerdmans, 1994), 387.
14 According to Achtemeier, “the close interrelationship of Scripture and community . . . means that the inspiration of the biblical materials begin already with the first formulation of those tradition and continued as they were reshaped and reformulated during their transmission within the ongoing community. Rather than being inspired only at the final stage of transmission, when they were written down in the biblical books we now have, those traditions, reshaped by the community, which existed for
God’s purposes and by his providence, shared in the divine inspiration from their inception.” Paul A.

Pittman 7 generated the Bible by collecting and arranging the documents into the current canon.
Simply stated, the Bible “exists as a single entity because – and only because – the church gathered these documents for her specific purpose."
15
Without the community of
God, whether as Israel or the Christian church, our current Bible would simply not exist.
While the community produced Scripture, in a very real sense Scripture produces and defines the community. According to Fiorenza, the scripture is the “constitution of an ongoing community.” 16 Since, as stated above, the church today lives within the same story scripture tells, scripture provides the “interpretive framework” for the present day community. By comparing present experience to the categories and stories of scripture,
Christians are able to interpret and shape their own lives according to the revelation of scripture. By providing such an interpretive framework for experience, “the Spirit speaking through the Bible orients our present both on the basis of the past and in accordance with a vision of the future.”
17
Scripture provides the church with examples from its history, instructions for its common life, and the appropriate frames through which to view its experience.
The implications of this reciprocal relationship for educational ministry must not be overlooked. To begin with, the church should be identified as the proper home of scriptural interpretation and application; it is only within that context that scripture maintains proper authority. The critical scholarship that contributed to the slow erosion of biblical authority occurred in a context divorced from the church. A necessary element to
Achemeier, Inspiration and Authority: Nature and Function of Christian Scripture.
(Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson, 1999), 102.
15 Robert W. Jenson, “Scripture’s Authority,” 27-37.
See also Brevard S. Childs, “On Reclaiming the Bible for Christian Theology” in Reclaiming the Bible for the Church (eds. Carl E. Braaten and Robert
W. Jenson; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1995) , 1-18.
16 Francis Schussler Fiorenza, “The Crisis of Scriptural Authority: Interpretation and Reception,”
Int 44 (1990), 353-368.
17 Grenz, Theology for the Community , 390.

Pittman 8 our affirmation of the authority of the biblical text is affirming the community within which the text is intended to be interpreted; the church is the proper “domain of meaning.” 18
For that reason, scripture is to be taught by those invested in the life of the church, not those proclaiming a nonexistent objectivity due to their location outside of that realm.
19
While this does not indicate that the insights of critical scholarship are to be rejected, it does dictate that those insights engaged within in the body of believers.
Additionally, the role of scripture in shaping community life after the creator of that community dictates that the implications of life lived in faithful response to God’s action be taught. Stated another way, scripture should be taught in a way that connects it firmly with daily life. Finally, as members of the same community in our own time and space, the present day church should engage our past in order to interpret our present. The ability to engage in this type of correlation is best not assumed; by practicing study and application within the Christian community such skills are built and fostered.
Proposed Model of Education
The model espoused here, the enculturation model, was first advocated by John
Westerhoff. This choice was made for several reasons, including the correlation of the model to the nature of the biblical community and the mission of Southern Hills to create
“front porch people.” After summarizing the strengths of this model, this section will
18 As Donfried notes, the problem in the academy is not the use of the tools of historical criticism in interpretation per se but rather the context in which the interpretation is taking place. Karl P. Donfried,
“ Alien Hermeneutics and the Misappropriation of Scripture,” in Reclaiming the Bible for the Church (eds.
Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), 19-46.
19 Accordint to McGrath “the demand for detachment is quite simply an illicit claim to an objectivity that cannot be had in practice. At least the church is honest about this: it interprets Scripture from the standpoint of faith, and has the graciousness to be open about it. But others within the academy allow us to understand that they have access to a privileged standpoint, devoid of any such commitment – when no such privileged standpoint exists in reality.” Alister E. McGrath, “Reclaiming Our Roots and
Vision: Scripture and the Stability of the Christian Church,” in Reclaiming the Bible for the Church (eds.
Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), 63-87.

