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

Put away your notes, gather up your thoughts and reflections, and take the quiz for Lesson 1, The Church Foreshadowed in God’s Plan .

Quiz

Scripture Memorization Review

Review with a partner, write out and/or recite the text for last class session’s assigned memory verses: 1 Peter 2.9-10.

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Turn in your summary of the reading assignment for last week, that is, your brief response and explanation of the main points that the authors were seeking to make in the assigned reading (Reading Completion Sheet).

Assignments Due

Grace

I heard a story about a person who was doing an experiment in human behavior. This person stood by the pumps at a gas station in a big city and tried to give away twenty dollar bills to the people who pulled up to the station. To his amazement, no one would take the money. Those of us who live in cities are probably not so surprised at this response. Most people in big cities have learned the hard way that “you don’t get something for nothing” and that anyone who appears to be giving away something valuable for free is probably not to be trusted. We urbanites recognize that if something seems too good to be true, then it almost always is. It is natural for us to be suspicious of things that are free. Today’s lesson is about worship as a response to the grace of God. The Gospel is the good news that everything we need and could not have is being given to us by God as a free gift of grace. Like the people at the gas pumps, most of us probably did not recognize at first that the grace of God is a completely free gift. When did you first realize that the gift of salvation could never be earned and comes only as a gift to be received?

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Going a Little too Far

If your church had to answer this question, how would it do so: “All forms of worship and praise are enjoined to give to God, but as far as we are concerned, engaging in (X) is taking worship a little too far.” What might it mean in some of our church contexts to go beyond the acceptable boundaries of the way worship is understood in your congregation? Should there be boundaries to our expression of worship, and if so, what ought the standards be to hold such boundaries in conjunction with our freedom in Christ, and our desire to express our love to God in new and unique ways?

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