The Transformational Role of Discipleship in Mark 10:13-16
The Transformational Role of Discipleship in Mark 10:13-16

Author: Katherine Joy Kihlstrom Timpte

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-10-07

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0567699714

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Katherine Joy Kihlstrom Timpte addresses a gap in scholarship by answering the question: “how is a child supposed to be the model recipient of the kingdom of God?” While most scholarship on Mark 10:13-16 agrees that children are metaphorically employed because of their qualities of dependence, Timpte argues that it is more specifically an image of the disciple's radical transformation, which both mirrors and reverses the traditional rites of passage by which a child became an adult. Timpte suggests that Jesus, by insisting that one must enter the Kingdom of God as a child, invokes two interlacing images. First, to enter the Kingdom of God, one must be fundamentally transformed and changed. Second, this transformation reverses the rite by which a child would have become an adult, removing the adult's superior status. Beginning with a summary of the scholarship surrounding children in the Bible, Timpte explores the perception of children in the ancient world, their rites of passage and entrance into adulthood, and contrasting this with the processing of entering the kingdom of God, while also highlighting childish characters in Mark. Timpte concludes that to enter into the kingdom as a child means that one must strip off those things one gained by leaving childhood behind: wealth, respect, family, much like Jesus, who throughout Mark's Gospel moves from powerful to powerless, respected to despised, and accepted by all to rejected even (seemingly) by God. Jesus models transformation to childhood in an emphasis on what the Kingdom of God is like.

Extreme Discipleship
Extreme Discipleship

Author: David M. Young

Publisher: E-Booktime Llc

Published: 2007-08-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9781598246773

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While statistics reveal a Christian world increasingly indistinguishable from secularism in America, many of us long for a deeper spirituality. The Gospel of Mark presents the starting point for serious Christian spirituality-extreme discipleship in Jesus Christ. Far from the complacency of mere church membership, Mark demands that we give up our old way of life for the Kingdom of God. Mark challenges our assumptions, our institutions, and our traditions-in short, our entire world view. For those who take it on its own terms, as a sermon calling us to follow Jesus, Mark promises to be the beginning of a rich and transformational spirituality. Extreme Discipleship: Following Jesus from the Gospel of Mark takes readers to the very heart of discipleship by bringing together solid biblical scholarship with repeated applications for following Jesus. The thirteen chapter book combines the form of a commentary with that of an in-depth Bible study guide, and is designed for Bible classes (both church and school), small groups, private study, and general teaching and preaching contexts. The book covers the entire text of Mark, but remains easy to read. Above all, it is provocative, because the Jesus of Mark's Gospel is provocative. David M. Young serves as a senior teaching minister for the North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He has served churches in Tennessee, Missouri, and Kansas, and has taught Bible at several universities. He received the Ph.D. cum laude in New Testament from Vanderbilt University.

Transformational Discipleship
Transformational Discipleship

Author: Mark Stephen Van Fossen

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 356

ISBN-13:

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Building a culture of discipleship within the local church requires an understanding of what it means to truly love God and to genuinely love others. When emotional health and spiritual maturity come together with intentional discipleship, transformation takes place in the lives of followers of Jesus Christ. This project provides a model for creating such a culture and an example of one specific community of believers attempting to live within that culture. Chapter one lays out a foundation of why emotional health and spiritual maturity paired with intentional disciple is needed, and how this project came into existence. Chapter two examines what others have to say on the topics of emotional and spiritual health, along with the theology behind disciples that make disciples. The writings of experts in the field of discipleship such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr. Robert Coleman, Robert W. Hull, and Peter Scazzero are examined and processed. Chapter three gives a clear and precise explanation of the project; from the sermons preached, the classes taught, to the intentional discipleship groups, and one-on-one relationships formed. It provides a pathway for discipleship that can be used by others who desire to create a culture of discipleship within their own communities. Chapter four interprets ans analyzes the impact and results of the project on one specific church community and a one-day roundtable talk with a group of church pastors. Through surveys and interviews, the findings and results of the project are presented. Chapter five presents the final analysis and conclusions. The impact of the journey on the specific church community, the church leadership, and the broader church bring closure to the project.

Renovation of the Heart
Renovation of the Heart

Author: Dallas Willard

Publisher: Tyndale House

Published: 2014-02-27

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1615214550

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As Christians, we know that we are new creations in Jesus. So we try to act differently, hoping this will make us more like Him. But changing our outward behavior doesn’t change our hearts. Only by God’s grace can we be transformed internally. Renovation of the Heart lays a biblical foundation for understanding what best-selling author Dallas Willard calls the “transformation of the spirit”—a divine process that “brings every element in our being, working from inside out, into harmony with the will of God.” This fresh approach to spiritual growth explains the biblical reasons why Christians need to undergo change in six aspects of life: thought, feeling, will, body, social context, and soul. Willard also outlines a general pattern of transformation in each area, not as a sterile formula but as a practical process that you can follow without the guilt or perfectionism so many Christians wrestle with. Don’t settle for complacency. Accept the challenge Renovation of the Heart offers to become an intentional apprentice of Jesus Christ, changing daily as you walk with Him.