Pittman 9 proceed to a conversation between this and the others suggested while incorporating the foundational biblical theology and context description.
Christian education according to this model involves the “deliberate, systematic, and sustained efforts of the community of faith . . . to evolve Christian lifestyles.”
20
It consists of three key elements: viewing the purpose of Christian education to transmit the
Christian faith and lifestyle, participating in a covenant relationship with a deeply rooted faith community, and considering education a holistic endeavor encompassing all elements of church life including “rites, rituals, myths, organizational patterns, activities,
[and] actions.” 21
This model by utilizing diverse aspects of church life and community formation aims to create a distinctly Christian culture, which individuals progressively live into through full participation in the life of the church.
22
The acknowledgment of the need for a unique worldview for the people of God, a concept suggested by scripture, provides the first strength of this model. Brueggemann considers this unique worldview a key characteristic of the people God from their inception.
23
He describes this “nurture in particularity” as a primary feature of Torah instruction, “a nurture that produces adults who know so well who they are and what is
20 Jack L. Seymour, “ Contemporary Approaches to Christian Education,” in Theological
Perspectives on Christian Education: A Reader on Theology and Christian Education .
(eds, Jeff Astley,
Leslie J. Francis, and Colin Crowder; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 3-13.
21 Ibid., 5 Stanley Hauerwas pushes Westerhoff’s argument one step further, stating that rather than the church doing religious education as a part of its communal life, everything the church does in community is religious education. Stanley Hauerwas, “The Gesture of a Truthful Story,” in Theological
Perspectives on Christian Education: A Reader on Theology and Christian Education .
(eds, Jeff Astley,
Leslie J. Francis, and Colin Crowder; Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 97-105.
22 The word “progressively” is intentional. Scripture, particularly in the letters of Paul, consistently refers to the progressive nature of Christian development, evident especially in the use of the language of building and growing (I Cor 3:1-17, Ephesians 2; I Peter 2:5; Ephesians 4:13-17; Col 1:10).
23 In The Prophetic Imagination , Brueggemann first suggests that the North American church has undergone a process of “enculturation,” but he grieves that the culture adopted is one of the dominant national consciousness. His view of prophetic ministry in the face of that reality is to” nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress,
2001), 3. His proposal, in essence, is the re-enculturation of the American church.

Pittman 10 commanded that they value and celebrate their oddity in the face of every seductive and powerful imperial alternative.” 24 This emphasis on the uniqueness of God’s people echoes through the New Testament as well. Paul’s instructs the Roman church to cease being conformed “to the pattern of this world,” indicating a similar desire for a nonsecular worldview held by those whose minds have experienced “renewal.” References to both the new life begun at baptism further support the enculturation model; in Ephesians
4:20-24 Paul explicitly contrasts pagan life with “way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him.”
25
A second strength of the enculturation model is the ways it attempts to hold together often disparate elements of educational and formational theories.
26
Acknowledging the weaknesses of his earliest formulations and the criticisms rightly raised, Westerhoff expands the enculturation model to include his conception of catechesis as formation, education, and instruction working in an interdependent relationship.
27
He summarized these three elements as follows: “Formation shapes our disposition critically to reflect and to desire knowledge and skills. Education forms an open, critical consciousness and stimulates our need to know and do. Instruction aids us to acquire the skill of critical reflection and to name and understand our experiences. The
24 Walter Brueggemann, “Passion and Perspective: Two Dimensions of Education in the Bible” in
Theological Perspectives on Christian Education: A Reader on Theology and Christian Education .
(eds,
Jeff Astley, Leslie J. Francis, and Colin Crowder; Grand Rapids, Mich.:William B. Eerdmans, 1996),71-79.
25 Paul reminds the Roman believers that at their baptism they were raised to life a “new life.”
(Rom 6:3-4). In addition, when writing to churches Paul frequently refers to the contrast between their old way of lifestyle and the new, in Ephesians 4:20-24 s well as in I Thess 1:9-10, 4:1-8; and I Peter 2:1-21.
26 Astley refers to these elements as “formative Chrsitian education” and “critical education in
Christianity,” the first dealing with the development and deepening of beliefs, values, and worldview and the second with skills of analysis of beliefs and experience. He cites the The Religious Education of Adults by Lean McKenzie and his own The Philosophy of Christian Religious Education in support of his summary. Jeff Astley, “Definitions, aims and Approaches: an overview” in Critical Perspectives on
Christian Education (eds, Jeff Astley and Leslie J. Francis; Harrisburg, Penn.: Morehouse, 1994), 3-12.
27 For a summary of the objections raised see John Westerhoff, “Formation, Education,
Instruction” Critical Perspectives on Christian Education (eds, Jeff Astley and Leslie J. Francis;
Harrisburg, Penn.: Morehouse, 1994), 61-72 .

