Around The Web-May 15, 2015

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Aaron Armstrong shares 5 highlights from TGP15

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Keep Preaching The Gospel, Doofus by J.A. Medders

Why Plant A New Church In The Bible Belt? by Jeff Lawrence

In Praise of Fat Pastors by Jared C Wilson

Gospel Project: One Year Later

It is hard to believe that over a year ago, I started to teach from The Gospel Project. This material from Lifeway has been the best Bible study resource for teens I have ever used especially in teaching Sunday School. In most of the churches I have served in, I have been the Sunday School teacher. In fact, in my current position, Sunday morning is my main teaching time, until recently we started Youth Discipleship Training (Youth DT).

Reasons why I started teaching for The Gospel Project was the fact it is Biblically sound and is basically how I would teach, even though, I did not write the lesson. Another reason was that in the past, the Sunday School literature I have used was very moralistic. There were times I had to change some of the wording because I did not agree with what was written. One material I had was in an outline format so the students can follow along with me.

Another reason was my past experience with Lifeway Youth material. There youth material in the past was not very user friendly. In fact, it was almost confusing as to what was being taught. I remember talking with churches of various sizes in different cities and ask them if they used the Lifeway Youth material. All of them said they do not. So when I came to Emmanuel, I told the Pastor I will not use Lifeway Youth material for Sunday School. He understood. He said what God is leading me to do, do it.

When I heard of The Gospel Project, my heart leaped for joy. When I read the first lesson, it was all my dreams come for a Sunday School material that was faithful to the Biblical text and teaches the gospel without making it a me-centered lesson. There have been times when God has used my study time to speak to me and teach things I have never thought of. In fact, I wished this material was used when I was in Sunday School. I was wish all churches will use The Gospel Project especially teaching children and students. I am grateful to God for The Gospel Project and will continue to use it.

If you would like to get on board or if you are interested in The Gospel Project, then to their website and check them out.

Around The Web-August 16, 2013

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Jeff Medders on why his church uses The Gospel Project

Check out the site for the upcoming ESV Gospel Transformation Bible

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The Gospel Project is Now Available in the ESV

I am excited to announce that The Gospel Project, produced by Lifeway, will have curriculum with my favorite translation of the Bible, the English Standard Version (ESV), which is published by Crossway. The ESV have been my main translation since 2008 for my personal reading, teaching, preaching, and scripture memorization. The Gospel Project has been available only in the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), which is used in majority of their Sunday School and small group materials. The Gospel Project in the ESV will be available in next quarter's curriculum, which you can get a preview of here.

As one who has used The Gospel Project since it's released, I am pleased with this partnership Lifeway and Crossway have made because of the radical move Lifeway has done to promote more gospel-centered materials and Crossway's commitment to keep the gospel in the center of everything they do. If you church is not on board with The Gospel Project, I invite you to check it out.

Top 5 Posts of 2012

As I am looking through the list of my top 5 posts in the past year, I could not help and see that Keeping The Main Thing has reached 10,000 readers. I want to thank everyone who takes to the time to read my posts. There are days I keep wonder do I ever make sense when I hit the "publish" button. I also thank God for giving me the desire to write this blog to exalt Him, edify the church, and evangelize the lost.

I have had many posts that were popular, so here are my top 5 for 2012:

5. Controversy Surrounding "The Gospel Project"

4. My review of Tim Chester's Delighting In The Trinity

3. An appropriate post as you begin to think about your next Bible reading plan, When Should You Stop Your Bible Reading Plan?

2. My most popular book review was on one of my not so favorite books by Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker

1. Why is The Resurrection A Big Deal?

We Live In The "Already" And "Not Yet"

The following is an excerpt of a lesson from The Gospel Project called, "Jesus: The Faithful Son:"

Jesus' healing and exorcisms were not only proof of His authority as God's Messiah, they were also a foretaste of the future arrival of God's kingdom in its fullness when there would be no more disease and no more evil...Though there is a sense that in Jesus the kingdom is already here, until Jesus comes again, the kingdom will not yet fully arrive. Only when Jesus returns will there be no more pain, sorrow, disease, death, chaos, or evil (Rev. 21:1-4).

Ed Stetzer uses a popular illustration to describe the "already" and "not yet" nature of God's kingdom. "As World War II came to a close, there were two important dates. The first one occurred on June 6, 1944. History remembers it as 'D-day.' As a part of Operation Overload. the United States and its allies landed on the beach of Normandy, France. It was the beginning of the end of the war. Yet the war in Europe didn't end until more than a year later on May 7, 1945, also known as 'VE-day.' Despite the fact that the victory at Normandy effectively broke the back of the Axis powers, the war didn't officially end until months later. In fact, more people died between those dates than any other period of the war. It was dark and difficult, but the end had begun. It was inaugurated June 6, 1944, but the end wasn't consummated until May 7, 1945. That's the difference between D-day and VE-day. That's not a perfect parallel, but when the kingdom of God arrived in the person of Jesus, it came near, But, it will not be fully realized until Jesus returns at the end of time. The church is left to live between the times."

