Pure Church

Kristie and continued our study of The Peacemaking Church Women's Study: Living the Gospel in Relationships with session 2 last night. This is the second in eight lessons, and it picks up where the first left off--with the gospel.

Specifically, Tara examines "The Gap between What I Believe and How I Live." I appreciated this study on many levels.

First, I love women's material that doesn't shy away from sound theological categories. I'm not a woman (surprise!), but I can identify with women like my wife who wearied to no end with the significant number of "women's books" and studies that aim to be "devotional" with no theological heart. The amount of sentimental, pietistic, touchy-feely stories masquerading as Bible teaching is just plain staggering. So, I'm thankful for material I can recommend to women, material that does not shy away from good biblical truth.

Second, I appreciated the particular theological categories introduced in this session. Session one began with the entire plan of redemptive history, from eternity past to eternity future. Session two introduced the categories of confessional theology and practical theology as a way of describing what we claim to believe (confessional) and what we actually practice (practical).

The main application Tara drew from these category distinctions is that our main sin is fundamentally unbelief. That's our continuing besetting sin: unbelief. So the Christian life is a life of constantly confessing, repenting, and trusting.

Third, I appreciated the meditation on Eph. 1:5, pointing out that God saves us because He is happy to do so. He does it for the pleasure of His own will. He is pleased to save, happy to save. How often do we--in our practical theology--think of the gospel and God's rescue as a 'plan B' or as something God grudgingly does to help folks who can't seem to get it right? Or, we think of God's gift of salvation as something He is forced to do because He is good, but we're left with the nagging suspicion that if He had his druthers, He'd leave us out. Tara's exploration of this wrong thinking which hinders so much of our living was really very helpful.

As was "The Cross Chart." I can't replicate it here (graphic design skills are too limited--non-existent actually). But, trust me, it was helpful. The longer we live the more aware of God's holiness and our sinfulness we become, the bigger does the cross loom in our view of life. Taking our eyes off sin and depravity and grace leads to legalism. Taking our eyes off of God's holiness and the cross leads to licentiousness.

Finally, Tara introduces the "already/not yet" of the Christian life and the truths of justification and sanctification. Really helpful practical application.

Perhaps the best measure of this session was the continuing discussion Kristie and I enjoyed. It's one thing to answer the study questions following the video, which we did. It's an entirely different thing to take up half our morning walk with more reflection on our hearts and lives following the video's teaching. Which we also did.

We've watched two sessions thus far, and thus far they've gone from strength to strength.

I'll close this post with a quote Tara included in the workbook and Hebrews 10:14 which figured prominently in the session.

"Are you too bad to receive grace? Grace woos and comforts us when we think we are too far gone to be rescued. How could you be too bad to receive what is for the bad?" --David Powlison

"By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." --Heb. 10:14

Last night, my wonderful bride of 18 years and I began watching and discussing Tara Barthel's study, The Peacemaking Church Women's Study: Living the Gospel in Relationships. I first mentioned this study here. And I've been looking forward to extending the number of gospel-centered resource materials available to the church.

The study includes eight sessions and draws upon the book Peacemaking Women: Biblical Hope for Resolving Conflict, co-authored by Tara Barthel and Judy Dabler.

Session 1: What It Means to Live the Gospel
Session 2: The Gap between What I Believe and How I Live
Session 3: My Real Problem Is...
Session 4: Real Hope for Lasting Change
Session 5: A Biblical Response to Conflict
Session 6: Repenting and Confronting
Session 7: Forgiveness and Mercy
Session 8: Relationships that Show the World Jesus

The hope for the study is expressed well on the back cover of one of the study booklets for the study. It's a resource aimed at all Christian women, but especially those who "are tired of women's studies that are either so shallow that they never dig deep into Scripture... or studies that give you so many rules and to-do's that you leave feeling weighed down...." The study aims to help women "see how the Gospel is your hope in all of life, particularly in your relationships."

True to the aim of the study, the first three sessions are all looks at the Gospel from various perspectives. Session 1 begins by thinking of the gospel as "the entire redemptive finished work of God" from eternity past to eternity future.

Barthel helpfully avoids diving into "practical applications" in order to focus on God's work in Christ. I loved this line: "Any false religion could give you a list of ten things to do." Instead, she calls us to "let our minds rest on the gospel." The first session includes rather transparent personal testimony from Tara which helpfully illustrates how wrong thinking about God's character and work leads to imprisoning legalistic attitudes. Understanding the doctrines of sin and grace in Christ set us free to enjoy meaningful relationships. "In general, we give grace to others to the extent we are daily experiencing grace ourselves."

The workbook for the study is a helpful combination of main teaching points from the video session, a paragraph summary of the session, three questions for group discussion, several questions for personal study and reflection, and a list of recommended resources for in-depth study.

My wife and I enjoyed the group discussion questions. It was a fruitful time of recalling God's work of grace in our lives and of thinking about the assumptions at work in our relationship with the Lord. All in all, a great start to what we trust will be a great study.

This past Fall, the Lord granted me the privilege of speaking at the annual Peacemaker Ministries National Conference. It was a wonderful time fellowshipping with the entire Peacemaker family, who, as you would hope given the name of the ministry, exudes humility and peace and gentleness and joy. It was an instructive and encouraging time.

While at the conference, I learned about a new resource called The Peacemaking Church Women’s Study: Living the Gospel in Relationships. The Peacemaking Women's Study is a new eight-week video-based study from Tara Barthel and Peacemaker Ministries that covers relationships, biblical peacemaking, and the hope of the gospel. Peacemaker Ministries is an organization that exists to assist and equip Christians and their churches to respond to conflict biblically. In addition to writing the book Peacemaking Women, Tara Barthel has an active speaking and writing ministry—get to know her through her blog, Considerable Grace.

Over the next couple weeks, I hope to watch and comment on the video study. When I heard Tara speak about it at the conference, the strong emphasis on gospel and church community nearly pulled me out of my seat. It seems to me that nearly every church's women's ministry could benefit from a twin dose of gospel centrality and a high view of the church family. Looking forward to learning from these resources. Feel free to join in with me!

Thanks to James Grant for a useful, fear-free approach to building a routine for family worship. The three steps:

1. Plan to have family worship after an evening meal
2. Read through a good book (like this one)
3. Say the Lord’s prayer after reading the book


Grant's final encouragement:

whether you are starting out or have been doing this for a while, don’t make it into a burden. You will defeat your purpose if you treat this as a strict discipline. Your kids need to enjoy this, and if you include them and keep it simple at first, they will help you build it into more.

Good counsel indeed. Read the entire post for more explanation and some additional resources. (HT: JT)