Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 1 3 1

ideas that flow directly from their experience, and relate to their lives and ministries. Do not hesitate to spend the majority of time on some question that arose from the video, or a special concern that is especially relevant in their ministry context right now. The goal of this section is for you to enable them to think critically and theologically in regards to their own lives and ministry contexts. Again, the questions below are provided as guides and primers, and ought not to be seen as absolute necessities. Pick and choose among them, or come up with your own. The key is relevance now, to their context and to their questions. Responding to false teaching by Christian cults is where “the rubber meets the road” for Christian theological education. The goal of this case study is to check and see whether your students can defend the personality of the Holy Spirit from Scripture using their own words. This is important to practice because virtually every Christian leader will have to do this at some point in their ministry. As the students go through their responses, remind them that there are two things a pastoral leader must respond to. First, they must respond to the content of the quote, correcting and refuting the false teaching. But second, they must also respond to the person. What tone should be taken with Sue? Is she a “fierce wolf” (Acts 20.29; 2 John 10-11) deliberately trying to undermine the flock?; or, is she a misguided and confused seeker in need of pastoral teaching and care (2 Tim. 2.24-26)? The key to this case study is for students to realize the power of Jesus’ statement in John 14.16 that he is sending the Holy Spirit to be “another Helper [paraclete].” The Holy Spirit always faithful represents and acts in the place of Christ for us. Just as Jesus could claim that anyone who had seen him had seen the Father (John 14.9), it is equally true that anyone who has seen Jesus will recognize the Spirit that he sends. The Spirit’s indwelling unites us to the living Christ so that we are joined to his love, his mind, his words, and his actions, as branches to a vine. We recognize Jesus and respond to him in faith through the illuminating work of the

& 13 page 253 Case Study 1

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T h e o l o g y a n d E t h i c s

& 14 page 254 Case Study 2