Pittman 11 development of a well supported, critically considered and fully enacted Christian faith results in the creation of a distinct Christian lifestyle and culture, one that can stand in the changing winds of whatever culture or cultures are prevalent in its context.
A third strength of this view is the role given to community in the adoption of such a lifestyle. In Paul’s theology, spiritual formation occurs largely within the context of community, in large part because the Spirit responsible for spiritual formation is an active force in the development of that community.
28 This view does not negate the importance of individual transformation; it merely suggests that individual transformation occurs “by the ministry of the Spirit in the context of biblical community.” 29
This emphasis may be most evident in Ephesians 4:13. After listing the spiritual gifts given to individual believers Paul states the divine intention behind them: “to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” This verse encompasses primary elements of a
Christian lifestyle, including participation in service as the church given the ministry of reconciliation by Christ and growth in the faith and knowledge necessary for faithful life.
Seymour notes that Westerhoff’s process of enculturation within a community of faith assumes that the community is in fact faithful. His criticism cannot be disregarded entirely; scripture records ample attempts to correct communities to provide support for his concern. A second concern he raises is the difficulty of assessing the ways in which such enculturation is to take place and to therefore be intentional about its processes and
28 Believers as the church are adopted as children of God through the Spirit, are being built into a temple in which God’s Spirit dwells, and are unified into the diverse body through the work of the Spirit.
(Rom 8:12-17; I Cor 3:16-17, 12:7-13).
29 Paul Pettit, “Introduction” in Foundations of Spiritual Formation , (Ed. Paul Pettit; Grand
Rapids, Mich: Kregel, 2008), 17-26.

Pittman 12 practices.
30
On a practical note, since enculturation involves numerous aspects of congregational life, depending upon the organizational structure it might be difficult to coordinate relevant ministries that typically act independently.
31
Appeal to the insights of other models, however, reveals how certain strengths of other models facilitate enculturation and mitigate those difficulties without supplanting the primary pursuit.
Enculturation assumes familiarity with the culture to be adopted; the unique culture that Christian education seeks to inculcate, cannot be faithfully defined outside of the story of Scripture. Since Scripture reveals the nature of the culture that exists by and in relationship to the triune God, without a thorough knowledge of scripture such as that emphasized by the religious instruction model, Christian culture cannot remain faithful.
Utilizing specific concepts from the educational system and interpretation models in the
Southern Hills educational ministry further facilitate enculturation. In order for the holistic vision of the enculturation model to be actualized, some level of the organizational efforts emphasized by the educational system model would be necessary to coordinate diverse ministry and leaders. Finally, as the instruction element of enculturation involves the critical evaluation, an emphasis of the interpretation model, that element of enculturation would be necessity encompass interpretation. The curriculum plan described next aims to reflect the insights of the enculturation model.
Curriculum: Content, Method, and Practical Considerations
Though the holistic nature of enculturation model requires that diverse elements of church life including worship and outreach efforts must be considered in the
30 Seymour, “Contemporary Approaches,” 3-13.
31 At Southern Hills the worship ministry, the adult education ministry, youth and children’s, and outreach ministries are coordinated by different individuals and generally do not overlap. Assuming this model of education would require that such difficulties be accounted for and that excellent communication and planning take place to ensure interministry coordination. .

Pittman 13 educational planning, this section will focus upon the elements of the model that might take place in the context of the Sunday morning classes at Southern Hills. This curriculum description will outline content choices and related educational methods while addressing context specific practical considerations.
The discussion of curriculum content choices is highly informed by the biblical theology previously discussed. Since the story of God in scripture is told by multivalent voices each contributing their own tone and nuance, the whole Bible ought to be studied in the church. To simply ignore a portion of the scripture would be to disregard one of these voices and fail to consider the insight contributed by it. The decision to teach the entire Bible affirms the vital connection between the scripture and the community in two ways. First, it affirms the authoritative designation of certain texts, which earlier communities of faith wrote, compiled, preserved, and taught as instructive for the communal and individual life of God’s people. In doing so, it asserts that the historical distance and subsequent strangeness to contemporary ears does not decrease the authority of the text and its importance for the current community.
32
Second, this decision seeks to define the identity of the community in terms of the full story of scripture.
Committing to teaching all parts of scripture presents some difficulties, one of which is the time necessary. In fifty-two weeks only a certain number of studies of even semi-sufficient length and depth might take place. In the Southern Hills context, which proceeds in four quarters, each year is limited to four textual studies.
33
In order to give an ear to all the voices of scripture, each year will include two Old Testament and two
32 Previous Spirit led communities involved in apparently considered the Old Testament scriptures authoritative for the church despite the historical distance already existing.
33 Each quarter is ten weeks. The remaining 12 weeks will be divided in half allowing for two six weeks teacher choice topical series in late summer and December to early January.

