Series Orientation

Series Introduction

Welcome to the Narrative Journey! This series is a labor of love offered to the glory of God, for the sake of Christ, and in humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit. In its visionary form, the Narrative Journey originated as a means to establish disciples and church communities in the essentials of the Christian faith. On either end of this core establishing process, we shaped the series to orient new believers to the foundations of the faith and train emerging leaders in the basics of Christian ministry. Additionally, while this tool functions as a church-centered discipleship process, it also invites those interested in Christianity to explore the life-transforming claims of Christ. In short, the Narrative Journey is a modern-day catechism for the church on mission.

Fashioned after the ministry of Christ, rooted in the historic practice of catechism, tailored for the establishment and expansion of the church, and re-envisioned for a postmodern society, the Narrative Journey facilitates a churchwide dialogue around key biblical narratives, illuminating core elements to the Christian life. As a whole, the Narrative Journey is divided into three subseries—Foundations, Essentials, and Pathways—which generally correspond to the growth process of a maturing Christian. Foundations orients new believers to basics of the Christian faith, preparing them for baptism. Essentials establishes disciples and churches in core biblical teaching, covering the topics of Christian belief, living, formation, community, and devotion. Pathways equips emerging leaders in fundamentals of Christian mission, worldview, leadership, and ministry. Like fountainheads from which living waters flow, each of these subseries—and their related topical domains—serve as headsprings that irrigate Christians and churches in their journey of discipleship.

In general, these topics build from (and expand upon) a long tradition of catechism in the history of the church, which taught the essentials of the faith through key summaries: the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments (baptism and Communion), and the biblical metanarrative. Throughout the history of the church, each of these summative statements focused on a vital domain—a core content area—of the Christian life. The Apostles’ Creed sums up the essence of Christian belief. The Ten Commandments offer a summary of godly living. The Lord’s Prayer guides believers into the habits and rhythms of relating to God. The sacraments of baptism and communion instruct the church in Christian worship. And the biblical metanarrative offers an overarching framework to understand God’s work in his world. In the Narrative Journey, we have built our catechetical process on the framework of these summary statements as we have also enriched the experience with additional biblical teaching. We hope that readers will find this series to be quite unoriginal, in the sense that it is structured around these same core teachings that Christians have always treasured (see series summary on previous page).

Although every catechism is selective, this catechism aims to provide a narrative introduction to the major categories of Christian teaching that would be considered the fundamentals of the faith. Such teaching is a vital bedrock of faith across culture, gender, age, and class. In order to incorporate everyone in this establishing process, we have structured these books as tools with a pedagogical framework that is adaptable, broadly applicable, and conversational. We have placed simplified, catechism-style questions and answers along with memory verses at the beginning of each session. As a whole, this series seeks to build a “framework” of the faith through key narratives. These narratives not only have gripping plots but also carry profound Christian instruction, capturing the attention of young and old alike. Each biblical narrative can also serve as an entryway into later study of individual books of the Bible. The series is designed to be a community-based catechetical process. While these studies can be completed individually, they are best experienced in the context of fellowship with other believers. Leverage the various elements of each session as a means to cultivate your church community.

The fivefold, multimodal layout of each session encourages transformative Bible reading—a formative hermeneutical circle (see Session Overview for more detail)—that the whole church community can enjoy. While the unique design of each session offers a consistent method of engaging biblical truth, it also strives to be contextual for church communities in various settings. The design of each session is intentionally (and intensely) biblically focused. Through guided questions, storycrafting, biblical commentary, spiritual practices, and ministry engagement, the session layout offers a pathway to meaningfully and holistically engage and live out the Scriptures. Additionally, disciples and churches can variously apply the framework of each session in ways to meet the particular needs of their own church community contexts.

The series encourages disciples to keep records of their progress in the faith and empowers disciples and churches in all cultures to embrace the unchanging truths of the Christian faith. The book layout provides open space—a journal-like workbook—to chronicle growth in the faith. Each book enables believers to track their spiritual progress and faith development in various domains of the Christian life. Its narrative approach encourages believers to retell each story in their own words. Guided questions help disciples clearly articulate textual observations and biblical truths. Spiritual practices and reflection questions help God’s people recount the ways they are applying biblical truth to their lives. Ministry and outreach activities facilitate a “learning by doing” approach to faith formation.

The Narrative Journey fosters scriptural study that stokes imaginative community dialogue around key biblical narratives. On a personal level, this series outlines a pathway of Christian maturity. As a tool for discipleship in the home, the Narrative Journey empowers parents with a means to shepherd their own children in the ways of Christ. Those in mentoring relationships can facilitate meaningful dialogue around core teachings of the Christian faith. For leaders of churches and networks, these sequenced stories lay out thematically arranged studies to ground new believers and young churches in their newfound faith. The narrative and dialogical nature of this process facilitates training in both oral and literate contexts. Proficiency and mastery of these faith foundations is an initial phase of ministry training—equipping emerging leaders to serve God’s purposes in the church and society. Therefore, those involved in frontline missionary work can use this process to strengthen believers concurrent with spreading the gospel.

To increase the readability of this workbook-style format, footnotes have not been used. Direct quotes for reflection can be traced down by their brief titles, usually given after the quote. Resources that were used (and useful) in understanding the biblical passage and related catechetical topic are listed in the bibliography at the end of the book. This bibliographic list also includes resources that are helpful for further study of the passage or topic.

A core objective of this series is to make available to the global church a robust and reproducible process of establishing believers in the faith. To facilitate this vision, we have taken a strategic stance on copyright and licensing. As part of a larger effort to provide unrestricted resources for the global church, we are publishing the content of the Narrative Journey series under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA), version 4.0. A large amount of quality Christian content and training resources already exist in the world. However, many of these resources are “locked down” under traditional, antiquated copyright restrictions. Instead, a CC BY-SA 4.0 license releases this content to the global church; it enables church leaders to provide sound theological content and formative resources to the church at large to use in their own contexts. The nature of this license allows us to “lock open” this content for Christians throughout the world. As you will see in the course of this series, this licensing decision is motivated by the conviction that the essentials of the faith—the core teachings of Christianity—duly belong to the church.

By equipping disciples—old and young, men and women, rich and poor, oral and literate—with a means to accurately retain and skillfully communicate the essentials of the faith, this study curates an experience of discovery whereby biblical truths are sowed deeply into hearts, encouraging believers to make immediate implementation of core principles into their life. That being said, the Narrative Journey is not just a study. It is a biblical, theological, experiential, and ministerial experience. As a curriculum that charts the course to faith maturity, this series serves as a humble roadmap to the Christian faith. It is an invitation to encounter God through his inspired Word, enjoy meaningful fellowship with other believers in community dialogue, embody the faith through spiritual disciplines, and embrace God’s mission for his world.

For disciples who are devoted to following Christ, leaders who are vested with the care of the flock, and churches that are seeking to represent Christ in their communities, we hope that this series will provide a simple yet open passage into the rich storehouse of God’s redemptive work. If even a portion of this vision comes to reality, we pray it comes in the form of transformed lives, established churches, and empowered leaders. May the testimony of its fruit be “written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). To that end: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17).

Series Outline

Narrative Journey FOUNDATIONS

Narrative Journey ESSENTIALS

Narrative Journey PATHWAYS

Foundations Overview

Narrative Journey Foundations orients new believers and church communities to the basic elements of the Christian faith. As a first step of discipleship, this study outlines what it means to be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. While Christianity is based upon core beliefs and teachings, it is more than a system of religious ideas, rules of conduct, and spiritual rituals. Being a genuine Christian involves devotion to a person: the God-Man Jesus Christ. While it is impossible for sinful humans to muster enough devotion to follow Christ in their own strength, God has sent Jesus to earth in order to make reconciliation with God possible. God has taken the initiative to restore the broken relationship between himself and sinful people, a relationship fractured when humanity rebelled against God in defiant sin. Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return form the backbone of Christian discipleship because they accomplish salvation for sinful humans.

In Christ, God has already taken the first steps in making devotion to Christ possible. In light of what Jesus has accomplished for sinful humans, God offers life, restoration, blessing, and forgiveness to everyone who devotes their life to Jesus. In fact, because Jesus has resurrected from the dead—an actual event in human history—he is alive today. He is still calling people to become his disciples as he did when he walked the earth. And as he summons people to this new life of discipleship, he calls them to a life of commitment, surrender, and allegiance. Upon this invitation, the foundation of the Christian faith is built.

In the broader culture, however, this devotion is not always fully understood. At times, devotion to Christ is met with hostility and opposition from the surrounding world. For those who become genuine Christians, God offers unending life, spiritual blessings, gracious redemption, and eternal rewards. Although Christianity is built upon such glorious promises, it also involves self-denial, perseverance, and patient endurance. The path of Christian discipleship—very much similar to the life path that Jesus himself experienced— will involve hardship, trials, suffering, and persecution. For this reason, Jesus himself instructed people to “count the cost” (Luke 14:28) of becoming his disciple. In many ways, this study serves to explain to those “seeking” out Christianity what it means to be a follower of Christ.

For those who have committed their lives to Christ in faith, this study overviews what it means to be a genuine disciple of Jesus. It explores the core content of the gospel message, the necessary response to the gospel call, and the essential devotion of the Christian life. In terms of the gospel message, this study explores how God has accomplished salvation on behalf of sinful humanity through his Son, Jesus Christ. Those who want to receive the offer of salvation must respond in faith toward Christ and repentance from sin. Baptism is a public rite by which these new believers pledge their allegiance to Jesus and their identification with the church community. In the context of this Christian community, disciples grow in their faith through a budding devotion to Christian essentials.

While this course of study allows for new believers and churches to understand the basics of Christian discipleship, it also aims to provide a clear and concise means for new believers to instruct others in what it means to follow Christ. Discipleship at its core is multiplicational. God calls disciples of Jesus to make disciples among all peoples in all parts of the world. Jesus gave the following command to his disciples (and to us!): “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). Therefore, this study seeks to empower, equip, and outfit new disciples with a means to “reproduce” themselves by calling others to become disciples of Christ.

Saved by gospel belief, initiated through baptism, and grounded in faith essentials, Christians dedicate their entire lives to Christ. The foundation of Christian discipleship involves full surrender of one’s life (and well-being) to Jesus. The freely offered blessings of salvation are only accessible by the costly surrender of one’s life to Jesus. While genuine Christians entrust their lives to Jesus’ saving work and safekeeping, they also dedicate themselves to his service and work in the world. The life of discipleship is a matter of receiving a new purpose for life in this world because of the promised hope of the unending life in the world to come.

While this initial part of the Narrative Journey series lays down the foundations of Christian discipleship, it also serves as a tool to help incorporate new members into the body of Christ. Whether working through a baptism orientation (for a new Christian) or a church membership process (for those who have already been baptized as Christians), this study can be put to very practical use in the context of church ministry and community formation. Additionally, it can serve churches and networks experiencing growth, expansion, and multiplication. In such movemental situations, this series allows for orientation around the essentials of the faith while expansive evangelistic efforts continue, and seeks to facilitate the spread of the gospel without compromising the depth and meaning of Christian discipleship. Lastly, it serves as a preface (a kind of portal) for the Narrative Journey Essentials series, a lengthier process of rooting new believers in the fundamentals of the faith. As you take these initial steps to understand the basics of the Christian faith, may God allow you (and your churches) to come to know Jesus as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Session Frameworks

The structure of each session has been designed with Christian formation in mind. The five movements in the Introduction and Conclusion provide a pedagogical framework within which Christians and churches can become grounded in the faith. The structure of these opening and closing sessions will help communities of faith organize and orient themselves to Christian growth. The five movements in each of the main sessions teach disciples to collectively engage specific biblical texts in a transformative way. With this formative design consistently applied to each session, such a hermeneutical (or interpretive) process serves to equip the church with the ability to grow as skillful readers of Scripture beyond the scope of this series. As each session unfolds, its purposeful design serves the maturity of the church through a process that is sound in its pedagogy, collaborative in its experience, and distinctively Christian in its character. Workable in either an oral or literate context (or some blend of the two), this process aims to situate transformative Bible reading in the context of the church. Toward this end, the session structure integrates scriptural exegesis (or study), theological discussion, personal application, ministry training, and missional engagement. It is ordered in a way that cultivates meaningful reflection on the Bible, God, self, church, and world. In what follows, we briefly survey these frameworks of formative Scripture reading.

Introduction/Conclusion Framework

The Introduction (“The Opening”) and Conclusion (“The Recall”) mirror each other in their structure. The basic design of the opening and closing sessions is to cultivate an environment conducive to communal Christian growth. This shared framework establishes a context for the Christian community to overview the core content of the study, explore the essential ideas of the teaching, devise a plan for ongoing learning, validate growth in the faith, and implement learning in real life. The details of this framework are outlined below.

Book Overview: Surveying the Landscape

In this first subsection, communities get oriented to the general content of the study. In the Introduction, believers explore the core biblical content, consider the main idea of the whole study, and discuss specific areas of interest. In the Conclusion, the community reviews the key teachings that were covered throughout the course of the study. In all, this subsection helps get bearings of the study path that lies ahead.

Faith Foundation: Exploring the Terrain

The next movement explores the key theme of the study through dialogue and discussion. In the Introduction, churches can use discussion questions and a key quote to consider the importance of this faith essential. Within the Conclusion, discussion questions are provided to help reflect on learning and insights that occurred during the course of the study. This movement allows for opportunity to investigate the subject matter of the study at a thematic level.

Learning Plan: Charting the Course

This particular movement of the Introduction and Conclusion allows for space to prepare and plan for progress in the faith. This third movement in the Introduction gives space to review the hermeneutical framework of the main sessions and coordinate a calendar for the study. In the Conclusion, believers can identify biblical and theological resources to continue their growth in this area of the faith. Overall, this study movement encourages intentional and ongoing faith development.

Core Project: Synthesizing the Faith

The next movement encourages learners to articulate their learning in their own words. The Introduction previews a writing project that will be completed at the end of the study. It also anticipates how God might bring about life transformation. The Conclusion provides space to give expression to learning and to reflect on the life change that God has brought over the course of the previous weeks. This movement aids Christians with a collaborative project that can help disciples and church communities personalize and internalize their learning.

Faith Practice: Following the Way

This final movement focuses on application and implementation of the study. In the Introduction, communities survey the objectives of the study, identify a particular growth area, and seek God’s help in earnest prayer. The Conclusion of the whole study affords an opportunity to evaluate growth, articulate next steps, and spend time in community prayer. The final movement of this study encourages believers to commend one another to God’s grace in hope of continued growth and life transformation.

Main Session Framework

Each main session engages a specific biblical text toward a formative end. The essential goal of this common framework is to provide a sound hermeneutical pathway to trek through the study of a passage of Scripture. Even outside of the Narrative Journey series, this framework is a reliable means to engage and study any biblical text. In particular, this fivefold structure serves as an orientation to the biblical text, exploration of its theological meaning, implication for the Christian life, application in church ministry, and proclamation to the surrounding world. Provided below is a summary of the session framework for the main sessions in greater detail.

Biblical Interpretation: Hearing the Word

God’s revealed Word to his people is the only reliable and sure guide for the Christian life. Our maturity in the Christian faith is nourished by faithful study of the Scriptures. To understand the truth of God’s word, we need to grasp the various components of the biblical text (i.e., structure, theme, plot, events, characters, logical flow, sequence). Therefore, after the session Introduction, the first part of each session is called Biblical Interpretation: Hearing the Word. This section aims to orient the community of interpreters to the major details of the selected biblical story. Through purposeful reading practices, focused observation questions, general textual exploration, and a summative storycrafting process, this section familiarizes disciples with the biblical text that is being studied. The goal is to help readers recall basic textual details, trace the overall narrative flow, and discern the structural design of each biblical narrative. Accurately grasping these details will provide a fitting foundation to explore the significance of the passage at a theological level.

Theological Dialogue: Discussing the Plot

As God’s divinely inspired Word, Scripture teaches us how to rightly understand reality. For each session of the Narrative Journey, a narrative (or narrative-like) portion of Scripture has been carefully selected based on the way the passage addresses a particular aspect of the Christian faith. While there are many viable themes addressed by any given biblical text, each session focuses its attention on a particular topic germane to the selected passage of Scripture. In this regard, the second movement of each session is called Theological Dialogue: Discussing the Plot. This movement helps the Christian community explore the overall storyline of the biblical narrative at a theological level, allowing the unfolding plot of each story to uniquely inform a distinctively Christian approach to the life of faith. Through discussion questions, narrative reflection, and textual commentary, Christian disciples search the scriptural text to know God more truly and understand reality more accurately by coming to terms with the theological agenda of the specific passage being studied. Grounded in the theological significance of the passage, Christian readers should learn how to apply the passage to their own lives.

Personal Reflection: Entering the Story

As much as God’s word offers a framework of Christian belief, it also outlines a pathway for godly living. Our understanding of the Scriptures deepens as we put the truth of God’s word to practice in our own lives. Without allowing God’s word to deeply penetrate our lives, we will remain at a superficial understanding of Scripture and a theoretical understanding of godliness. God gave us the Bible as a means to diagnose our spiritual condition and prescribe the ultimate remedy for our spiritual renewal and restoration. As a mirror, the Bible examines our life and instructs us on how to better live as disciples of Christ. Every biblical text is a summons to discipleship. Accordingly, the third movement of each session is called Personal Reflection: Entering the Story. At this point in the session flow, disciples allow the biblical passage to evaluate and instruct their personal lives and then discuss it together in community. Through reflection questions and spiritual exercises, this movement encourages members of the Christian community to examine their lives in the mirror of the biblical text and to build new faith habits by putting scriptural truth into practice. Taking time to personally reflect on the passage and apply its teachings to life will situate disciples to be able to minister this passage to others.

Ministry Practice: Rehearsing the Script

God’s word is a life-giving instrument of divine revelation. Inasmuch as the Bible impacts our own Christian formation, the Scriptures should also serve the maturity of the whole church. To the extent that we earnestly apply the truth to our own lives, we will be better equipped to minister the truth to others in a way that edifies the community of faith. Toward this end, the fourth movement to each session, Ministry Practice: Rehearsing the Script, allocates space for disciples to use each selected passage of Scripture in some form of ministry. In an effort to make this series explicitly church-based, we designed a process that puts the community of faith at the center of its catechetical process. Through practical reflection, suggested ministry ideas, collaborative design, and strategic implementation, disciples consider how each passage serves the church. In order to accommodate varying levels of Christian maturity and differing roles in the church community, disciples should think about how this passage can be used in a family context, mentoring relationship, home gathering, church meeting, network structure, or global setting. As the church is built up, God’s people become equipped to bear witness to God’s truth to the wider world.

Missional Outreach: Publicizing the Truth

As they accept God’s invitation to global mission, Christians have been called to witness the truth of God’s word to the unbelieving world. Not only does sharing our faith deepen our understanding of God’s word, it also provides a fitting context for faith formation. One of the main outlets (and aims) for Christian maturity is public witness. The closing focus of each session is Missional Outreach: Publicizing the Truth. In this portion of each study, the community of disciples turn their attention toward the world in order to share the truth of God’s word with the lost. The goal of this final movement is to deploy the church in her missional vocation. Through practical reflection, suggested ministry ideas, collaborative design, and strategic implementation, disciples publicize the truth of God’s word by voicing and expressing it to the surrounding world. While each passage may not explicitly speak about Christ, each biblical narrative is part of a larger Scripture (meta)narrative that tells God’s unfolding redemptive plan. In this way, every passage of the Bible can be preached to unbelievers, inviting them to faith in Christ. As a culmination in this formative engagement of Scripture, the believing community becomes a witness of God’s truth, cementing its understanding of the biblical text by becoming an advocate for its truthfulness in the wider world.

In sum, the common framework overlaid in each session attempts to outline a formative hermeneutic: a transformative way to engage God’s word as a community of faith. Through this process, God’s people gather around carefully selected biblical passages as a means to become established in the faith. In this community study process, disciples engage the text, discuss its truth, examine their lives, edify the faith community, and bear witness to the truth in their spheres of influence. Engaging the text in this way not only anchors the church in the truth of God’s word, it also teaches disciples how to study any passage of Scripture in a well-rounded and formative manner. Moreover, by placing the Scriptures in the center of the church, the community of faith grows to maturity and becomes equipped as a witness to the surrounding world.