Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

situation, and we must help our students to be biblical without being legalistic, wooden, or strained. In order to be a good student of Scripture our students must be able to “rightly divide the Word of God” (2 Tim. 2.15), making the kind of fine and important discriminations necessary in these cases. In your discussions of these case studies, help your students look at them from every vantage point in order to best discover options within them. The breadth of application possible here is plain, but one of the central connections that can be made is the sovereignty of God both in election and mission. Our God is in control, Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and we can know that we never encounter anything in any way that our God is not able to provide us with the requisite knowledge and power to fulfill his will. Highlight this central truth as you help students make the connections of these truths to their personal lives and ministries. You should now have communicated well with the students regarding the timing of their assignments due soon. For instance, by the end of the second class session, you should have emphasized the need for them to have done the spadework and thought out precisely how they intend on carrying out their Ministry Project. Also, by this time, the end of the third lesson, you should have emphasized their selection of the passage they will study for their Exegetical Project. Both will be done with far better thought and excellence the earlier the students begin to think through them and decide what they want to do. Do not fail to emphasize this, for, as in all study, at the end of the course many things become due, and the students will begin to feel the pressure of getting a number of assignments in at the same time. Any way that you can remind them of the need for advanced planning will be wonderfully helpful for them, whether they realize it immediately or not. Because of this, we advocate that you consider docking a modest amount of points for late papers, exams, and projects. While the amount may be nominal, your enforcement of your rules will help them to learn to be efficient and on time as they continue in their studies.

15 Page 109 Ministry Connections

16 Page 111 Assignments