Pittman 14
New Testament studies. When possible, the texts are arranged so that elements of one might be seen echoing in another.
34 Since the gospel is the “summary and apex of the great redemptive Story,” the church seeks to “invite, include, and involve others in the life of Christ,” and the gospel is the fundamental message scripture, each year will include a gospel text.
35
A three-year curriculum is suggested below:
Year 1
First Quarter: Exodus
Second Quarter: Matthew
Third Quarter: Minor
Prophets
Fourth Quarter: Hebrews
Year 2
First Quarter: I and II Kings
Second Quarter: Luke
Third Quarter: Acts
Fourth Quarter: Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes
Year 3
First Quarter: Genesis
Second Quarter: John
Third Quarter: Letters of
John and Revelation
Fourth Quarter: Isaiah
An additional difficulty inherent in the commitment to teaching the breadth of scripture is the challenge of teaching strange and unfamiliar texts, particularly those that benefit most significantly from significant socio-historical information. This issue is compounded by the sheer diversity in the experience level of teachers, their level of education, theological or otherwise, and their level of access to study resources. A reasonable approach to countering these difficulties might be to bring a lecturer with a higher degree of expertise in the text at hand to the quarterly teacher meeting to present themes, historical situation, theological emphasis and related elements of the book or books.
36
In addition, part of this lecture would be the presentation of interpretive options for controversial or difficult passages, followed by a time of conversation and questions.
34 For instance, Exodus and Matthew are studied consecutively due to the presentationi of Jesus as the authoritative interpreter of the Torah. Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament: An
Interpretation (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1999), 201.
35 See I Cor 15:1-5, I Tim 1:11; Parrett and Kang 98; 108.
36 These teacher meetings would also include a time for administrative matters like supply needs and planning, and a time for participation in a new teaching method suggested. In addition, it would bring the teachers whose classes often function in isolation from other classes into conversation with other teachers; it could also provide an opportunity for exploration of ways to bring class communities into dialogue with one another.

Pittman 15
The final goal of this session would be the generation of a short list of learner objectives for the series; all teachers would then set out to teach and emphasize those objectives, which having been affirmed by the teachers present would be placed at the top of each weekly lesson description. In addition to clarifying the direction of the series, these objectives would provide a helpful survey tool for curriculum evaluation, as the achievement of the objectives would indicate a level of success in the curriculum.
37
In addition to the series objectives, each lesson description would contain teaching strategies and tools appropriate for the lesson. These strategies would have first been introduced and practiced as an element of the quarterly teacher meeting; in this way new strategies along with their benefits could be provided to the teachers in a way that allows them to witness the strategy in action. The provision of such strategies would also be an attempt to practice the holistic education central to the enculturation model.
Parrett and Kang define three emphases of education that advance this sort of holistic education: Christian belief, Christian behavior, and the relationship of the
Christian to God. In their own formulation, they refer to these three elements as the
Way, Truth, and Life.
38
These three elements cohere with the enculturation model as they aim to produce people who think, feel, and act as God’s people. With this in mind,
37 The survey could be anecdotal or written, perhaps varying by series or practical consideration.
The goals of the assessments would be the improvement of future curriculum resources or teacher equipping practices.
38 Parrett and Kang, Teaching the Faith, 18. They ground these themes in the traditional educational and catechetical practices of the church. They trace the threefold elements through much of church history, and provide an excellent description of their formative potential. For a helpful table outlining the historical trend, see page 120. Hodgeson in arguing for a “transformative pedagogy,” what he describes as paideia, also argues for a similar threefold division: critical thinking, heightened imagination, and liberating practices. These differ in some areas, but they cohere at some crucial points. “Critical thinking” refers to the “thinking of the being, truth, and reality of things,” and it is thus related to the critical investigation and assimilation of Christian beliefs. The second element, “heightened imagination” is the affective element; it involves the engagement of the whole self in the thinking and learning process.
Finally, “liberating practices” connect to the Christian behavior element. Peter C. Hodgeson, God’s
Wisdom: Toward a Theology of Education (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999), 115-125.

