The New Year is now twelve days old, but it is not too late to start reading the Bible with the goal of reading through all of it in 2011. To do so you really should follow a Bible reading plan which gives you assigned readings for each day. The reason is obvious. The Bible is a big book and without a definite plan of what it will take to get through all 1,189 chapters, you will probably fall short of the goal. Of course if you begin today you will have to make up for the eleven days you’ve missed, but that shouldn’t be too difficult.

Still the bigger question is why one ought to read through the Bible every year. Surely no Christian would say that’s a bad idea, but here are five reasons why I would commend it to you (especially to members of Crosstown) over against any other type of Bible reading plan (like reading a book a month, a “Proverb” for the day, etc.).

Yesterday we studied Mark 10:1-12 in a sermon entitled Discipleship and Divorce. You can read the sermon here. This post is for a continuing conversation on what we learned from this text. Feel free to post your comments, questions, and thoughts from the text and sermon.

Divorce is one of the most emotionally difficult issues to study in the Bible. Because so many of us have been affected by divorce in one way or another, it is tempting to try to make the biblical text fit our experiences rather than the other way around. The Pharisees tested Jesus by asking him what he thought about divorce. They were hoping he would incriminate himself and receive the same fate as John the Baptist who was martyred for his stance against the marriage of Herod and his brother’s wife, Herodias.

There seems to be no end these days to the production of books attempting to help the church get back to what it is supposed to be. The title Total Church suggests (correctly) that this is another such book. But this one deserves special attention not because of the hype surrounding it but because the authors have done an excellent job of showing what the “bottom line” of “church” is and how that bottom line affects everything we associate with church life.

The book’s layout is simple. The first two chapters spell out the two principles around which every other chapter in the book is based. These two principles are gospel and community. In the rest of the book, the authors consider various aspects of church ministry—things like evangelism, world mission, discipleship, and ministry to children—and show how gospel and community impact and inform these ministries. The result is, as the subtitle explains, a “radical reshaping” of how to do church. The authors contend that  “whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship, or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel, and the context is consistently the Christian community” (p. 16). But unless understands what the authors mean by gospel and community, this book will be just another “how to” manual for doing church.

I just finished reading “Grounded in the Gospel” by Packer and Parrett.  It’s hard to put my finger on my exact impression of this book.  On the one hand, there were several moments of enlightenment.  However, I hesitate to recommend it because it was such a hard read.

The thesis of the book is that evangelicals (particularly in America) have lost even a rudimentary knowledge and understanding of their faith over the last century and that the way for the church to reclaim the faith is through catechism.

Packer challenges us to look to the past and church history to discover a solution: “We are not, as it turns out, the first ones who have ever had to wrestle with the issue of how to grow Christian communities and Christian individuals in contrary cultures.”

Now catechism is a totally new concept for me.  Prior to the last 12 months, I assumed it was a Catholic thing.  However, there are actually imperatives in the New Testament for catechism.  It played a vital role in the church from the 2nd-5th centuries (A.D.) and was renewed by Protestants during the Reformation.

Essentially, catechism is passing on the faith in a deliberate and intentional way.  It is best done in relationship with a teacher/mentor/parent who engages the learner(s) on an ongoing basis – not only learning theological facts, but dialoguing and discussing how these truths affect the whole person.

This book is shaping our thoughts about the future of Crosstown Church.  We need to be concerned not only that people come to our church, but we also need to think deeply about what they will become in time within our church.  “Grounded in the Gospel” is challenging us to be intentional about the way we “grow” Christ followers.