I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. The last six-weeks have been a blur. Since we got into Fort Collins, we took a number of seminary classes. First, the Old Testament class, taught by Richard Pratt was incredible. We learned what the Bible is really about. Who knew? The main theme running through the Bible is the Kingdom of God. Man was created to be God’s image (his vice-regents) to bring the will of God in heaven to mirror on earth. But because of the Fall of man into sin, Adam and his sons and daughters (including us) chose instead to bring our own will to the earth instead. Throughout history the Kingdom of God was administered through the Covenants: the universal covenants with Adam and Noah, the national covenants with Abraham and Moses and David, and the New Covenant through Jesus. There was a ton more stuff in the class; it was completely revolutionary to Kelly and I. If this piqued your interest, Richard Pratt has a DVD series on this called Kingdom, Covenants & Canon of the Old Testament.

Another class we took was Biblical Interpretation (Hermeneutics) and Biblical Communication (Homiletics). Every day we sat through a lecture and then went to a coaching group with 15 peers. Our coach, Todd Johnson, was wonderful. He really challanged us to go deep in the Bible, but more importantly he was our friend and really showed us love through his personal care and servant leadership. I walk away from this class deeply moved.

The first half of the class we studied in depth a passage of scripture (and wrote a paper on it) and the second half of the class we gave a twenty minute sermon on the same passage. My passage was the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 and Kelly’s was The Tower of Bable in Genesis 11. We wanted to give you an opportunity to read our papers if you want. They aren’t perfect, but I think the Lord met us during this time and spoke to and through us.

Here are our papers:

• Ben’s Paper: The Parable of the Prodigal Son
• Kelly’s Paper: The Tower of Babel

Most American Christianity is just the good life as defined by the American dream (acquire more stuff, scale the corporate ladder, go to the “in” schools, etc.) with a thin ‘Jesus overlay.’

Tom Sine

As I reflect on the spirit of consumerism and the worship of success that dominates our culture, I am convinced we are to aim at church health, not growth

Jeff Bailey, the editor of Cutting Edge