Pittman 16 the teaching strategies employed will be varied in an attempt both engage a diverse group of learners in these three different elements of education. These strategies include case studies and roleplay, narrative education and creative writing, and phenomenological studies and theological reflection.
39
These choices are intentional and aim to diversify the educational strategies in the Southern Hills context, particularly since most classes utilize the lecture or other traditional formats with little variation week by week.
Case studies, used extensively by the Harvard Business School, provide productive practice in the application of abstract principles to concrete slices of experience.
40
Christian education within the enculturation model benefits greatly from such application to complex experience, for “if our students are not growing in their ability to handle the complex, we will lose them to a secular world that will challenge their thinking” and a distinctive Christian culture will be lost.
41 Roleplay activities, though not exclusive to case studies, fit well with the teaching activities common to case studies and the type of instruction taking place as they likewise seek to practice the application of principles to experience.
42
Class members could play different stakeholders in the case and through that participation explore the complexity of the case and imagine possible responses that could assist in later experience with similar situations.
43
39 These suggestions are not the only ones available or applicable. They were chosen based on their contribution to enculturation through their methods of investigating and enacting the story of scripture. LeFever includes a separate chapter on the use of discussion. Given centrality of discussion in each of the educational strategies proposed, it will not be addressed as a separate strategy but included in each of the strategies outlined. Marlene D. LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods: Be An Effective Christian
Teacher.
(Colorado Springs: Nexgen, 2004), 202-216.
40 Paul Lawrence of the Harvard Business school defines case studies as a “vehicle by which a chunk of reality is brought into the classroom to be worked over.” LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods,
218.
41 Ibid., 217.
42 Ibid., 82.
43 Moore refers to this method of education as “an act of midwifery” because of this capacity to draw out insight and give birth to new insights. Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, Teaching From the Heart:
Theology and Educational Method (Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress, 1991), 28.

Pittman 17
Roleplay could also be utilized with brief but discrete situations related to the text or real life situations raised by class members. Finally, engagement in this type of education promotes discussion as the entire class participates in the evaluation of the case and the proposal of appropriate courses of action.
44
Using narrative methods of education can likewise prove very beneficial. These diverse methods include story telling, dramatization and mime, and the use of written narratives to prompt discussion.
45 Given the precedence given to imagination and creativity, creative writing assignments can easy fall under this category as well; these assignments can original psalms, letters, full stories, and prayers. The first benefit of these types of methods is that narratives stimulate the imagination and “point to realities not easily communicated in conceptual forms.” 46
The second benefit is that writing assignments in particular can illuminate features of certain texts; as students compose original works written according to the patterns and forms of scripture they can begin to understand anew the ways that scripture communicates.
47
Thirdly, these assignments allow for affective expression, an element more easily neglected in a predominantly didactic environment but nevertheless important for the relational element of Christian education. Finally narrative education also allows for critical interaction with secular and religious literature utilized in appropriate ways.
48
The final teaching strategy recommended is phenomenology, “a method of reflecting on experience and letting conclusions emerge.” 49
Killen and DeBeer describe
44 This type of education falls most clearly under “Christian behavior.”
45 Moore, Teaching from the Heart , 132.
46 Ibid., 143
47 LeFever, Creative Teaching Methods, 245.
48 Ibid., 180.
49 Moore, Teaching from the Heart, 94.

Pittman 18 the process applied to Christian experience as “theological reflection,” and outline four steps to the process: focusing on some aspect of experience, describing that experience in order to name the “heart of the matter,” bringing that “heart of the matter” into conversation with Christianity including scripture and tradition, and identifying the truths generated from that conversation.
50
One of the great benefits of this teaching strategy is that it invites learners to seek meaning in experience, whether it be their own or that of others, and to find that meaning by viewing that experience by viewing it through the lens of Scripture. This interpretive move coheres nicely with the role of scripture as the
“interpretive framework” for the church.
51
It also fits well with the enculturation model, particularly with Westerhoff’s concept of “instruction” that emphasizes the ability to name and understand experience. Finally, it takes seriously both the active role of God in the world and the active role of scripture in making sense out of daily experience.
Conclusion
Each of these proposals aims to give scripture a central role in the community of
God’s people at Southern Hills, creating opportunities for story of scripture to captivate and influence the minds, hearts, and actions of the members. As the church seeks both individually and corporately to enact a distinctly Christian lifestyle as “front porch people, inviting, including, and involving others in the life of Jesus,” critical and prayerful study, an ever deepening relationship with the Triune God, and actions unmistakably stamped by scripture are crucial for the life of the congregation.
50 Patricia O’Connell Killen and John DeBeer, The Art of Theological Reflection (New York:
Crossroad, 2008), 69.
51 See footnote 16.

Pittman 19
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