The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

going, to jump start the exploration into possible applications of the text. What is significant here is not the questions written below, but for you, in conversation with your students, to settle on a cadre of issues, concerns, questions, and 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 viewing of the lecture, or some 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 regard 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. The Case Studies are designed to force the students to engage in creative application of the truth to either a real or imagined situation, one which requires them to take seriously the relationship of the truth to real experience. The key is not that they discover the one “right answer” or “correct solution” to the situation, but learn how to carefully gather all of the facts, think through them carefully, and make application based on the what they have learned. These case studies, even the ones designed from the imagination, run closely with the kinds of issues and situations that urban leaders are likely to encounter, so encourage them to think as leaders as they engage in the discussions. This is not pretension , but practice , and, as the adage wrongly suggests, practice does not make perfect. Rather, right practice makes more perfect. The Ministry Connections section parallels the Student Application and Implications section in that it looks for direct and specific application to the student’s context and situation. The main difference, however, is that the Ministry Connections section is concerned about their ability to think of how these truths relate to their ministry practice and execution . In other words, the intent is to help the students wrestle with the implications of the truths covered in the lesson in light of the ways in which they are currently caring for souls, teaching and preaching, or in any manner of

8 Page 44 Case Studies

9 Page 47 Ministry Connections