Until the day of Christ's return, those who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and have stopped trusting in their own works for acceptance before God live with the confident hope that we are accepted before God because of Jesus' righteousness. Even though we may still fail to obey and fall into sin, we receive God's forgiveness granted to us through Christ's obedience to God's Word.

As we await the return of Christ, the Father is placing every enemy under Jesus' feet (Eph. 1:22). After Jesus has defeated all His enemies, including death, He will deliver the kingdom to the Father, and we will enter into God's final rest, where we will finally be free from sin and disease and death (1 Cor. 15:24-28).

Overview of The Gospel Project

A few weeks ago, our youth started The Gospel Project form Lifeway. I have never been excited about a Sunday School material until this new cirriculum was introduced. I have to confess as a Youth Pastor, Lifeway Sunday School material was not one I would want to teach from. A few years ago, I talked with several Youth Pastors from different cities in different size churches and talked Sunday School teaching cirriculum. Every Youth Pastor I talked with said they will not use Lifeway Sunday School material because it's teaching teens how to be good moral students plus the writers are out of touch with youth culture.

One of the reasons I am excited about The Gospel Project is that it is not teaching teens on how to be good moral students. It is teaching about who God is and what He has done for us through the cross of Christ. If you have not started The Gospel Project, I encourage you to get on board because this is one Lifeway cirriculum that I can endorse as being a gospel-centered teaching material for teenagers.

This video is an overview of The Gospel Project:

God Has Always Been Around

This Sunday, I will be starting The Gospel Project with our teenagers. I am very excited about what God will do through this new material which is centered around the gospel. As I was studying the first lesson, it takes me back to what I posted recently on the question of "Who Made God?"

The reason lesson one took me back to that post was it began with the beginning of the Bible and how God spoke creation into being. One of the commentary notes on the teachers guide said this:

God existed before there was a universe and will exist after the universe perishes

If you recall that post, I mentioned Psalm 90:2 as my main verse for God being from everlasting to everlasting meaning that He has no beginning and no end. The commentary on The Gospel Project pointed to Hebrews 1:10-12, which says:

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

God was always and will be around. In the beginning God (Genesis 1:1) and "In the beginning...the Word was God" (John 1:1).

Controversy Surrounding "The Gospel Project"

Confession: I am not a big fan of teaching material from Lifeway, especially, youth material. That all changed when they came out with The Gospel Project. After reading about it and got a preview of the material, I decided this would be a great resource for our teens especially those who do not know the gospel and inspire them to be a more effective witness to their lose friends.

Then comes this "controversy" that The Gospel Project (TGP) is Calvinistic in nature with one pastor, Ralph Green, saying he returned the material because of the themes of Calvinism being taught in the material without offering any evidence supporting his claim. On August 21, SBC Today posted an interview with Ralph Green concerning the "controversy" surrounding TGP.

That same day, Chris Roberts offered a response to Green's claims in a gospel-centered way that everyone should read:

My main issue with Green’s original article was that it contained no references to The Gospel Project. He claims to have found “numerous subtle seeds of the Calvinistic approach to Scripture and many that are overtly obvious” yet he failed to cite a single one of those subtle or obvious seeds. We were told that the interview would address that, citing specific concerns with the material. In reality, the interview contains very little interaction with the substance of the curriculum. Despite the fact that Green claims to have “numerous” and “many” examples, in the interview he only gives two examples. As we will see, neither example has anything to do with Calvinism, and both places point to problems with Green’s theology and his understanding of what the curriculum is teaching.

Instead of focusing on the content of the curriculum, most of the interview deals with peripheral issues. The interview starts with his reaction to the comments on his original article and he says he was “shocked at some of the comments” he read. He is bothered that some “have offered so little grace” in response to the article. I am not sure what he means by this. Many (including me) voiced clear disagreement with his position as well as disappointment that he made such strong accusations without including evidence. Some who participated in the discussion seemed to be offended that we would doubt Green’s evidence. Perhaps Green agrees with them and sees our hesitation and desire for evidence as a shortage of grace.

Green also noted that “others have blogged about [the curriculum] and say they see no problem with [it]. But I have to wonder if they are not already Calvinists.” In other words, immediately after complaining about a lack of grace among his critics, Green casts suspicion on all who support the curriculum by saying they might be Calvinists. What is the implication? Calvinists cannot be trusted to offer a fair evaluation of the material, and only a Calvinist would like it. This overlooks the fact that many in the discussions have identified themselves as non-Calvinists and have voiced their support for the curriculum.

Read the entire post here