March Issue of The Worldview Bulletin-Pt. 2

Intellectual Discipleship for the Church | Tony Versus Bart, Part 10

Contents

Part Two

1. Intellectual Discipleship:

   Practical and Creative Strategies for the Church

   by Melissa Cain Travis

2. Tony Versus Bart, Part 10

   by David Baggett

3. News and Links

4. Book Deals and Resources

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Intellectual Discipleship: Practical and Creative Strategies for the Church

By Melissa Cain Travis

In a recent article for Salvo entitled “Mind Your Mind,” Annie Brownell Crawford and I discussed the need for better intellectual discipleship in the church. The response to the piece has been encouraging and affirming; pastors and laypersons alike have expressed their great desire for more challenging and interdisciplinary learning within their own church communities. Since full-time pastors and ministry leaders typically don’t have the bandwidth or the funds to cast a vision and start something from scratch, we offered several ideas that could be implemented without a ton of groundwork and on a limited budget. Here I’d like to elaborate on one of those suggestions, which is to partner with local schools (Christian universities, seminaries, or classical schools), parachurch ministries, and online organizations to access solid resources and well-qualified instructors who can contribute to a robust intellectual discipleship program.

Most churches don’t hire professional theologians, philosophers, apologists, etc., to teach (but some do). Typically, classes and small-group studies are led by volunteers with various educational backgrounds, and quality control is limited to resource reviews by an assistant pastor or other staff member. Outcomes are mixed. I’ve been in small, cash-strapped churches where some of the educational offerings were truly outstanding, usually because the volunteer was also a seminary professor or someone with a degree in the area being taught. I’ve also attended megachurch Bible studies that were disappointing, primarily because the content lacked depth. The leaders were godly and enthusiastic, but the material and class discussion reflected a lack of theological discernment and philosophical acumen. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that education within the church needs to be at the academic level, or that volunteers must have specialized degrees of some sort. Rather, my claims are as follows: There’s a tremendous need for better intellectual discipleship in our churches, many teens and adults are hungry (sometimes desperate) for it, and there are creative ways to make it happen with excellence, even with limited funds and available volunteers. In what follows, I’d like to outline a strategy that could be implemented in whole or in part.

1. Articulate the goal and regularly exhort members to avidly pursue the life of the mind.

First, it is crucial that the leadership of the church—especially the senior pastor—verbally express the need and vision for cultivating a culture of learning. Otherwise, any offerings will be seen as mere additions to the buffet of classes rather than essential parts of Christian formation. All of us need theological instruction, critical thinking skills, tools for effectively engaging false ideologies with truth and charity, and stronger minds in general. These are critical for evangelism, parenting, and cultural impact.

2. Identify your in-house human resources.  

Survey the church body to find the untapped talent. Seminary graduates and professors are obvious assets, but you may not have any. Think outside the box about other specialties that could be harnessed for educating the congregation. For example, do you have a high school literature teacher? He or she could be invited to run a monthly discussion group that focuses on finding the goodness, truth, and beauty in literary art (this falls within the discipline known as cultural apologetics). Physicians and attorneys may be well equipped to lead studies on biblical ethics. STEM professionals may have a special interest and training in the science and faith conversation. Even if these individuals don’t have the spare time to lead studies themselves, they may certainly be willing to serve as consultants on curricula and advisors to motivated volunteer leaders.

3. Partner with parachurch ministries and independent scholars.

Often, churches are unaware of parachurch organizations that work to educate Christians in theological and philosophical disciplines. For example, there are local chapters of apologetics ministries and Christian societies that focus on literature, film, theology, and philosophy. They may be enormously valuable in terms of resource recommendations and access to qualified speakers who could be commissioned to give short-term lecture series at the church. Independent Christian scholars may be part of the wider local community as well, and they’re often open to short-term teaching or speaking contracts. Although this involves a financial investment, it’s far less expensive than paying additional staff instructor salaries. Don’t be afraid to charge registration fees to cover the cost of commissioning subject matter experts! Church members typically understand the value of such opportunities and are happy to contribute.

4. Establish relationships with trusted local seminaries, Christian universities, and classical schools.

This is another excellent way to gain access to resource advice and qualified instructors. These kinds of institutions are often willing to establish partnerships with local churches to raise awareness about what they offer on their campuses. For the church, this could mean affordable teaching series, workshops, or even book clubs led by professional educators. Moreover, such arrangements may provide an opportunity for vocation-specific discipleship for educators in the congregation as well as encouragement for some congregants to pursue ministry-related degree programs.

5. Take advantage of online options for in-person group learning with credentialed instructors. 

High-quality online education opportunities are multiplying at a phenomenal rate for a variety of reasons. For one thing, available professorships at orthodox Christian institutions are at an all-time low, and as more academics become disillusioned with the decline of higher education, they’ve begun pursuing alternative teaching career paths. I believe this is actually a golden opportunity for churches![1] Many Christians already take self-paced courses on various topics or participate in societies that meet by video conferencing for collaborative learning. However, there are also affordable ways to establish in-person learning cohorts within the local church with the help of organizations that offer real-time interactive class sessions coupled with weekly reading and discussion guides. For example, perhaps a cohort meets at the church twice a month to interact with the instructor via Zoom and on the other weeks meets at a coffee shop or in someone’s home to discuss the reading.

Every Church Can Do Something!

At minimum, every local church should have an ongoing rotation of higher-level classes and heavily promote them both from the pulpit and through regular church communication channels. By “higher-level” I don’t mean graduate level; I simply mean classes that demand more from participants than showing up and completing fill-in-the-blank study guides. Curated studies that require reading and interactive discussions on essential doctrine, apologetics, philosophy (including logic/critical thinking), and Christianity and the arts would be a wonderful foundation for any intellectual discipleship program. Even if a few eager volunteers are all you have to work with, great things can be accomplished with the help of local and online resources.

We cannot ignore the mind; it is one of the faculties of the soul that needs cultivation and with which we are commanded to love the Lord. To quote from the Salvo article: 

When the church fails to intellectually disciple her people, a fundamental human need remains unmet, and this has disastrous consequences. If minds are not nourished with rich, sustaining truth, the resulting vacuum will instead be filled with the flotsam and jetsam of feel-good platitudes and culturally celebrated beliefs antithetical to the Christian worldview. Like the root system of a tree, the mind will grow; the only question is how: toward the nourishing wisdom born of goodness, truth, and beauty or away from it?[2]

Notes

[1] For instance, I’ll be offering a set of science and faith courses through DiscoveryU beginning this July (2023) that will be available to individuals and church cohorts. These six-week courses (the first of their kind on that platform, which currently offers only automated courses) will include interactive Zoom sessions, weekly readings, and the opportunity to participate in an online discussion forum with classmates and myself.

[2] Annie Brownell Crawford and Melissa Cain Travis, “Mind Your Mind: Intellectual Discipleship Is Essential for Christian Flourishing,” Salvo Magazine #64 (Spring 2023).

— Melissa Cain Travis, PhD, is an Affiliate Faculty at Colorado Christian University and a Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. She is the author of Thinking God's Thoughts: Johannes Kepler and the Miracle of Cosmic Comprehensibility (2022) and Science and the Mind of the Maker: What the Conversation Between Faith and Science Reveals About God (2018). She serves on the Executive Committee of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and as President of the Society for Women of Letters.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash