Trinitarian and Epistemological Implication For Spiritiual Formation Among Millenials

SOUTHEASTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
WAKE FOREST, NORTH CAROLINA
TRINITARIAN AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION AMONG MILLENNIALS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
DOCTOR OF MINISTRY
BY
CAMERON WAYNE WOOTEN
DECEMBER 2016

ProQuest Number: 10280810

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2016
Cameron W. Wooten

This Dissertation prepared and presented to the Faculty as a part of the requirements for
the Doctorate of Ministry Degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake
Forest, North Carolina. All rights and privileges normally reserved by the author as a
copyright holder are waived for the Seminary. The Seminary Library may catalog,
display, and use this Dissertation in all normal ways such materials are used, for
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or in the future may be made available to researchers and library users.
PROJECT REPORT APPROVAL SHEET
Student Name: Cameron Wayne Wooten Student ID # 000-205061
Ministry Project Title:
TRINITARIAN AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION AMONG MILLENNIALS
This Ministry Project Report has been approved.
Date of Defense: November 11, 2016
Faculty Supervisor/Chair: Alvin Reid

Dr. Alvin Reid
Senior Professor of Evangelism and Student Ministry
Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism
Faculty Reader: Robert Alton James

Dr. Robert Alton James
Professor of Missions
Associate Dean of Ministry Studies
Faculty Reader: George G. Robinson

Dr. George G. Robinson
Associate Professor of Missions and Evangelism
Richard and Gina Headrick Chair of World Missions
iii

PROJECT REPORT PERMISSION FOR ACCESS
Upon acceptance, every D.Min. Ministry Project Report becomes the property
of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is not to be published without
the permission of the Provost on the recommendation of the Director of the
Doctor of Ministry Program.
In some instances, highly sensitive material will have been used in Ministry
Project Reports; therefore, the student is required to choose one of the options
listed below.
X 1) I consent to the use of this Ministry Project Report by any person

entitled to use the Library of Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary, so long as quotations from it are not made without my
permission.
2) Because of sensitive material contained in my Ministry Project

Report, I want its use to be restricted to the Seminary Faculty and to
such
other persons as may have my written permission to use it.
Therefore, I prefer my Ministry Project Report to be filed on closed
shelves. I understand that this restriction expires twenty years from
the date on which the Ministry Project Report is submitted to the
Library.
3) Because of sensitive material contained in my Ministry Project Report,

I desire that its use be restricted to the Seminary Faculty. I understand
that this restriction expires fifty years from the date on which the
Ministry Project Report is submitted to the Library.
November 11, 2016 Cameron W. Wooten

Date Student’s Name
iv

To my wife, who has so ever-

graciously and lovingly displayed
the fruit of the Spirit
through this entire journey and process.
And, for my daughters, who ever-

ensure that I never lose
my sense of wonder.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................................ xi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. xiii
ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................... xiv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1
Purpose.............................................................................................................................1
Project Objectives ............................................................................................................2
Ministry Objectives......................................................................................................2
Professional Objectives ................................................................................................3
Ministry Context ..............................................................................................................4
Lexington, Kentucky....................................................................................................4
Broadway Baptist Church ............................................................................................5
Millennials as a Generation .........................................................................................9
Millennials Are Spiritual, Not Religious ..............................................................13
Millennials Have Epistemological Disconnects Which Have Produced

Compartmentalized Lives .....................................................................................14
The Effects of the “Christ-and-Me” Approach to a Relationship with God ........17
Millennials Christians Fail to Recognize How the Imago Dei is Connected to

the Missio Dei ......................................................................................................20
Project Rationale ...........................................................................................................23
Evangelism as Obligation .........................................................................................23
Issues of Evangelism Affecting Millennials .............................................................26
Reaching Millennials ................................................................................................29
The Need and Challenge Towards an Indigenous Lifestyle of Worship ......................40
Definitions of Terms .....................................................................................................48
vi

Limitations and Delimitations .......................................................................................49

CHAPTER TWO: BIBLICAL/THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS ................................51
Introduction ....................................................................................................................51
Who God Is ....................................................................................................................52
The Trinity .................................................................................................................52
The Son is the Focal Point .........................................................................................53
God’s Mission Flows From His Identity .......................................................................55
Missio Dei is Missio Trinitatis ...................................................................................55
The Upper Room/Farewell Discourse (John 14–16) .................................................56
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17) ........................................................................57
Verses 1–5 ............................................................................................................58
Verses 6–19 ..........................................................................................................60
Verses 20–26 ........................................................................................................65
Man Made in the Image of God - The Imago Dei .........................................................68
Traditional Views of the Imago Dei ..........................................................................70
The Structural View .............................................................................................71
The Relational View .............................................................................................73
Imago Trinitatis ........................................................................................................77
The Soul ...............................................................................................................80
Mind .....................................................................................................................86
Mind and Heart (Spirit) Transition .......................................................................89
Heart (Spirit).........................................................................................................90
Heart (Spirit) and Flesh (Body/Strength) Transition ............................................92
vii

Flesh/Body/Strength .............................................................................................94
Flesh and Mind Transition ...................................................................................97
The Holy Spirit ..............................................................................................................99
The Believer’s Identity is in God, Through Life in the Spirit .....................................103
The Battle Now Lies Between the Holy Spirit and the Flesh ......................................105
The Word of God is That Which Believers Put Into Their Trinitarian Cycle, and
What The Holy Spirit Uses to Transform Them Into the Likeness of Christ ..............108
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................110
CHAPTER THREE: MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS ......................................................112
In Christ, the Old Self is Dead .....................................................................................112
As His Children Abide in Him, they Manifest the Fruit of the Spirit ..........................116
Epistemology: Modernism’s Dilemma and the Condition of Postmodernism ............119
Epistemology and Millennials: Modernism, Postmodernism, and the

Advancement’s Effects on Millenials and their Participation in Evangelism and
Missions .......................................................................................................................130
Critical Realism, the Imago Trinitatis, and the Metanarrative ....................................132
Trinitarian Gospel-Centrality .......................................................................................134
CHAPTER FOUR: PROJECT DESCRIPTION..............................................................136
Introduction ..................................................................................................................136
Methodology Description ............................................................................................137
Research Tools and Instruments ..................................................................................137
Project Details ..............................................................................................................140
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................143
CHAPTER FIVE: PROJECT ANALYSIS......................................................................145
Introduction ..................................................................................................................145
viii

Correlations Between Chapter One and the Pre-Test ..................................................145
Post-Test Statistics ......................................................................................................150
Participant’s Profession and Engagement in Evangelism .......................................150
Disciplines/Habits and Views on Discipleship .......................................................156
Views on Theology: God, His Kingdom, His Mission, and His Gospel ................158
Understanding of Their Identity in Christ ...............................................................167
Epistemology ..........................................................................................................170
Cumulative Results ......................................................................................................171
Project Process – Strengths and Weaknesses...............................................................177
Further Implementation ...............................................................................................179
Ministry Reflections.....................................................................................................180
How I Grew or Changed .........................................................................................180
What I Learned About Myself ................................................................................181
What I Learned About Ministry ..............................................................................185
What I Learned About My Ministry Context .........................................................185
APPENDIX A: SURVEY ................................................................................................189
APPENDIX B: LESSON PLANS - LEADER ................................................................193
Week 1 – God: Himself and His Mission ....................................................................193
Week 2 – God’s Gospel; His Story ..............................................................................195
Week 3 – Creation and The Fall ..................................................................................196

Week 4 – Redemption Initiated ...................................................................................200
Week 5 – Redemption Accomplished..........................................................................203
Week 6 – Restoration ...................................................................................................206
ix

APPENDIX C: LESSON PLANS - PARTICIPANT ......................................................211
Week 1 – God: Himself and His Mission ....................................................................211
Week 2 – God’s Gospel; His Story ..............................................................................212
Week 3 – Creation and The Fall ..................................................................................213
Week 4 – Redemption Initiated ...................................................................................215
Week 5 – Redemption Accomplished..........................................................................217
Week 6 – Restoration ...................................................................................................219
APPENDIX D: PROJECT DESCRIPTION ....................................................................223
APPENDIX E: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST STATISTICS .......................................234
Pre-Test Statistics ........................................................................................................234
Epistemology ..........................................................................................................240
Post-Test Statistics ......................................................................................................241
Epistemology ..........................................................................................................247
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................248
VITA ................................................................................................................................289
ILLUSTRATIONS
Charts and Graphs

1. 5.18. Post-Test – Years Trusting in Christ 150
2. 5.19. Post-Test – Evangelism Activity 151
3. 5.20. Post-Test – Evangelism Habits 152
4. 5.21. Post-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism 153
5. 5.22. Post-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred 154
6. 5.23. Post-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective
Engagement 155
7. 5.24. Post-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures 156
8. 5.25. Post-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits 158
9. 5.26. Post-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, and
His Gospel 159
10. 5.27. Post-Test – The Mission of God 160
11. 5.28. Post-Test – The Mission of the Church 162
12. 5.29. Post-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel 163
13. 5.30. Post-Test – The Gospel: God’s Story 165
14. 5.31. Post-Test – Views on Salvation 166
15. 5.32. Post-Test – Identity in Christ 169
16. 5.33. Post-Test – Epistemology 171
17. 5.34. Cumulative Results – Trends 172
18. 5.35. Cumulative Results – Means and Averages 173
19. 5.36. Cumulative Results – Nonagon 174
20. 5.37. Cumulative Results – Imago Trinitatis 177
21. AE.1. Pre-Test - Years Since Trusting in Christ 234
22. AE.2. Pre-Test –Evangelism Activity 234
23. AE.3. Pre-Test –Evangelism Habits 235
24. AE.4. Pre-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism 235
25. AE.5. Pre-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred 235
26. AE.6. Pre-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective 236
Engagement
27. AE.7. Pre-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures 236
28. AE.8. Pre-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits 236
29. AE.9. Pre-Test – Views on Sanctification 237
30. AE.10. Pre-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom and
His Gospel 237
31. AE.11. Pre-Test – The Mission of God 238
32. AE.12. Pre-Test – The Mission of the Church 238
33. AE.13. Pre-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel 238
34. AE.14. Pre-Test – The Gospel: Gods Story 239
35. AE.15. Pre-Test – Views on Salvation 239
36. AE.16. Pre-Test – Identity in Christ 240
37. AE.17. Pre-Test – Epistemology 240
38. AE.18. Post-Test – Years Since Trusting in Christ 241
39. AE.19. Post-Test – Evangelism Activity 241
xi

40. AE.20. Post-Test – Evangelism Habits 241

41. AE.21. Post-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism 242
42. AE.22. Post-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred 242
43. AE.23. Post-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective
Engagement 242
44. AE.24. Post-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures 243
45. AE.25. Post-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits 243
46. AE.26. Post-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, and
His Gospel 244
47. AE.27. Post-Test – The Mission of God 244
48. AE.28. Post-Test – The Mission of the Church 244
49. AE.29. Post-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel 245
50. AE.30. Post-Test – The Gospel: God’s Story 245
51. AE.31. Post-Test – Views on Salvation 246
52. AE.32. Post-Test – Identity in Christ 246
53. AE.33. Post-Test – Epistemology 247
Illustrations
1. 2.1. Dallas Willard’s “Golden Triangle” 77
2. 2.2. Kenneth Boa’s Imago Dei – Knowing, Being, and Doing 78
3. 2.3. Robert Saucey’s Imago Dei – Body Soul, and Heart 79
4. 2.4. Fred Sanders’ Soul – Head, Hand, and Heart 84
5. 2.5. Imago Trinitatis 85
6. 2.6. Imago Trinitatis – Mind and Heart (Spirit) Transition 88
7. 2.7. Imago Trinitatis – Mind, Heart, and Will 90
8. 2.8. Imago Trinitatis – Heart, Flesh, and Emotions 94
9. 2.9. Imago Trinitatis – Flesh, Mind, and Sensory Experience 98
10. 2.10. Imago Trinitatis – The Holy Spirit 102
11. 2.11. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God 109
12. AB.1. Imago Trinitatis – The Holy Spirit 209
13. AB.2. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God 209
14. AC.1. Imago Trinitatis – The Holy Spirit 221
15. AC.2. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God 221
Lists
1. 2.1. Orthodoxy, Orthopathy, and Orthopraxy 102
2. 4.1. Project Schedule 140
3. AD.1. Four Points About the Story of God 224
4. AD.2. Four Questions Every Person Asks 225
5. AD.3. Five Truths About God from Creation 225
6. AD.4. Four Characteristics of Sin 226
7. AD.5. Five Results of Sin (Being Separated from God) 227
8. AD.6. Lessons from the Flood 227
9. AD.7. Lessons from Babel 227
10. AD.8. Four Conditions for the Completion of God’s Rescue Plan 230
11. AD.9. Four Conditions for the Completion of God’s Rescue Plan 231
xii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
St. Louis Cardinals baseball hall of famer, Lou Brock, once said, “No one wants to hear
about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby.” And yet, it is those who are there
during the labor, and even more so, those there with you in the delivery room, who are
the people you wanted there the most and are the most grateful to God for.
All accolades must first and foremost go to my wife, Lyn, and then to our two daughters,
Myla and Arabella. Their unwavering love, support, and encouragement has been a
constant source of joy through the trials of this thesis. In-between every line of this paper,
you cannot read a word of it apart from my wife. This doctorate is as much hers, as it is
mine. Never allowing what I have done or who I am to determine her love for me, that,
along with the love from my parents, has demonstrated the love of Christ to me more
than anything else in this world. My wife for a season and sister in Christ for eternity, she
has embraced all that God has asked of her; indeed, He has used no one more to shape me
into His likeness than she.
A great indebtedness is owed to my parents, Larry and Donna, for all they have invested
in me throughout my entire life. They have given everything, and asked for nothing,
constantly seeking to demonstrate the image of Christ to me every step along the way. I
can only hope that however God might use myself, my wife, and our girls in the work of
His kingdom might provide them with joy for all that they have done.
A big “thank you” also goes out to my sister, Cherie, who was all the big sister any
brother could ask for. I could ask anything of her, and she would be there at any and
every time. I am who I am because of her, as much as anyone else.
I also cannot go without thanking my family: my grandparents, every uncle and aunt,
cousin, nephew, and niece. Growing up in a family that has fostered and encouraged
thinking critically about Scripture and theological discussion, every conversation has
played some part in the formation of this thesis and project development.
Most importantly, I owe all to the Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit) who has redeemed me
into Himself, that I might share in eternal delight and fellowship with the Father by the
finished work of the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit. Not a single letter of this
work could even be placed apart from His provision and favor. It has been a delight and
privilege to fuse together research with worship. May all that I am and have this side of
eternity be sanctified for His kingdom and mission.
Soli Trinitas Gloria
xiii

ABSTRACT
Millennials find themselves in a precarious position—devoid of sacred and
wonder, modernism has no epistemological basis for knowledge and truth of any kind,
leading to the autonomous self, and resulting in the separation of theology from practice.
Contrastingly, postmodernism offers an instable life of fragmentation, bankrupt on its
own internal contradictions, as truth is a language game subjective to the individual, and
doubts that possibility of any possible metanarrative. This impasse hinders Millennial’s
ability to recognize the metanarrative of Scripture, and the discovery of their place in
God’s story.
This project demonstrates that their epistemological dichotomies lend them to
compartmentalize their theology, resulting in a failure to recognize how being made in
the imago Dei directly corresponds with the Missio Dei. Thus, evangelism is viewed as
both duty and obligation, rather than the overflow of being filled with Spirit, from living
an indigenous lifestyle of worship. This project contends that this is largely due to the
absence of Trinitarian-gospel centrality.
Advocating a trinitarian nature of personhood (mind, body, and spirit), this project
maintains that in Christ, the believer shares in unbridled communion with the Father,
through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, just as what God does overflows out
of who He is, Christians should likewise engage in the mission of God out of who they
are in Him. Thus, believers should fulfill the Great Commission as they live out the Great
xiv

Commandment by exemplifying the fruit of the Spirit. This occurs as believers are
centered on knowing and experiencing the Father, through abiding in the Son, by the
power of the Holy Spirit. The solution posited to reconcile this impasse in Millennials, is
the formulation of a Trinitarian-based, gospel-centered, discipleship strategy that
addresses the epistemological implications of Millennials and the Gospel, in the
understanding that His mission and His identity are interrelated.
Apprehending that one’s salvation should permeate and transform every aspect of
their being, that in this new life they are to live on mission with Him, and are beginning
to more effectively engage in this mission, Millennial’s compartmentalization that was
once indicative of their Christianity is no longer an option, and altogether dissipates.
Likewise, allowing God to pervade one’s entire being systemically moves believers into a
more Trinitarian-centered relationship with Him, whereby which they began to live more
trinitarian lifestyles of worship. Further, the project director finds that these truths
systemically foster and reinforce each other back to a deeper understanding and
embracement of the interconnectedness between the imago Dei and the missio Dei. This
project concludes with the assertion that comprehending the interrelatedness between
God’s Triune identity and mission empowers believers to cognize how following Christ
is not merely something one does, but something that they are, inspiring believers of all
generations to live on mission with God, in both word and deed, through indigenous
lifestyles of worship.
xv

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
This project seeks to formulate a Trinitarian-based, gospel-centered discipleship
strategy that addresses the epistemological implications of Millennials and the gospel in
the understanding that what God does overflows out of who He is, as His mission and His
identity share synonymy. Therefore, as humankind is made in the image of God,
successful participation in the Great Commission should likewise overflow from one’s
identity in Christ. One’s successful engagement in missions and evangelism must account
for a Trinitarian understanding of the image of God and what it means to abide in Christ
through the power of the Holy Spirit. A topic constantly being refined, the discussion of
missional living centers around one purposefully seeking to be a missionary who lives an
indigenous lifestyle of worship in all contexts.1 Ultimately, the nature and stability of
one’s mission hinges on gospel-centrality that purposes people to know the Triune God
as He is. As demonstrated by Paul (1 Cor. 6:15–20; 2 Cor. 8:1–11; Eph. 4:29–32; Eph.
5:23–33; etc.), the gospel exists as the beginning and end of every facet of one’s walk
with Christ and not only dictates the why behind missional living but also how he or she
lives on mission.

1
Alan Hirsch, “Defining Missional: The Word is Everywhere, but Where did it Come From and
What Does it Really Mean?,” Fall, 2008, http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/fall/17.20.html
(accessed June 24, 2015). He writes, “A missional theology…applies to the whole life of every
believer…As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by
going out rather than just reaching out.”

2

Project Objectives
Ministry Objectives
This project director strives to accomplish five ministry objectives: First, the
discovery of what Scripture says regarding the imago Dei being Trinitarian in nature;
Second, to assess the epistemological dichotomies of Millennials, due to epistemological
disconnects resonant from postmodernism; Third, to discover whether or not any
relationship exists between these disconnects and their engagement in evangelism;
Fourth, to research and ascertain what other epistemological authors say in regards to
Millennials and the postmodern condition; And, fifth, out of the preceding four, develop a
contextual, effective discipleship strategy that equips and empowers Millennials to grow
spiritually and live on mission with God.
The first objective will be initially assessed through proper hermeneutics on
passages that speak in regards to the imago Dei and the Trinity, and secondly assessed by
partnering them with thorough extra-biblical research regarding what others have said
through church history. This will include an examination of the various passages that
speak to personhood, and what it means for humankind to be “made in the image of God”
(Gen. 1:26). A proper valuation of the first two objectives should reveal any correlations
between that might exist between the Trinity and the imago Dei.
Measuring the epistemological dichotomies of Millennials, as an effect of
postmodernism, necessitates an evaluation of the Millennial generation as a whole, in
conjunction with the journey of epistemology from the Enlightenment to the early
twenty-first century. The project director will seek to see if any associations exist
between the epistemology of postmodernism with the characteristics that define

3

Millennials, and if these associations influence any disconnects and dichotomies of their
worldviews and daily living. Further, any parallels found between epistemology, the
Trinity, and the imago Dei, might serve as credibility to the projects overall argument as
to how Millenials grow spiritually, and how Millennial Christians engage in evangelism.
The final ministry objective will utilize an equipping methodology, and look to
develop a contextual, effective discipleship strategy out of the research of the first two
objectives above. The project director will conduct a pre-test amongst Millennials and
develop a Trinitarian-based, gospel-centralized discipleship strategy, conduct the
discipleship strategy, and conclude with a post-test. The Bible study will strive to
measure whether or not Millennial Christians can engage in evangelism as a natural
byproduct of their life in Christ. The pre- and post-test surveys will be administered at the
beginning and end of the Bible study, to measure if participants simultaneously grow
internally in their relationship with God while reproducing externally through a natural
lifestyle of worship. The surveys will also serve as an indicator and confirmation as to
whether or not the research conducted on Millennials, postmodernism, and epistemology
accurately demonstrates the Millennial participants of the study, and the generation as a
whole.
Professional Objectives
Professional goals include: to be better equipped to minister to Millennials and, to
increase the project director’s skills in instructional theory and practice. The director will
strive to be better equipped through research on the millennial generation and the subjects
noted above in the Ministry Objectives. Further, the director intends that the formation of
the Bible study reflects and demonstrates a greater understanding of the millennial

4

generation, and how to better relate, understand, minister to, and contextualize all aspects
of ministering and reaching Millennials. Correlations between the pre-test and the
assertions posited about Millennials in chapter one, two, and three will look to confirm
the director’s understanding of Millennials. And, analysis of the post-test will be assessed
as to the effectiveness of the director’s instructional theory and practice.
Ministry Context
Lexington, Kentucky
Broadway Baptist Church is in Lexington, Kentucky. Usa.com reports that in
2012, Lexington had a population of 305,489, an increase of 17.3 percent from the United
Stated Census 2000.2 According to the Census 2000, the millennial population
represented 74,677 people, or 28.66 percent.3 Of this 74,677, 50,580 people were under
the age of eighteen.4 Added to these, findthebest.com reports that the present population
of the University of Kentucky rose to over 29,000 millennials in 2013.5 These combined
figures, suburbanstats.org and areavibes.com confirm, reveal a staggering population of
an estimated 109,664 individuals between the ages of 13–33 in 2013.6
The Broadway facility is only 3.73 miles from the University of Kentucky
campus.7 Along with the University of Kentucky, an additional six colleges and
universities exist within a 40-mile proximity of the church: Sullivan University,
Bluegrass Community Technical College, Transylvania University, Asbury College and

2
http://www.city–data.com/city/Lexington–Fayette–Kentucky.html (accessed July 30, 2014).
3
http://lexingtonky.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm (accessed July 30, 2014).
4
http://lexingtonky.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm (accessed July 30, 2014).
5
http://colleges.findthebest.com/l/1619/University–of–Kentucky–UK (accessed July 30, 2014).
6
http://suburbanstats.org/population/kentucky/how–many–people–live–in–lexington &
http://www.areavibes.com/lexington–fayette–ky/demographics/ (accessed July 30, 2014).
7
http://www.mapquest.com/#fb19742886542263095725b3 (accessed July 30, 2014)

5

Seminary, Eastern Kentucky University, and Georgetown College. Fayette County,
where Lexington resides, has eight public high schools, eight private high schools, twelve
public middle schools, and eleven private middle schools.8 East and West Jessamine
High, two high schools in neighboring Jessamine County, also have students that attend
Broadway.
Broadway Baptist Church
The college and youth ministries of Broadway Baptist Church in Lexington,
Kentucky served as the context for this project, where the administrator served as the
Associate Pastor of Student Life from June 2012 to December 2013. Broadway Baptist
Church has been ministering to the Lexington community for 59 years. Broadway’s
Annual Church Profile report submitted to the Southern Baptist Convention in 2014
reported Broadway averaged 391 attendees in weekly worship attendance, with 1,000
members on roll.9 Called in 2008, Dr. John Birchett served as the Senior Pastor at the
time of this project. With 2008 serving as a shifting point in the church, pertaining
statistics will include only those from 2008–present. All statistics referenced come from
Annual Church Profile figures reported by Broadway to the Kentucky Baptist Convention
and retrieved by Rick Pryor of the KBC in a 20-year Statistical History Report.
At first glance, Broadway displayed itself to be a strong healthy church,
impacting its community for the gospel due to its outwardly apparent growth, and
illustrated by its overflowing parking lot and packed Sunday morning service. However,
a closer examination brought a troubling enlightenment. For 2013, Broadway reported

8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_Lexington,_Kentucky (accessed July 30, 2014)
9 Broadway
Baptist Church, Lexington KY: 20 Year Statistical History Report of.
Dated Tuesday, August 05, 2014.

6

391 people for average weekly worship attendance, with 105 new additions. From 2008
to 2013, Broadway reported a strong total of 359 new members, with a remarkable annual
average growth rate of 29.6 percent. In 2008, Broadway reported a weekly average
attendance of 339 people. The 359 new members from 2008–2013 show an overall
growth rate of 106 percent over six years. However, in 2013, Broadway reported an
average attendance of only 391 individuals, only a 15 percent increase from 2008.
Growth from 2008–2013 was 106 percent, but weekly attendance in 2013 was only 15
percent higher than 2008. The 391 average-weekly worship attendance reported in 2013
stood as the highest number reported throughout the six years: 339 people in 2008, 353
people in 2009, 310 people in 2010, 325 people in 2011, 343 people in 2012, and 391
people in 2013. In fact, while Broadway’s membership grew at an average of 29.6
percent a year from 2008–2013, weekly average attendance only grew at an annual rate
of 3 percent. From 2008–2013,
More telling, of the 359 new members joined between 2008–2013, only 70
members joined by baptism. In Simple Church, Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger report that
one can consider a church as healthily growing when it has a baptism rate of 5 percent a
year for three years.10 Though Broadway added 359 new members from 2008–2013,
2009 was the only year when baptisms achieved this rate: 2.66 percent in 2008, 5.38
percent in 2009, 1.93 percent in 2010, 4.92 percent in 2011, 2.6 percent in 2012, and, 3
percent in 2013. At the same time, the transfer rate stood at an average of 13.78 percent
throughout the same time period.
The issue is not just the significant difference between the transfer growth and the
baptismal growth, but their trends of the previous three years: while the baptism growth

7

rate decreased by a difference of -1.92 percent (4.92 percent down to 2.6 percent and
back up to 3 percent), the transfer rate actually increased by a difference of +9.65 percent
(14.14 percent up to 14.86 percent before jumping to 23.79 percent). Thus, the actual
transfer numbers were not only greater than baptismal numbers every year, but also their
growth rate increased, while baptisms decreased. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “We
do not regard it to be soul winning to steal members out of churches already established,
and train them to utter our peculiar Shibboleth: we aim rather at bringing souls to Christ
than at making converts to our synagogue.”11
Another figure examined were new additions with the number of total members to
show the number of individuals who left in any particular year. In 2008, Broadway added
a combined total of 35 new members and had a total of 913 members on file. In 2009, 53
new members were added to the directory. However, the total membership was only at
935, a difference of only 22 more than the year before, indicating that 31 people either
passed away or left the church in 2009. In 2010, the directory had 44 new members
added, but the overall membership only increased by 24, which finished at 959. In 2011,
new additions closely matched the overall increase in total members: 62 additions came
through baptism and transfers, and the total membership increased by 55 to 1,015. And,
2012 proved a strong year with 60 new additions with only 23 losses. However, in 2013
the church struggled—105 new additions were reported, while total membership only
increased by 8 (from 992-1,000), indicating that 97 individuals either passed away or left
the church. Though the Annual Church Profile figures do not give true clarity as to how

10
Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006),
245.
11
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Soul Winner (Charleston, SC: CreateSpace, 2011), 1.

8

many people passed away versus how many left the church, the numbers reflect that
while 359 new additions were added to the membership of Broadway from 2008–2013,
the total membership only increased by 87 people from 913–1,000), resulting in a loss of
272 people.
Coinciding with all of these numbers, the telling figures towards missions and
evangelism shed further light. Overall, from 2008–2013 Broadway continued to give very
well to the Cooperative Program: with an annual receipt increase of $77,458 ($783,909 in
2008 to $861,367 in 2013), Broadway increased its contribution by $8,114. Routinely, for
all six years under Dr. John Birchett, Broadway gave 11percent of its receipts to the
Cooperative Program. But, how did Broadway’s Cooperative Program compare to the
annual missions offerings specifically for North American and International Missions: the
Annie Armstrong (AA) and Lottie Moon (LM) offerings?
In 2008, Broadway gave $5,951 to AA and $13,281 to LM in a year of $783,909
in receipts. These two figures represent .76 percent (AA) and 1.69 percent (LM) of the
overall receipts for 2008. In 2013 Broadway’s contributions rose to 5.3 percent to AA,
and 2.81 percent to LM of its overall receipts. However, comparison between these
increases with the overall increase of total receipts becomes moot, as total receipts rose
nearly 10 percent to $861,367. Throughout the six years, Broadway’s giving to both the
Annie Armstrong and Lottie Moon offerings was erratic, sometimes rising and sometimes
falling.
A church’s commitment to missions and evangelism is not directly measured by
its giving. However, when assessed cumulatively with other tendencies of the church
over a period of time, a cohesive picture demonstrates the defining characteristics of the

9

church’s identity and purpose. The trends of Broadway’s erratic giving amidst a rising
budget, partnered with declines in baptismal rates, indicate a focus more on the church
than seeing the lost and broken come to know God. While not proven, in the end,
Broadway’s Annual Church Profile figures indicate a church that prioritized itself above
the missio Dei, missions, and evangelism.12
Millennials as a Generation
With half of the world’s population under the age of twenty-five, Millennials
represent the largest population group in the world.13 Within this global population, the
American Millennials have emerged in a nation that has shifted from predominantly
Christian into an ever-increasingly secularized post-Christian nation.14 Controversy
surrounds when to actually date the years of the Millennial generation.15 One argument
proposes considering major events for marking the beginning and/or end of a generation.
Those that adhere to this position offer a strong case for marking the end of the
Millennial generation with the attacks of September 11 as the world that Millennials

12
Broadway Baptist Church, Lexington KY: 20 Year Statistical History Report, Tuesday, August
05, 2014, retrieved from Rick Pryor of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
13
Tim Elmore, Generation iY: Our Last Chance to Save Their Future (Atlanta: Poet Gardener
Publishing, 2010), 19. See also, Thom S. Rainer and Jess Rainer, The Millennials: Connecting to
America’s Largest Generation, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2011), 47.
14
Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism Is…: How to Share Jesus with Passion and
Confidence (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2010), 182.
15
The Harvard Center dates them from as early as 1976 and ending around 2004 (“Here Is When
Each Generation Begins and Ends, According to Facts. http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/03/here–is–
when–each–generation–begins–and–ends–according–to–facts/359589/ [accessed July 31, 2014]). Neil
Howe and William Strauss, authors of Millennials Rising date them from 1982–2004. Both of these dates
extend beyond the common generational span of twenty years, the commonly held as the lifespan of a
generation. However, major events occasionally shorten this timespan. For instance, the Greatest
Generation begins in 1930 and only spans sixteen years to 1946, when the Baby Boomer generation begins.
1946 is the commonly held date for this generational shift as the first children born upon the conclusion of
World War II.

10

knew has never been the same since.16 Yet, despite being dated by the tragic events of
September 11, they are a very promising generation, and are in route to become
America’s most-educated,17 and most diverse generation in America’s history.18 Growing
up in environments of greater diversity, Millennials are more often open and accepting of
each other, regardless of gender, color, religion, or sexual orientation.19 More
importantly, according to Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials have started to
noticeably display an assortment of positive habits and values, “including a new focus on
teamwork, achievement, modesty, and good conduct.”20
When education, diversity, and values are harnessed in the kingdom of God and
leverage for the gospel, then they can serve as a strong catalyst for missional
involvement, as being on mission with God is often the overflow of a life in Christ for
Millennials.21 This desire to see the brokenness of the world restored has not only been
demonstrated by Millennial Christian’s involvement in the missio Dei but also in the
trend amongst Millennials to be involved in social causes, actively looking for how they
can make a difference.22 Christian Millennials recognize that the finished work of Christ
not only saves people from something but also to something. No longer content with

16
Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 47.
17
Thom S. Rainer and Jess Rainer, The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest
Generation, (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2011), 3.
18
Elmore, 19. See also, Thom S. Rainer and Jess Rainer, The Millennials: Connecting to
America’s Largest Generation (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2011), 1.
19
Ron Alsop, The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking Up the
Workplace (San Francisco: Jossey–Bass Publishing, 2008), 15–16.
20
Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation (New York:
Vintage, 2000), 4.
21
Alvin Reid, As You Go: Creating a Missionary Culture of Gospel–Centered Students (Colorado
Springs: NavPress, 2013), 70
22
Rainer and Rainer, 7. This is not to say that Millennials do not desire money and materialism;
however, as a generation, Alvin Reid expounds, “many say that they quickly find that money alone isn’t
rewarding enough (Reid, 228).”

11

merely telling people about the truth of Christ, rather they participate in His restoration of
the whole world.
As Howe and Strauss aver, “For decades, Americans have been wishing for a
youth generation that would quit taking and start doing.”23 Millennials do not merely
work jobs, they serve in vocations; and, Millennial Christians see their place in the
workplace as part of God’s greater mission.24 Alvin Reid rightly asserts, “Students in
their middle and high school years are not merely adolescents, or children finishing their
childhood years; they are young men and women moving toward impact in the adult
world.”25
The most eclectic and diverse generation in the history of the nation, these two
characteristics combine with different levels of maturation and philosophies to create an
environment where the values that have been traditionally associated with American
culture are now more mosaic in developing a Millennial’s maturity and philosophy,
namely their worldview.26 Robert Webber recounts how thirty years ago he ate lunch at
school with a Methodist, a Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Baptist, and a kid whose dad works

23
Howe and Strauss, 5. To see how Millennials are taking their desire to make a difference and
have started doing, one merely has to consider those already changing the daily lives of Americans. Mark
Zuckerberg creater of Facebook, and Kevin Systorm and Mike Krieger created Instagram. Fourteen year–
old Hart Main started up his own line of manly scented candles. And, Jack Kim created Benelab, a search
engine that generates donations in the hope of making philanthropy easy and more accessible to those
desiring to start a philanthropic organization. He has built his entire company with just his classmates (they
are moving towards generating $100,000 in profit before he graduates from high school). Distinct from the
list above, Christian Millennials are leveraging their own lives for the gospel. Katie Davis established
Amazima Ministries International in 2008, at the age of 20. After moving to teach Kindergarten in Uganda
for a year, she adopted 13 kids and started both an orphanage and school that now sponsors over 700
children. Morgan, Brianna, and two of their friends, established Save Our Sisters as high school freshman
in 2010. They help rescue women from human trafficking, and have since rescued a number of women
from slavery in three different countries, and are currently building a Freedom House in Moldova to house
women hiding from their captors and seeking freedom. And, Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in
Charlotte, NC, which has a weekly average attendance of 20,000 people.
24
Lyons, 112.
25
Reid, 33.
26
Elmore, 19.

12

on Sunday, but how today his youngest son eats with a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Mormon, a
Catholic, a Jew, a Christian friend, and some kids who do not consider themselves
anything.27
Marked by the events of September 11, and shaped by the multi-ethnic and multi-
cultural environment they grow up in, the traditional sources of morals and values do not
carry the weight and voice with Millennials as they did with previous generations leading
to the intentional rejection of established ideologies.28 Alsop shows that the combination
of tolerance and diversity with the rejection of old institutions and values leads them to
be heavily experiential in nature, learning as much as they can and have as many different
experiences as possible.29 Picking and choosing from whatever experiences they can
authenticate, Millennials desire to formulate a set of values forged by the unification of
the various cultures and ethnicities of their environment, simultaneously receptive to
them and accepted by them.30
While high information attracted the traditional evangelicals of the Baby Boomer
generation along with the pragmatic evangelicals of Generation X, and led to the rise and
emphasis on creationism and apologetics, the younger evangelicals constantly search for
authenticity.31 Dan Kinnaman elaborates, “Busters and Mosaics are searching for
authenticity. They want to find people to trust and confide in, but they often find more
transparent, authentic people outside the church.”32 Drowning in a sea of diversity and
tolerance, Millennials are striving to just stay afloat, drifting from experience to

27
Webber, 340.
28
Lyons, 20. He writes, “Today, people no longer buy into moral ideas just because the cultural
institutions say so. As a result, they are unloading conventional ideas and values by the truckload. Anything
that can be verified firsthand is in. Everything else is out.”
29
Alsop, 25.
30
Howe and Strauss, 298–299.
31
Webber, 44 and 53.

13

experience, searching for something authentic to give their life purpose and meaning. As
a consequence of the church’s inauthenticity, Millennials are not, by and large, religious.
Millennials Are Spiritual, Not Religious
Thom and Jess Rainer’s study on Millennials confirmed that, “Millennials are no
longer choosing to identify themselves with religion. (They) remain content with calling
themselves spiritual.”33 The truth—even Millennials in the evangelical world, governed
by an innate tendency towards tolerance, do not have tight boundaries.34 Tolerance and
diversity are creating epistemological disconnects in the lives of Millennials, as they
constantly strive to unify and authenticate the conflicting philosophies of the worldview
mosaic presented them. As a result, Millennials are generalizing their beliefs more and
more.35 Religion stays in the background of their lives, where God watches over them
without making demands of them.36
Jimenez states that the epistemology of individualism, without any authentic
foundation from which to build upon, leads Millennials to relativism, for when objective
moral norms become subjective to the individual then people are left with no superior

32
Dan Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Unchristian: What A New Generation Thinks about
Christianity…and Why It Matters (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 60.
33
Rainer and Rainer,47.
34
Webber, 19. Over 25 percent of twenty somethings declined to affiliate themselves explicitly
with any religious group (Douthat, Ross, Bad Religion: How We Became A Nation of Heretics. [New York:
Free Press, 2012], 142), while 18 percent of self– described Christians said that their religion was important
to them (Rainer and Rainer, 111). Secularist Jean Twenge’s own research confirms, “Compared to
Boomers in 1973, GenMe is twice as likely to agree with the statement ‘There is no single right way to live
(Jean M. Twenge, Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive,
Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before [New York: Free Press, 2006], 19).’”
35
Rainer and Rainer, 47. Kenda Creasy Dean confirms, “American young people are devotees of
nonjudgmental openness, self–determination, and the authority of personal experience (Kenda Creasy
Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church [New York:
Oxford University Press, 2010], 28).”
36
Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the
American Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 28 and 229. See also George Barna,
Futurecast: What Today’s Trends Mean for Tomorrow’s World (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 66.

14

guidance to live by.37 Without any objective foundation from which to live by, the
relativism of Millennials produces an emphasis on the self and individualism that is
tolerant to the individuality of others, but is seeking to a unity amidst the diversity of the
world. Striving to find a unified theory amidst the elevation of individualism has
produced an epistemological disconnect within the lives of Millennials.
Millennials Have Epistemological Disconnects Which Have Produced

Compartmentalized Lives
Epistemological disconnects have left a dichotomy in the lives of Millennials, as
deconstruction has left them with the loss of the metanarrative framework whereby which
they can understand their individual purpose and role in the world.38 The paradoxical life
of Millennials, where they are striving for unity within diversity and authenticity within
relativity, can only naturally result in philosophical pluralism, which infers the
impossibility of objective truth.39 This loss of absolute truth hinders Millennials of their
ability to recognize the metanarrative of Scripture, and in turn, the discovery of how their
story fits within God’s story. Believing that “many people today have abandoned the
hope of discovering such a ‘real story,’” as the biblical story, Michael Goheen and Craig
Bartholomew corroborate these assertions, adding the idea that, “pluralism in our culture

37
Jason Jimenez, The Raging War of Ideas: How To Take Back Our Faith, Family, and Country
(Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2012), 28.
38
Josef Solc in Mobilizing A Great Commission Church for Harvest: Voices and Views from the
Southern Baptist Professors of Evangelism Fellowship, Thomas P. Johnston, ed. (Eugene, OR: Wipf and
Stock, 2011), 176. As the product of this environment of fluctuation and instability Ron Alsop refers to
Millennials as “A Jekyll–and–Hyde Generation of Paradox” who feel that they are often being misread as
narcissistic and entitled (Ron Alsop. The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is Shaking
Up the Workplace [San Francisco: Jossey–Bass Publishing, 2008], 27).”
39
Donald Arthur Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1996), 57.

15

often implies that we should not even look for any such overarching story.”40 In
commenting on the ever-remaining popularity of the messianic archetype, Chris Knowles
testifies that the metanarrative of all the universe has been reduced to the point where it
cannot seem to even be reasonable outside of the Christian faith.41
Christians do not have to look far to find pluralistic Millennials—studies reveal
that nearly one out of every seven students in the youth groups around the country have
serious reservations about the trustworthiness of Scripture.42 Even Millennials who claim
to believe that the Story of God is true struggle believing that it is the truth.43 Nappa
concludes with Christian A. Smith that this is due to their tendency towards tolerance.44
The Millennial generation’s pluralism and loss of the metanarrative of Scripture,
partnered with their inauthentic experiences with the church, lends them believe in the
truth of Scripture while simultaneously open to all types of faith.45 Pew research notes

40
Michael W. Goheen and Craig Bartholomew, The True Story of the Whole World: Finding Your
Place in the Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009),12.
41
Chris Knowles, Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes (San
Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser Books, 2007), 120. He writes how it is “often difficult for readers to relate to
a character who uses his powers for purely altruistic purposes, not for personal gain. Indeed, salvation
through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross makes sense only to those completely committed to the Christian
faith (Knowles, 120).” See also, Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of
the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 84.
42
Nappa, Mike, The Jesus Survey: What Christian Teens Really Believe and Why (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2012), 6.
43
Nappa expounds that although 65 percent of Christian teens viewed the Bible as trustworthy, 22
percent switched their position when asked from the negative perspective (Mike Nappa, The Jesus Survey:
What Christian Teens Really Believe and Why (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 7.
44
Ibid., 8. He writes, “This fits perfectly with Christian Smith’s research in Soul Searching and
Souls in Transition,” he said, “A significant number of teenagers, for fear of seeming intolerant, are
perfectly willing to embrace contradictory beliefs about God.”
45
Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus but Not the Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 15.
Kimball, “Some people aren’t even comfortable saying they are a Christian but come up with new terms
such as “Christ follower” to avoid negative and distorted associations.” Marcus Mumford, founder and lead
singer of the Grammy Award Winning band Mumford and Sons, and son of Vineyard Church founders
John and Elenaor Mumford testifies to Rolling Stone Magazine, “I wouldn’t call myself a Christian…I have
my personal views about the person of Jesus and who he was. Like, you ask a Muslim and they’ll say,
‘Jesus is awesome’ – they’re not Christians, but they still love Jesus. I’ve kind of separated myself from
the culture of Christianity (Brian Hiatt, “Mumford and Sons’ Rattle and Strum”, March 28, 2013, under
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/marcus–mumford–i–wouldnt–call–myself–a–christian–20130313
[accessed April 16, 2013].

16

that “nones” (those that list “none” as their religious affiliation) are the fastest rising
group affiliation amongst 18–29 year olds.46
While narrative preaching is appropriate to help postmodernist connect back to
the Story of God, the heritage of biblical Christianity will lose to subjectivity if it is not
anchored in objective, propositional, confessional truth.47 Discouragingly, The Jesus
Survey exposes that while 56 percent of Christian Millennials polled affirmed Jesus as the
only way to heaven, 52 percent likewise could not strongly disagree that all religious
leaders are the same.48 When asked a different way, 39 percent of those same students
believed that Jesus is the only way to heaven.49 Taken together, these figures indicate that
students, according to Nappa, are “unprepared to think in terms of absolute truth in
regard to spiritual matters in general and issues of salvation specifically.”50 In contrast,
Lillian Daniel responds to her interview with Marcus Mumford, “They describe. . .a
personal privatized journey free of the sins of the historical Church but with a direct
hook-up to the guy who got it all started.”51 The epistemological dichotomy between
tolerance and truth partnered with the unbending desire for unity and authenticity lends
Millennials to compartmentalize the different aspect of their lives, especially their
theology. By doing so, they are able to acquiesce their inner conflicts by creating the
illusion that those conflicts do not exist.
The prevailing tendency to not view the Bible as a singular, comprehensive story
but hold it captive within the individual’s own story, ultimately prevails in shaping the

46
“Nones” on the Rise, October 8, 2012, under http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones–on–
the–rise.aspx (accessed April 16, 2013).
47
Carson, 506.
48
Nappa, 75–76.
49
Ibid., 76.
50
Ibid.

17

life of the Millennial. This prevailing individualistic story, which has enthroned the self,
becomes the worldview of the Millennial, and allows for the compartmentalization of the
Story of God.52 Within the context of a Christian worldview, everything in life is sacred,
and nothing is secular.53 Compartmentalization within Millennial Christians affects their
relationships with God by propagating a “Christ-and-me” perspective in their relationship
with God, instead of a “Christ-in-me” understanding of their identity.
The Effects of the “Christ-and-Me” Approach to a Relationship with God
Amidst the statistics and characteristics of Millennials already discussed, seven
out of ten Millennials polled do actually claim to have a religious identity, and most
claim to identify as Christians.54 However, the shocking reality is that although over half
of Millennials claim Christian identity, only 13 percent consider any type of spirituality
as having any importance to their lives.55 This spiritual identity is important because

51
Lillian Daniel, “It’s Okay To Call Yourself a Christian: Why Marcus Mumford’s take on the
‘Christian’ label doesn’t hold up,” March 14, 2013, http://www.relevantmagazine.current/op–ed/its–ok–
call–yourself–christian (accessed on April 16, 2013).
52
Goheen and Bartholomew tie the foundations of this process to the previous generation’s strict
adherence to the Enlightenment illustrating how Christian scholars chopped the metanarrative of scripture
into little bits that fit within the Enlightenment story, and held it captive in the humanist story (Michael W.
Goheen and Craig Bartholomew, The True Story of the Whole World: Finding Your Place in the Biblical
Drama [Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009], 14). Peter Calleron indicates that this has
profound implications for group identity at the corporate level of society (Peter L. Callero, The Myth of
Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives [Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers,
2009], 83–84).
53
Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are: Finding Your True Identity in Christ (Nashville,
Thomas Nelson, 2013), 6.
54
Rainer and Rainer, 170. “A recent Gallup poll showed that 55 percent of teens go to church
regularly, versus 45 percent of Americans as a whole (Neil Howe and William Strauss, Millennials Rising:
The Next Great Generation [New York: Vintage, 2000], 234).”
55
Ibid., 22. Kenda Dean’s research corroborates with what other Millennial researchers are
discovering, “Three out of four American teenagers claim to be Christians, and most are affiliated with a
religious organization—but only about half consider it very important, and fewer than half actually practice
their faith as a regular part of their lives (Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our
Teenagers is Telling the American Church [New York: Oxford University Press, 2010], 10).”

18

one’s identity lies at the heart of who they are—it determines what they worship, how
they live, and what they glorify.56 We become what we worship.57
Though claiming Christianity, the individualism of the Christian Millennial’s
generation has resulted in narcissism and me-centrality.58 These attributes are completely
anti-Christian to the gospel of Christ.59 Kenda Dean faults these effects heavily on the
American church, claiming that churches have focused on keeping young people active
for Jesus, rather than being present with Jesus, leaving people attached to themselves,
instead of seeing the world through Christ’s point of view.60 However, as reformer
Martin Luther declares, “We seek God everywhere; but unless we seek Him in Christ, we
find Him nowhere.”61 Christ-in-us is the only proper relationship with God for all people,
but the truth is especially important for Millennials, as a Christ-and-me approach is equal
to a Christ-or-me approach to God. A work for Christ-and-me gospel is a diminished
gospel, yet the exact position churches have often fostered.62
This easy-believism has caught up with America’s youth. In Thom and Jesse
Rainer’s study, only 6 percent of Millennials could affirm fundamental doctrines of the

56
Mark Driscoll admonishes, “Whatever we base our identity and value on becomes ‘deified.’
Our deified object of worship then determines what we glorify and live for. If our object of worship is
anything other than God, we’re idolaters worshipping created things, including the fallen angels whom God
created (Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are: Finding Your True Identity in Christ [Nashville,
Thomas Nelson, 2013], 6).”
57
Gregory K. Beale, We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry (Downers
Grove: IVP Academic, 2008).
58
Tim Elmore, 26 and Ron Alsop, 105
59
Paul Tanner writes “If one is not going to be totally committed to him, then that person is
basically making a choice to be committed to self. That is, he will protect his life form whatever might
threaten him and make no risks for the sake of Jesus (Paul Tanner, 2013, “The Cost of Discipleship: Losing
One’s Life for Jesus’s Sake,” JETS: Journal of the Evangelical Society 56, no. 1 (March): 49).”
60
Dean, 169–170.
61
Martin Luther, Table Talk (Gainesville, FL: Bridge Logos, 2004),106.
62
Will Metzger testifies, “We should be concerned because the gospel message is being blunted in
our day, and one effect is scorched earth in many youthful hearts. I meet those who say, ‘I know I’m a
Christian; here’s the card I signed five years ago. Besides, the counselor told me never to doubt my
salvation.’ We sadly notice the dust–laden Bible on the shelf (Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole
Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People, 3rd Edition [Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002], 149).” See also,

19

Christian faith,63 while Nappa’s study revealed that only 9 percent of Christian teenagers
confidently believed in the same.64 Nappa discovered that, “over 90% self-proclaimed
Christian teenagers associated with a local church simply don’t have full faith in on or
more of the ideas that (a) the Bible is trustworthy, (b) Jesus is God, (c) Jesus died and
came back to life, and (d) Jesus is the only way to heaven.”65 He concludes that, “in spite
of their initial endorsement, the overwhelming majority of our kids (79%) express
persistent, measureable doubts—and ever outright disbelief in many cases—that what the
Bible has to say about Jesus is true.”66 However, in their epistemological dichotomies,
Millennials are quick to endorse Jesus Christ, but their tolerance sways them from being
fixed upon Him as God and the only way by which one finds salvation. Tolerance such as
this strikes at the heart of the gospel, Nappa maintains, for “if Jesus is not required every
time for salvation, then Jesus is not required anytime.”67 Jared Wilson confirms, “If we do
not become fixated on the vision of Jesus and his finished work, we will be free to fixate
on things that don’t save. Even if this were to happen in a church and concentrate on
churchy things, it would still be idolatry.”68 Christians must fixate and worship God
alone, for worship for any other purpose than God’s glory is not true worship, it is
idolatry.69 Since one becomes what he or she worships, idolatry results in the Christian

J. D. Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You are Saved (Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 2013), 11.
63
Rainer and Rainer, 232.
64
Nappa, 86.
65
Ibid.
66
Ibid., 11.
67
Ibid., 74–75.
68
Jared Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 203.
69
Franklin M. Segler and Randall Bradley, Christian Worship: It’s Theology and Practice
(Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 9.

20

Millennial’s loss of identity.70 Caught in their epistemological dichotomies, Millennials
bounce from one identity to another, one addiction or compulsion to another, one
religious fixation or another, all the while failing to recognize the true source of
identity—Jesus.71
Millennial Christians Fail to Recognize How the Imago Dei is Connected to the
Missio Dei
Caught in their own identity crisis, Millennial Christians fail to recognize that
being made in the image of God directly corresponds with the mission of God, and thus,
they view evangelism as both duty and obligation, rather than the natural overflow of
being filled with the Spirit through abiding in Christ, from an indigenous lifestyle of
worship. Studies in youth ministry in both America and Great Britain reveal that the
gospel influences and changes the lifestyle of believing youth.72 However, this
transformed life is not what is commonly found in churches and their student ministries
across America, where large numbers programs are prioritized in place of spiritual
maturity.73 Focused on programs over spiritual maturity, Christian leaders have relied on
programmatic, event-based methods such as crusades and revival to supplement the all
too often absence of lifestyle evangelism. Highly effective in the past, this strategy is

70
Brad Bigney, Gospel Treason: Betraying the Gospel with Hidden Idols (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R
Publishing, 2012), 82. Bigney notes, “When you’re snared in the trap of idolatry, you take on an entirely
different identity. You start redefining yourself in light of that particular idol. . . You are stuck with panic
if it’s taken away, or if someone gets in the way of that thing, because it’s not just a thing or a person you
enjoy; it’s who you are. There’s a loss of self. You’re afraid that you’re going to lose yourself.”
Christopher Wright confirms, “If you worship that which is not God, you reduce the image of God in
yourself. If you worship that which is not even human, you reduce your humanity still (Christopher J. H.
Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative [Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic,
2006], 173).”
71
Driscoll, 14.
72
Mark H. Senter III, When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America
(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), 53.
73
Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008), 26–27.

21

waning in effectiveness in an increasingly post-Christian culture.74 The effective form of
evangelism with Millennials is relational, as it not only demonstrates God’s love with
words, but deeds as well. Engulfed in a need to belong, relationally connecting with
Millennials not only connects them to doctrine but also to the church visible.75 As Seth
Godin writes, “Human beings can’t help it: we need to belong. One of the most powerful
of our survival mechanisms is to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a
group of like-minded people.”76 This innate desire to belong comes from the imago Dei
within man, which desires a triune unification with God and others. As Josef Solc
explains, “They are living the postmodern craving for an authentic experience and the
church, as a whole, has barely entered the competition. That is the reason why Christians
are looked upon as the past and predominately insignificant.”77 Church leaders’ focus on
leveraging the power of God on their own piety and programs for the sake of bigger
numbers has rendered the church ineffective to meeting the heartfelt needs of Millennials.
Theology and evangelism go hand-in-hand together. Thus, one’s understanding of
who he or she is in Christ lies in direct correlation to living on mission with Him. When
theology and evangelism separate, theology loses direction, and evangelism loses
content.78 Failing theologically to be on mission with God by abiding in Christ through a
lifestyle of worship, the content of evangelism has done just that, forcing Christians to
rely too heavily on methods and programs. Ultimately, however, addressing the heart of

74
Earley and Wheeler, 183.
75
Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America
(New York: Doubleday, 2010), 8. See also, Mike Nappa, The Jesus Survey: What Christian Teens Really
Believe and Why (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012]), 14; and, Tim Elmore, Generation iY: Our Last Chance to
Save Their Future (Atlanta: Poet Gardener Publishing, 2010), 49–51.
76
Seth Godin, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (New York: Portfolio, 2008), 3.
77
Solc, Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Harvest, 176.
78
Robert E. Coleman, The Heart of the Gospel: The Theology Behind the Master Plan of
Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 9.

22

the problem is not one of methodology but of the principles that undergird the methods
themselves.79 In recent generations, the church has failed students in communicating
Christ-centered, gospel-oriented, mission-driven, biblical principles, offering theminstead
what Christian Smith has termed “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” and Kendra Creasy
Dean describes as, “a self-emolliating spirituality; its thrust is personal happiness and
helping people treat each other nicely.”80 With their epistemological dichotomy grounded
in individualism, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism offers Millennials a Christianity that
appeals to their pluralistic and tolerant tendencies.81
Though appealing, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism will never satisfy the insatiable
craving in the lives of Millennials, let alone offer proper motivation to share the message
of Christ. Though religion commands one to change their behavior, it cannot change the
heart, only the gospel can.82 The gospel of the transformed heart is the only thing that
does away with duty and obligation, and evangelism overflows from a lifestyle of
worship.83 When Millennials fixate on Christ and find their identity in Him, then they
will begin to be a witness for His gospel by the lifestyle that they live. But, this
indigenous lifestyle of worship can only occur with Jesus as the center of their lives,

79
Johnson, 197.
80
Dean, 29. See also, Alvin Reid, As You Go: Creating a Missionary Culture of Gospel–Centered
Students [Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2013], 38. Brad S. Gregory adds, “Because there is no such
framework within which such disagreements might rationally be debated and perhaps overcome, and yet
life goes on, moral disagreements are translated socially into political contestation within an emotivist
culture—one that is closely related to if not largely identical with the individualistic ‘therapeutic culture’
(Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society
[Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012], 182).”
81
Douthat, 234.
82
Greear, 17.
83
Johnston, 140.

23

rather than themselves, as J.D. Greear exclaims, “Once God has given you an appetite for
Him, you won’t need to be forced to seek Him.”84
Project Rationale
Evangelism as Obligation
Integral to an obedience of delight is an appetite for God. However, Christians
often fail in repenting of their self-righteousness, and thus internally struggle with
kneeling humbly at the foot cross, all the while, keeping lost people at arm’s length.85 As
this failure occurs corporately, the glorification of God is supplanted by the practicing of
the church’s own preferences.86 Like the Pharisees in Jesus’s day, the church’s worship
of its own rules and preferences is driving people away from Christ instead of attracting
them.87 The church then lives for its programs because they are their object of worship.88
Since true humanity is found in God, when programs are the point, then God is not, and
true respect for people is lost, resulting in the ineffectiveness of the church’s
evangelism.89 Without a robust understanding of the gospel, methodologies and
paradigms can deceive churches into believing that they are being missional, when in
reality, the methods have replaced missional thinking altogether.90 “This kind of

84
Greear, 98.
85
Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 78.
86
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become A
Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 51.
87
Early and Wheeler, 351.
88
Rainer and Geiger, 79. They recount how the bronze serpent used by Moses to heal the people
would later become a tool for worship and then the object of worship, getting in the way of their worship of
God (Num 21:6–8).
89
Kinnaman and Lyons, 71.
90
Stetzer and Putman, 184. Jonathan Dodson furthers, “Unless these methods are tethered to a
robust understanding of the gospel, they will actually sabotage discipleship (Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel
Centered Discipleship [Wheaton: Crossway, 2012], 40–41).”

24

pragmatism,” Robert Webber declares, “divides theology from praxis.”91 As a notion that
postmoderns and outsiders astutely pick-up on, Webber insists that the goal of Christian
education in the postmodern setting must be the return of a balance between theology and
praxis.92 Kevin Vanhoozer eloquently elaborates:
Theology is more than an exegetical technē, just as it is more than a

theoretical epistēmē. Each of these species of reason has its moment in a
biblically oriented theology, but the greatest of these is phronesis:
practical reason. Phronesis is reason oriented to action and is thus an
appropriate help to a sapiental theology that seeks to live out the
knowledge of God…That is what the canon, the church’s Scripture and the
Christian’s script, ultimately provides: the ability to make judgments about
the true, the good, and the beautiful that are fit “in Christ.” Theo-
dramatic wisdom concerns the ordering of one’s life in accordance with
the eschatological reality of the gospel.93
As Vanhoozer rightly asserts, “Biblical studies . . . has become a sophisticated form of
technē that requires its practitioners to master a variety of technical skills.”94 This
mastery of various technical skills stands in contrast to knowing and being known by the
one Triune God who is not only the maker of all truth but also truth itself. However,
when properly assessed, one easily recognizes how this pragmatic pietism, that
emphasizes outward holiness, is a superficial understanding of the gospel that allows for
outsiders/non-Christians to easily embrace a costless form of Christianity that focuses
only on their decision to convert.95 Dan Kinnaman and Gabe Lyon’s research reveals that

91
Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand
Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 169.
92
Ibid., 169. Webber notes, “The younger evangelical craves this unity between theology and
practice knowing that in theology one finds wisdom for the practice of ministry and that all good practice is
embodied in good theology.”
93
Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach
(Louisville: Westminster John Knoxx Press, 2005), 308.
94
Vanhoozer, 325.
95
Kinnaman and Lyons, 71–75. Steve Sjogren adds that modern evangelism models have focused
on a win–lose proposition (Dawson, 45). Jonathan Dodson emphasizes, “[Christianity] affirms that we were
created in God’s image (Gen 1:26–28), . . . This image constitutes our essential dignity as human beings. It
is an imprint of the Creator’s divine nature, which includes our ability to rule and relate. Apart from the
redeeming work of God to restore our image, we rule and relate in very distorted ways…As a result, we

25

in contrast to being relational, product-oriented evangelism methodologies actually had
adverse reactions amongst outsiders, “In our research with some of the leading ‘mass
evangelism’ efforts we found that often these measures create three to ten times as much
negative response as positive.”96 Early and Wheeler warn that evangelism must never be
reduced to something one does as a duty to God but the essence one is—the natural
overflow of a deep and abiding relationship with Christ as they walk through life.97
Evangelism from living an indigenous lifestyle of worship is ultimately rooted in
the heart.98 Warning against treasuring the things of earth above heavenly things, Jesus
taught about the relationship between one’s heart and their actions, declaring, “Where
your treasure is, your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21). Further, in admonishing His
disciples to love their enemies, and warning them against judging others, He proclaimed,
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person

treat God and others with contempt and disregard. The good news is that God wants to restore our image in
Christ (2 Cor 3:18; Col 3:10). He promises a restored image in Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God
(Col 1:15) (Jonathan K. Dodson. Gospel–Centered Discipleship. [Wheaton: Crossway, 2012], 55).
96
Kinnaman and Lyons, 71. Lewis Drummond declares that, “Mere argument rarely convinces or
wins anyone, especially if a person is close–minded and his doubts are not truly honest doubts (Scott
Dawson, Ed. The Complete Evangelism Guidebook: Expert Advice for Reaching Others for Christ, 2nd
Edition [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008], 93).”96 This stands in direct correlation with the statement mentioned
above by Kinnaman, that although they wish to have discussions about Christianity, outsiders often feel
that Christians look to download as much argumentative content that they can, so as to unleash upon them
at the aforementioned juncture.
97
Earley and Wheeler, vii.
98
Scott Dawson, ed. The Complete Evangelism Guidebook: Expert Advice on Reaching Others
For Christ, 2nd Ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 15.

26

out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth
speaks (Luke 6:45).” As Dwayne Roberts expounds:
We are defined by what God says about us, but too often we have bought
into the lies about Him and His nature. What if you really did believe that
He fully enjoys you as you are? Wouldn’t it make you want to be with
Him more? Wouldn’t it actually engender a certain amount of desire
toward Him? And wouldn’t all those commandments take on a different
tone? You might even find yourself wanting to do what He asks. Suddenly
your entire relationship would feel different; it may even look different to
someone on the outside. It would look like you want to do it, you enjoy
doing it, you desire to do it, instead of like you are merely supposed to do
it.99
Yearning for truth that is transformational and fulfilling, the Moralistic Therapeutic
Deism influenced divide between pragmatism and praxis is leaving Millennial Christians
with a cheap, diluted gospel and unchurched Millennials with a bad taste in their mouths
regarding Christianity as a whole. With the average Millennial choosing to not identify
with any religion, and 79 percent of Christian teenagers, who claim to follow Christ,
failing to affirm that what the Bible has to say about Jesus is true, the church must
acknowledge the likelihood that methodological forms of evangelism that give comfort to
one’s sense of obligation and duty to do evangelism are not doing all that can be done to
reach this generation.
Issues of Evangelism Affecting Millennials
When the church fulfills its calling to be the image of Christ to the world, it
expands exponentially.100 Being the image of Christ, however, has not been the strategy
of the local church in recent days. Its absence has fostered an overdependence on

99
Dwayne Roberts, One Thing: Boldly Pursuing What Matters (Orlando: Relevant Media Group,
Inc., 2005), 130.
100

27

methodologies that were once created as tools, but have since become paradigms.101
Dependence on the tool leaves one without the ability to properly contextualize its use, as
well as, discern where he or she might come up short or not be completely accurate.102
Many modern evangelism tools begin one’s journey with God focused on the self rather
than God. With this focus on self, overdependence on these tools serves as a foundational
contributor to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and thus an improper understanding of the
missio Dei and missions.103
Fifty-two percent of Baptist teenagers strongly agree that Christians are expected
to share their faith.104 However, only 12 percent of Baptist teenagers affirm the statement,
“I Study the Bible Daily.”105 These results indicate that the methodologies of past
generations might not be as effective with Millennials, as Alvin Reid asserts, “Personal
evangelism a generation ago involved a more simple explanation of propositions than
today.”106 In Mobilizing A Great Commission Church for Harvest, Adam Greenway calls
for a reexamination and revision for traditional evangelism strategies as they are designed
on the assumption that hearers have a certain amount of pre-knowledge or associate with

101
Johnston, 143.
102
Trevin Wax, Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2010), 39–40.
103
Britt Merrick with Allison Trowbridge, Godspeed: Making Christ’s Mission Your Own
(Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2012), 23. He continues, “Christianity gets fun when we
understand our salvation through the perspective of who God is and what He’s doing in the world! The
Bible comes alive when we read it missiologically, with a lens that looks for the mission of God
(Godspeed, 23).”
104
Nappa, 126.
105
Ibid., 218.
106
Reid, 186. Kenda Creasy Dean adds, “For Christians…consequential faith cannot be reduced to
the work of cultural tools. Christians view faith as God’s gift, and the church’s cultural tools help us own
and consolidate our identities as people who follow Jesus Christ, and who enact his love for the world. In
Christian tradition, mature faith bears fruit. But this kind of generative faith requires a missional
imagination, which is strikingly absent from Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (Kenda Creasy Dean, Almost
Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church [New York: Oxford University
Press, 2010], 22).

28

a Christian worldview.107 In his 1978 work Life-Style Evangelism: Crossing Traditional
Boundaries to Reach the Unbelieving World, Joseph Aldrich paints a picture of
evangelism in his day, declaring, “Most evangelism training involves helping people
learn how to ‘say the words’ of the gospel. Little attention is paid to developing a biblical
philosophy of ministry which moves the corporate life of the church away from ugliness
to beauty.”108 The Millennial generation would begin two years later in 1980, and fifteen
to twenty years later, most of the common evangelism strategies would not have
changed.109
Tracts and evangelism methodologies bent on rote memorization have been
extremely valuable tools the last fifty years. Immensely effective among Baby Boomers
with similar values, they appear more and more ill equipped for today’s generations,
however, due to the ever-growing diversity of society, as well as the “glocalization” of
the world through the Internet.110 It is not only the way in which the gospel needs to be
communicated that has changed, however, but also the philosophical worldview as a
whole.111 The commonalities of a Judeo-Christian worldview once shared by-and-large
by most Americans can no longer be assumed.112 While witness training for door-to-door
visitation is still effective as a piece of the local church’s larger evangelistic strategy, it

107
Adam W. Greenway. Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Harvest, 150. See also,
Jonathan K. Dodson, Unbelievable Gospel: Sharing A Gospel Worth Believing (Wheaton: GCD Books,
2012), 11.
108
Joseph C. Aldrich, Life–Style Evangelism: Crossing Traditional Boundaries to Reach the
Unbelieving World (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1978), 21.
109
Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, 74.
110
Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become A
Missionary in Your Community (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 62. Robert Webber stresses,
“Because younger evangelicals have been shaped by new forms of communication, they will hear and
communicate the Christian faith in the twenty–first century in a new way (Robert E. Webber, The Younger
Evangelicals [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002], 61).”
111
Edward Pearson. Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Harvest, 200.
112
Dodson, 12.

29

seems to be inadequate to meet all the challenges this new century has brought.113 The
lives demonstrated by Moralistic Therapeutic Deism do not bring the beauty and the
unity of Christ to the lives wrought by issues that have emerged in the last 30 years. As
such, canned method evangelism performed out of obligation and duty does little, if
anything, to express to unchurched, postmodern Millennials, in Alvin Reid’s words, the
“children-loving, disciple calling, leper-healing, Pharisee-rebuking, humbly born, and
ultimately reigning Lord Jesus,” and the transformational life He offers and gives. 114
Reaching Millennials
Concerning the evangelistic results of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism in Southern
Baptist churches, David Dockery estimates that churches are baptizing just over 14
percent of those between the ages of 14–25, and therefore missing the other 86 percent,
the equivalent of an entire generation.115 Mike Nappa’s results paint an even more
alarming picture. In his denominational breakdown, 31 percent of the Baptist teenagers of
his study strongly affirmed the Jesus is God,116 53 percent strongly affirmed that Jesus

113
Greenway. Mobilizing a Great Commission Church for Harvest, 147. Albert Mohler adds, “In
the 1980’s, the culture wars broke open with intensity, and we now face a panoply of issues, each of which
seems more insistent than the one before. Genetic engineering, biotechnology, germ line therapy, embryo
research, stem cell experimentation, in vitro fertilization, human cloning, euthanasia, assisted suicide—
each of these issues presents the church with a formidable challenge…The church in this age cannot avoid
giving an answer to these questions. The rising cultural confusion around us will eventually demand it
(David S. Dockery., ed. Southern Baptist Identity: An Evangelical Denomination Faces the Future
[Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012], 39). Alvin Reid has drawn attention to the ever–growing concept of the
neutral “Third Space,” such as a coffee shop, somewhere “we go to beyond our home, work, or school to
meet others (Alvin Reid. “Church Visitation and the Next Generation,” June, 12, 2015, under
http://alvinreid.com/?p=4227 [accessed on June 24, 2015]).”
114
Reid, 19.
115
Dockery, 38. Mark Senter approximates similar numbers, declaring, “Youth ministry in
America totally misses close to three quarters of the adolescent population in America (Mark H. Senter III,
When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic,
2010], 53).”
116
Nappa, 190.

30

rose from the dead,117 and, only 51 percent say that Jesus is the only way to heaven.118 If
half of the teenagers in Southern Baptist churches fail to affirm key doctrines of Christ,
the findings of Nappa and Dockery suggest that Southern Baptist churches could at most
only be effectively reaching roughly 7 percent of teenage Millennials for the sake of
living gospel-centered, kingdom-oriented, mission-driven lives.
Yet, concerning as these statistics are, these challenges are not new to the
Millennial generation or to any modern generation.119 Methodologies and
contextualization are means by which the gospel is transposed in order to be most
effective from one generation to the next.120 When analyses indicate that new
methodologies or even contextualization may not answer the questions to reaching
Millennials, the issue may be more heartfelt at the core of their being.121 Dockery asserts,

117
Ibid., 197.
118
Ibid., 204.
119
Senter, 43–44. He recounts, “As they frequently do, a group of ministers gathered some years
ago to compare notes on trends in their congregations. Sometimes such meetings degenerate into sanctified
‘can you top this one?’ conversations about congregational life. But on this occasion, the conversation
focused on youth. A quick consensus revealed their churches had a youth problem. Public worship
attendance at best appeared stagnant, except among young people, whose attendance was definitively
declining. Parents seemed apathetic. Many children came to physical, social, and mental maturity without a
spiritual or moral compass to guide their lives. Few had experienced God’s presence in their world. The
year was 1881.” He notes that as an outcome of this meeting in 1881, a concerted effort was placed on
evangelizing youth; however, “most church leaders felt dismay at the absence of sustained change in
lifestyle” (Mark H. Senter III, When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America
[Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010], 44.
120
Ibid., 44.
121
In a brief summarization of Senter’s account on protestant youth ministry in America, pastors
and church leaders feared that true conversion was not taking place in the lives of young people, as their
lifestyles consistently remained the same, even amongst youth who responded “to the moving of the Spirit
at annual revivals” (Mark H. Senter III, When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in
America [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010], 59). Seeking to “redeem their floundering movements
from obscurity,” in the 1920’s denominational youth societies began focusing on bringing social systems in
accordance with the gospel, which led the youth movement further away from its foundational roots; “Any
emphasis on spirituality was lost” (Ibid., 62).
In the 70’s and 80’s, Senter notes how student ministries shifted to a blend of meeting the needs of
teenagers and the fostering worship and reflection on God (Ibid., 65–66). However, these trends were
sidelined by efforts to standardize student ministries, which homogenized youth programs that were merely
a veneer with a spirituality façade, “From a distance, they look barely passable as an imitation work of art
but up close they look awful” (Ibid., 69). He concludes that today, “much of youth ministry has become
atheological, at least in a formal sense” (Ibid., 312).

31

“our children are not running from lifeless style and form; they’re running from
something intangible, something that’s more difficult to get their arms around. They’re
running from a lifeless Christianity.”122 While the pragmatist’s bywords were “‘big,’
‘flashy,’ ‘slick,’ ‘entertaining,’ and ‘What’s in it for me?’” as Robert Webber avers, “The
younger evangelical’s bywords are ‘real,’ ‘genuine,’ ‘relational,’ ‘honest,’ ‘mix it up,’
and ‘What can I do for others?’”123 Missional anthropologist Paul Hiebert recognizes this
same “clash of epistemologies,” emphasizing that the rationality of modernity that
Western civilization was built upon is being challenged by the rise of postmodernism and
the revival of traditional/fundamentalism.124 Understanding these epistemologies requires
that Christians understand that contemporary man no longer understands the language of
Christianity.125
What this means for reaching Millennials – Millennial employers Lynn Lancaster
and David Stillman argue, “It is no longer enough to tell people what you’re all about,
you now get to show them.”126 As Will McRaney emphasizes in The Art of Personal
Evangelism, “It is hard to argue with a changed life.”127 In similar sentiment, Robert
Webber declares, “the younger evangelical is more apt to embrace story, the apologetics

122
Dockery, 205.
123
Webber, 46.
124
Paul G. Hiebert, Missional Implications of Epistemological Shifts: Affirming Truth in a
Modern/Postmodern World (Christian Mission and Modern Culture) (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press
International, 1999), 1.
125
Jacques Ellul, The New Demons (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 22. See also, D. A. Carson,
The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 42–43.
126
Lynn C. Lancaster and David Stillman, The M–factor: How the Millennial Generation is
Rocking the Workplace (New York: Harper Business, 2010), 196. J.T. Billings adds, “Christians are not
just called to know the truth in their minds and confess the truth with their mouths. As ones who share in
Christ’s priesthood, Christians are called to intentionally ‘show and communicate’ this truth to others with
their lives” (J.T. Billings, Union With Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church [Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011], 163).
127
Will McRaney, The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a Changing Culture
(Nashville: B&H Academic, 2003), 41.

32

of embodied presence, and the church visible.”128 Evangelism begins by following
Jesus.129 An organic expression from the soul, Earley and Wheeler maintain, “It is not
something you try to do as an expression of your duty to Christ. It is who you are in Him.
Just as Christ lives in us as Christians, He should also freely minister through us as His
disciples.”130 If worship is to the natural product of the experiencing Christ, then, Segler
and Bradley aver, “Evangelism must find its source in worship if it is to be genuine
evangelism. Separating worship from evangelism is heresy.”131 Gary Reimers of Bob
Jones University asserts that “right” worship must focus on the “right person” and
accomplish the “right purpose.”132 Reimers continues, “People often assume that worship
is easy and takes place automatically whenever you go to church. In fact, they hardly give
worship any thought at all.”133 If evangelism and worship are inseparable, then one can
understand why evangelism amongst Millennials suffers.
Apathy to worship and Moralistic Therapeutic Deism go hand in hand, as Kenda
Dean proclaims, “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is what is left once Christianity has been
drained of its missional impulse, once holiness has given way to acculturation, and once

128
Webber, 69. McRaney mirrors the same sentiments, “A significant part of evangelism in a
postmodern context is building credible relationships with those to whom you are attempting to
communicate the message of Christ. This involves building bridges, befriending lost people, and living a
credible life” (Will McRaney, The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a Changing Culture
[Nashville: B&H Academic, 2003], 65).
129
Robert E. Coleman, The Master’s Way of Personal Evangelism (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
1997), 27. See also, Leonard Sweet, ed. The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives (Grand
Rapids: Zondervan/Youth Specialties, 2003), 247; and, Thom Rainer, The Unchurched Next Door:
Understanding Faith Stages as Keys to Sharing Your Faith (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 37.
130
131
Segler and Bradley, 78.
132
Gary Reimers, The Glory Due His Name: What God Says About Worship (Greenville, SC: Bob
Jones University Press, 2009), 5–7. See also, Peter C. Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel: A
Biblical Mandate (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1998), 151.
133
Reimers, 4.

33

cautious self-preservation has supplanted the divine abandon of self-giving love.”134 In
his book God is the Gospel, John Piper likewise asserts and damningly asks:
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is

this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends
you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure
activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all
the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any
natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not
there?135
With its focus on self, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has no room for focusing on Christ.
When Christians build their lives around themselves they seek Christ for what they get
out of him. Centered upon self, William Willimon expounds, can only tell a story where
he or she are the star:
Lacking confidence in the power of our story to effect that of which it

speaks, to evoke a new people out of nothing, our communication loses
its nerve…Unable to preach Christ and him crucified, we preach humanity
and it improved.136
To reach the Millennial generation and have them engage in the missio Dei,
evangelism must be the embodied outflow of worship, whereby one’s life displays the
image of Christ in the Story of God. However, when the improvement of humanity is the
story that one is saved by, then only the areas of the gospel that offer self-improvement
are emphasized, in disregard of the metanarrative of scripture.137 Peter Callero observes
in The Myth of Individualism, as one matures, they tend to exaggerate individual power

134
Dean, 40. Francis Chan thus asks, “Do you exist not for your own pleasure but to help people
know the love of Jesus and to come fully alive in Him” (Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our
Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit [Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2009], 92).
135
John Piper, God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2005),15.
136
William Willimon, Peculiar Speech: Preaching to the Baptized (Grand Rapids: Eerdmands,
1992), 9.
137
Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 186.

34

and exercise personal autonomy, especially in American society.138 Unfortunately, the
American church has taken its cues from Western society and made the primacy of the
individual the center of its theology and ecclesiology.139 The challenge that then emerges
in regard to reaching Millennials, is that their “What can I do for others?” attitude is
turned off by the “What’s in it for me?” attitude of Western-based, Modernistic American
churches. Thus, Millennials are turned off by the Christ-and-me relationship with God,
and God’s glory diminished.140
The self vs. selfless distinction and its effect on how the treatment of the
metanarrative of Scripture, reveals the epistemological gap between the Modernism of
previous generations and the Postmodernism of Millennials. Suffering from
epistemological disconnects, Millennials cherish the notion of wholeness that Jared
Wilson speaks of above, enthralled with the possibility that a “God-in-me” relationship
could exist in place of a “God-and-me” relationship. The epistemological gap once again
divides Millennials from their counterparts, however—the majority of those comprising
the American generations before them see wholeness as propaganda, as they struggle to
believe that some people are healthy from the inside out.141

138
Peter L. Callero, The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives (Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2009), 165.
139
Soon–Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural
Captivity (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009), 29–30. Jared Wilson displays the affront this is to
God, exclaiming, “God wants us broken so that any power in us can be undeniably attributed to him. If
self–reliance could reliably and ultimately contribute to our success and fulfillment, God’s glory would be
diminished, having to share precious space with our lesser glory (Jared C. Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness
[Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011], 40).
140
Baker, 111–112. Baker remarks that taking any credit away from Christ and putting it on
ourselves reduces Jesus to a cheerleader in a game in which we think we’re the stars, but where, in
actuality, he plays every position and role, and we can be nothing more than spectators who get to share in
the sweet glory of victory.
141
Erwin McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2003),134.

35

The selfish, self-centered way of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is directly
contrary to love and the gospel (1 Cor. 13:5).142 Millennials are attracted to the church
visible; yet, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism diminishes the glory of God and mars the
display of His Story to the world. Amazingly, intentionally focusing on the Story of God
does not diminish the story of the individual; it gives it its true significance.143 Seeking
significance and purpose to something beyond themselves, the Story of God is the story
postmoderns are waiting to hear.144 Its power to offer true significance by being unified
to God is what led the Second Great Awakening leader Charles Spurgeon to declare,
“The best attraction is the gospel in its purity . . . Preach it, and preach nothing else. Rely
implicitly upon the old, old gospel. You need no other nets when you fish for men.”145 A
contemporary of Spurgeon, Charles Finney likewise adds, “The gospel should be
preached in those proportions, that the whole gospel may be brought before the minds of
the people, and produce its proper influence.”146 Writing about reaching Millennials,
Alvin Reid reveals how the gospel that Spurgeon and Finney so adamantly espouse
serves as the consistent element found in all great movements of God:
In great spiritual awakenings and in times of spiritual renewal such as

missions movements and church-planting movements, the strategies that
arose grew out of a recovery of the gospel in its greatness…If
methodology drives your ministry, you will be a slave to the latest method
or at time the latest fad. But if theology, particularly a theology rich in

142
Phil Ryken, Loving the Way Jesus Loves (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012),120. Erwin McManus
continues, “You cannot live for yourself and live for God. Some things, when pulled in combination, will
stop you in your tracks (Erwin McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul [Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
2003], 81).”
143
Tim Keller writes, “This desire and meaning and purpose behind our individual stories is wired
into us as humans. . . where the world’s great stories fail, the gospel story succeeds. . . We are part of a
story that is about Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. The slain Lamb is the conquering King—through
whom and for whom our world exists” (Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gospels: The Empty Promises of Money,
Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope The Matters [New York: Dutton, 2009], 40).
144
Webber, 50.
145
Spurgeon, 5.
146
Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (New York: Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1835), 188.

36

gospel content and gospel passion, serves as your core, then you will
realize there are a variety of ways to “do” ministry as you go, not a one-
size-fits-all.147
To reach Millennials effectively, churches must worship properly. However, as Segler
and Bradley demonstrate, people only respond to God in accordance with their perception
of who He is. Therefore, worship is ultimately the product of doctrine.148 This truth
underscores the need for emphasis on the Story of God, and focusing on the
metanarrative of Scripture. A return to the metanarrative of Scripture will begin to
address the heart-felt needs of the compartmentalized lives and epistemological
disconnects of Millennials in helping them find significance in something beyond
themselves. However, a return to the Story of God does not necessarily equal a return to
God Himself. With the enduring effects of a Christ-and-Me approach to a relationship
with God lingering in the church today, partnered with the continual failure of
Millennials Christians to recognize the relationship between the imago Dei and the missio
Dei, opportunity is still provided to place the Story of God above the God of the Story
and see oneself as the main character of that Story. While a return to the metanarrative of

147
Reid, 204–205. See also, Edwin J. Orr. Campus Aflame: A History of Evangelical Awakenings
in Collegiate Communities: Revised Edition. (Wheaton: International Awakening Press, 1194), 231.
148
Segler and Bradley, 49. They assert, “The doctrines we hold determine the nature of our
worship. If we view God as only divine principle, we will seek to conform to the principle. If we view
God as idea, we will seek to know God through intellectual understanding or reasoning. If we view God as
a personal being, we will seek to know God in personal relationship. If we conceive of God as Spirit, self–
revealed in history, we will worship God in ‘spirit and truth.’” See also, Mark Dever, The Church: The
Gospel Made Visible (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2012), 129.

37

scripture is essential, some issues of worship are still unresolved, namely, worship and its
relationship to the Trinity.149
In contrast to the unity birthed from the Trinity prayed for by Christ in John 17,
Soon-Chan Rah refers to Western Christianity’s Unholy Trinity: Me, Myself, and I.150 As
David Clark writes, “The individualism of our day makes recovery of this implication of
the Trinity critical and timely.”151 Tim Elmore, Alvin Reid, Robert Webber, Neil Howe,
and William Strauss have already demonstrated the diversity of Millennials as a
generation, as well as the blurring of cultural boundaries within their worldviews. As
Driscoll and Breshears reveal, a doctrine of worship centered on the Trinity is essential to
reaching this diverse generation, and unifying all believers of all generations into the
body of Christ.152 A clear reflection of the Trinity cannot be imaged until a clear vision of
the Trinitarian God is exalted however.153 With the Trinity primary in worship, worship
becomes a three-dimensional embodiment:
It brings worshippers close to Christ in the context of congregational

fellowship; it extends into all the activities of the life of the community,
and it carries the good news of Christ from on person to another to the

149
Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (Phillipsburg,
NJ: P & R Publishing, 2004), 455. Letham states, “Much ‘worship’ today is not worship at all, for it is not
directed to the Holy Trinity . . . To combat postmodernism, and for the furtherance of the worldwide
advance of Christ’s rule, it must come. We must work toward it in practical terms now, by abandoning
manipulation, by teaching and doing the truth, and by seeking to promote the unity and catholicity of the
church, as well as its purity and apostolicity.”
150
Soon–Chan, 28.
151
David Clark, To Know and Love God: Method for Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books,
2010), 250.
152
Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2010),12.
153
Segler and Bradley, 8.

38

boundaries of the world. When the church truly worships, it will become
missionary and evangelistic.154
Kenda Dean relates this understanding to reaching Millennials, “Shifting the emphasis of
Christian formation from religious information to a trust born out of love makes a
profound difference in mobilizing faith.”155 This shift for creating a mobilizing faith must
be a Trinitarian shift, centered on knowing and experiencing God, through Christ, by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Recognizing the importance of the Trinity, David Dockery affirms, “Ultimately
evangelism is the overflow of our relationship with Christ. We are only effective when
we yield our way to the filling of the Holy Spirit.”156 That is, “In the end, awakening faith
does not depend on how we press young people to love God, but on how much we show
them that we do.”157 As Millennials search for authenticity, being the image of God while
proclaiming the Word of God is essential to reaching them for the Kingdom of God.
Rooted in modernistic principles, pragmatically based, market-driven forms of
evangelism that no longer reach the heart-felt needs of Millennials, living a lifestyle of

154
Ibid., 79.
155
Dean, 119. Webber likewise iterates, “Youth work has become serious Bible study, prayer, and
healing based on committed relationships and nonjudgmental understanding of the lives of today’s youth. It
is driven by a missional understanding of the church and by a commitment to be an embodied presence of
Jesus in and to the world. (Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals, Facing the Challenges of the New
World [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002], 161–162).”
156
Dockery, 220.
157
Dean, 120. Robert Webber writes, “When Christians live out and embody ‘the medium is the
message,’ they disclose the Christian way of being and invite the listener to participate in a new way of life
in the community of God’s presence in the world, the church . . . It is a communication that has taken up
residence within a person and transformed that person into the image of the content…The listener is turn is
made vulnerable to Christ and allows Christ to interpret life, and to provide meaning and purpose in life.
This is a culture transmission of the faith, an embodiment of faith that is a much deeper concept than print
communication. The younger evangelicals understand and use this form of communication. It affects their
whole approach to understanding and communicating the faith in the postmodern world” (Robert E.
Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World [Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 2002], 67).

39

worship is critical to reaching them with the gospel.158 As such, for student ministries
across the country, it is no longer acceptable to just have fun with young people—the
Trinity must be exalted, and a Trinitarian-lifestyle of worship demonstrated.159 As Mike
Nappa writes in The Jesus Survey, “Right belief translates into real experience.”160 To
meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, a fundamental change must take place,
from evangelistic-attractional models of evangelism to missional-embodiment models.
God engaged the world as the Trinity, in which He not only proclaimed His Word
but also incarnationally manifested Himself to it. In doing so, He imaged who He is, so
that people might come to fully know Him, experience all that He is, be transformed by
His presence, worship Him, glorify Him, and proclaim His Word to the world around
them. For the church to reflect the image of Christ to the world, they must know what
that image, embody it, and let it become manifest in their lives, holistically and
Trinitarianly.

158
Dan Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons exclaim, “faith is a way of life, not only a body of information
to master, which means that youth groups and church education programs, important as they are for social
networks, religious information, and opportunities for spiritual reflection, play second string when it comes
to the transmission of faith” (Dan Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, Unchristian: What A New Generation
Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008], 117). See also, Robert E.
Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 2002), 71; and, Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism Is…: How to Share Jesus with
Passion and Confidence (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2010), 327.
159
Alvin Reid expounds, “We do not need to teach young people how to have fun, we need to
coach them that how living for Jesus is the greatest ride you can ever take, and that whenever you step out
of your comfort zone into new, exciting, and even frightening situations where you have to depend on the
Lord, there is a level of fun not of this world” (Alvin Reid, As You Go: Creating a Missionary Culture of
Gospel–Centered Students [Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2013], 188).
160
Nappa, 121.

40

The Need and Challenge Toward an Indigenous Lifestyle of Worship
In recent years, in the context of mission and ministry, the term “incarnational”
has become popular, yet increasingly more difficult to define.161 Recognized as the most
notable proponent of “Incarnational Missiology,” John Stott argues in Christian Mission
in the Modern World and Contemporary Christian that while the church cannot copy the
major purposes of Christ’s incarnation and mission that were unique to Himself—the
atonement of sin and bringing of eternal life—Jesus’ model for mission is the church’s
model for mission.162 The church should therefore, imitate the principle of the
incarnation.163 Focusing on the continuity between incarnate earthly ministry of Christ
and the ministry/mission of the church today, David Hesselgrave notes, “...incarnational
missiologists tend to drift toward less Scripture-centered ways of thinking.”164
Correspondingly, Köstenberger’s own look at mission in the fourth gospel finds that
while an analogous element exist between the mission of Jesus and of the disciples,
Stott’s view does not accurately reflect the fourth gospels view of mission.165 In contrast
to Incarnationalism, Hesselgrave and Köstenberger advocate what they describe as
Representationalism, which accentuates the discontinuity of between Jesus’ mission with
that of the disciples, acknowledging “the uniqueness of Jesus’ person and work while

161
Andreas Köstenberger, The Mission of Jesus and the Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel:
With Implications for the Fourth Gospel’s Purpose and the Mission of the Contemporary Church (Grand
Rapids, MI/Cambridge, U.K.: Eerdmans, 1998), 213.
162
John R. W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (London: Church Pastoral Aid
Society, 1975), 23–24. See also, John R. W. Stott, The Contemporary Christian: Applying God’s Word to
Today’s World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 358 and 373.
163
Ibid., 24.
164
David Hesselgrave, Paradigms in Conflict: Ten Key Questions in Christian Missions Today
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2005), 145. See also, Köstenberger, The Mission of
Jesus and the Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel, 3.
165
Köstenberger, 215.

41

viewing the primary task of his disciples as witnessing to Jesus.”166 Incarnationalism
focuses on the continuity of the mission of Jesus, and leads the contemporary Christian to
assume the Christological roles of liberator of society, transformer of culture, and/or
Savior of people, within the context of being a witness to Jesus. In contrast,
Representationalism properly lends Christians to be ambassadors, evangelists, and church
planters.167 At this juncture, it is important to note two essential points of clarification –
1) The project director adheres to a Representational Missiology proposed by
Köstenberger and Hesselgrave, and 2) Any usage of the term “incarnational” by the
project director throughout this paper and project implementation is not in regards to
Incarnationalism Missiology, but in accordance with the terms embodiment (a tangible or
visible form of an idea, quality or feeling) and indigenous (originally or occurring
naturally in a particular place). It is not that the church is reimaging the incarnation, but
that just as what Christ does overflows out of who He is, so too should Christians
indigenously live out of their identity in Christ.
Scripture teaches that one’s way of life and his or her worship are to be a
manifestation of YHWH himself. He or she will not only experience YHWH, but also
demonstrate who He is to the world around him or her.168 Therefore, worship and life are
synonymous, and no area of life exists outside His Kingdom.169 Incarnating the gospel
means not only mimicking the ways of Jesus in the attempt to convey the gospel but also
to literally be transformed and reflected through the medium of one’s own life.170

166
Ibid., 3–4. See also, Hesselgrave, 150.
167
Hesselgrave, 152.
168
Wright, 382.
169
Segler and Bradley, 9. See also, Judah Smith., Love Like Jesus: Reaching Others With Passion
and Purpose (Ventura, CA: Regal, 2013], 123).” Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God:
With Spiritual Maxims (Boston: Shambhala, 2005), 73.
170
Hirsch, 114.

42

Unfortunately, J. Todd Billings warns, incarnational ministry has come to be seen as a
model for ministry where Christians should imitate and replicate the Word becoming
incarnate. In this, he maintains, the incarnation is not an ongoing process to be repeated
or a model to be copied. He argues, “[Churches] should replace [their] talk of
‘incarnational ministry’ with the more biblically faithful and theologically dynamic
language of ministry as participation in Christ.”171 Hirsch stresses incarnationality
through the term, “embodiment,” which cannot be imparted from a book but must be
taught by the leader from the teacher to the disciple and from believer to believer.172
However, Earley and Wheeler proclaim, until Christ-centered discipleship and biblical
truth are prioritized over personal comfort and individual preferences, Christianity will
lose its influence and identity.173 In Our Gods Wear Spandex, Christopher Knowles’
personal testimony gives evidence to the degeneration of the church’s worship and
influence once it placates to its members:
Another contrast in my life was religion. On any given weekend, I could

be found attending the Jewish temple where my mother worked as an
organist on Friday night, Catholic mass with my friends on Saturday night,
and sitting through Methodist marathons with my family on Sundays. But
as much as I loved the sacred ambience of these holy places, it was the
heroes of the comics and not the Bible where I learned morality and fair
play and compassion and decency. It was mythic heroes like The Mighty
Thor, Doctor Strange, and Captain America that most inspired me and
instilled in me that vital sense of wonder.174
Knowles testifies that religion had little impact on his development of a person, despite
regular attendance and involvement in their activities. As a result, he looked to alternate

171
J. Todd Billings, Union With Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 124.
172
Ibid., 115.
173
Early and Wheeler, 30.
174
Knowles, xiv.

43

forms and mediums for awe, inspiration, and morality. Marva Dawn thus asks, “If
worship is too much like the culture around us, how will we form people centered on God
instead and knowing the culture and language and habits and behaviors of
discipleship?”175 In contrast, she emphasizes that the anecdote to the contemporary
church’s dilemma and true obedience to Christ is exercised through a lifestyle of worship
that is intentionally Trinitarianally focused.176
Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro, pastors of churches which reside on opposites
sides of the country and within two very different cultural contexts, recognize that being
indigenous embodiment of the gospel is essential for each and every member begin
organically active in evangelism, regardless of the cultural context, “[The church] must
be realistic about the kind of evangelism that really works and get church members
involved. Otherwise, evangelism will continue to be the responsibility of too few
people.”177 Alan Hirsch concurs with this assessment, adding, “By living incarnationally
we not only model the pattern of humanity set up in the Incarnation but also create space
for mission to take place in organic ways.”178 With pragmatic, market-driven church
practices and evangelism methodologies failing to address the epistemological
disconnects and heart-felt needs of Millennials, for the church to fulfill its mission

175
Marva J. Dawn, A Royal “Waste of Time:” The Splendor of Worshipping God and Being
Church for the World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 150.
176
Ibid., 151. As Stetzer and Putman observe, this is the model demonstrated by Jesus, and
ultimately the New Testament church, (Ed Stetzer and David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code: Your
Church Can Become A Missionary in Your Community [Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006], 121).
Early and Wheeler charge, “Like Jesus we must be willing to go. We must learn to live like Jesus. But
even more importantly, we should be Jesus to a hurting world to a hurting world” (Dave Earley and David
Wheeler, Evangelism Is…: How to Share Jesus with Passion and Confidence [Nashville: Broadman and
Holman, 2010], 213). See also, Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel Centered Discipleship (Wheaton: Crossway,
2012), 35; and, MacArthur’s appendix to Worship entitled “With Hearts and Minds and Voices,” John
MacArthur, Worship: The Ultimate Priority (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2012), 194.
177
Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro, Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church From the Inside
Out (San Francisco: Jossey Bass), 2005.
178
Hirsch, 135.

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amongst the Millennial generation, it must live and minister as its Lord did, holistically
and indigenously, living a Trinitarian lifestyle of worship.179 As Earley and Wheeler
demonstrate, “People will generally not believe the truth from us until we consistently
live out that truth.”180 Authentic lives, McManus asserts, demonstrate the “genuine
production of the originator.”181 In doing so, David Olson upholds, they will become “a
source of joy, energy, and hope to this world.”182 Therefore, deviance in any area of the
life of the believer will result in the portrayal of something other than who God is.
Christians must experience and love God holistically (in mind, body, and Spirit) and live
out holistic, trinitarian lives that display who God is to the world.183
Centered on God, the church becomes more and more like God, and thus the
image of God to the world. 184 This model is an honest reflection of the New Testament
church and consistent with how God has made His children185 A question that then
emerges is, “Are churches consistently raising up godly men and women who know and
reflect the Triune God in the world around them?” On the whole, studies consistently
reveal a high degree of biblical illiteracy, with more Baptist members dropping out of

179
Alan Hirsch accentuates, “This concept is therefore not just existentially significant for an
authentic life . . . it is absolutely crucial both for the transmission of the gospel beyond ourselves, and for
the initiating and survival of missional movements” (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the
Missional Church [Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006], 115).
180
181
McManus, 68.
182
Olson, 214.
183
Newman, 45. He offers, “Proverbs presents a multifaceted picture of people…We are whole
beings, called to love God with the whole heart, soul, strength, and mind (Randy Newman, Questioning
Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did [Grand Rapids: Regel, 2004], 45).”
184
David Clark asserts that authentic, intimate relationships to God are, “Genuine and satisfying
relationships with God [which] saturate the common life of an authentic Christian community” (David
Clark, To Know and Love God: Method for Theology [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2010], 246–248).
185
Marva J. Dawn, In the Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and Spiritual Life (Downers Grove:
IVP, 2009), 118.

45

church instead of maturing in the faith.186 And, when it comes to living indigenous
lifestyles of worship, statistics reveal that lifestyle activities of born-again Christians
routinely parallel those of non-born again.187 Further still, Christians that do desire to go
deeper in their walk with Christ often crave an increase in biblical knowledge and
focus/dwell on obscure or unclear scriptures instead of the transformational, life-
changing truths of the gospel.188 This compromise lends to a pursuit of self rather God
and his kingdom, whereby which the lifestyle one desires determines what he or she are
willing to do in service to Christ, rather than a lifestyle of worship overflowing from
abiding in Christ.189 Fueled by individualistic focus of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,
American Christians tend to focus only on how the finished work of Christ personally
benefits themselves.190 When used as a means to an end, what is exalted above Jesus
becomes a false god and worshipped.191
When God’s children center their lives on themselves they not only fail in being
the image of God but also limit their ability to experience God himself. They then fill
their lives with pietistic activities that serve as substitutes for the moral righteousness of
Christ himself.192 Truncated faith never leads one to being on mission with God and
misses the point of what it truly means to exist in Christ.193 The move from a truncated
gospel to a life of pietistic duty is the natural transition for the self-centered Christian, as

186
John Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology
(Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 232.
187
188
Stetzer and Putman, 80.
189
Aubrey Malphurs, Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century (Grand Rapids:
Baker Books, 2004), 49.
190
Olson, 201; and, David Clark, To Know and Love God: Method for Theology (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books, 2010), 47.
191
Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 60.
192
Newman, 40.
193
Driscoll, 60.

46

they seek a more hedonistic lifestyle that is adorning in appearance but void of the
compassion and brokenness of God.194 These false worldviews must be dismantled, and
new worldviews and stories, rooted in believer’s identity in Christ, constructed.195 From
here all indigenously embodied mission activity overflows.196
For believers in the New Testament, half-hearted commitment was not an option,
following Jesus was holistic, both culturally and by its very nature. 197 Evangelism thus
overflowed out of one’s life, from being filled by the Spirit, as he or she abided in Christ.
Evangelism was the natural byproduct of a lifestyle of worship.198 Rooted in the very
nature of God, this lifestyle is not something that changes from era to era, or culture to
culture, as Malphurs confirms, “While the methodology of evangelism changes and
adjusts to the culture, the biblical principles of evangelism remain the same.”199
Christians thus have to embrace a more holistic idea of what it means to follow Christ.200
As Christopher Wright declares, “we need a holistic gospel because the world is
in a holistic mess.” 201 The church fulfilling its mission and displaying the image of Christ

194
Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendall, SJ, and Gerald O’Collins, SJ. The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary
Symposium on the Trinity. (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002), 325. They write, “Many of our
contemporaries have tacitly traded the living God for a remote ‘deity’ that somehow ‘created’ the universe.
For another, many of us are inclined to accept ethics as a satisfactory substitute of faith. Finally, we tend to
value godly experience more than God; thus many of us are apt to trade worship for religious self–
consciousness, and propose Jesus as the admirable example of that self–consciousness.” See also, (Randy
Newman, Questioning Evangelism: Engaging People’s Hearts the Way Jesus Did [Grand Rapids: Regel,
2004], 40 and 215).”
195
Olson, 214.
196
Britt Merrick with Allison Trowbridge, Godspeed: Making Christ’s Mission Your Own
(Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2012), 31.
197
Ibid., 186.
198
Hammett, 248.
199
Malphurs, 357. See also Kevin T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2008), 163).
200
201
Wright, 315.

47

to the world, demands a holistic return to God.202 A return that submits to his complete
lordship of all areas of life, abides in Him, and results in an indigenous lifestyle of
worship. When this return takes place, those who witness the work of God in the lives of
His children cannot help but be naturally drawn to Him,203 as believer’s own internal
righteousness connects with their influence upon others.204
A holistic gospel centers on the Trinity and emphasizes the role of each person in
the Story of God. By experiencing the Triune God, one comes to know the Father,
through the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as he or she has been made “one with
Christ,” and abides in Him, continually transforming more and more into His image, as
James K. A. Smith illustrates:
Having encountered God in Word and sacrament, we are transformed and

renewed and empowered by the Spirit to take up once again the original
vocation of humanity: to be God’s image-bearers by cultivating all the
possibilities latent in God’s creation, now renewing and restoring a
broken, fallen world. Drawn into union with Christ, the “end” of Christian
worship is bound up with our sending for Christian action, rightly ordered
cultural labor, the creational task of making and remaking God’s world.205
Billings aptly concludes:
Union with Christ…impacts the way we conceive of our identity as ones

who belong to Christ, members of Christ’s body called to love those with
wounded bodies in the world. It reorients our desires, our view of God’s
kingdom as we are united to Jesus Christ, the King, as his children. It cuts
through our self-centered ideologies, putting the action of the Triune God
in Christ at the center.206

202
C. Peter Wagner, Church Growth and The Whole Gospel: A Biblical Mandate (Eugene, OR:
Wipf and Stock, 1998), 93.
203
204
Newman, 50.
205
James K. A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works. Volume 2 of Cultural
Liturgies (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 6–7.
206
Billings, 174.

48

Here lie truths for Christians of all eras and generations that could not be more imperative
than for the Millennials. An indigenous lifestyle of worship that is fostered by an
understanding of what it means to be made by God in a trinitarian fashion and unified
with Him through His Son, by His Holy Spirit, so that their mission overflows out of their
identity will offer an authentic witness of the love and gospel of God in both word and
deed, so as to reach the heartfelt needs of Millennials for the kingdom of God.
Definitions of Terms
Embodiment – A tangible or visible form of an idea, quality or feeling.207
Discipleship – In contrast to merely copying the acts of Jesus, as John M. Dettoni notes,
discipleship “suggests an active following of Jesus . . . [It] is not achieved just by
memorizing Scripture verses . . . [Nor] merely going to church.” Discipleship is the
process of transformation that takes place in and through believers “to become a disciple
and to continue becoming a follower of Christ. This transformation comes through
regeneration and grows as one learns the character of the Lord.”208
Imago Trinitatis– Doctrine of personhood that asserts that being made in the image of
God is Trinitarian: mind, body, and spirit. To be human, thus, is to be three in one; to be
without one is to not be human.209
Indigenous – Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place.210
Metanarrative – As Albert Wolters notes, “‘Metanarrative’ refers to any overarching

universal account of reality and human life that purports to explain everything.” In
Christian contexts, it has come to be referred to as “a story that not only encompasses
everything but seeks to explain and legitimate everything in a particular intellectual
way.” In biblical hermeneutics, it “has been appropriated . . . to refer to the overall story
told by the Christian Scriptures, which is not totalizing or oppressive, and which makes
possible the ‘redemptive historical’ level of biblical interpretation.”211

207
https://www.google.com/#q=embodiment (accessed December 2, 2016).
208
John M. Dettoni, “What is Spiritual Formation,” in The Christian Educator’s Handbook on
Spritual Formation, ed.’s Kenneth O. Gangel and James C. Wilhoit (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing
Group, 1998), 15–16.
209
Smail, 106.
210
https://www.google.com/#q=indigenous (accessed December 2, 2016).
211
Albert Wolters in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, Kevin J. Vanhoozer,
ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 506–507.

49

Missio Dei – God’s purpose to draw all men to Himself. Dru Johnson declares, “We
come to know God and His kingdom so that we can better point others to that same God
and kingdom. Because all communicated theological knowledge becomes prophetic for
others, the task demands accountability. The theologian must genuflect to an
authenticated authority and participate in the life of a community of disciples. As
theological knowledge grows, who God is (person) and what he is doing (kingdom)
becomes the prophetic voices to others inside and outside of that community.”212
Mission – According to Köstenberger, “Mission is the specific task or purpose which a

person or group seeks to accomplish, involving various modes of movement, be it sending
or being sent, coming and going, ascending and descending, gathering by calling others
to follow, or following.213
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism – The worldview purported by Christian Smith in his

seminal work Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers,
whereby which one desires for God to exist yet not have an actual involvement with his
or her lives but merely provide he or she with therapeutic comfort, and a set of morals to
determine right and wrong.
Limitations and Delimitations
The most prominent limitation to this project is the voluntary nature of
attendance. The Bible study portion will be conducted weekly on Wednesday nights,
during the main youth service of the week. However, the project conductor has no control
on who may or may not attend any particular week. Numerous outside factors including,
but not limited to, homework, vacation and traveling, and extracurricular activities
(various sports, marching bands, etc.), could each inhibit any number of students from
attending from one week to the next.
Related to the first, a second limitation lies in transportation. A good portion of
the students will have a license and car. Nevertheless, all middle school students, and
some high school students, will be subject to the parents or someone else, as a means of

212
Dru Johnson, Biblical Knowing: A Scriptural Epistemology of Error (Eugene, OR: Cascade
Books, 2013), 209.
213
Köstenberger, 41.

50

transportation to church each week. Transportation will not only be a factor in attendance
from week to week, but could also affect the lessons start and end times, and thus how
much might be covered from one lesson to the next.
One delimitation encompassing this project was it being solely conducted in a
Southern Baptist student ministry context. As such, certain attributes typical of Southern
Baptist (e.g. adherence to The Baptist Faith and Message 2000) were assumed and
operated within. It also denoted the necessity for the project director to contextualize the
lessons accordingly, whereas certain elements of contextualization, such as illustrations
and examples, might have been chosen differently for a different context.
A second delimitation resided in the focus group being Christian Millennials
(particularly between the ages of 12–21), who had already proclaimed trust in Jesus as
Lord. This delimitation also affected issues of contextualization. However, with the age
ranges as low as twelve, attention-span factors were considered in regards to both the
length of the lessons, as well as how much content to cover each week.
Similarly, the third delimitation was that the discipleship study was intentionally
set to six weeks. Six lessons was the minimum number of lessons the project director
could allow, to cover all the intended content: two weeks on God and His mission, and
four weeks on the metanarrative. However, six weeks was also a good maximum number
for the study, in that the first week and last week were still in close-enough proximity to
each other that the students were still able to relate week one content with week six’s.

51

CHAPTER TWO
BIBLICAL/THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS
Introduction
This chapter aims to establish the biblical, theological and historical foundations
for a Trinitarian-based, gospel-centered, discipleship strategy, which specifically seeks to
address the epistemological implications of Millennials and the gospel, in the hopes that
they will successfully engage and participate in the Great Commission as a natural
overflow of a lifestyle of worship.1 Since this project seeks to accomplish this with the
understanding that what God does overflows out of who He is, it likewise asserts that a
Christian’s successful engagement in the Great Commission must therefore overflow
from his or her identity (union with Christ) and abiding in Him through the Holy Spirit.2
As such, this chapter addresses who God is in Trinity,3 His mission, what it means to be
made in the image of the Trinity, union with Christ, and how one can be on mission with

1
Liturgies (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 53. Smith views this as “embodied practices of
worship,” demonstrating this embodiment articulating, “You know you’ve become a native when you know
what’s coming next, when you can anticipate the next move in social discourse because you are now
acclimated to a ‘world’ on a level that no longer requires conscious deliberation or processing. You now
make sense of your world with others, but in way you no longer notice because it’s become ‘natural’ for
you . . . It will just seem that this is ‘the way things are,’ and you will generally act accordingly” (Smith.
Imagining the Kingdom, 93).
2
John. F. Flett, The Witness of God: The Trinity, Missio Dei, Karl Barth, and the Nature of
Christian Community (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010), 297.
3
Leslie Newbegin, Trinitarian Doctrine for Today’s Mission (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1988),
83. He writes, “recovery of a practical faith in the power of the Holy Spirit will lead us astray if it is not
held firmly with an equally practical Trinitarian faith, a faith which discerns God’s fatherly rule in the
events of secular history, and which leads into full commitment to the life of fellowship which is the Body
of Christ in the midst of the world.”

52

Him.4 Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer in John 17 is examined as the central text, as scholarly
consensus reveals how this singular text embodies and unifies them altogether.5
Who God Is
The Trinity
The God of salvation has revealed himself to be triune.6 As such, Christian faith is
Trinitarian faith that is inundated with and by the Trinity.7 Though the Trinity cannot be
comprehended, it does provide insight into who God is, and how he might be
interpreted.8 Without ever attempting to explain the mystery of the Trinity, the Bible
continually reveals the togetherness of God in three persons, which Robert Coleman
maintains are “equal in glory, one in essence, yet each separate from each other in

4
Smith, 31–32. Referencing Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain
and the Making of the Western World, Smith writes, “What we do is driven by who we are, by the kind of
person we have become. And that shaping of our character is, to a great extent, the effect of stories that
have captivated us, that have sunk into our bones—stories that ‘picture’ what we think life is about, what
constitutes ‘the good’ life. We live into the stories we’ve absorbed; we become characters in the drama that
has captivated us.”
5
D. A. Carson writes, “if Jesus’ prayer is answered, the world itself will learn that God sent him,
that God truly loved Jesus’ followers even as he loved his own precious Son...(We) cannot fail to observe
that this unity for which the Savior prays is inextricably entangled with the display of the incredible truth
that the Father loves Jesus’ followers just as he loves the Son (17:23) and that the love of the triune God
may be in them” (17:26) (John Piper and Justin Taylor, The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World.
[Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007], 87–88).” See also, Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation: How a
Religious Revolution Secularized Society (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2012), 31.
6
NJ: P & R Publishing, 2004), 411. See also, Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity
Changes Everything (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 122.
7
Kevin Vanhoozer, ed. Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (Grand Rapids:
Baker Academic, 2005), 815. In reference to Hiebert Mühlen’s Entsakralisierung, Joseph Ratzinger adds,
“The church’s action and behavior must correspond to the ‘we’ of God by following the pattern of this
relationship” (Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Church, Ecumenism, and Politics: New Essays in Ecclesiology
[New York: Crossroad, 1988], 31). See also, Letham, 411; Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church
as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 67; as well as, Newbegin, Trinitarian
Doctrine for Today’s Mission, 36).
8
Robert E. Coleman, The Heart of the Gospel: The Theology Behind the Master Plan of

53

consciousness and vocation.”9 Robert Duran reveals that in this divine essence is a divine
perfection identical to the three persons, so that whatever “one person knows, wills, and
produces” so does the other in equal and common perfection; and, “in keeping with the
divine relations,” they distinctly exercise, without confusion, the divine knowledge, will,
and power in their order.10 This triune nature of God, Gary Breshears proclaims, “is a
continuous outpouring of love, communication, and oneness because God is a relational
community of love.”11 Exercising perfectly divine knowledge, will, and power within this
relational community of love, the Father chose to make known His salvation through His
Son, Jesus Christ and sealed them until the end by His Holy Spirit.12 As the incarnational
revelation of the Trinity, Christ mediates salvation for all people, and is the central figure
of the Trinity for mankind.13
The Son is the Focal Point
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection mark the climax of the biblical story.14 As
man’s focal point of the Trinity, Jesus is the image of the invisible God (the radiance of

9
Ibid., 15. See also, Kevin Vanhoozer, ed. Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible
(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 817; as well as, Mark Driscoll and Gary Breshears, Doctrine:
What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 13.
10
Robert M. Doran, The Trinity in History: A Theology of the Divine Missions. Volume One:
Missions and Processions (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2012), 42. Alister McGrath
affirms that this understanding of the Trinity is historically consistent since the Patristical era” (Alister E.
McGrath, Historical Theology: An Introduction in the History of Christian Thought [Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing, 1998], 33).
11
Driscoll & Breshears, 16. See also, Michael W. Goheen and Craig Bartholomew, The True Story
of the Whole World: Finding Your Place in the Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian
Resources, 2009, 112; and, J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP), 67.
12
Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission: Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples
(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 28–29. See also, Goheen and Bartholomew, The True Story of the
Whole World: Finding Your Place in the Biblical Drama, 12.
13
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Scott R. Swain, Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s
Gospel. (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2008), 188. See also, J. I. Packer’s Knowing God, 88.
14
Goheen and Bartholomew, 133. See also, Köstenberger and Swain’s Father, Son and Spirit: The
Trinity and John’s Gospel, 47. Horton exalts Christ as the one who not only defines the church’s message
but also the nature, mission, and methods by which it is delivered (Michael Horton, Christless Christianity:
The Alternative Gospel of the American Church [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2008], 256).

54

His glory), and exact imprint of His nature (Heb. 1:3), and whoever has seen Jesus has in
turn seen the Father (John 1:18; 14:9. Andreas Köstenberger and Scott Swain thus
declare, “once one has understood the Gospel’s characterization of Jesus, one has
understood its characterization of God.”15 Jesus himself claims to have come to only do
the will of his Father, by whom he was sent (John 5:30, 43; 6:38; 8:28; 12:49; and 17:1–
3), will send the Holy Spirit at the appointed time (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; and 16:7), and
then, commissions his disciples in the name of all three (Matt 28:19–20). The majority of
the authors of the New Testament likewise reveal the Trinity’s unified work in
Redemption: John (as shown in references above), Paul (Rom 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Eph 1:3-14,
17; 2:18), and Peter (1 Pet 1:2; 4:14). Further, nearly every writer in the New Testament
makes references to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit individually at some point in their
text (Mark 1:35; Luke 1:32, 67; 11:13; Acts 2:30-33; Heb 2:4; 9:15; 10:15; 12:9; James
1:17; 3:9; 4:5; Jude. 1:1, 20).
Comprehensively, these scriptures affirm that there is no contradiction or
separation from Jesus’ mission and the mission of the Trinity, and therefore, no
dissolution between the Trinity’s mission and the mission of the church given by Jesus in
Matthew 19.16 As George Eldon Ladd avers, “The coming of Christ is the disclosure of
the faithfulness of God to his own character, of his continuing purpose to make his saving
will known. His entire mission was to bear witness to this saving truth (John 18:37).”17
This affirmation would seem to likewise affirm that if Christians are to display the image

15
Köstenberger and Swain, 47. See also, Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering
Our Hidden Life in God (New York: Harper, 1998), 334.
16
David J. Hesslegrave and Ed Stetzer, Ed.’s. Missionshift: Global Mission Issues in the Third
Millennium (Nashville, Broadman and Holman, 2010), 66. See also, George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the
New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 304; as well as, John G. Flett, 185 and 166).
17
Ladd, 303.

55

of Christ to the world, they cannot do so until they look at the Trinity as a whole, and
Jesus Christ in particular.18 The conclusiveness of this assertion, however, depends upon
the question concerning the synonymy between God’s identity and His mission.
God’s Mission Flows From His Identity
Missio Dei is Missio Trinitatis
Andreas Köstenberger affirms that when speaking about God in missio Dei,
Christians mean the Trinity as a whole.19 Therefore, Jesus’ mission that the world would
know God (John 17:26) is the mission of the Trinity, which is to continue in and through
his disciples.20 If the goal of sending both the Son and the Spirit is to reveal who God is,
Köstenberger and Swain confess, missions’ failure to accurately and reliably reveal His
triune identity “would constitute the failure of those missions.”21 As evidenced by his
incarnational-missional obedience (considered by Köstenberger to be the “truest personal

18
Driscoll and Breshears, 137. For a summary of Christ’s roles and characteristic (with references)
see Andrea J. Köstenberger and Terry L. Wilder, Entrusted with the Gospel: Paul’s Theology in the
Pastoral Epistles (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2010), 151–152. See also, Culture Making by Andy
Crouch, 89–90. Commenting on Hebrews and Colossians, Tom Smail writes, “The NRSV translation
‘exact imprint’ does not quite do justice to the Greek, because character is used both of the die that is
stamped on to the wax and also of the imprint that the die makes on the wax to which it is applied” (Kelber,
“character” in TDNT 9:418) (Tom Smail, Like Father, Like Son: The Trinity Imaged in Our Humanity
[Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005], 59).
19
Andreas J. Köstenberger, A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters: The Word, The Christ, The
Son of God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 545. See also Andreas J. Köstenberger, and Scott R. Swain,
Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2008),
111; as well as, Gerald L. Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 12–21 (Nashville: Holman
Reference/Broadman & Holman, 2002), 352.
20
George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 293 &
298. Alan Hirsch exclaims, “This ‘missional–incarnational impulse,’ is ‘the practical outworking of the
mission of God and of the Incarnation” (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional
Church [Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006], 128). See also, John Piper and Justin Taylor, The Supremacy of
Christ in a Postmodern World, 80.
21
Köstenberger and Swain, 172–173. They continue, “while the opera Dei ad intra (e.g. 1:1) are
one thing and the opera Dei ad extra (e.g. 1:14) are another, there is only one way that Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit relate to each other ad intra and ad extra. That ‘way’ has been revealed in the story of Jesus
Christ, the incarnate and anointed Son of God (1:18; 14:6; cf. Exod 33:13; 34:5–7)” (Köstenberger and
Swain, 172–173). See also, John G. Flett, 73.

56

expression of the filial unity with the Father”),22 Jesus’ story reveals who God is. In the
Gospel of John particularly, the Trinity is the nexus and focal point of both Jesus’ gospel
and mission.23 In his final hours, as displayed in the Farewell Discourse (John 14-16) and
concluding with Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17), it is upon the Trinity where Jesus
chooses to concentrate His efforts. In the Farewell Discourse, He speaks five times about
the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16–17, 26; 15:26–27; 16:4b–11, 12–15).24
Likewise, in His High Priestly Prayer, all three persons are on display as Jesus prays to
the Father concerning the continuing mission of His disciples through the power of the
Holy Spirit. 25
The Upper Room/Farewell Discourse (John 14-16)
True believers, John declares, are those born of the Spirit (John 3:5), through the
incarnation of Jesus (1 John 4:1–6), and live lives of an active love (1 John 4:7–21).26
The incarnation is central to the discussion of God’s mission, Alan Hirsch maintains, as it
“not only qualifies God’s acts in the world, but must also qualify ours.”27 Therefore, he
continues, the final hours of Jesus’ incarnation displays to believers the Trinitarian

22
Ibid., 124.
23
Köstenberger and Swain, 156. Köstenberger later writes, “a proper understanding of John’s
Trinitarian mission theology ought to lead the church to understand it’s mission in trinitarian terms—that
is, as originating in and initiated by the Father (the “one who sent” Jesus), as redemptively grounded and
divinely mediated by Jesus the Son (the “Sent One” turned sender, 20:21) and as continued and empowered
by the Spirit the ‘other helping presence,’ the Spirit of truth” (Andreas J. Köstenberger, A Theology of
John’s Gospel and Letters: The Word, The Christ, The Son of God [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009], 545).
24
Carson, D. A. and Timothy Keller, Ed.’s. The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and
Reforming Our Ministry Practices (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 174–175.
25
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor, The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week
of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 68.
26
Gerald L. Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 12–21 (Nashville: Holman
Reference/Broadman & Holman, 2002), 358–359. Carson reveals that though this work of the Holy Spirit
is “more visible in the New Testament,” His work in the New Testament work is consistent with His
throughout the Old: Gen. 1:2; Ex. 35:30–35; Num. 24:2; Judg. 6:34, 11:29, 13:25, 14:6, 19, 15:14; 2 Chron.
15:1; 1 Sam. 16:14; Psalm 51:11; Isa. 64:7–14 (Carson and Keller, The Gospel as Center, 172).
27
Hirsch, 133.

57

dynamic of Jesus’ mission by revealing, “the archetypal model of what true humanity,
and by implication true community, should look and behave like.”28 “What we have
here, then,” Christopher Wright avers, “is biblical monotheism and mission, combined in
the person of Jesus and the proclamation of the apostle,” which climaxes at the
conclusion of the farewell discourse with Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.29
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17)
The farewell discourse has two predominant themes: 1) Union with Christ (“the
true vine”) through His sent Spirit enabling communion with God and thus a fruitful life
of love and joy (John 15:1–16:3); and 2) the exposure and eradication of the world’s sin,
and bringing of the Father’s new covenant life through the Spirit (John 16:4–33). In the
hours following these teachings, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays His High
Priestly Prayer, which contains many interrelated recurring motifs (God’s limitless grace,
love, holiness, truth, authority, knowledge, protection, unity, and eternal life).30 The
common structure has been to see Jesus offering three petitions: Jesus praying for
Himself (verses 1–5), Jesus praying for His disciples (verses 6–19), and Jesus praying for
those who will believe through testimony of His disciples (verses 20–26).31 Clear
interpretation, and ultimately effective application and implication of its message,

28
Ibid., 133.
29
Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 125.
30
Vanhoozer, 69. As such, it becomes understandable why Barnabas Lindars asserts that this
prayer “has become the charter Ecumenical Movement of the twentieth century” (Barnabas Lindars, The
Gospel of John (The New Century Bible Commentary) [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982], 516).
31
Köstenberger and Swain, 166. Leon Morris maintains that thought is it difficult to outline and
subdivide the prayer, “it is essentially a unity, but it is possible to discern a movement” (Leon Morris, The
Gospel According to John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) [Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2011], 634).

58

requires the recognition and balance of the prayer’s two separate but unified crucial
elements: the centrality of mission in the quest for unity.32
Verses 1–5
Jesus’ opening words reveal that the glory of the Son and Father are eternally one
(John 17:1, 5; Phil 2:11) and that He came to make the Father known, so that, in knowing
God (17:22), those who believe might share in their glory (17:22). This knowledge that
Christ speaks of is not mere introspection or mental ascent,33 but what Dallas Willard
refers to as “an intimate, personal interactive relationship”34 and Robert Saucy describes
as “derived from a personal encounter with the object, so what is known is actually
experienced by the knower.”35 Paul continues John’s line of thinking in Romans 10:2,
drawing from his Jewish understanding of knowing God, but using the Greek term
επιγινοσκο (epiginōskō), expressing how the Jews knew about God but did not personally
know Him.36 Personal knowledge of God, literally knowing God, could only be mediated
through flesh—namely through the Word that became flesh.37

32
Borchert, 188–189.
33
Ladd, 297.
34
Willard, 49. Otto A. Piper shows how the is consistent with the Jewish understanding of
“knowing,” “For the Hebrews . . . Knowledge implies also the awareness of the specific relationship in
which
the individual stands with that object, or of the significance the object has for him” (George Arthur
Buttrick, Keith George, and Crim Buttrick., The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 3: K–Q
[Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962], 3:43). John Flett writes, “The knowledge of God frees humanity to be
truly human and to live in fellowship with God as truly human” (Flett, 227).
35
Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel,
2013), 77. See also D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament: The Gospel According to John (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 556; Andreas Köstenberger, John (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004); as
well as George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 298.
36
Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism Is…: How to Share Jesus with Passion and
Confidence (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2010), 61.
37
Ladd, 298–299. Franz Jozef van Beeck adds that to know God through Christ is to know and be
in the Trinity; see Stephen Davis, Daniel Kendall SJ and Gerlad O’Collins SJ, ed.’s. The Trinity: An
Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999), 312.

59

Knowing God through Jesus Christ, therefore, is the essential nature of eternal
life.38 As such, Morris pens, “Really to know God means more than knowing the way to
life. It is life.”39 Not just an eschatological or eternal life after death but a possessing of
the life of God in His children now, which transforms us and introduces us to a different
quality of living (cf. Mark 10:17, 30; Matt 25:46; Luke 10:25).40 The natural byproduct
of this different quality of living, this “new life,” knows God through Jesus as
demonstrated repeatedly by John through the words of Christ (John 3:3, 21; 8:32; 10:3;
14:17; 16:27; 18:37; 1 John 1:6 11–12; 2 John 2; cf. Gen 24:49; 47:29; and Neh 9:33). In
all this, Ladd maintains, “The organ of reception is not the mind but the whole person.”41
Knowing God therefore encompasses the entire personhood of one’s being, and takes
place in the already/not-yet aspects of the kingdom of God (the spiritual dynamic of the
kingdom has already taken place within the life of the believer, yet simultaneously awaits
its final glorification at the consummation of all things). Differing from the synoptic
gospels, for John, Jesus is both life and resurrection, and having brought eternity into
present human existence, the distinctions between the present age and the age to come are
collapsed into an indissoluble bond.42 This realization is rooted in the knowledge that

38
Ibid., 296. See also, F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 329.
39
Morris, 637.
40
J. D. Greear, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You are Saved
(Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2013), 95. Ladd reveals, “The basic meaning of ‘life’ in the Old
Testament is not immortality or life after death, but complete well–being in earthly existence…Therefore,
the good gifts of God, which constitute life, must be enjoyed in relationship with God (Deut. 30:15–20)”
(Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 291). See also, Andreas Köstenberger, John, 487; Craig
Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2011), 219; Wayne
Grudem, C. John Collins and Thomas R. Schreiner, Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible: A Guide to
Reading the Bible Well (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 111, as well as Leon Morris, The Gospel
According to John, 637.
41
Ladd, 305.
42
Ibid., 294. He continues, “Both in the Synoptics and in John, eternal life is the life of the
eschatological Age to Come . . . However, the unique element in Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom in the
Synoptics is that the eschatological Kingdom has invaded this age. The Kingdom has come (Matt 12:28),
while the Age to Come remains future . . . If eternal life is indeed the life of the eschatological Kingdom of

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God is life itself, and the Jesus is the Son of God (cf. 1:4; 5:26; 20:31).43 Just as knowing
God surpasses mere mental ascent about God to a whole life embodiment of the believer,
the interrelatedness of the present age with the age to come had direct effects on how
believers in the New Testament sought to glorify God as Jesus did. While they did not
see the reign of God and the establishment of His kingdom physically, they continually
sought to glorify God as Jesus did, striving to make His kingdom manifest in the still
fallen world around them.44
Verses 6–19
With the understanding that knowing God is an intimate knowledge that
encompasses one’s entire being and overflows into the bringing of the age to come into
present reality, Jesus mentions how He has done just that by making God’s name
known.45 A recurring theme through Scripture, God’s name was considered a powerful
image.46 Most notably exampled by the life of Moses, though God revealed His name
(Yahweh) to Moses, he still could not behold God’s full glory, and was thus relegated in
his day and age to only seeing God’s “backside” (Exod 33:12–23). However, although he

God, and if the Kingdom is present, it follows that we might expect the Kingdom to bring to human beings
a foretaste of the life of the life of the future age” (Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 295). Tom
Smail views this as being converted, while He is still converting (Smail, Like Father, Like Son, 273). See
also, Robert Doran, The Trinity in History: A Theology of the Divine Missions. Volume One: Missions and
Processions, (Doran, 40–41).
43
Köstenberger, John, 487.
44
Trevin Wax, Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2010), 25.
45
Gerald L. Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 12–21 (Nashville: Holman
Reference/Broadman & Holman, 2002), 192.
46
Driscoll and Breshears, 194. They expound, “In Hebrew understanding, a name embodies the
entire essence and identity of a person. So, in having a name, God revealed himself as a person and gave
sacred access to an understanding and experience of his very person.” Leon Morris confers, “The ‘name’
stands for the whole person. To manifest the name of God is accordingly to reveal the essential nature of
God to people” (Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (The New International Commentary on the
New Testament) [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011], 640). A few notable Old Testament uses of God’s
“name” include Deut 12:5, 21; Ps 9:10, 22:22; and, Isa 55:13, 62:2, 65:15–16.

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only saw the back of God, the glory of God shown so bright that it illuminated Moses’
face to the point that he wore a veil due to its lingering radiance (Exod 34:35). The writer
of Hebrews avers Jesus as the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his
nature” (Heb 1:3a). And, John proclaims that in seeing Jesus, “we have seen his glory”
(John 1:14b), as He, being the radiance of God’s glory, has revealed and made known (a
whole person knowing) that which Moses could not see (John 1:18).47 Likewise, Paul
declares that those in the Spirit are not like Moses (2 Cor 3:13) but have had the veil
lifted away (2 Cor 3:16). Now beholding the glory of God (2 Cor 3:18a), they are
continually being transformed into His image (2 Cor 3:18b), whereby they will one day
see God in His fullness, face to face (1 Cor 13:12a) and know (holistically) even as they
are known (1 Cor 13:12b). Therefore, in revealing the name of God, Jesus has put the
glory of God on display and made the character of the Trinity known, so that those who
trust in Christ can see God face to face and be transformed into His likeness.48 In
receiving this revelation, those who trust in Christ should likewise respond as the Trinity
would, proclaiming the glory of God and modeling the exemplification of Jesus.49
Just as what God does overflows out of who He is, as exemplified by Christ, in
coming to know God as He is (the Trinity), Christians’ active participation in the missio
Dei should naturally overflow out of their lives.50 God gave Jesus His disciples, and just

47
Ladd, 285.
48
Bruce, 330. Robert Doran writes that those in Christ “see God as God is in God’s own self”
(Robert Doran, The Trinity in History: A Theology of the Divine Missions. Volume One: Missions and
Processions, 59). See also, Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 299.
49
Johann Arndt, True Christianity; Or, the Whole Economy of God Towards Man, and the Whole
Duty of Man, Towards God (Boston: Lincoln and Edwards, 1809), 197.
50
Flett, 33. Flett proclaims, “if God is by nature missionary, then the proper worship of this God
must assume a corresponding missionary form.” He writes this in reference to Karl Barth’s Church
Dogmatics (Die kirchliche Dogmatik), “God will be known as the One He is. But precisely, as the One He
is, He acts . . . And to know him as the One who acts means to become obedient to Him” (CD II/1, 26).

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as He was sent by the Father, Jesus likewise sends out His given disciples to glorify God
by reflecting the glory revealed to them in knowing the Trinity.51 Since they will remain
in the world while He is no longer in the world, Jesus prays that the Father will keep His
disciples in His name, that they might be one just He and the Father are one (John 17:11).
This oneness has three dynamics for believers, which progressively move from one to the
other. The first dynamic is oneness with God—believers share in the inter-Trinitarian
oneness of God, which takes place in knowing the name of God and beholding His glory
(John 17:1-6; 2 Cor 3:13.18), and results in their transformation into His likeness by the
power of the Holy Spirit within them (2 Cor 3:18).52 The second dynamic is oneness
within the life of believers—as they are transformed, believers find wholeness through
the unification of self—heart, mind, and strength.53 And, the third dynamic is the oneness
of the church—as individual believers are unified into one body, they display the
Trinitarian image of God, living out the Trinitarian relationship between God,
themselves, and other believers.
The centrality of mission in the quest for this unity is the theme of Jesus’ prayer.54
However, as Piper maintains, the mission is not the point, knowing the Trinity is.55 Yet,
the mission is unfulfilled, and since God’s mission is completely consistent with who He
is, then to be one with Him is to be on mission with Him.56 Jesus thus prays that the

51
Borchert, 193.
52
Borchert, 198. John Flett concurs, “Insofar as the Christian community participates in Christ’s
history, she participates in the life and thus the sending of the Trinity” (Flett, 41, 293).
53
Morris, The Gospel According to John, 644. Alan Hirsch likewise avers, “All of life belongs to
God, and true holiness means bringing all the spheres of our life under God” (Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten
Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church [Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006], 91). See also, Flett, The Witness
of God, 216.
54
Flet, 198–199.
55
John Piper, Let The Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions [Grand Rapids: Baker,
1993], 1–40).
56
John Köstenberger, 565.

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Father will not take them out of the world, but protect them from the evil one (John
17:15).57 To accomplish both their protection from the evil one and their fulfillment of
His mission, Jesus prays that the Father will “sanctify them in the truth,” which is the
word of God (John 17:17).58 As Jesus is both the Word of God (John 1) and truth (John
14:6), with His believers sanctified in Him, He consecrates Himself “that they also might
be sanctified” (John 17:19).59
In the Old Testament, truth (‫אמת‬, ‘Emet) is most distinctly used to describe either
God or the character of His acts and is often coupled with God’s covenant love (‫חסד‬,
chesed).60 John’s uses both chesed and ‘emet together to declare that God’s covenant love
and steadfastness displayed through Israel’s history has now come to fullness in the
incarnation.61 Chesed, ‘emet, and God’s name each display the character of God in the
Old Testamen. Jesus, as the incarnational chesed and ‘emet, makes known the name of
God to the world (John 17:6), so that men and women can know God with their entire
being (heart, mind, and strength) (John 17:3).62 Knowing the Father in Christ through the

57
Ibid., 495.
58
Borchert, 202–203. Borchert maintains, “Both truth and the word in John are not merely ideas.
They are embodied in people in the same way that the word became flesh (1:14). See also, Driscoll and
Breshears, Doctrine, 212.
59
Köstenberger, 495–496. He expounds, “This involves the work of both the Son and the Spirit;
association with them—the one who in his person is the truth (14:6; 15:26; 16:13) who will lead believers
into all truth (16:13)—will so sanctify believers that they will be equipped for service for God.” See also,
F.F. Bruce, The Gospel of John, 331.
60
Ladd, 301. He offers, “God’s people are so to glorify God that his hesed and ‘emet will be
evident, and the Gentiles will have no occasion to ask in derision, ‘Where is their God?’ (Ps. 115:1–2).”
61
Ibid., 302. Peter Hicks adds, “The Greeks tended to see (truth) as static, theoretical, and
timeless. The Hebrews tended to see it as dynamic, personal, and practical. It is likely that this general
emphasis would have permeated all the New Testament uses of the concept of truth” (Peter Hicks, The
Story Thus Far: Philosophy Through the Ages [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003], 95).- He continues,
“Truth was personal because God’s revelation in Christ was personal. It was dynamic and practical because
the New Testament Christians’ experience was true, and the pattern of truth in God was the model for all
other manifestation of truth” (Ibid., 96).
62
Ladd, 305. Barnabas Lindars expounds, “the verb hagiazin, instead of the classical form
hagizein, is largely confined to the LXX and literature dependent on it. The same verb is translated
‘consecrate’ in verse 19. It means to bring a thing or person into the sphere of the sacred, and so to dedicate
to holy use, not necessarily in the form of offering sacrifice . . . the disciples need to be men apart,

64

Holy Spirit, believers are introduced to the inter-Trinitarian oneness of the Trinity.63
Therefore, just as God’s actions overflow from His identity, then to know Him is to know
His mission and live on mission with Him. Jesus thus prays that in sending out His
disciples, the Father will sanctify them, in the very character that He has revealed to them
(John 17:19) and brought them into (John 14–16).64 This prayer for sanctification has
profound implications for disciples and mission:65 First, due to the relationship between
sanctification and holiness, Jesus’ prayer that His disciples be sanctified evidences that
His disciples are brought to the Father in Christ, and are thus introduced to His inter-
Trinitarian oneness;66 second, it demonstrates that, like Christ, their mission should
overflow from their identity, and thus their participation in the Trinitarian mission of God
must overflow from living lifestyles of worship.67 In this understanding, Carson
concludes, “Seekers reading this Gospel are thus introduced to the profound mandate and
unique example that animates the witness of Christians.”68 As will be examined, this
identification in the Trinity demands the death of self and new life in Christ through the
Holy Spirit, and is assumed in John through the synonymous nature between “sanctify”

consecrated men. This can be done if they are preserved in (or by) the truth, i.e. by the continuing effect of
God’s word (message) in their minds, for thy word is truth. Truth here (the presence or absence of the
article with the speaking of the revelation of God in Christ with which the disciples have been entrusted,
like ‘name’ in verse 11” (Lindars, The Gospel of John, 528).
63
Beeck, The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity, 312.
64
Hesslegrave and Stetzer, 66 and Ladd, 304.
65
Lindars, 522.
66
Morris, 646. D. A. Carson, demonstrates “The ‘holiness’ word–group from which Sanctify
derives is rather rare in the Fourth Gospel . . . the Father reserved the Son for his own purposes in this
mission into the world . . . Now he prays that God will sanctify (hagiazo) the disciples” (Carson, The
Gospel According to John, 565).
67
James K. A. Smith writes, “the practices of Christian worship are fundamentally ecstatic—
calling us out of ourselves and into the life of the Triune God, not to ‘lose’ ourselves, but to be found in
him” (Smith. Imaging the Kingdom, 149). See also, Köstenberger, John, 496; Carson, The Gospel
According to John, 566–567; Hicks, The Story Thus Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 25; Morris. The
Gospel According to John, 646–647; and Lon Allison in The Complete Evangelism Guidebook: Expert
Advice on Reaching Others For Christ, 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids: Baker, 200), 38.
68
Carson, 566–567.

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and “consecrate” as understood in the OT (cf. Deut. 15:19, 21).69 This prayer for
sanctification is congruent with the threefold unity prayed for in verse eleven, and
exhibits immense evangelistic potential.70
Verses 20–26
As Jesus transitions from praying for the disciples in His day to all those who will
believe in Him in the future, Borchert admonishes, “it is important to notice the
interweaving of the references to the first disciples of Jesus in vv. 20, 22–23 and
references directly or implied to futures disciples in vv. 20–21, etc.”71 Borchert argues
that the clauses hina (“that”), kathōs, (“just as”), hina (untranslated), and hina (“so that”),
interrelate so that oneness must be understood directly to being known by the one who
sent Jesus (John 17:21, 23).72 Borchert’s assertions reveal how living on mission with
God naturally overflows from knowing God and sharing in His inter-Trinitarian
fellowship.73 Robert Letham, Senior Lecturer in Systematic and Historical Theology at
Wales Evangelical School of Theology, writes, “In John 17:21 ff., Jesus prays to the
Father for his church that it will display a unity before the world in some way analogous

69
Craig Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2011),
219), 223. See also, George R. Beasley–Murray, John (Waco, TX: Word Publishers, 1987), 301.
70
Lindars, 223–224. Robert Coleman adds, “they (His disciples) needed to die to themselves in
commitment to the mission of making known the completed work of Christ. Through their witness, and in
turn the witness of those they disciple, Jesus visualized how the world would come to believe in him” (John
17:19–21) (Coleman, 195).
71
Borchert, 206.
72
Ibid., 206.
73
Constantine R. Campbell, Paul and Union With Christ: An Exegetical and Theological
Study (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 363–364. Campbell writes, “Such thinking resonates with Jesus’
prayer of John 17 . . . Also apparently in keeping with Jesus’ words is the extension of the concept of
perichoresis beyond the inner life of the Trinity to envelop humanity . . . The tripersonal God shares his
divine life of communion with humans so that humans may live as a union of persons in communion with
God and one another.” See also, Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, 319.

66

to the union the Son has with the Father in the unity of the indivisible Trinity.”74 Letham
argues that the central tenet of Jesus’ prayer for the church is “his indwelling it and its
consequent introduction into the life of God himself.”75 In understanding Borchert and
Letham, consistent with Köstenberger, Carson, Lindars and Ladd, two parallel truths are
discerned from John 17:
The Father sent the Son à The Son has sent His children à His children are sent by the Father.
The Father & the Son are one à The Son & His children are one à The Father & His children are one.
Though the ultimate point is oneness with God (John 17:3), since mission
naturally overflows from knowing God, Borchert naturally concludes, “Mission must be
central to all discussions of oneness,”76 as this oneness publicly demonstrates who God is
to the world.77 Jesus likewise prays to the Father that His children will be brought into
perfect unity, a complete oneness (John 17:23a), so that the image displayed to the world
perfectly displays the Trinity. It is the Trinity that is on display, so it is the Trinity to
which the believer unites with.78 As Köstenberger explains:
Believers’ unity is neither self-generated nor an end in itself. Believers’

“complete” (τετελειωµενοι, teteleiomenoi) unity results from being taken
into the unity of God, and, once unified, believers will be able to bear
witness to the true identity of Jesus as the Sent One of God…Secure in the
Father’s love, the same love with which he loved his Son, believers will be
able to express and proclaim the Father’s love to a dark and hostile
world.79

74
Robert Letham, Union With Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R
Publishing, 2011), 4.
75
Ibid., 5. See also, Marcus Peter Johnson, One With Christ: An Evangelical Theology of
Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 47; Borchert, The New American Commentary: John 12–21,
206–207; Köstenberger, John, 497; Erwin McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul (Nashville:
Thomas Nelson, 2003), 71.
76
Borchert, 205.
77
Bruce, 335 and Carson, 568.
78
Letham, Union With Christ, 45.
79
Köstenberger, 498–499. See also, Larry Osborne, Accidental Pharisees: Avoiding Pride,
Exclusivity, and the Other Dangers of Overzealous Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 139.

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D. A. Carson argues, “Some measure of unity in the disciples is assumed but Jesus prays
that they may be brought to complete unity, sharing richly in both the unity of purpose
and the wealth of love that tie the Father and the Son together.”80 Consistent with the
already/not yet principle of the Kingdom of God, the oneness of the believer with the
Trinity is complete, even if it has not yet perfected in its outward action.81
F. F. Bruce maintains that this teteleiomenoi unity of love, roots “in the soul but is
manifested in outward action.”82 D. A. Carson furthers:
The unity of the disciples, as it approaches the perfection that is its goal
(teteleiōmenoi; cf. the use of this verb in 4:34; 5:36; 17:4), serves not only
to convince many in the world that Christ is indeed the supreme locus of
divine revelation as Christians claim (that you sent me), but that Christians
themselves have been caught up into the love of the Father for the Son,
secure and content and fulfilled because loved by the Almighty himself
(cf. Eph. 3:17b-19), with the very same love he reserves for his Son. It is
hard to imagine a more compelling evangelistic appeal.83
Divine love displaying the unity of God with believers is not just the most compelling
evangelistic appeal, Morris maintains, but the only appeal that will make it explicable.84
This highlights the essentiality of an embodied lifestyle of worship whereby which the
image of God naturally overflows from being filled with the spirit. United with the
Trinity the believer experiences and embodies God’s love and displays it in his or her life
and relationships.85 Just as some degree of the future perfected unity is assumed even

80
Carson, 569.
81
For a thorough treatment of the already/not yet aspect of the Kingdom of God, see George
Eldon Ladd’s Crucial Questions About The Kingdom of God (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 1998).
82
Bruce, 336.
83
Carson, 569. See also, Michael Horton, Christless Christianity, 125; and, Larry Osborne,
Accidental Pharisees, 140.
84
Morris, 651.
85
Flett, 226. F. F. Bruce proclaims, “The disciples had seen the divine glory in the incarnate Word
on earth (John 1:14); they will see it more fully when they live in the presence of the glorified Lord – not,
perhaps, because he will then be endowed with more of the glory but because they will better able to
behold it” (Bruce, The Gospel of John, 337). See also, Sanders, The Deep Things of God, 238 and
McManus, Uprising, 71.

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now in the disciple’s imperfect state, so too can the glory that Jesus prays for be glimpsed
in and through His disciples today (cf. 1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 4:18).86
Jesus concludes His prayer (vv. 24–26) by coming back to His original emphasis,
making the name of God known (v. 3).87 The Westminster divines denote that man’s
ultimate destiny consists in unbridled fruition (enjoyment) of the Holy Trinity.88 German
reformer Martin Bucer thus writes, “You need to take hold of this prayer and learn it
thoroughly so that you may pray it along with Christ.”89 Smail exhorts with Bucer that
“Christ is both the prototypical divine imaging of God in God and by God and also the
prototypical reflection of that image in our humanity.”90
Man Made in The Image of God – The Imago Dei
While Genesis 1:26–27 sets forth the idea that God has made humankind in His
image,91 it does not define the imago Dei in detail.92 The creation narrative establishes

86
Carson, 569–570.
87
Lindars, 533. Concerning verse 26 Lindars offers, “The great emphasis on the verb ‘to know’ in
these last two verses is to be explained along the lines indicated in the notes on verse 3…the disciples
know, i.e. recognized, that he alone can reveal God, and on this basis he has made known to them thy
name—God’s revealed character, which will be shown later in the verse to be love.” Carson writes, “The
purpose of this continuing manifestation of God himself is, first, that the love the Father has for the Son (cf.
v. 24) may be in them – which may mean ‘amongst them’ (and displayed in their love for one another) or
‘within them’ (so that as individuals they become loving people). It is impossible to think of one without
the other” (Carson, The Pillar New Testament: The Gospel According to John, 570). See also, Damiano
Marzotto. “Giovanni 17 e il Targum di Esodo 19–20’ RivBib [1977], 25:375–388);” as well as
Köstenberger. John, 501.
88
Letham, The Holy Trinity, 473. Tom Sail furthers, “if Jesus is in fact the eternal Son, who, as the
later creedal statements put it, is “God from God, very God from very God,” who is “homoousios, of one
being with the Father,” then God’s relationship with him is no longer solely a Creator–creature relationship
but rather a God–God relationship which necessitates a whole rethink of our understanding of the being and
nature of God, first in a binitarian direction but ultimately in a Trinitarian direction” (Smail. Like Father,
Like Son, 69). See also, Johnson, One With Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation, 48; as well as,
Mark Driscoll, Religion Saves And Nine Other Misconceptions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 243–244.
89
Martin Bucer quoted by James R. Payton Jr., Calvin Theological Journal 27, no. 1, (1992): 26
90
Smail, 59.
91
Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2008), 102. See also, Johann Arndt True Christianity, 248.
92
Stanley J. Grenz, The Social God and the Trinitarian Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago
Dei (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 223. See also, Colin E. Gunton, The Triune Creator:
A Historical and Systematic Study (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 208.

69

how God has endowed humankind to be God’s covenant partner and thus His
representation within creation.93 However, as Stanley Grenz notes, despite the imago
Dei’s crucial role in formulating a Christian anthropology, agreement as to what the
concept entails has not always retained consensus throughout church history tradition.94
In contrast to Grenz’s own use of the term “representation” considering the imago Dei,
Karl Barth sees man as a “copy” and “imitation” of God.95 Comparing three books
written since 2004, Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew refer to the use of image as
a metaphor,96 while Christopher Wright perceives it as adverbial (i.e. something man is
and not what he or she does).97 James David Greear, affirms Wright’s position but
emphasizes, “The word image in the Scripture does not speak of a physical image or a
body, but rather the nonphysical qualities that God chose to give only to humans, with
limitation.”98 Despite how one might particularly view the doctrine of imago Dei, as
Dalferth and Jüngel profess, a human being exists because he or she “is addressed by God
equiprimarilly with regard to both God and to himself, and is called to communion with
God.”99 Like the incomprehensibility of the Trinity, in being made in the image of God,

93
Ibid., 202.
94
Ibid., 141–142.
95
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (quoted in Letham’s, The Holy Trinity, 283).
96
Place in the Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009), 24.
97
Christopher Wright, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2004), 119. Wright’s reference regards what has traditionally been viewed as the
Structural vs. the Relational perspectives of the imago Dei; whereas Wright embodies the Structural here,
Gabe Lyons offers a modern illustration of the Relational, “All of us bear the image of God and, with it, the
ability to create good and environments that affirm goodness” (Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians: The
Good News About the End of Christian America [New York: Doubleday, 2010], 99).
98
James David Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power the Made Christianity Revolutionary
(Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2011), 25. See also, Robert E. Coleman, The Heart of the Gospel: The
Theology Behind the Master Plan of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011), 58; as well as,
Jochem Douma. trans. by Nelson D. Kloosterman The Ten Commandments: Manual for the Christian Life
(Phillipsburg, NJ: R&R Publishing, 1996), 51.
99
Ingolf U. Dalferth and Eberhard Jüngel, “Person and Gottebenbildlichkeit.” In
Christlicher Glaube in moderner Gesellschaft, edited by F. Bröckle et al. 30 vols., 24.57–99 (Freibrug:
Herder, 1981), 182.

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God’s icon within humanity is also incomprehensible.100 However, as with Coleman’s
assertion above, despite its incomprehensibility, what Scripture provides does afford a
means to interpret man’s nature and work.101
Traditional Views of the Imago Dei
The structural and relational views of the imago Dei have predominantly held the
most adherents through the last 2,000 years, promulgated by a body/soul dualism in
modern times.102 However, Jacques Ellul argues, an evaluation of the prevalent positions
proves most enlightening in understanding the modern Christian’s compartmentalization
of the theology, revealing how Christians today “have a very false idea of what (was)
believed in the third or the eleventh centuries . . . Therefore, we are convinced that this is
how the Christians of every period lived and thought, right down to our day.”103 A look
of these views thus proves valuable to understanding the Trinitarian nature of the imago
Dei.

100
Kallistos Ware, foreword to Deification in Christ: Orthodox Perspectives on the Native of the
Human Person, by Panayiotis Nellas, trans. Norman Russell (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 1987), 9.
101
See footnote 4.
102
Ware, 142. Peter Hicks contributes, “Quite apart from providing fuel for endless philosophical
discussion, Cartesian mind/body dualism has profoundly influenced the development of Western thought.
Linked with the accelerating separation between theology and philosophy, between religion and ordinary
life, it validated a radical splitting of the world” (Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages,
245).
103
Jacques Ellul, The New Demons (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 2. His quote continues,
“We are used to reading that the Greeks separated body and soul and that the Christians followed suit; we
find the theologians constantly repeating the same texts about contempt for the body and the need for
asceticism; we know that since the eighteenth century the bourgeoisie have turned Christianity into a
disembodied wraith.” In Evangelism and the Early Church, Michael Green writes, “In the New Testament
itself we find Paul and other Christian missionaries making use of what is true and useful in paganism; in
the second century, this procedure was developed with enthusiasm. It was called “spoiling the Egyptians’,
and was used with great effect by Justin, Aristides, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and the great Alexandrians,
Clement and Origen. Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics, and even Euripides are called to the bar to defend
Christian doctrines of God” (Michael Green, Evangelism in the Early Church: Revised Edition [Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003], 38). See also, Paul’s Areopagus address in Acts 17.

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The Structural View
Considered the most historically held understanding of the imago Dei, the
structural perspective views man being “like” God, in that he has certain inherent
attributes in the structure of his nature that resemble qualities of God.104 Though it is
often asserted that this view comes directly from Scripture, it was introduced by church
fathers who were influenced by and grappled with Greek philosophical tradition.105
Dividing the human into body and soul, traditional Greek anthropology understood the
soul as the “higher” or “ruling” part, prompting Augustine (354–450 AD) to view one’s
journey from the body into the soul as that which marked one’s quest for God.106 Imbued
with Neo-Platonism from Plotinus, which saw reason as the soul’s flashlight shining forth
into the surrounding gloom, Augustine avers that “when its beam falls on those objects
that share the same God-derived incorporeal essence as our soul, they flash out with a
sudden luminosity and meaning that we recognize instantly as truth.” 107 In Augustine’s
estimation, Grenz notes, “the Trinity is prefigured in the structure of the human mind,
specifically, in the three faculties of memory, intellect, and will.”108 The emphasis here
on mind as the structural epicenter of the person reveals the influence of Plato and Neo-
Platonism upon Augustine.109 Indeed, Gillson writes, his “City of God,” “is a kind of

104
Grenz, 142.
105
Ibid., 143. See also, Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious
Revolution Secularized Society, 34; as well as, Peter Hicks, The Journey So Far, 130.
106
Ibid., 61. See also, Arthur Herman, The Cave and The Light: Plato Versus Aritstotle and the
Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization (New York: Random House, 2013), 180; as well as, Hicks,
The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 138.
107
Ibid., 153. See also, Herman, 182.
108
Grenz, 156.
109
Étienne Gilson, The Christian Philosophy of Saint Augustine 1960 repr. (New York: Octagon,
1983), 107–111. Gilson notes how Plato’s emphasis on the understanding of Forms, lends one to lean more
heavily on rational faculties over the spiritual and physical qualities of both God and man. Like Plato,
Augustine argues that the material world of sensory experiences does not offer a person any vital truths, as
Arthur Herman declares, “What vital truths does the world of sensory experience offer us? The Augustinian
Christian will answer as Plato does in the Theaetetus: None…There is nothing there to interest the searcher

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Platonic ideal, of which Christendom can become an earthly reflection only if it strictly
follows God’s word and Laws and embed them in men’s hearts.”110 Tracing through
Christian history, Grenz reveals how Augustine “formed the conduit through which the
patristic teaching regarding the imago Dei flowed into theology of the medieval Western
church,”111 and from which the structural understanding of the divine image eventually
became the standard interpretation of this theological concept.112
Drawing from Augustine’s influence and example, Boethius (480–524 AD)
likewise defined personhood through Greek philosophical ideas.113 Where Boethius’
influence differed, however, is that in connecting person with one’s unique identity,
Boethius laid the foundation for the expressivist concept of the self that would come to
full fruition in the Romantic movement and would guide the Enlightenment “conception
of self as fundamentally rational.”114 The inward turn that Augustine initiated in his
search for God in the human soul Boethius advanced in elevating the individual and
establishing the process, which would one day enthrone the self.115
Like other medieval theologians, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274 AD) gave place to
Augustine’s structural understanding of the imago Dei but struggled to reconcile the
battle it created between reason and faith.116 From the influence of his teacher Albert

after wisdom, only more shadows and gloom” (Herman. The Cave and the Light, 184). See also, Grenz,
The Social God and the Trinitarian Self, 153; and, Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the
Ages, 52–56 and 189.
110
Ibid., 184–185. According to Grenz, throughout his later writings, the idea that the divine
image is rationality and is the structure of the should itself came to overshadow the theme of Christ as the
true image (Grenz, The Social God and the Trinitarian Self, 153). See also, Peter Hicks, The Journey So
Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 193.
111
Grenz, 157.
112
Ibid.
113
Ibid., 65.
114
Ibid., 67.
115
Ibid.
116
Ibid., 159.

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Magnus, Aquinas became impressed by Aristotle’s major texts, most notably
Metaphysics.117 Aristotle would help Aquinas reconcile his battle, concluding that faith
and reason are two sides of the same coin. Yet, Arthur Herman maintains, “Aquinas’s
God is not Aristotle’s Prime Mover. He is a beneficent Creator and creative Architect,
and composite figure from Scripture and Plato’s Timaeus.”118 Human beings, Aquinas
avers, begin with what they know (reason), but the Bible and divine revelation impact the
realm of the senses (sensory experience) as well.119 He thus concludes, “our goal must be
to bring man’s unique fusion of body, mind, and spirit to its highest perfection.”120 His
position would serve as the edifice of the structural view that had been developing since
the 2nd century.121 Constant for the first 1,500 years of Christianity, this view saw the
image of God in man as reason and choice, in that by using these two faculties man best
reflects the Creator who reveals truth and is free to choose.122 However, it was soon to
come under attack.123
The Relational View
Finding Aquinas’ reconciliation between faith and reason lacking, Martin Luther
vigorously contended with the patristic and medieval views regarding the imago Dei.124
Grenz maintains that the relational understanding of the imago Dei which would come to

117
Herman, 233.
118
Ibid., 235–236.
119
Ibid., 235.
120
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 5
vols. (Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1948), I.12.1, 1:49. See also, Herman, The Social God and the
Trinitarian Self, 161and 237.
121
Herman, 161. See also, Peter Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 208.
122
Jason Van Vliet, Children of God: The Imago Dei in John Calvin and His Context (Göttingen,
Germany: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht Unipress, 2009), 60.
123
Herman, 161.
124
Grenz, 163.

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epitomize the position of the Reformers “presupposes that a relationship exists between
Creator and creature and views the image as what occurs as a consequence of the
relationship,” as the image of God in humankind “is less a faculty humans possess than
an act that humans do.”125 Against the medieval notion that the divine image is a capacity
to know and love God, Luther argues, “it involves the right ordering or right functioning
of reason and will so that the human person in fact does know and love God.”126 For
Luther (referring to Plato’s cave), “The path of reason doesn’t lead us toward the light of
God, but only deeper into the cave; in fact, right to the gates of hell.”127 Man could not
come to know and appreciate God by looking to himself in his fallen nature.
Like Luther, Calvin’s understanding of the imago Dei is not formulated from
man’s fallen state but from his restoration in Christ.128 Rejecting Greek philosophy’s
admonition of the soul within the context of forms and matter, he looked to Scripture as
the source for his understanding of the divine image in man.129 Calvin did not discount
the work and views of the long line of theologians who preceded him, however, and
agreed with patristic fathers and medieval theologians that the location of the divine
image resided in the soul. 130 However, Van Vliet expounds, “Calvin’s understanding of
the image of God is not merely ontological, but over time, becomes increasingly

125
Ibid., 162.
126
Ibid., 164. See also, Herman, The Cave and the Light, 319.
127
Herman, 320.
128
Grenz, 169. See also, John Calvin, John T. McNeill, ed. Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2
vols. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 1.15.3 (1:208).
129
Van Vliet, 25. Van Vliet maintains that Calvin’s “doctrine of humanitas...is focused upon the
redemptive historical line of creation, fall, restoration, and final consummation” (Van Vliet, The Children
of God, 262).
130
Ibid., 30 and 125. He enlightens, “Stretching out almost as far as the eye can see, there is a long
line of theologians preceding Calvin who contemplated Scripture’s teaching on the special dignity accorded
to medieval scholars such as Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux and Anselm of Canterbury, but also
church fathers such as Augustine of Hippo, Basil the Great and Irenaeus of Lyons” (Van Vliet, Children of
God, 30).

75

relational.”131 To Calvin the progression of being made in Christ was the restoration of
the divine image in believers.132
Ultimately, the Reformers sought to merge the structural and relational views of
the imago Dei. Yet, according to Grenz, they never fully expounded the relational
position, nor completely eschewed the Greek philosophical influences of the structural.133
Throughout church history, adherents from both positions have constantly struggled to
find a synthesis of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Neoplatonic thought regarding the soul.134
In the wake of both parties, the dualisms and individualism that have since colonized the
age of modernity have resulted in the distortion of what it means to be one with Christ.135
Consistent with the truth demonstrated in John 17 that what Christians do should
overflow out of who they are, body/soul dualism is a distorted view of personhood that
lends Christians to struggle in displaying Christ to the world.136
The ultimate issue that emerges with traditional views of the image Dei (structural
and relational) and their Platonic and/or Aristotelian roots lies in their grouping of both
the cognitive and affective aspects of the person into a single entity (what they term the
soul) and thus put primacy to its rational qualities.137 In contrast, Scripture differentiates

131
Ibid., 117.
132
Ibid., 127.
133
Grenz, 170.
134
Herman, The Cave and the Light, Aquinas (225) vs. Averroës (228); Bernard vs. Abelard (206–
207); Augustine (180) vs. Boethius (191); the Reformers (319) with Galileo (337), Isaac Newton (348),
Nicolas Copernicus (351) and René Descartes (351), as well as pp. 564–567. See also, Gregory, The
Unintended Reformation, 314–315.
135
J. Todd Billings, Union With Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 167. Peter Callero notes, “Most people today view personhood from a
psychological perspective where the individual and society are assumed to be distinct entities” (Peter L.
Callero, The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives [Lanham, MD: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, 2009], 3).
136
Letham, The Holy Trinity, 459. Letham exclaims, “Where the person is held to be problematic,
love will wither.”
137
Grenz, 61. See also, Herman, The Cave and the Light, 564–567.

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the cognitive qualities from the affective, using the terms heart and spirit distinct from
mind.138 Contrary to the dualistic perspectives of the divine image, a view of personhood
coherent with the gospel reflects of the tripersonal God who made it.139
At its basic structure, human life reflects the Trinitarian life of God.140 Robert
Letham concurs and connects the Trinitarian divine image to the oneness of God
believers experience in Christ, as espoused in John 17 above.141 Van Vliet affirms that
mankind being made in the likeness of the Triune God is consistent with the majority of
Christian theologians, especially John Calvin, remarking, “It is important to note that
Calvin strove to maintain a Trinitarian understanding of the image. When some of his
opponents emphasized the Son at the expense of the Father and the Holy Spirit, he
resisted that trend vigorously.”142 Smail demonstrates through the perichoresis of Trinity
(how the three persons of the Trinity [Father, Son and the Holy Spirit] relate within one
another), that just as God’s Triune mission is the natural overflow of His identity, so too
is man’s:
God is presented to us in a human life, but through his Trinitarian

perichoresis that human life images both the Father and the Spirit so that
the specificities of their functions and their relationships come into focus.
As we look at him we see not just him but the Father who has sent him
and the Spirit who fills him, so that in him imago Dei is imago
Trinitatis.143

138
Ezekiel 36:26–27 and Matthew 22:37. Peter Hicks asserts, “The theocentricity and
Christocentricity make the New Testament anthropology unique, affecting, as they did, the concepts of the
soul, the mind, the will, and the body, together with issues of morality, relationships, and freedom. No
other understanding of humankind in the ancient world came anywhere near it” (Hicks, The Journey So
Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 102–103).
139
Smail, 139 and Letham, 459. Johan Arndt writes, “Among all the works there was no visible
likeness of the invisible God that was similar to its Creator. Therefore, by a special, marvelous, and
miraculous decision of the Holy Trinity, God created man to his image” (Arndt, True Christianity, 246).
140
Ibid., 153. He expounds, “We are in the image of God, not just because our personhood is
dependent upon our relationality, but because, by virtue of our creation by the triune God, we mirror the
Father, we mirror the Son, and we mirror the Holy Spirit.”
141
Letham, The Holy Trinity, 474–475.
142
Van Vliet, 255.
143
Smail, 106.

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Imago Trinitatis
While dualistic understandings of the imago Dei have had the majority of
adherence in modern theology, Trinitarian perspectives have not been without
proponents, each seeking a cohesion between three of five parts: soul, spirit, heart, mind,
and/or flesh. Dallas Willard propositions what he terms the “Golden Triangle” of
Spiritual Growth:144
Illustration 2.1. Dallas Willard’s “Golden Triangle”
Willard’s Golden Triangle sees a person existing and motivated by the Holy Spirit,
Ordinary Events of Life (flesh), Planned Discipline to Put on a New Heart, all Centered
in the Mind of Christ, writing, “all three points of the triangle are absolutely essential—to
one another as well as the overall goal of spiritual growth. None will work on its own.”145
The hindrance of Willard’s view lies in how he begins with seeking to answer how one

144
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in Christ (New York:
Harper, 1998), 347. Illustration included.
145
Ibid., 349.

78

can be more like Christ, and then formulates his imago Dei concept of what or who they
are. Keneneth Boa, in contrast, sees the “being” dynamic as essential to the structure of
the imago Dei:146
Illustration 2.2. Kenneth Boa’s Imago Dei – Knowing, Being, and Doing
Boa perceives the imago Dei as Knowing, Being and Doing, each complimenting the
other, “A full-orbed spirituality involves grounding biblical truth and sound doctrine
(knowing), growing in character and personal experience with God (being), and
developing gifts and skills in the service of others (doing).”147 Although Boa accounts for
personhood (Being), the Holy Spirit is not addressed, despite His integral presence in
one’s identity in Christ (Ezek 36:26; John 14-17; Eph. 1:13; and 2 Cor 1:22).
Robert Saucy illustrates the imago Dei in a traditional trichotomy fashion, which
sees the body housing the soul, and the heart as its center:148

146
Kenneth Boa, Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual
Formation (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 300. Illustration included.
147
Ibid., 300.
148
Robert L. Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Formation (Grand Rapids, MI:
Kregel, 2013), 33. Illustration included.

79

Illustration 2.3. Robert Saucey’s Imago Dei – Body, Soul, and Heart
Like Boa, Saucy’s position on the imago Dei leaves out the presence and work of the
Holy Spirit. However, like Willard’s Golden Triangle, Saucy espouses a cycle that moves
the individual in discipleship: thoughtà emotionàactionàthought.149 Saucy looks to
who/what a person is to address what they should do/live but fails to account for the Holy
Spirit in the life of the believer.
Each of these positions seeks to find an answer to what John Calvin calls, “one
single, comprehensive experience in which all the three are united in such a manner that
each contributes its share and all cooperate unto man’s salvation and God’s glory.”150 As
Van Vliet argues, for Calvin “the image is an attributive similarity which the Triune God
imprinted upon the human soul from the beginning.”151 While Willard, Boa, and Saucy
each sought either what man is or how he should live, they must instead be understood
complementary (that is man living out of who he or she is), illustrated not only through
the words image and likeness but also that when God breathes into man he or she

149
Ibid., 193.
150
John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel of John (Charleston, SC: BiblioLife, 2009), 2:11.
Peter Hicks likewise avers, “As complex creatures, we can be described in a variety of ways—as spirit,
soul, heart, body and flesh. Each description has its own nuance, but they all tend to overlap with each
other, emphasizing the unity, rather than the fragmentation, of the human person” (Hicks, The Story Thus
Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 25).
151
Van Vliet, 253.

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becomes a living soul (Gen 2:7).”152 Although Willard, Boa, and Saucy each use or
allude to the terms mind, heart, Spirit, flesh, and soul, their individual definition and
understanding of what the soul is, as well as where it lies, differentiates each of their final
views of the imago Dei and its function toward becoming like Christ. Calvin’s position
differs from, however, as the reformer maintained that in being created in the likeness of
the Trinity the human soul is the principal core of the divine image.153 Presently, Calvin’s
search for a comprehensive experience remains. If a unified understanding of the
structural and relational aspects of the imago Dei which encompasses the aspects of
personhood mentioned in Scripture (mind, heart, soul, Spirit, and flesh) is to be found,
then it must be Trinitarian, and it must begin, Calvin shows, with the soul.
The Soul
Regardless of how one conceives the soul, theologians understand its corruption
in all its parts because its relationship with God is fundamentally distorted.154 Humankind
is perpetually dissatisfied unless they have God Himself, and an insatiable
discontentment permeates the totality of their being.155 Beyond this agreement, however,
theological debates have continued regarding the ontological structuring of the soul,
arguing between either a dichotomy (body and soul) or trichotomy (body, soul, mind).
John Cooper notes that while traditional Christianity has “held fast to an ontological
distinction between body and soul . . . in modern times body-soul dualism has come

152
Brian S. Borgman, Feelings and Faith: Cultivating Godly Emotions in the Christian Life
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 48.
153
Van Vliet, 267.
154
Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1951), 212.
155
Gerhard von Rad, Genesis: A Commentary, trans. John H. Marks, rev. ed. (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1973), 59; and, Arndt, 270.

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under a series of attacks.”156 Adversaries of a body-soul dualism imago Dei assert that its
dichotomy has been founded on the Greek dualism of body and soul founded by
Socrates.157 Convinced that this dichotomy is alien to nature of the Triune storyteller,158 a
new accord has arisen to come along Tertullian,159 Irenaeus160 and Calvin,161 maintaining
that however one understands the imago Dei, personhood is understood holistically, with
the physical and spiritual aspects not being separated but embraced and encompassed.162
However, proponents of this holistic understanding of the imago Dei likewise affirm that
the trichotomy perspective is founded more in Greek philosophy than biblical exegesis.163
Ultimately, as John Cooper concludes, whether one holds fast to a dichotomy or
trichotomy ontological understanding of the soul, “Historians of Christianity have
confirmed that the roots of traditional anthropology are nourished by the soil of the

156
John W. Cooper, Body, Soul, and Life Everlasting: Biblical Anthropology and the Monism–
Dualism Debate (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 31. See also, Colin E. Gunton The Triune Creator, 210–
211.
157
Herman, 5. See also, Grenz, The Social God and the Trinitarian Self, 61.
158
Grenz, 193–194.
159
In 210 AD, Tertullian concluded, “Every simple–minded person who agrees with our opinion
will be apt to suppose that the flesh will have to be present at the final judgment….Otherwise, the soul
would incapable of suffering pain or pleasure—for it is incorporeal” (Tertullian, Christian and Pagan in
the Roman Empire. Ed. By Robert D. Sider. [Washington D.C.: Catholic University of American Press,
2001], 3.557). David Bercot writes, “Since the early church had no specific dogma about the nature and
origin of the soul, Tertullian’s theory was not considered heretical. Nevertheless, it was a minority view.
Some of Irenaeus’s understandings of the soul are similar to Tertullian’s, although Irenaeus does not go as
far with the theory of the soul’s corporeality as does Tertullian” (David W. Bercot, ed. A Dictionary of
Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church
Fathers [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2012], 628).
160
Irenaeus writes regarding John 17, “What was his object in praying that these three—that is,
soul, body, and spirit—might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware of the
reintegration and union of the three?” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, translated and edited by Alexander
Roberts and James Donaldson [Ex Fontibus Company, 2010], 1.532).
161
Continuing Calvin’s position on the Trinitarian nature of man, Calvin’s affirmation sides
against body–soul dualism, “at creation God fashioned all the faculties and attributes of Adam’s soul to
work cohesively and cooperatively. In fact, even the senses of his body were designed to function in
unencumbered harmony with the intellect and will of the soul” (Van Vliet, Children of God, 117).
162
Grenz, 193–194.
163
Driscoll and Breshears, 129.

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Hellenistic worldview, not by Scripture as had always been assumed.”164 In contrast, a
robust doctrine of the imago Dei that accounts for the soul must be founded and
established from Scripture.
In response, through careful and extensive analysis, biblical scholars have
resolved that the biblical view of human nature is not dualistic or trichotic at all but quite
unequivocally holistic and triune.165 As Larry Edwards writes, “He (man) became a
trinity consisting of a body, a mind, and a spirit, namely, ‘a living soul’ [‫ נפש‬, neh’-fesh]
made in the imago Dei.”166 Advocates assert that souls are not something man possesses

164
Cooper, 31. See also, Grenz, The Social God and the Trinitarian Self, 143. Socrates
simultaneously set into action the courses for both a dichotomy and trichotomy perspective: In Phaedo
Socrates concluded that man should devote himself to freeing his mind and soul from the distractions of the
body (trichotomy) (Plato, Phaedo in Plato’s The Last Days of Socrates, trans. Hugh Tredennick
[Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1954], 111); yet, Socrates would later group the mind and soul together into the
“rational soul” or psyche which was deemed far more important than the body (dualism/dichotomy)
(Herman, The Cave and the Light, 15). From these two positions, Socrates’s notions on the soul would
“become an integral part of Western thinking for the next two thousand years” (Herman, 15).
In Timaeus and Critias, Plato would begin to deflect Socrates’ assertions that God could be
reached by reason alone while beginning to speak of a God who is a “rational, beneficent Creator, who is
pure spirit, and pure mind” and “being the supreme source of all goodness and perfection…would want all
things to be as like Himself as possible and therefore as perfect as possible (Plato, Timaeus and Critias,
trans. Desmond Lee. [Hamondsworth: Penguin, 1965], 42).” Here, upon the dichotomy and trichotomy
streams set by Socrates, Plato would begin to influence the image of God perspectives for not only Greek
thought, but early Christianity as well (Herman, 36).
In place of Plato’s philosophy of transcendence, Aristotle would offer a philosophy of causation
whereby which through discovery of what something does, man can learn what it is supposed to do and be,
and through the use of his faculties and power, like the senses and the passions, man can move toward
discovering what he is supposed to do and be, and in turn discover God, who is pure nous (mind) (Aristotle,
Posterior Analytics in Introduction to Aristotle. ed. Richard McKeon [New York: Modern Library, 1947],
11).
With Socrates establishing the foundation of the trichotomy vs. dichotomy debate, Plato setting
upon them the notions that God desires for man to be as much like him as possible, and Aristotle
establishing the perspective that what something is can be understood by discovering what it is supposed to
do, Plotinus explores the challenge of how to make the rational soul one with the Absolute Nous (Herman,
137–139). Whether it be the trichotomy or dichotomy understanding the ontology of the soul that have
littered church history, or the influence of Aristotle and Plotinus in theologians looking to how man should
live to discover who he is (see Willard, Boa, and Saucy above), the continual Hellenistic influence in the
understanding of the soul and the imago Dei cannot be understated.
165
Cooper, 31. See also Saucey, Minding the Heart, 33; Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 232;
and, von Rad, Genesis, 59.
166
Larry D. Edwards, MD., Made in the Imago Dei: Made to be Whole: Unlocking the Key to
Health from the Bible (Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2011), 60. See also, Theophilus (c. 180). Apology
quoted in Bercot’s A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics
Discussed by the Early Church Fathers, 2.102; as well as, Tertullian, 3.300.

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but something that he or she is.167 For the past two thousand years, Structural and
Relational understandings of the imago Dei have sought to find a comprehensible
position that encompasses the flesh, Spirit, soul, mind, and heart. However, these
approaches might have been beginning with a misnomer by asserting that the soul rests as
a part with the others. Paul Tanner illustrates this in a March 2013 article of JETS
concerning the translation of “soul” as the all-inclusive term “life” in Mark. 8:36-37:
Rather inconsistently the NASB (and the NIV) use the translation “soul”
in verse 36 rather than “life,” though in the Greek text this is the same
word as in verse 35 (i.e. ψυχη). The NET Bible is consistent in verse 36:
he will “forfeit his life” Concerning v. 37, Once again, the word “soul” is
the same word translated “life” in verse 35 (i.e. ψυχη).168
Though Greek translations use psyche in verses 35 and 36 (both in the Accusative
Singular), it has been traditionally translated as “life” in verse 35 and then as “soul” in
verse 36.169 Translating these two verse as such lends one to view a distinction between
the soul and physical world (the flesh/body) and encouraging the body/soul dualism. This
concept stands in contrast to the biblical notion that the soul is the triune togetherness of
the three (mind, spirit/heart, flesh/strength), as Gary Breshears maintains regarding Paul’s
letters, “(the soul) is nether the immortal in a person nor only the immaterial part of the
person. Instead the soul in Paul’s thinking refers to the whole person created by God.”170
In The Deep Things of God, Fred Sanders adheres to this understanding of the soul, using
the terms head, hand, and heart as the parts comprising it:171

167
Driscoll and Breshears, 125; and, Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages,
105.
168
Paul Tanner, “The Cost of Discipleship: Losing One’s Life for Jesus Sake,” JETS:
Journal of the Evangelical Society 56, no. 1, (2013), 53.
169
The NIV, NLT, ESV, NASB, & the KJV each does this, while HCSB and NET both
consistently translate psyche as “life” in both verses.
170
171
Sanders, 115. See also, Borgman, 53 and, Arndt, 210.

84

Illustration 2.4. Fred Sanders’ Head, Hand, and Heart
As such, “When God begins that wonderful work of redemption, it is a work on the
whole person. Any view of saving grace that does not encompass the totality of our
humanity is deficient.”172 The imago Dei must mirror the Trinity for indigenous-
missional living.
Consistent with a Trinitarian understanding of God, God created man to exist as a
Trinitarian soul.173 Jesus’ Great Commandment illustrates the parts of this nature,
instructing man to love him with all his or her soul, heart, mind, and strength (Matt 22:37,
Mark 12:30). Consistent with Breshears’s assertions of Paul’s theology of the soul,
Philippians 2:5–8 demonstrates how Christians are to fulfill their mission in the same
way that Christ’s fulfillment of His mission encompassed all of these parts of Himself:
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being
born in the likeness of man (flesh). And being found in human form, he
humbled (heart) himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross. (ESV)

172
Borgman, 53.
173

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To reflect God to the world, humankind must be an image of God. Since God is triune,
man is triune as well. As Driscoll and Breshears write, “Imaging God involves thinking
with our heads, feeling with our hearts, and doing with our hands.”174 Identifying the
triune soul as the ontological nature of the imago Dei, consisting of the heart, mind, and
flesh, moves towards Calvin’s comprehensive experience whereby man is structurally
made in the image of God while being able to better relate to both God and man.
Understanding the soul as what makes someone a person, made up of his or her
spirit/heart, mind, and body (flesh/strength), one finds the Trinitarian imago Dei, or
imago Trinitatis.
Illustration 2.5. Imago Trinitatis
Formulating a Trinitarian understanding of personhood, however, does not
automatically form one into the image of Christ and lead him or her to live on mission
with God by fulfilling the two mandates of Scripture: The Great Commandment (Matt.
22:38–40) and The Great Commission (Matt 28:19–20). That is, merely recognizing the

174
Mark Driscoll, Who Do You Think You Are: Finding Your True Identity in Christ (Nashville,
Thomas Nelson, 2013), 4. They write,

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existence of orthodoxy (right belief), orthopraxy (right practice), and orthopathy (right
affections) does not naturally lead on to naturally think as Christ did, love as He loved,
and live as He lived. Discipleship must move in accordance with Scripture. Therefore,
examination as to what Scripture says regarding these components of the soul, and how
they relate to and with one another, stands as the next step in understanding how one
might live a lifestyle of worship. In a Trinitarian declaration of life after Pentecost (i.e.
New Covenant living), Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit (the Helper, sent by
the Father) would teach them all things and bring to remembrance all that He (the Son)
had told them (John 14:26). Emphasizing that the Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance,
the first component of the soul addressed here is the mind.
Mind
God continually emphasizes the mind and the act of remembering throughout
Scripture. Upon crossing the Jordan River, He calls the people of Israel to stack stones, so
that their future generations will ask and remember what God did for them (Josh 4:1–7).
At the Offering of the First Fruits and Tithes, one was to verbally recount the story of
Abraham and the Exodus (Deut 26:5–11). And, concerning the Lord’s Supper, Jesus
instructed, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24–25).175 In regards
to sin, Paul reveals how the mind plays a crucial part in the sin of all mankind (Rom
1:18–23). And, regarding Israel, God Himself declares that “My people are destroyed for
lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from
being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your

175
J. P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the
Spirit’s Power (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 8.

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children” (Hos 4:6). J. P. Moreland emphasizes that not only has Israel rejected faith,
“They have rejected the only appropriate ground for faith—knowledge. It comes as a
surprise to people that Scripture has as much or more to say about knowledge than
faith.”176 Paul, admonishes the Christians in Rome that, “to set the mind on the flesh is
death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6), urging them later to
not be, “conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, that
by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and perfect” (Rom
12:2).177 He would likewise urge the church at Corinth to “be united in the same mind” (1
Cor 1:10) and even tied the mind’s relationship to the spirit, urging them to stand firm “in
one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (1 Cor 1:27). To
those in Philippi, he commanded to have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5), and advised them
to think on whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, any excellence,
and anything worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8). He told the Colossian believers to “Set your
minds on things that are above not on things that are on earth (Col. 3:2).” And, declared
to the Corinthians in their second letter, “We destroy arguments of every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2
Cor. 10:5).”178 These passages represent but just a few regarding the role the mind,
knowledge, and understanding play in being conformed into the likeness of Christ.

176
Ibid., 114. Scriptures regarding knowledge: Gen 12:11; 15:8–9; Ex 18:11; 33:12; Num 16:28–
33; Deut 4:39; Josh 4:21–22; 23:13; 1 Sam 20:3; 2 Sam 14:20; 19:20; 1 Kings 2:37; 2 Kings 2:37; 5:8; 2
Chron 13:5; Ps 4:3; Prov 10:32; Isa 49:26; Jer. 26:15; Ezek 5:13; 14:23; 17:21; Dan 2:45; 7:19; 9:25; Zech
2:11; cf. 4:9; Matt 13:11; 22:16; 22:29; 24:43; Luke 1:3–4, 18; John 3:2; 4:25; 7:17, 27; 8:28; 9:20–21, 29;
10:38; 21:24; Acts 2:22; 15:7; 17:19–20; 20:18; 22:30; 28:22; Rom 3:19; 7:14; 8:22, 28; 1 Cor 8:1–2, 4;
11:3; 13:9; 15:58; 2 Cor 5:1; Gal 3:7; Eph 5:5; Phil 1:25; 1 Thess 1:5; 2:2; 1 Tim 1:8; 4:3; 2 Tim 3:1; Heb
12:17; James 5:20; 1 Pet. 1:18–19; 1 John 2:3, 18; 3:2; 5:2, 13, 15; Jude 10; Rev 2:23
177
Johan Arndt, 243.
178
John Piper and David Mathis, Thinking. Loving. Doing. A Call to Glorify God with
Heart and Mind (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 15.

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Although crucially significant to discipleship, the cultivating of the Christian
mind cannot be to the disregard of Christian character or receptivity to the Holy Spirit.179
Orthodoxy must not be elevated above orthopathy. Orthodoxy is foundational to
orthopathy, and both must be held in balance with each other within the nature of their
relationship. Proper employment of knowing God, Brother Lawrence stresses, impacts
the heart, leading one to desire God more, and, in turn, love Him more deeply.180 As
Piper concludes, “loving him with all our minds means that our mind—our thinking—is
not what does the loving but what fuels the loving. Loving God with the mind means our
mind does all it can to awaken and express our treasuring God above all things.”181 Piper
and Brother Lawrence’s references, built upon scriptures such as 1 Cor 1:27 demonstrate
the transition between the mind and heart, as discipleship take place.
Illustration 2.6. Imago Trinitatis – Mind and Heart (Spirit) Transition

179
Paul M. Gould and Richard Brian Davis, eds. Loving God With Your Mind: Essays in
Honor of J. P. Moreland (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014), 222.See also, Smith, 12. Smith writes,
“Seeing Christianity as primarily a set of doctrines, beliefs, and ideas, they implicitly and functionally
reduce Christian education to the acquisition of knowledge.”
180
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God: With Spiritual Maxims (Boston:
Shambhala, 2005), 64–65.
181
Piper and Mathis, 131.

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Mind and Heart (Spirit) Transition
Jesus, Paul, and James each show the dynamic relationship between the mind and
the heart in the New Testament. Regarding Israel, Jesus speaks of the people’s failure to
“understand with their heart(s)” (Matt 13:15). Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4 speaking that the
“heart” of man could not “imagine” in 1 Cor 2:9. And, James makes use of the Trinitarian
imago Dei, admonishing, “Cleanse your hands, you sinner; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded” (James 4:7). These perspectives are consistent with the Old Testament,
which extols man to keep God’s words of wisdom in his or her hearts (Prov 4:21; cf.
2:1).182 The Hebrew word for “heart” (‫לב‬, leb) commonly denotes the entire conscious
person (reasoning, understanding, emotions, conscience, and will), as Jerry Bridges
writes, “You can readily see, however that all those internal activities are carried out in
the realm of our thoughts.”183 Paul continues this theme, using the word “heart” (καρδία,
kardia) in much the say way as “mind” (νουσ, nous).184 As Brother Lawrence illustrates,
“We must know before we can love.” 185 And, in thinking often of God, man comes to
love Him more and more deeply, for He will become their treasure. Therefore, he urges,

182
Saucy, 103. Referencing Proverbs, Saucy continues, “Bind the Lord’s words on our heart
entails “memorizing [them] in such a way” that they become permanently impressed on our “essential
mental and spiritual being” and prompt all of our actions.” Johannes Pederson evidence that this was
consistent with Judaic thought, “For the Israelites, thinking was not the solving of abstract problems. To
him thinking is to grasp a totality. He directs his heart towards the principal matter, that which determines
the totality, and receives it into his heart, the heart thus being immediately stirred and led in a certain
direction” (Johannes Pederson Israel: Its Life and Culture [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959], 108).
183
Jerry Bridges, I Will Follow You, O God. (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook Press, 2001), 36–37.
See also, Doran. The Trinity in History, 251.
184
David G. Peterson, Transformed by God: New Covenant Life and Ministry (Downers
Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2012), 136. Peterson expounds, “As in the Old Testament, the heart denotes the
centre of the person as a rational, emotional and volitional being . . . Paul’s employment of ‘heart’ language
incorporates the emotive dimension, as well as thinking and willing (e.g. Rom. 5:5; 9:2; 10:1).” See also
Piper. Thinking. Loving. Doing., 17.
185
Lawrence, 51–52. See also, Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 207.

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“take heed that your mind wanders not back to the world again: keep it fixed on God
alone, so that, thus subdued by the will, it may be constrained to abide with God.”186
Illustration 2.7. Imago Trinitatis – Mind, Heart, and Will
Saucy remarks, “the deepest thoughts and emotions of our life are buried in the recesses
of our heart. The thoughts we keep from others, we hide in our heart.”187 Here, one
begins to understand the relationship between the mind and the heart/spirit, with the will
being that which moves thoughts into treasured passions.
Heart (Spirit)
In Ezekiel 36:26–27, the Lord proclaims, “And I will give you a new heart, and a
new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from within you and
give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statues and be careful to obey my rules.” Here, God shows the synonymous nature of

186
Ibid., 86. Saucy likewise admonishes, “Scripture teaches not only that our heart is the director
of our life, but that we also direct our heart. (Prov. 4:23; 23:19) (Saucy, 45).” Peter Hicks concludes, “Just
as God is much more than pure intellect, we are made up of reason plus will plus passions and desires. The
key virtue is love, not reason (Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages, 218).”
187
Saucy, 37.

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the terms heart and spirit used concerning man throughout both Testaments.188 In
Scripture, heart is termed for both the physical and the metaphorical heart, also referred
to as spirit.189 Considered who a person really is: the heart is from where life flows (Prov
4:23); how and from where faith is expressed (Rom. 10:9–10); and where Christ dwells
and is acknowledged as Lord (Col 3:14; 1 Pet 3:15). Scripture creates a perpetual picture
of the heart’s control of life (Deut 30:17; Eccles 10:2; Jer 11:8; cf. 7:24; 24:16; 16:12;
18:12; 23:17).190
Only God knows what goes on in the heart. And He rejects insincere worship,
even if the outward appearance looks right.191 In response, God desires that His children
“search after him with all your heart” (Deut 4:29), to “serve the Lord your God with
joyfulness and gladness of heart” (Deut 28:47), and encourages them to “keep your heart
with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov 4:23). Paul thus calls the
Christians in Rome to “become obedient from the heart” (Rom 6:17), as David Peterson
notes, “God’s love is ‘actually brought home to our hearts (so that we have recognized it
and rejoice in it) by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’”192 Christ declared, “For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt 6:21; Luke 12:34). Whatever
a person desires becomes sacred to him or her, and all things that work to impede that

188
Ibid., 32. See also, Edwards, Made in the Imago Dei, 325.
189
Moreland, 159. John Cooper expounds, “the heart in Hebrew thought is not significant
primarily for its role in organic existence, but as the hidden control–center of the whole human being . . .
So, as with nephesh and ruach, there are significant ways in which the biblical idea of the heart and modern
notion of the ego, person, or deep self do overlap” (Cooper, 42).
190
Saucy, 31 and 43.
191
Gary Reimers, The Glory Due His Name: What God Says About Worship (Greenville, SC: Bob
Jones University Press, 2009), 88. See also, Robert Saucy, Minding the Heart, 37.
192
Peterson, 145. Jerry Bridges contributes, “The transformation into the image of Jesus . . . is a
deep penetrating work of the Holy Spirit in the very core of our being, what the Bible calls the heart” (Jerry
Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel [Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2012], 12).

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desire will be viewed as bad or evil.193 Dallas Willard expounds, “The person who
treasures what lies within the kingdom sees everything in its true worth and relationship.
The person who treasures what is ‘on earth,’ by contrast, sees everything from a
perspective that distorts it and systematically mislead in practice.”194 In recounting the
revival manifesting in his day, Jonathan Edwards testifies how treasuring Christ above all
else overflowed into a transformed heart within the people, to the effect that this new
heart impacted their word and deeds, and manifested into action.195
Heart (Spirit) and Body (Flesh/Strength) Transition
Jesus teaches that what a one says and does emerges from the heart (Luke 6:45;
Matt 12:34-35). In Matthew 15:18, he affirms and expounds, “For out of the heart come
evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, (and) slander.”
James recounts the process by which the one is tempted in the flesh by the treasure in
their heart, “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then
desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth
death” (James 1:14–15). Jeff Kinley demonstrates that the New Testament writers,
“understood that once sin is conceived in our minds or manufactured in our hearts it is
then birthed in actions.”196 Understanding how actions overflow from the heart
demonstrates how a person, as James Smith says, “might have a highly developed,
articulate ‘worldview’ and yet act in ways that are remarkably inconsistent with such a

193
Willard, 54.
194
Ibid., 206.
195
Jonathan Edwards, Jonathan Edwards: On Revival (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust,
1999), 72.
196
Jeff Kinley The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook: Slaying the Living Dead Within
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 58.

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perspective.” 197 He furthers, “Analysis does not effect a transformation in the person
because the intellect is not the ‘driver’ of human desire and action.”198 As Luke 6:46–49
reveals, doing God’s truth only comes from a deep transformation of the heart, which
Willard asserts, “will transform our emotional state and thereby the very condition of our
body.”199 This transformation results in an authentic lifestyle of worship, what Carson
calls demonstrative worship that “pours from your heart, . . . infuses your inclinations to
please God, and . . . directs your will to serve him. True worship . . . galvanizes your
whole being.”200 While in Gethsemane, Jesus laments to his disciples, “My soul is deeply
grieved to the point of death” (Mark 14:34), exemplifying how the weight of the inner-
man reflects upon a person physically.201 Concurring, Willard attests that when an
opportunity for action arises action will occur out of the readiness of the heart.202 When
one’s heart treasures God above all else then a lifestyle of worship naturally overflows
outwardly to the world; in bearing the image of Christ to the world, who God is
demonstrated to those around them as they love in both word and deed (Jas 1:22).203

197
Smith, 8. J.P. Moreland writes, “We almost always act according to what we really
believe…When the rubber meets the road, we act out our actual beliefs most of the time” (Moreland, 131).
198
Ibid., 26. Smith would later write, “We tend to assume that educating for action requires first
uploading the relevant rules and axioms into our minds, then equipping agents with the critical thinking
skills that will allow them to amass the relevant facts of a situation and then make the right decision…But
what this intellectualist paradigm misses is the fact that we never simply perceive the so–called facts of the
matter, nor do we act out principles and axioms in any straightforward, deductive way” (Smith, Imaging the
Kingdom, 34).
199
Willard, 360.
200
Carson, D. A., ed. Worship by the Book (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 161–162.
201
Erwin McManus recounts, “I was listening to a lecture in which the speaker referred to studies
in neuroscience that describe the process from which the human brain gathers and hold information. He
explained that when the human brain absorbs information, that information is one–part data and six parts
emotion” (Erwin Raphael McManus, Soul Cravings: An Uprising of the Human Spirit [Nashville: Nelson
Books, 2006], Meaning: Entryx, 12).
202
Willard, 161.
203
Rick Warren, The Complete Evangelism Guidebook: Expert Advice on Reaching Others For
Christ, 2nd Ed., Scott Dawson, ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), 63. He explains, “As you grow closer to
him, he’ll give you a passion for something he cares about deeply so you can be a spokesperson for him in
the world.”

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Illustration 2.8. Imago Trinitatis – Heart, Flesh, and Emotions
Flesh/Body/Strength
Though a person is made up of mind, spirit, and flesh, the flesh might be
considered the definable characteristic. This is due to its physical and visible nature, as
well as in that it is the place whereby which the outcome of the mind and spirit’s works
occur.204 Continually connoted in a negative fashion in Scripture, the body was likewise
viewed by patristic and medieval church fathers, as well as early Reformers as evil.205

204
Notable references of the flesh in Scripture included, but are not limited to: Gen. 2:23; 6:3, 12–
13; 17; Exod. 29; Lev. 4:11;7:17–21; Deut. 12:27; 2 Samuel 5:1; Job 2:5; 4:15; 6:12,;7:5; 10:4, 11; 13:14;
19:20; 19:22, 26; 21:6; 33:21, 25; 24:15; and 41:23. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Micah, Nahum,
Zephaniah, Zechariah all make pronouncements on the flesh, or make use of its imagery; though God had
given the Law, and revealed Himself, Jesus still came in the flesh (the Gospels [most notably John 1], and
Rom. 1:3). Jesus makes use of the flesh (Matthew 16:17; 19:5–6; 26:41; Mark 10:8; 14:38; Luke 3:6;
24:39; John 3:6; 6:51–56; 6:63; 8:15; 17:12). And, every NT writer includes the flesh somewhere in their
writings: Paul (71 times in his epistles to the Romans, Corinthians (both letters), Galatians, Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, and Philemon); the writer has Hebrews has four (2:14; 5:7; 9:13;
10:20); James 5:3; Peter makes eight references (1 Peter 1:24; 2:11; 3:18; 4:1–2, 6; 2 Peter 2:10, 18); Jude,
three references (1:7–8, 23); John has three references in his epistles (1 John 2:16; 4:2; 2 John 1:7), and in
his Revelation (17:16; 19:18, 21). Not included here are 204 uses of the term “body” and 170 uses of the
term “strength” which are used synonymously with the meaning of “flesh” throughout both the Old and
New Testaments.
205
Van Vliet, 258.

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Though initially falling in this category, Calvin would later come to agree with Paul and
include the body as part of the imago Dei (1 Cor 6:13–15). As Van Vliet notes, Calvin
viewed the body as “either in the state of integrity, or sin, or redemption, or final
glory.”206 John likewise shows the importance of the flesh by not only emphasizing
Christ’s deity but that the Word became, lived, suffered, died, rose again and will come
again in the flesh (John 1:14).207 In Desiring the Kingdom, James K. A. Smith notes, “if
humans are conceived almost as beings without bodies, then they also are portrayed as
creatures without histories, without any sense of unfolding and development over
time.”208 As such, he continues, the traditional models of personhood, “are too narrow in
the sense that they ignore our embodiment and too static in the sense that they ignore our
temporality.”209 Smith understands that since the senses are “portals to the heart,” the
body is an essential channel to the core of one’s identity and nature of being.210
The works of flesh include strife, fits of anger, dissension, and idolatry.211
However, at its root is the elevation of self above God as lord of one’s life.212 Andrew
Farley laments, “Blinded by the flesh’s desire to self-improve, we may not see how out of

206
Ibid., 259. See also, John Calvin. Sermons sur la Genèse Chapitres 1.1–11.4. ed. by Max
Engammare (Neukirchen–Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2000), 326; and, Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, 1,
Lectures on Genesis chapters 1–5, ed. by J. Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1958), 9, as referenced by Coin
E. Gunton, The Triune Creator, 148).
207
Horton, Christless Christianity, 182. Horton also notes that even to this day Jesus sits at the
right hand of the Father in his flesh “to return in the flesh at the end of the age, raising us up in the flesh to
life everlasting as his coheirs” (Ibid., 183).
208
James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation
209
Ibid., 47.
210
Ibid., 59. In his subsequent work, Smith writes, “My body is not something I have, but
something I am; it is the ‘me’ that dwells in the world” (Smith, Imaging the Kingdom, 49).
211
Francis Chan, Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (Colorado
Springs: David C. Cook, 2009), 93.
212
Kinley, x. He writes, “From an early age, it introduces you to a world of self–worship, a solar
system in which every pursuit revolves in a ceaseless orbit around self. This creature within you is a
carnivorous being that despite all your efforts and church–fueled formulas, will simply not die.”

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place our attempts to perfect ourselves really are.”213 Dallas Willard notes, “all of the
‘spiritual disciplines are, or essentially involve, bodily behaviors.”214 Spiritual disciplines
become necessary as the systems of the world external to believers seek to cajole and
provide occasions for the flesh.215
James 3:6 communicates the synonymous relationship between the words of the
mouth with the deeds of the body/flesh, as it stains the whole body and sets one’s entire
course of life on fire. If there is any reprieve for those in the flesh, it consists of the truth
that the one who is God in the flesh is calling all people to partake of him and be united
to him.216 All believers stand together as ragamuffins struggling against the temptations
of the flesh inflamed by the demonic and worldly systems, which wage war with the Holy
Spirit within them. As Michael Svigel writes, “The frustrating, unending, wearisome
struggle between the flesh and the Spirit is, in most cases, as good as it gets.”217 The one
who became flesh through the power of the Spirit works in believers through that same
Spirit, that they might love God with all aspects of their being, from internal working to
external expression. As Trent Sheppard exclaims, “When we love God with our heart,
soul, and mind, it is natural to love God with our strength as well: that is, in the daily
areas of service in which we are called.”218 Willard likewise affirms, “The deeds of the
kingdom arise naturally out of a certain quality of life. We cultivate that life in its

213
Andrew Farley, God Without Religion: Can It Really Be This Simple? (Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 2011), 159.
214
Willard, 353.
215
Boa, 325.
216
Johnson, 135.
217
Michael J. Svigel, Retro Christianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
2012), 221. Michael Horton avers, “Longing for Christ’s return, the Christian is world–weary because this
age lies under the power of sin and death” (Horton. Christless Christianity, 185).
218
Trent Sheppard, God on Campus: Sacred Causes and Global Effects (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2009), 173. James K. A. Smith adds, “our thinking serves, and grows out of, our doing”
(Smith, Imagining the Kingdom, 113).

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wholeness by directing our bodies into activities that empower the inner and outer person
for God and through God.”219 Namely, as one’s senses interpret his or her actions, their
minds take in and evaluate their experiences.
Flesh and Mind Transition
What one does has direct influence on what one can know.220 Accordingly, one
does not truly know God’s truth until they actually do that truth.221 These declarations
reveal the cyclical truth that although one’s actions and words are the final product of the
mind and heart, when used purposefully they also serve to harness the mind and heart in
such a way that they become more simpatico with one another.222
In Matthew 6:22 and Luke 11:34–36, Jesus demonstrates that external
perspectives and experiences have direct consequences on one’s inner being.223 These
verses reveal the interplay between knowledge and action and their involvement in
attaining wisdom towards a lifestyle of worship.224 John likewise intertwines thought and
action through his teaching that believers are to not only know truth but also to do truth
and walk in it (John 3:21; 1 John 1:6; 2 John 4:3; 3 John 3–4). Extra-biblical sources
similarly relate how actions affect the mind, extra-biblical studies likewise offer support,
noting that one does not see with his or her eyes at all, one sees with his or her brain.225

219
Willard, 354.
220
Smith, Desiring the Kingdom, 70.
221
Saucy, 196.
222
Peterson, 150.
223
Hugh Halter, Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth (Colorado Springs: David C.
Cook, 2014), 89–90.
224
Saucy, 197.
225
Robin S. Rosenberg, The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration (Dallas:
BenBella, 2008), 106. “Perception without action is impotent. Action without perception is purposeless.
Perception and action are thus two sides of the same coin so that actions always change perceptions and
these new perceptions, in their turn, serve to guide future actions.”

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Acknowledging that people ultimately see with their brains means that external events
that take place outside the body partially determine the brain’s development and course
of action.226
Paul particularly exhibits how the mind is directly affected by the flesh in the first
chapter of Romans, recounting that since mankind has committed “shameless acts” (Rom
1:27) and “did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind”
(Rom 1:28). The context surrounding these verses (Rom 1:18–32) displays the imago
Trinitatis at work: they first claimed to be wise (mind) (Rom 1:22), but exchanged the
glory of God for created things (Rom 1:23); therefore, God gave them to the lusts of their
hearts (Rom 1:24a), and dishonorable passions (Rom 1:26), which led to the dishonoring
of their bodies (Rom 1:24b) and the committal of shameless acts (Rom 1:27). This
proved full cycle, as failure to acknowledge God in the midst of all this led further to a
debased mind (Rom 1:28) (mindàheartàbodyàmind).
Illustration 2.9. Imago Trinitatis – Flesh, Mind, Sensory Experience

226
Callero, 51. Callero’s study determines, “the way we think, the way we learn to think, the
categories we think with, and the topics we think about, all begin on the outside, in the social world, and
depend on shared symbols language, and community.” See also, Lewis and Cordeiro, Culture Shift, 30.

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In Colossians 1:9–10, Paul tells of how he and his companions have continually
lifted up the church in Colossae, praying the they “may be filled with the knowledge” of
God’s will, and thus be able “to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.” A Trinitarian
imago Dei reveals how the knowledge of God moves to produce a life that walks in such
a worthy manner. Understanding the imago Trinitatis however merely demonstrates the
reflexive structure of who a person is, and establishes the process from which his or her
natural words and actions overflow. It shows how in being made in the image of the
Trinity, what one does overflows out of who he or she is. However, the imago Trinitatis
does not answer the notion of being one with God, as Christ prayed in John 17, nor how a
person might be on mission with God. This connection lies in the Holy Spirit.227
The Holy Spirit
The sending of the Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus (John 14:16–17, 26; 15:26),
sent (poured out) at Pentecost (Acts 2:1–4:33), given to bring glory to Christ (John
16:14),228 so that He would be magnified as the great Savior and Redeemer.229
Functionally, in the believer’s life, the Spirit brings to remembrance all that Jesus taught
his disciples (John. 14:26), testifies about Jesus (John 15:26), convicts the world of sin
(John 16:8-11) and guides Jesus’ disciples in all truth (John 16:13). The process by which
the Spirit does this is by 1) inspiring the written Word, 2) keeping and unifying believers,

227
Letham, Union With Christ, 49. See also, James K. A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom, 45.
228
James M. Hamilton, Jr., God’s Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New
Testament (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 91.
229
Andreas J. Köstenberger, and Scott R. Swain, Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s
Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2008), 100. Köstenberger and Swain offer five aspects of
the Spirit in magnifying Christ, “He accurately represents the truth regarding Jesus; he is the eschatological
gift of God; he imparts true knowledge of God; he is operative in both worship and sanctification; and he
points people to the person of Jesus.”

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3) convicting the world, and by 4) enabling missionary witness.230 Finding pleasure in
revealing the deep things of God, the Holy Spirit searches them out, in order to produce a
human heart that is fascinated by the Lord (1 Cor 2:10–16).231
In John 6:63, Jesus proclaims, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help
at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” To partake in the kingdom
of God, one must be born of the Spirit, which the Spirit makes happen through the words
of Jesus.232 When one becomes born of the Spirit, the Spirit indwells them (individually
and communally),233 and he or she becomes a new creation (Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 5:17).234
Dallas Willard avers, “Not only can we have complete protection and security of our
treasures in this way, but our life as a whole, our living, also now comes into proper
alignment with reality. Our souls are now suited to deal with things because we see
clearly.”235
One with God, living as citizens of His kingdom, Jesus exhorts his disciples to the
same wholeness He has, commanding them in Matthew 5:48 to “Be perfect [τέλειοι,
teleioi] in the way your Father, the one in the heavens, is perfect.” The Father
accomplishes this through Jesus, by the work of the Spirit within the life of the

230
David J. Hesslegrave, Paradigms in Conflict: 10 Key Questions in Christian Missions Today
(Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 193.
231
Dwayne Roberts, One Thing: Boldly Pursuing All That Matters (Orlando: Relevant
Media Group, Inc., 2005), 112.
232
Hamilton, Jr., 99.
233
Ibid., 160.
234
Saucy, 67. Saucy expounds, “God gives us a new heart. The Old Testament prophets frequently
spoke of God’s promise to change the heart of his people. He was going to circumcise their heart (Deut.
30:5–6), and give them a new heart (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26), one that would know and fear him (Jer. 24:7;
32:40). He would write his law or instruction on the heart (Jer. 31:33). In the New Testament Peter speaks
of God cleansing the heart (Acts 15:19)” (Saucy, Minding the Heart, 67).
235
Willard, 206. Saucy adds, “Holistic personal transformation means changes in all areas of life.
If our heart is changing, there will be changes in our morals and ethics, in our relationship with God and
others, and in our attitudes and actions toward everything” (Saucy, 252).

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believer.236 Unifying the believer with the Trinity, the Holy Spirit moves believers
towards whole and perfect living in the kingdom of God by working in their life so that
that which is Christ becomes them as well.237 As Jesus declares regarding the Spirit in
John 16:14–15, “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it
known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will
take from what is mine and make it known to you” Expounding on Paul’s thoughts,
David Peterson remarks, “This work of the Spirit,” in accordance with Romans 5:5,
“sustains hope in the midst of sufferings, and from such experiences endurance and
character are produced.”238 This transformation is not a mere change in conduct, but a
change one’s entire nature and being by the Holy Spirit.239 Paul reveals how by trusting
in Christ, one is effectually crucified with Christ, and his or her spirit/heart is now in the
grave (Gal 2:20). Having no spirit of their own, in accordance with His prophetic
proclamation in Ezekiel 26:36, the Lord gives His children a “new heart” by putting His
Spirit “within” them, unifying them with the Trinity and making them one even as Jesus
and the Father are one (John 17:21)

236
Smail, 186–187.
237
Letham, Union With Christ, 49. See also, Köstenberger and Swain, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, 71.
238
Peterson, 153.
239
Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel, 89.

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2.10. Imago Trinitatis
Saucy declares, “since the heart is the real person, the believer is a new person,”
displaying Paul’s admonition that those in Christ are “new creations” (Col 3:10; 2
Cor.5:17).240 Johan Arndt declares, “the soul is most beautiful when it is united with
God”241 Upon indwelling believers, the Spirit continuously moves within them, enabling
them to live as Jesus has lived, and growing an inner nature that manifests the fruit of the
Spirit externally (Gal. 5:22–23).”242
Orthodoxy + Orthopraxy – Orthopathy = Legalism

Orthopraxy + Orthopathy – Orthodoxy = Liberalism
243
Orthopathy + Orthodoxy – Orthopraxy = Monasticism
List 2.1. Orthodoxy, Orthopathy, and Orthopraxy

240
Saucy, 67.
241
Arndt, 225. Andrew Farley writes, “Jesus made us new at the core, fusing his own Spirit to our
new human spirit…And as we begin to grasp the beauty of our union in Christ, every motive we have will
begin to change. We’ll begin to see that living the Christian life is really just being ourselves” (Andrew
Farley, God Without Religion: Can It Really Be This Simple? [Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011], 134–
135).
242
Smail, 159. Smail writes, “In this way, human initiating, responding, and fulfilling are in a
balanced interpenetration that itself reflects the perichoretic unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Thus we
have a model that can yield new perspectives on our creation, on our fall, and on our restoration.”
243
Alvin Reid, “Historical and Contemporary Models of Missions, Evangelism, and Church
Growth” Lecture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC. January 16, 2012.

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While each of these formulas denoting two of the three is true in of themselves, as noted
above, merely accounting for all three does not naturally denote transformational
progress into the likeness of Christ. Each of the three must move not only in reflexive
balance of one another but also do so with Christ-centered orthodoxy and Christ-
affectionate orthopathy, that produce Christ-mirroring orthopraxy. God declares that the
heart is deceitful in all things and beyond cure (Jer 17:9). However, through the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the replacing of one’s heart, God places His affections
(His orthopathy) inside His children, that through the renewing of their minds on His
Word (Christ-centered orthodoxy), they might be transformed into His likeness (Christ
mirroring orthopraxy). Abiding in the Spirit by living in this day to day life of
experiencing and enjoying Christ while simultaneously being molded into His likeness is
quintessentially living a lifestyle of worship.244 Living like Jesus becomes less out of
obligation, and more out of a sense of who one is—i.e. one’s identity.245
The Believer’s Identity is in God, Through Life in the Spirit
Asserting that union with Christ is Trinitarian denotes that in being incorporated
into His life believers participate in the life, love, and fellowship of the Trinity.246 In
Galatians 2:20, Paul posits that in being crucified with Christ, the believer’s spirit now

244
Smith, Imagining the Kingdom, 152. “Worship and the practices of Christian formation are first
and foremost the way the Spirit invites un into union with the Triune God. [It] is the arena in which we
encounter God and are formed by God in and through the practices in which the Spirit is present.”
245
Jonathan K. Dodson, Gospel Centered Discipleship (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 99. See also,
Johann Arndt, True Christianity, 252; Jonathan Edward’s Five Marks of a Revival in Malcom McDow and
Alvin L. Reid’s. Firefall: How God Has Shaped History Through Revivals [Enumclaw, WA: Pleasant
Word, 2002], 214.
246
Johnson, 42. See also, Robert Letham, Union With Christ, 85.

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dwells in the grave, and the Holy Spirit resides in its place. This new nature of the Spirit
is one’s deepest identity (2 Cor 5:17; 1 John 2:1–2, 3:1–10).247
This identity in the Trinity does not likewise imply that Christians effectually
become gods, but affirms with Marcus Peter Johnson:
The union of our humanity with the humanity of Christ necessarily

involves our sharing in the whole person of Christ as divine and human.
To be united to Christ is therefore to share in his oneness with the
Father.248
Joined to the Father by Christ through the Holy Spirit, the full personhood of the Trinity
is present and at work in the life of the believer.249 John Calvin understood this
unification as consisting of more than just the satisfying of God’s justice and obtaining
forgiveness, but restorative as well, noting, “Christ, through the Spirit, re-establishes that
attributive similarity between God and all those who call upon him in sincere faith.”250
Bringing all that God is to wherever He is, the presence of the Holy Spirit changes
everything in the relationship between the believer and God.251 Through the Holy Spirit,
one’s identity becomes indistinguishable from God Himself. The relationship moves

247
Boa, 103–104. Gregory the Great recounts some examples, “The Spirit filled a boy who played
upon a harp and made him a psalmist (1 Samuel 16:18), a shepherd and herdsman who pruned sycamore
trees and made him a prophet (Amos 7:14–15), a boy given to abstinence (Daniel 1:8) and made him a
judge of mature men, a fisherman and made him a preacher (Matthew 4:19), a persecutor and made him the
teacher of Gentiles (Acts 9:1–20), a tax collector and made him an evangelist (Luke 5:27–28)” (Gregory
the Great, quoted by Randall Harris, The Contemporaries Meet the Classics on the Holy Spirit [West
Monroe, LA: Howard Publishing, 2004], 36).
248
Johnson, 43.
249
Ibid., 43. See also Calvin’s Institutes on the Christian Religion, 3.1.1.
250
Van Vliet, 123. For Calvin, God’s sovereignty is not only what He does, but who He is (Van
Vliet, 262). Herman Ridderbos argues the deficiency of the terminology regarding “in Christ” as it is
inadequate in its attempt to represent the oneness that comes to be shared with the believer and the Trinity
(Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996], 59.
251
Embracing Obscurity offers, “If the Holy Spirit chose to make the Managua City Dump His
residence, every rotting rind and discarded diaper would instantly be worth more than all the gold in all the
treasuries in all the world (Anonymous, Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s
Everything [Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2012], 61).”

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from the believer and God to God in the believer, which is to also say, the believer in
God.252 Therefore, believers neglect the work of Holy Spirit to their own detriment.253
The flipside lies in the truth that Jesus himself depended on the presence of the
Spirit, and publicly demonstrated through public profession of the integral role the Spirit
played in His fulfillment of God’s mission (Isa. 61:1, Luke 3; and, 4:18).254 As
exemplified by Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within them working
outwardly, as David Olson expounds, believers are to likewise “be leaders in the struggle
for justice, righteousness, mercy, and compassion for all.”255 However, God does not
desire for believers to manufacture these things. Instead, it is His desire that His children
be purposed and do as He Himself would do them, out of the overflow of who He is.256
The Battle Now Lies Between The Holy Spirit and The Flesh
The believer exists in a process of sanctification that is both definitive (secured
and completed in and by Christ) and progressive (being continually molded and
transformed into the image of Christ).257 Though the believer’s identity now lies in Christ

252
Kevin Deyoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the
Pursuit of Godliness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 93–94.
253
Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel, 90. Leon Morris recounts an interview
between John Wesley and a Catholic Bishop, “Bishop Butler concluded his interview with John Wesley by
saying, ‘Sir, this pretending to extraordinary revelation and gifts of the Holy Ghost is a horrid thing—a
very horrid thing.’ Not many Christians today would, I think, be prepared to go all the way with the good
bishop, but there are many for whom the idea of personal contact with the Holy Spirit is preposterous, and
even vaguely embarrassing” (Leon Morris, quoted by Randall Harris in The Contemporaries Meet the
Classics on the Holy Spirit, 127). See also, Will Walker in Gospel Centered Discipleship by Jonathan K
Dodson (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 91.
254
Ibid., 90.
255
David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 219.
256
Carson and Keller, 183. James K. A. Smith comments, “To be formed in Christ for missional
action is to acquire a temperament that guides us beneath and beyond what we think” (Smith, Imaging the
Kingdom, 178).
257
Johnson, 118. James K. A. Smith likewise remarks, “Sanctification will require the
rehabilitation of such embodied perception. For example, the Holy Spirit will need to reconfigure…our
‘neural maps.’ Neural maps are constellations of neural cells that ‘fire sequentially when a stimulus moves
across adjacent positions within a sensory field’” (Smith, Imagining the Kingdom, 113).

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through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Gal 2:20; Eph 2:6; Col 2:12), the flesh strives
to influence them to be self-focused. As Michael Horton testifies, “As much as I would
like to imagine otherwise, I am my most familiar and enjoyable topic, and my personal
well-being is my most pressing felt need.”258 Paul testifies about his own struggle to live
like Jesus, speaking of his ever-constant battle to do externally (his flesh) what he desires
internally (the Holy Spirit) (Rom. 7:14–25), “For the desires of the flesh are against the
Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each
other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17).259 Like Paul, as
believers in Christ engage in this battle, they no longer live under sin’s dominion, for the
“old man” that once was is now put to death in Christ’s death on the cross, crucified,
buried, and raised with Him (Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12).260
The effect upon which believers feel and experience the Spirit within them
increases as they mature in Christ.261 As dependence on the Spirit increases in one’s life,
the majesty of Jesus is magnified all the more. Like the cross, which as a means of death
brought life into the world, so too, Adolf Schlatter maintains, “The processes that destroy
life vanish through him. What currently attacks and corrupts us is gone, and the danger
constantly arising from what we are and do is repulsed.”262 The fullness of the Spirit (or

258
Horton, Christless Christianity, 246. Dallas Willard likewise remarks, “It is human nature to
resist deep inward change, for such changes threatens our sense of personal identity (Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy, 118).” See also, Boa, Conformed to His Image, 104.
259
Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel, 14. He stresses, this “internal warfare between
the flesh and the Spirit…is the normal Christian life,” regardless of how much one grows spiritually.”
260
Ridderbos, 63. Kenneth Boa expounds, “Unlike those who are fallen, those who are redeemed
are able not to sin…But there is a warfare in the Christian’s life between the inner self and the outer self.
The inner self joyfully concurs with the law of God (Romans 7:22), but there is still a law or power of sin
in the outer self (Romans 7:23) . . . A battle rages, but we must realize that the warfare is between the new
creatures we have become in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the mortal remnants of the old people we were
in Adam (Romans 5:12–21)” (Boa, Conformed to His Image, 107).
261
Carson and Keller, 184.
262
Adolf Schlatter, Do We Know Jesus? Daily Insight for the Mind and Soul, translated by
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2005), 38.

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lack thereof) is characterized by he or she dying to their flesh, and physically presenting
their body as a “living sacrifice,” which Paul admonishes in Romans 12:1 as “true and
proper worship.” Presenting oneself as a living sacrifice demonstrates that spiritual
formation does not aim at controlling action. As Dallas Willard avers, “To focus on
action alone is to fall into pharasaism of the worst kind and to kill the soul.”263 Both Peter
and Paul exhort believers live in control of their emotions: sober-minded, reasonable,
sensible, exercising good judgment and prudence (Rom 12:3; 1 Pet 4:7; 2 Tim 2:12).
Brian Borgman notes, “The presumption is that our emotions are under the control of
God’s Word and Spirit and sound mental judgment.”264 To accomplish this, Piper extols,
“We must think about thinking, because if we are not intellectual disciples of Jesus
Christ, we will find the natural mind staring us in the face.”265 The answer, Borgman
asserts, lies in feasting on the Word of God, “We must consciously feed our minds on
God’s Word and things above. Reading the Word daily, memorizing Scripture, listening
to praise and worship music, and reading edifying books are all life-changing, heart-and
mind-transforming disciplines.”266 As spiritual formation is a holistic process, Willard
furthers, “if we are going to do spiritual formation, we have to work on all…aspects of
the human being.” 267 That is, spiritual formation that leads to a lifestyle of worship must
account for every dynamic of personhood, the imago Trinitatis.

263
Dallas Willard, The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship
(San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006), 55.
264
Borgman, 64.
265
Piper, Thinking, Loving, Doing, 64.
266
Borgman, 170.
267
Willard, The Great Omission, 55–56.

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The Word of God is That Which Believers Put Into Their Trinitarian Cycle, and
What the Holy Spirit Uses to Transform Them Into the Likeness of Christ
Paul wrote to the church in Colossae,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching an admonishing one another
in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in
your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3:16–
17).
According to Paul, the Word of God is essential for believers to live as Christ lived
However, allowing the word to dwell within does not merely constitute mental ascent but
permeation and imbibing within one’s entire Trinitarian being.268 In molding God’s
children into the image of Christ, the Spirit takes the Word of God within them and
moves it through their being, so that they are transformed more and more like Him, and
their lives look more and more like His, both internally and externally.
Illustration 2.11. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God

268
Saucy, 147. He writes, “For the Word to have a transformative effect in our life, it must reach
the depth of the heart and touch our whole person. Knowing it in our mind is not enough.”

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As believers renew their minds by meditating on the Word of God (Rom 12:2),
they set their mind on the things of the Spirit and feed the Spirit within them (Rom 8:5-
7). As the Spirit grows, the Truth of God’s Word transforms one’s emotions, so that
having the heart of God (Ezek 36:26), combined with the knowledge of God from His
Word, their desires move towards synonymy with His own. Since what one says and does
overflows out of his or her heart (Luke 6:45, Matt 15:18), as his or her desires mirror
God’s, then so too will what he or she say and do mirror what God would do and say.
This lifestyle of worship will be the natural overflow of the Spirit within them, and living
on mission with God will be a natural product of his or her identity. Recounting the
revivalism experienced in his day, Jonathan Edwards testifies of how the Word of God
transforms one’s entire being (as Piper avers above), noting that if Christians are going to
think in a way that honors God, the believer’s life must have three things present and
active: 1) the Word of God, 2) the local church, and 3) dependency on the constant and
corrective presence of the Holy Spirit to conform one into the image of Christ. 269
Made trinitarian by God, in Christ it is feasible to live as God would live. By
joining believers to Himself internally, they are empowered to live like Him externally.
Namely, by being structurally made in the image of God man is capable of relating in
ways like God would relate. However, once joined with Him, believers are not only able
to relate in ways like God but also as God Himself would live and relate. Since their
identity is a both/and process whereby which their identity is spiritually secure in Christ

269
Edwards, Jonathan Edwards: On Revival, 41. He exclaims, “Persons commonly at first
conversion, and afterwards, have had many texts of Scripture brought to their minds, which are exceedingly
suitable to their circumstances, often come with great power, as the word of God, or of Christ indeed; and
many have a multitude of sweet invitations, promises, and doxologies flowing in one after another, bring
great light and comfort with them, filling the soul brimful, enlarging the heart, and opening the mouth in
religion.” See also, Piper, Loving, Thinking, Doing, 65.

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and yet continually being molded into the image of Christ physically, this side of
Parousia, then the imago Dei should likewise no longer be viewed as only Structural or
Relational, but best understood as both/and, and thus, as both goal and eschatological
destiny.270
Conclusion
In Kingdom Triangle, J. P. Moreland writes that in knowing God and desiring to
be molded into His image, “you will learn to see yourself in…the outworking of God’s
plan in history . . . Your passion will be to see all of life’s activities as occasion to draw
near to and become like the triune God.”271 Though believers exists in the both/and
tension of the battle between the Spirit and the flesh, as Köstenberger extols, they are
willing to “bide their time,” knowing that “they will win in the end.272 Though this
fullness will not come until the restoration of all things, since the Spirit living within is
something greater than was ever known until Jesus came as Messiah,273 and He
strengthens believers to enable them to live in a way that is pleasing to God (Rom 8:2,4,
13–14; 2 Cor 3:18; Gal 5:16),274 experiencing the Trinity can and should be the normal
Christian experience today.275

270
Dodson, 153. Dodson writes, “One day the fight will be over. Faith will become sight. Our
image will be perfectly aligned with Christ’s image…The Spirit will have full sway in our gladdened hearts
as we live forever in Spirit–led worship.”
271
Moreland, 148.
272
Köstenberger, The Final Days of Jesus, 49 and Borgman, Feelings and Faith, 56–57. Johann
Arndt exclaims, “by the perfect image and likeness, the perfect union will be brought about and completed,
namely, when we see him as he is” (Arndt, True Christianity, 249). See also, Colin Gunton, The Promise of
Trinitarian Theology, 13.
273
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union With Christ
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 148. She writes, “In the Old Testament the Lord dwelt among his chosen
people, the Jews, but now, the very Son of God dwells in us” (John 17:22).
274
Grudem, Collins and Schreiner, 115.
275
Coleman, 195.

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The fulcrum in experiencing this union today, lies in embracing the Trinity in the
totality of one’s being (mind, body, and spirit) so that one desires Him above all else and,
in turn, transformed into His likeness.276 As His children do what they do naturally out of
who/what they pervasively and internally are, the characteristics of God naturally
overflow from those who experience such transformation through daily life in the
Trinity.277 As J. I. Packer declares, “So now we are different people from what we were;
in some respects, certainly, the same, but in other respects decisively and irrevocably
changed.”278 Though the believer’s perception is that God is changing him or her from
one thing to something else, since believer’s identities are already secured in the Trinity,
allowing God to accomplish this transformation lies not so much about Him changing His
children into something but allowing their thoughts and actions to reflect the already true
spiritual reality so that they become who they already are.279

276
Boa, 154. He expounds, “Scripture teaches us that we steadily become conformed to what we
most love and admire…We become like our focus; in the process of beholding the glory of the Lord, we are
being ‘transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Cor. 3:18).
We gradually come to resemble what we worship. If our heart’s desire is fixed on something in this world,
it becomes idolatrous and soul–corrupting. But if we draw our life from loving communion with the caring,
radiant, majestic, and unfathomable being who formed us for himself, our souls become noble as they grow
in conformity to his character.”
277
Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 192.
278
J. I. Packer, Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
2013), 39–40.
279
Farley, 144. Farley expounds, “We learn more about who we already are as new creation in our
spirit. Then we begin to allow our thoughts and actions to reflect this spiritual reality more each day. Only
then are we really being ourselves!”

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CHAPTER THREE
MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS
In Christ, the Old Self is Dead
When identity is understood in relationship to the Trinity, the issue that remains is
whether one is dead to God or alive in Him.1 In Christ, regardless how one feels, he or
she is alive from the dead (Rom 6:6–13), and are already saints, children of light, and
citizens of heaven (Eph 2:19; 5:8; and, Phil 3:20).2 As such, the term “in Christ”
encompasses the entirety of humankind’s relationship with God, and serves as Paul’s
mainstay in understanding redemption,3 and cannot be overemphasized.4
The not-yet aspect of the already finished work of living in Christ remains in
constant conflict since the Day of Pentecost, however. Upon the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, the battle between the Spirit and the flesh began, and although the believer’s
righteousness is secure in Christ, the concept of “self” remains an ever-present conflict
with the individual, in the battle between the Spirit and the flesh. Enthronement of the
self becomes the difference between religion and relationship, as Andrew Farley writes,

1
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in Christ (New York:
Harper, 1998), 48.
2
Tom Smail, Like Father, Like Son: The Trinity Imaged in Our Humanity (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2005), 29. Smail urges that what matters is not emotional closeness, but rather ontological
interdependence.
3
Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the
Pursuit of Godliness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 95. See also, Jerry Bridges, The Transforming Power of
the Gospel (Colorado Springs: Navpress), 48; Robert Letham, Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and
Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2011), 1; Marcus Peter Johnson, One With Christ: An
Evangelical Theology of Salvation (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 29; and, Willard, The Divine
Conspiracy, 279.
4
Fitzpatrick, Elyse M, Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union With Christ
(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 137.

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“God’s new way is not about us. It’s all about him. And God’s new way allows us to
embark on the lifelong adventure of knowing Jesus intimately, without any religion to kill
it.”5 The Father strengthens His children “with power through His Spirit in the inner
man” (Eph 3:16). Sanctification thus has an outworking dynamic, (“work out your
salvation with fear and trembling” [Phil 2:12])—it is the manifestation of the in-working
of God towards the likeness of Christ (“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will
and to work for His good pleasure” [Phil. 2:13]). However, with the inward-self ever-
changing and subjective, the accomplishment of this inward work comes not by looking
inward but to God.6
In contrast to having to live in the subjective and ever-changing, me-central
world, those in Christ have “laid aside the old self with its evil practices” (Col 3:9; Eph
4:22) and “have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according
to the image of the One who created him” (Col 3:10). This new self “has been created in
righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph 4:24). No longer under the dominion and
power of the old self, Christians do not have to obey its lust any longer. They are free to
know God in His fullness, and be transformed into His likeness.7
In this new reality, those in Christ should not try to “die to self” but live in the
truth Scripture asserts, that the old self is dead and gone.8 Understanding this truth

5
Andrew Farley, God Without Religion: Can It Really Be This Simple? (Grand Rapids: Baker
Books, 2011), 31.
6
C.J. Mahaney, The Cross–Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing (Colorado
Springs: Multnomah Books, 2002), 51.
7
Kinley, 192. See also, Robert L. Saucy, Minding the Heart: The Way of Spiritual Formation
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2013), 248–249.
8
Andrew Farley, The Naked Gospel: The Truth You May Never Hear in Church (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2009), 123. See also, Smail. Like Father, Like Son, 188.

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liberates them to experience God in all His fullness, and thus transformed into His
likeness.9 However, when believers reside in a me-centered relationship with God, they
hold onto the lifeless self. Neither dead nor alive, they acquiesce into what Jeff Kinley
calls “Christian zombies”, who, as Michael Horton describes, can “neither mourn nor
dance.”10 Christian zombies imitate rather than transform—in legalism and spiritual
defeat, the believer nobly seeks to imitate Christ by accomplishing for themselves what
Christ has already accomplished.11
A beautiful dynamic of redemption—the believer is not just conformed into the
image of Christ (indicating the shaping of an object by another object externally) but
transformed into His likeness (that is changing the essential nature of something).12 The
words conformed and transformed are used four times in the English New Testament
(Rom 8:29; 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18; 1 Pet 1:14). “Conformed” (συσχηµατίζω, suschematizo—
Rom 12:2; 1 Pet 1:14) is referenced negatively regarding the external influences of the
world, while “transformed” (µεταµορφόω, metamorphoō–Rom 12:2; 2 Cor 3:18) is
recognized as the inner work of Christ, whereby which the very nature of the believer is
changed. In the singular instance where the English renders the term “conform” in
regards to the inner work of Christ (Rom 8:28), the Greek word translated is σύµµορφος,
which is derived from µορφή (morphé, lit. transformed), just as µεταµορφόω above is.
Paul and Peter thus both demonstrate that the battle of living a lifestyle of worship exists

9
Saucy, Minding the Heart, 249.
10
Horton, Christless Christianity, 132.
11
DeYoung, 100.
12
Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making
Disciples (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 138.

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in the transformational reality of being in Christ, where the old “self” is not something
that one dies to but is already dead, and the battle that they wage war with lies between
the external flesh/world with the internal Holy Spirit within them.13
A question that immediately emerges concerns Jesus’ command that one must
“take up one’s cross” (Matt 16:24). In contrast to dying to oneself, J. P. Moreland asserts
that “taking up one’s cross” involves the daily submission to the lordship of Christ and
continual acceptance of His finished transformational work in the inner-life of the
believer. 14 As believers allow the Holy Spirit who has transformed them internally and is
transforming them externally, to work the Word of God through the imago Trinitatis of
their being (Illustration 2.11 Imago Trinitatis—The Word of God, pg. 105), they will
then live on mission with God by displaying who He is in both word and deed, as the
natural byproduct of living a lifestyle of worship.15 Experiencing this transformation
enlightens man to Jesus’ own life, as He laid aside His glory and humbly accepted
hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, misunderstanding, and finally, death.16 In the light of
Jesus’ endurance, God’s command for His children to “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev.
11:44; 1 Pet 1:14–16) demonstrates that one’s identity is either in Christ or in idolatry.17
His call that His disciples “deny” (απαρνέοµαι, aparneomai) themselves (Mark 8:34), is a

13
Kinley, 193. See also, Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia
(Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2012), 26.
14
J. P. Moreland, Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the
Spirit’s Power (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 146–147.
15
Thomas Oden, The Justification Reader (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 154–155. This is
congruent with Thomas Oden’s three elements of saving faith, “a fully convinced affirmation of the truth of
God’s self–disclosure; a voluntary surrender of one’s will to God’s will; and a sincere reversal of one’s
emotive energies, so that all loves are subsumed in relation to the love of God.”
16
J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1973), 63.
17
Driscoll, 24.

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call to lay aside their agenda and get on His.”18 Crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20), the
believer’s old self is dead in the grave. Sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit (Eph
1:13), the child of God enjoys communion with the triune God, and life in Christ is life in
the Trinity.19 With the flesh continually vying for lordship, however, external
transformation towards a lifestyle of worship requires daily submission to His lordship
and acceptance to the truth of this inner-reality. In the days and hours leading to His High
Priestly Prayer (John 17), Jesus taught His disciples how to derive this lifestyle of
worship through being nourished by His Holy Spirit through abiding in Him (John 15:1–
6).20
As His Children Abide in Him, They Manifest The Fruit of The Spirit
Most often rendered “abide” in English, µένω (meno) literally means to stay,
remain, dwell, settle and/or live, indicating that the presence of the Spirit in the believer
dwells as if Jesus himself were to take up residence in him or her.21 In commanding His
disciples to remain in Him just as He remains in them (John 15:4), Jesus proclaims of a
mutual abiding of the believer in Christ (John 16:56, 14:20, 21; 15:5; 17:21) and Christ in
the believer (John 10:38; 14:10, 11, 20, 21; 17:21).22 Quite different from the spiritualism

18
Tanner, Paul, “The Cost of Discipleship: Losing One’s Life for Jesus Sake,” JETS: Journal of
the Evangelical Society 56, no. 1, (2013): 47. Tim Keller refers to this as “Gospel–humility” (Tim Keller,
The Freedom of Self–Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy [Chorley, UK: 10Publishing, 2012],
32).
19
Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1998), 189. See also, Jürgen Moltmann’s The Church in the Power of the Spirit.
20
Bridges, The Transforming Power of the Gospel (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2012), 49.
21
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Scott R. Swain, Father, Son, and Spirit: The Trinity and
John’s Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 2008), 97.
22
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick, Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union With
Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 146.

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of Hellenistic religions which postulated that humans could become gods or merge with a
god, George Eldon Ladd remarks, “In John, there is no merging of personalities or loss of
human identity.”23 In contrast to Hellenism’s loss of identity, in Christ, God intends that
His children realize their fellowship with Him and appropriate that reality into their lives,
so as to live the way they were made to function.24 Appropriating this reality through
abiding in Christ encompasses the entirety of one’s being (mind, heart, body) and
faculties (will, emotions, and sensory experience) through total dependence on the Holy
Spirit, just as the branch is entirely dependent on the vine.25 In abiding in Him, disciples
will bear the natural product of connection with the vine, fruit (John 15:5).26
While “fruit” has been interpreted as bringing the lost to saving faith in Christ
(and it surely does have a missional dynamic to it, in light of the Great Commission),
nothing in the Farewell Discourse itself connotes this interpretation. Bearing fruit in John
15 is set within the greater context of the Discourse, which emphasizes the Holy Spirit in
the life of the believer. This indicates the production of another kind of fruit in between
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and later seeing others come to Christ through one’s
witness, namely the production of the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience,

23
George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1993), 313–314.
24
Bridges, True Community, 31.
25
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor, The Final Days of Jesus: The Most
Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 9.
26
J. D. Greear, Gospel: Recovering the Power the Made Christianity Revolutionary (Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 2011), 12. Martin Luther adds, “There is such a natural unity and affinity between
the vine and the olive tree, that when the branch of a vine is grafted upon an olive tree, it bears both grapes
and olives. In like manner, when the Church, which is God’s Word, is planted in people’s hearts, then it
teaches both the law and the Gospel, using both doctrines, and from both winning fruit (Martin Luther,
Table Talk [Gainesville, FL: Bridge Logos, 2004], 243).

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kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22–23).27 As Jesus
moves from his vine and branch illustration, He Himself transitions to two of these fruit:
love and joy (John 15:9–13).
Calling upon Ezekiel 36, Paul demonstrates how the transformational work of the
Spirit motivates towards good works (Titus 3:5–8), which are the natural fruit of the
children of God known as the “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal 5). Here, Paul urges believers to
walk in the Spirit just as they live by the Spirit (Gal 5:25). Köstenberger and Taylor align
this with John’s theology, “Whoever believes in Jesus will perform greater works [John
14:12], and whoever loves Jesus must demonstrate this love through obedience to
commandments [John 14:21].”28 As discipleship expert Robert Coleman avers, “The
great commandment to love finds expression in the Great Commission.”29 When the fruit
of the Spirit are present, living as Jesus would live is not obligatory or manufactured, but
becomes indigenous.30
As believers allow the Holy Spirit to move through the trinitarian nature of their
being, they will be continually transformed into the likeness of Christ, and the fruit of the
Spirit will be evermore evident in their daily lives. Believers will not necessarily be
learning to do the same things that Jesus did but how to do the things that they do in the

27
Franklin M. Segler and Randall Bradley, Christian Worship: It’s Theology and Practice
(Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2006), 54.
28
Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor, The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week
of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 71. See also, Adolf
Schlatter. Do We Know Jesus?, trans, by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Robert W. Yarbrough [Grand
Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2005], 144.”
29
Robert Coleman, The Heart of the Gospel: The Theology Behind the Master Plan of
30
Randall Harris, The Contemporaries Meet the Classics on the Holy Spirit (West Monroe,
LA: Howard Publishing, 2004), 176.

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same manner that Christ did all that He did.31 In this, the Great Commandment and the
Great Commission will naturally find expression in the life of the believer.32 Yet, while
the mind, heart, and body each have equal place in the imago Trinitatis (just as with the
Trinity—each person equal to the other), with the flesh under the rule of the world, and
the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer, the mind has a unique place as a catalyst for
change (Josh 4:1-7; Deut 26:5-11; Luke 22:19; Rom 8:6; 12:2; 1 Cor 11:24-25; Phil
4:8).33 With indigenous fulfillment of the Great Commandment and Commission bound
with the presence of the fruit of the Spirit, the overflow of the Spirit’s work within the
imago Trinitatis of the believer, then an understanding of epistemology and its effects on
Millennials becomes crucial to development of an effective discipleship methodology
that will foster a lifestyle of worship.34
Epistemology: Modernism’s Dilemma and The Condition of Postmodernism
For Christians to abide in Christ by feeding the Spirit within them, they must
come to embody Truth through what George Barna refers to as, “purposeful intelligent
reflection with a related action designed to produce a particular outcome.”35 He
expounds:

31
Willard, 283.
32
Smail, 157–158. He offers, “As human beings made in the image of God, we are so fashioned
that in our relationships with other people, we also initiate, respond, and fulfill, and so mirror the distinctive
functionality of the divine persons. In that way imago Dei is, indeed, imago Trinitatis.”
33
John Piper and David Mathis, Thinking. Loving. Doing. A Call to Glorify God with Heart and
Mind (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 129. See also, Willard. The Divine Conspiracy, 360.
34
Gabe Lyons, The Next Christians: The Good News About the End of Christian America (New
York: Doubleday, 2010), 94. See also, Robert E. Webber, The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the
Challenges of the New World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002), 101.
35
George Barna, Futurecast: What Today’s Trends Mean for Tomorrow’s World (Carol Stream,
IL: Tyndale, 2001), 73. The Gospel Coalition Founding Documents state, “Truth…is correspondence
between our entire lives and God’s heart, words and actions, through the mediation of the Word and Spirit”

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Our brains are constantly absorbing new information in order to
recalibrate the trajectory of our lives in accordance with ideals and
viewpoints that provide us intellectual, spiritual, and emotional resonance
and peace. Each new fact or experience either fortifies our existing
perspectives or challenges and perhaps realigns them. The combination of
all the attitudes and values we possess is the substance of our worldview,
which enables us to live in a manner that makes us comfortable with
ourselves.36
Though unintentionally, Barna’s elucidation shows the imago Trinitatis in practice: as the
mind interprets external experiences, the heart ties emotional attachments to them, which
then replicate in the actions of life. Knowledge and meaning catalyze this entire process.
Again, this does not elevate the mind over the other aspects of personhood, as Gnosticism
or Pelagianism would, but recognizes that mere mental ascent is insufficient for a
lifestyle of worship, and understands the mind in balanced relation to the heart and flesh,
recognizing it as a starting point for discipleship upon unification with Christ and the
embodying of the Holy Spirit.37 God does not only give meaning to existence but
meaning to meaning itself.38 Therefore, the search for meaning and truth is not limited to
modern day, but has been a question postulated throughout history, as evidenced by
Pilate in the trial of Jesus, when he asked, “What is truth (John 18:38)?”
In 500 BC, the Greek philosopher Alcamacon claimed, “All senses are connected
to the brain.”39 Alcamacon influenced an impasse between Parmenides and Heraclitus

(“The Gospel Coalition Founding Documents in The Gospel as Center, edited by D. A. Carson and
Timothy Keller, 279).
36
Ibid., 53–54.
37
NJ: P & R Publishing, 2004), 450. See also, Packer. Knowing God, 39.
38
David Hesslegrave, Communicating Christ Cross–Culturally: An Introduction to Missionary
Communication, 2nd Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991), 71. See also, Packer, Knowing God, 39.
39
David Crowder and Mike Hogan, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven but Nobody Wants to Die,
Revised and Updated (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 79.

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which founded the cynicism and skepticism that would come to embody ancient culture.
As people figured, if these men of profound intellect could not distinguish being from
becoming and unity from diversity, then the quest for ultimate truth and ultimate reality
must be a fool’s errand.40 Two views would emerge to dominate the philosophical
landscape for the next 2,500+ years: Platonism and Aristotelianism. Both would sharply
distinguish knowledge from faith, yet Plato’s conclusions would be predominately
influenced by the earthly correlations to the eternal forms, while Aristotle put more
weight on empirical evidence.41 In contrast, Alan Hirsch demonstrates, “The Hebraic
view . . . is primarily concerned with issues of concrete existence, obedience, life-
oriented wisdom, and the interrelationship of all things under God.”42 Despite this
biblical concept of existence, Platonism and Aristotelianism would emerge as the
preferred concepts of the early church.
Arriving 750 years after Plato and Aristotle, Augustine brought faith and
knowledge together, maintaining that true knowledge is found in God, and acquired by
faith in Him.43 Augustine’s connection of the two did not dissipate Plato’s dichotomy,
however. In his aftermath, Thomas Aquinas would seek to further synthesize faith and
knowledge by Christianizing Aristotle, arguing that empirical observation could

40
Piper and Mathis, 73.
41
D. A. Carson. The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1996), 65. He expounds, “Plato distinguished knowledge (γνωσις) and opinion (δοξα), and
firmly placed faith (πίστις) in the latter category. Of course, knowledge for Plato is not based on empirical
observation, but is correlated with what is eternal, immutable, absolute . . . Aristotle allowed more space for
the empirical than did his mentor, but equally sharply distinguished true knowledge and wisdom from
opinion and faith. When one leaps to the Christian era, however, although one of its greatest early thinkers
maintained the neo–Platonic distinction between faith and reason, the priorities were reversed.”
42
Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Brazos,
2006).
43
Carson, 65. He furthers,

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demonstrate the existence of that which was incorporeal and eternal,44 declaring, “We do
not name things as they are in themselves but as they are to our minds.”45 In the first 500
years of Christianity, the patristic fathers sought to use Hellenistic philosophy within the
context of the Hebraic view of existence. However, in adopting Greek philosophical
weapons to combat paganism, in the Middle Ages, the Hebrew worldview (which found
meaning in history and story) gave way to the influence of Hellenism.46 As the roots of
Platonic idealism found fruition, the Renaissance would turn the tables, and affirm the
primacy of the material world over the supernatural/spiritual. This move would give rise
to the empirical/positivist approach to knowledge.47
While nature increasingly rose in dominance through the Renaissance, amidst the
latter half of the era (1500–1700) both the Reformers and the Catholic Church sought to
expose its errors by insisting that a biblical understanding of meaning was both
“supernature” and nature.48 However, with the emergence of Auguste Comte (the founder
of positivism) in the 1840’s,49 any propositions that one could not test empirically were
once again subject to suspicion and knowledge came to be identified more and more with
sensory experience.50 Carson’s notes:
The thing to observe at this juncture is that although major Christian

apologists and theologians could differ over something as fundamental as

44
Ibid., 65.
45
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, 5 vols.
(Westminster, MD: Christian Classics, 1948), IA. 13,9.
46
Paul G. Hiebert, Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts: Affirming Truth in a
Modern/Postmodern World (Christian Mission and Modern Culture) (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press
International, 1999), 2.
47
Ibid., 3.
48
Hesslegrave, 68. See also, Crowder and Hogan, Everybody Wants to God to Heaven, 85.
49
Comte would publish a series of seminal texts entitled The Course in Positive Philosophy
between 1830 and 1842, and his seminal work A General View of Positivism in 1848.
50
Hiebert, 3.

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the relationship between faith and reason, the debate was entirely within
the framework of a theistic universe, and none of them doubted that
certainty on some points was possible.51
Having served as the prevailing source for meaning and purpose since the reign of
Constantine (306–327 AD), the church’s influence waned in the midst of the
Enlightenment, and its voice had evaporated by the onset of modernity.52
At the arrival of modernism, many thinkers assumed that absolute epistemological
certainty was not only desirable but attainable.53 From this assumption, the perspective of
propositional knowledge emerged, which created a gulf between Christians and non-
Christians: the former claiming that knowledge could be gained through God’s
revelation; and, the latter asserting that they could arrive at truth through the empirical
method without the use of revelation.54 By the mid-twentieth century, empirical
methodology had fully assumed the mantle as the source of truth, meaning, and
knowledge and was now both the initial and primary place where the majority of people
looked to discover them.55 Unfortunately discoveries were viewed through the filter of
Immanuel Kant’s Epistemological Wall, which, as Peter Hicks explains, “[makes] human
reason the last judge and guide in everything…(introducing) a way of viewing the role of
human reason that made the human mind the center of the universe.”56 With

51
Carson, 66.
52
Hirsch, 108.
53
Carson, 60.
54
Webber, 96.
55
Hirsch, 109.
56
Peter Hicks, The Journey So Far: Philosophy Through the Ages (Grand Rapids: Zondervan,
2003), 312. See also, Carson, D. A. and Timothy Keller, Ed.’s. The Gospel as Center (Wheaton, IL:

124

“supernature” “eaten up” by the scientific method of philosophical naturalism,57
Friedrich Nietzsche concluded, “God is dead.” And, with no standard or fixed point, there
were likewise no truth, value, morals, or meaning.58 The step beyond philosophical
naturalism’s nihilistic conclusion was positivism, which asserts that knowledge acquired
by science corresponds one-to-one with reality, that its theories equal facts, not models
for the scientific method.59 Whereas nihilism eradicated the supernatural, positivism
eliminated any notion of the sacred and wonder altogether.60
Solely based on a mechanistic view of nature, modern scientific materialism
cohesively bonded with the modernism of society and Enlightenment ideology to create
the autonomous self. Not subject to outside authority, the autonomous-self results in a
radicalized individualism with a deeply privatized outlook, and an insistently therapeutic
mood.61 As this worldview operated within the lives of Western Civilization it would
come to permeate the church, where focus would lie on a personal relationship with
Christ characterized by “individualism, inwardness, and immediacy.”62

57
Hesslegrave, 57. Francis Schaeffer writes, “The vital principle to notice is that as nature was
made autonomous, nature began to ‘eat up’ grace…It was set free from God as the humanistic philosophers
began to operate ever more freely” (Francis Schaeffer, Escape from Reason in The Francis A. Schaeffer
Trilogy (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1990), 212.
58
Hicks, 377.
59
David J. Hesslegrave and Ed Stetzer, Ed.’s. Missionshift: Global Mission Issues in the Third
Millennium (Nashville, Broadman and Holman, 2010), 86.
60
Ernest Gellner, Postmodernism, Reason and Religion (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1992), 80. See also, Robin S. Rosenberg, The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration
(Dallas: BenBella, 2008), 115; as well as, Jacques Ellul, The New Demons, 43.
61
John Piper and Justin Taylor, ed.’s. The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World (Wheaton,
IL: Crossway, 2007), 30. See also, Hiebert, Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts, 6–8;
Jacques Ellul, The New Demons (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 26.
62
Horton, 163.

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Whether one claims citizenship in the community of science or religion, as a
firmly programmatic machine, modernism results in a closed system.63 Concerning
evangelism, when the church operates from this philosophy, and its chief opponents
likewise operating from the scientific method, little wonder is left for why apologetics
and evangelism methodologies bent on rote memorization rose as the preferable forms for
reaching the lost for the bulk of the twentieth century.64 As a closed system, once
information is assessed as true or factual, then it becomes fixed and is eternally presumed
in all future instances, (i.e. it is not allowed to be reinterpreted or critically evaluated).
Since both religion and the scientific community operate from this perspective, then
although both argue with what they consider as evidential proofs for their claims, their
opponents remain unconvinced. Their pleas fall on deaf ears not because of the
consistency or inconsistency of their arguments, but because of the prevailing “closed”
worldview already at work inhibits the reevaluation of what has already be presumed.65
This failure of communication between religion and the scientific community is not the
central failure of the modernism and positivism systems as a whole, however.
Though both religion and the scientific community have sought-after a
metanarrative, the scientific community has found it difficult to maintain a single unified
theory, as modernism has forced the specialization of particular fields of science
(compartmentalization), as well as the debate regarding paradigms and their influence in

63
Harold Schilling, Harold, The New Consciousness in Science and Religion (London: SCM
Press, 1973), 44. Hiebert remarks, “Once laid, bricks are permanent parts of the structure” (Hiebert,
Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts, 11).
64
Mark H. Senter, III, When God Shows Up: A History of Protestant Youth Ministry in America
65
Ibid., 35. Hiebert writes, “positivism is charged with intellectual ethnocentrism. It disdains all
other systems of knowledge, past and present, and claims for itself alone a knowledge of the truth.”

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interpreting truth and reality.66 Concerning religion, modernity necessitated the
separation of theology from practice.67 And, with its emphasis on reason, it forced
rational inquiry to question traditional Christianity.68
With the Enlightenment having removed Christianity’s authority for interpreting
reality, modernity then worked to erode her credibility as a belief system altogether. The
unexpected result that incurred was that in losing God, no epistemological basis for
knowledge and truth of any kind remained. In a model that required certainty to fulfill its
claims that absolute certainty could be attained, the inability to obtain any certainty at all
served as a recipe of disaster.69 Beyond the issue of a “closed” system that modernism
becomes, the loss for any basis of truth is the foundational issue and ultimate failure of
modernism. As such, Hiebert astutely notes, “Positivism is no longer accepted as
universally true.”70 Unsuccessful in providing humankind with the moral foundations for
addressing the world’s problems,71 after 400 years of depending on Reason, faith in
knowledge and empiricism wavered, and in rejecting modernism, postmodernism
surfaced.72

66
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd Edition (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1996), 80. Christian comments and perspectives of Kuhn’s work are found in Hicks. The
Journey So Far, 467–468; Carson, The Gagging of God, 88–89; and Hiebert, Missiological Implications of
Epistemological Shifts, 16.
67
Webber, 169. Stanley J. Grenz and John R. Franke, Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology
in a Postmodern Context (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001), 50.
68
Ibid., 23–24.
69
Meek, Esther Lightcap, Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People
(Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003), 181. Meeks recapitulates, “This misguided quest for certainty was in
the end the very thing that blinded us to the substantial grounds we have for confidence in our efforts to
engage the world.” See also, Hicks, The Journey So Far, 393.
70
Hiebert, 29. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 148–150.
71
Brad S. Gregory, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2012), 228.
72
Hiebert, 35.

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Postmodernism has no substantive definition of its own, but merely connotes the
rejection of the central facets of modernism and its positivist underpinnings—that is, as
Grenz and Franke write, postmodernism rejects modernism’s “quest for certain, objective
and universal knowledge, along with its dualism and its assumption of the inherent
goodness of knowledge.”73 Just as positivism served as the epistemology for modernism,
instrumentalism and idealism guide postmodernism.74 In these epistemologies, having
rejected modernism and its tenets, reason may no longer be used as a test for truth, as it
has no power to bring a person to it, which results in the rejection of not only the
possibility of a single unifying truth but also absolute truth itself.75 Richard Phillips
explains, “There may be ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth,’ but the postmodern mind
dogmatizes against anyone claiming dogmatically to possess the truth (except the
postmodern dogma against said dogma).”76 Since postmodernism forces diversity while
rejecting unity, it has no room for diversity in unity.77 The postmodern’s world is one of
instability, diversity, and fragmentation.78 Within this fragmentation, postmodernity

73
Grenz and Franke, 21–22.
74
Hiebert, 51. One of two postmodern epistemologies, Instrumentalism defies the separation of
knowledge from feelings and values, as positivism did. This epistemology argues, “All human
thought…combines ideas, feeling and judgments in complex ways” (Billings. 39). Knowledge becomes
interpreted facts of the individual (Webber. The Younger Evangelicals, 84), do not need to be organized
into systems of belief, and are allowed to contradict one another (Hiebert, 43). Hiebert concludes, “In the
end, instrumentalism abandons all claims of truth” (Ibid., 44). Idealism – One of two postmodern
epistemologies, Hiebert avers, Idealism “place(s) knowledge firmly in the mind and (does) not derive it
from external realities. The only certain reality we know is our ideas…There is no privileged position from
which objective truth can be examined, no real–world referent to which language can be cemented…The
task of science then is not to discover reality but to create it” (Hiebert, 47).
75
Webber, 98. See also, Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 23; and, Hiebert,
Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts, 52; as well as, Carson, The Gagging of God, 28.
76
Richard D. Phillips in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry
Practices, edited by Carson, D. A. and Timothy Keller (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 27. See also,
Hesslegrave, Communicating Christ Cross–Culturally, 57.
77
Letham, The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship, 446.
78
Hiebert, 46.

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focuses on the self and now,79 which feeds the “me-centrality” saturating American
society and culture, and rejects the notion of a metanarrative for deconstruction of their
intellectual and social systems. 80
Denying the correspondence theory (that truth has a one-to-one correlation with
the world), postmodern’s claim that truth is a necessitated creation of language, as
individuals express their community’s linguistic practices.81 Hiebert summates Pauline
Rosenau, Richard Ashley, and Rob Walker:
In its extreme forms (postmodernism) is antimodern, rejects

epistemological assumptions, refutes methodological conventions, resists
knowledge claims, obscures all version of truth, and dismisses policy
recommendations (Rosenau, 1992:3). It rejects the superiority of the
present over the past, sees science as myth, and the Enlightenment
heritage as totalitarian and culturally imperialistic. It gives priority to
emotions, intuition, personal experience, the particular, and mystical
experience. Ultimately, its goal is not to formulate an alternative set of
assumptions but to register the impossibility of establishing any such
underpinning for knowledge. (Ashley and Walker 1990:264).82
Since the postmodern sees both religion and the scientific method as operating from
interpreted facts, then both believers and nonbelievers operate on faith. The discussion is

79
Ibid., 53.
80
Peter L. Callero, The Myth of Individualism: How Social Forces Shape Our Lives (Lanham,
MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2009), 20–21; and, Hiebert, 55–56. See also, Carson, The
Gagging of God, 49; as well as, Will McRaney, The Art of Personal Evangelism: Sharing Jesus in a
Changing Culture (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2003), 126.
81
Grenz and Franke, 23 and 31. They write, “Postmodernity embraces the narratives of particular
peoples and celebrates the diversity and plurality of the world without attempting to discover a “grand
scheme” into which all of these particular stories must fit.” See also, J. P. Moreland. Whatever Happened to
Truth?, edited by Andreas Köstenberger (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 79; Vodie Baucham Jr. in The
Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2007), 51–52; as well as, Carson, The Gagging of God, 86.
82
Hiebert, 52. Referencing Richard Ashley and Rob B. J. Walker, “Speaking the Language of
Exile: Dissident Thought in International Studies,” International Studies Quarterly 34 (1990): 259–268;
and, Pauline Rosenau, Pauline M. Post–Modernism and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads and
Intrusions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).

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no longer knowledge versus knowledge but faith versus faith in differing stories.83 As a
result, at the onset of the twenty-first century, pluralism emerged as the theme of Western
society.84
Using reason to repudiate rationality, postmodernism (instrumentalism and
idealism) proves bankrupt by its own internal contradictions and fails to stand the test of
everyday life.85 In this context, a cult of the victim develops and social responsibility
falters, leading to the unraveling of any cohesion that once existed.86 Peter Callero
incisively reveals the conclusion of this degradation:
This can pose a difficult challenge for the average person, who may be left
feeling uncertain about how to lead one’s life. Although the consistent
and dominant set of norms found in a traditional society can be confining,
restrictive, and limiting, they do provide an anchor and a compass so that
people know who they are and where they are going. The freedom of
modern society, on the other hand, can leave us feeling adrift at sea,
searching for a safe and secure harbor—asking “Who am I?” and “What
should I do?”87
With no external, objective truth or standards, the incessant search for “Who am I?” and
What should I do?” has encouraged inward focus, and self-absorption.”88
Like modernism (and its positivism foundations), postmodernism has been
advantageous in that it has reminded man that knowledge is shaped by its cultural and

83
Webber, 84.
84
Carson, 9 and 19. Nappa’s study on Millennial Christians revealed that tolerance has trumped
the value of truth, making it natural for students to deny their own beliefs when perceived as intolerant”
(Mike Nappa, The Jesus Survey: What Christian Teens Really Believe and Why [Grand Rapids: Baker,
2012], 73). See also, Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989)
1; Hiebert, Missiological Implications of Epistemological Shifts, 43–45, and 54; and, Horton. Christless
Christianity, 167.
85
Letham, 452. Carson and Keller, ed.’s, The Gospel as Center, 28).”
86
Ibid., 453.
87
Callero, 84.
88
Carson, 52.

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historical contexts, challenging the ahistorical and acultural nature of positivist
theology.89 However, the weaknesses outnumber the positives, as what emerges is
theological relativism that denies any claim to truth, and divides Christians into
incommensurable theological communities.90 Postmodernism ultimately confronts the
church with two challenges—deconstruction of truth and, the death of the
metanarrative.91 With the death of the metanarrative, exaltation of the self, and mistrust
of the past, one worldview operating within postmodernism has been what Russ L. Bush
has termed, “The Advancement,” which exalts “new” as best.92 New and better are not
wrong in and of themselves, but problems emerge when they are viewed as
synonymous.93 Synonymy of the two has led the Western world onto a never-ending
quest of generalization and abstraction.94
Epistemology and Millennials: Modernism, Postmodernism, and The

Advancement’s Effects on Millennials and Their Participation in Evangelism and
Missions
At this juncture, Millennials find themselves in a precarious position. On one end
is Modernism, offering a view of life that devoids it of sacred and wonder, has no
epistemological basis for knowledge and truth of any kind, leads to the autonomous-self,
and results in the separation of theology from practice. On the other end, Postmodernism

89
Hiebert, 58.
90
Ibid., 58.
91
Albert Mohler in Whatever Happened to Truth?, edited by Andreas Köstenberger (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2005), 58–59.
92
Russ L. Bush, The Advancement: Keeping the Faith in an Evolutionary Age (Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 2003), ix–x. See also, Ellul, The New Demons, 43.
93
C. J. Mahaney, The Cross–Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing (Colorado
Springs: Multnomah Books, 2002), 21. See also, Ellul, The New Demons, 64–65; and, Gregory, The
Unintended Reformation, 17; and, Horton. Christless Christianity, 172.
94
Hesslegrave, 334.

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offers an instable life of fragmentation that is bankrupt on its own internal contradictions,
as truth is a language game subjective to the individual, and doubts that possibility of any
possible metanarrative. Perilously stuck amidst this impasse, the Advancement
simultaneously presses Millennials to constantly pursue the new and better, compelling
them further and further into deeper and deeper abstractions of truth and knowledge.95 In
understanding the epistemological context in which Millennials live, little wonder
remains regarding how and why Millennials are not religious, have epistemological
disconnects that produce compartmentalized/fragmented lives, and Millennial Christians
live a Christ-and-me relationship with God that fails to recognize the connections
between the imago Dei and the missio Dei. Intellectuals and evangelicals alike have
begun to recognize what postmodern has offered concerning its critique of modernity,
and are attempting to integrate what they can from the new hermeneutic into a framework
that would leave a place for objective truth.96 In a fallen world, the absolute truth and
metanarrative claims of modernism are simultaneously true with postmodernism’s
assertions that knowledge and standards of truth are tied to linguistic symbols of varying
cultures. Therefore, an option other than modernism or postmodernism must exist for
Millennials to experience God in His fullness and embrace their role in His story by
living on mission with Him through living indigenous lifestyles of worship.

95
Webber, 228–229.
96
Carson, 91 and 110. Hesslegrave writes, “Only by agreement on the relationships that exist
between linguistic symbols and things can we agree on standards of right and wrong, truth and error, and
good and bad can we make value judgments about any ‘thing’” (Hesslegrave, Communicating Christ
Cross–Culturally, 66).

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Critical Realism, the Imago Trinitatis, and the Metanarrative
Drawing on community hermeneutics, metacultural grids, and a broad range of
rational analysis to test the validity of theories, Hiebert expounds how critical realaism
does not claim pure objectivity for human knowledge:
In fact, it argues that total objectivity, if that could be achieved, would not
be knowledge, for knowledge is more than factual information. It is used
by people to live their lives. Knowledge in critical realism is the
correspondence between our mental maps and the real world; it is
objective reality subjectively known and appropriated in human lives.97
While positivism necessitates the rejection of any theory or paradigm that appears
contrary to it, critical realism allows for incorporation of that theory, or the incorporation
of any of its elements that more correspond with reality (truth), so that the individual may
ascribe to the existence of absolute truth and the metanarrative, yet simultaneously
maintain that they have not yet acquired absolute knowledge. This allows the individual
to constantly reevaluate his or her own knowledge and truth, in his or her search towards
a more certain epistemology that corresponds with reality and empowers them to live out
their role in the metanarrative.98

97
Hiebert, 74 and, Carson, 187. Hiebert’s exposition on knowledge is consistent with the biblical
concept of the whole person knowing (mind, body, and spirit) argued in Chapter Two. Critical Realism
asserts that knowledge is both subjective and objective, as truth is affirmational (open to change) as one’s
understanding is always finite and subject to his or her historical and cultural contexts: “Critical realist
epistemology strikes a middle ground between positivism, with its emphasis on objective truth, and
instrumentalism, with its stress on the subjective nature of human knowledge. It affirms the presence of
objective truth but recognizes that this is subjectively apprehended” (Hiebert, 69–70). Moreover, “Critical
realists hold to objective truth but recognize that it is understood by humans in their contexts” (Ibid., 106).
Theologically, recognizing that knowledge is ascertained within one’s historical/cultural contexts, Critical
Realist focus on the biblical text in its context and work toward a metatheology of the Trinity that produces
a community based theology of the church (Ibid., 107).
98
Ibid., 103. Hiebert writes, “Faced with disagreements, positivists attack one another as false,
instrumentalists smile and go their own ways, idealists split, and critical realist go back and search the
Scriptures to test their different points of view.”

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As noted in chapter two, knowing God is not mere intellectual ascent but a whole-
person knowing (mind, body, and Spirit), where one approximates the truth revealed by
the Spirit, so that he or she are transformed into the likeness of Christ and live as He
lived, or would live today.99 Making use of translation and approximation, critical realism
sees the transformed life externally as the purpose of acquiring knowledge internally.100
Two questions regarding critical realism emerge—1) Does critical realism lead to heresy?
and, 2) Does the concept of theologies lead to instrumentalism, where each individual
determines their truth or their theology? Hiebert emphatically says no to both, affirming
that the subjective dynamic of the individual maturing in the truth finds its context, and
thus its pathway of discipleship and maturity, in the objective reality of the
metanarrative.101
At face value, when one considers the epistemological landscape of the twenty-
first century, then a critical realistic approach offers faith in the absolute truth of God in a
thought system that understands and accepts that we only know in part, but will one day
know even as we are known (1 Cor 13:12), while being ever-open to the critical
evaluation and reinterpretation of one’s current theological position(s). Partnering this
with the imago Trinitatis, one considers the catalytic place the mind holds with the Holy

99
The Gospel Coalition Founding Documents declare, “The biblical revelation is not just to be
known, but to be lived (Deut. 29:29)” (Carson and Keller. The Gospel as Center, 279). See also, Kevin
Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical Linguistic Approach to Doctrine (Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 304; and, Robert Webber, The Younger Evangelicals, 52.
100
Hiebert, 98. Hiebert states, “Approximation…refers to knowledge related in one way or
another to some reality or absolute...(and) has to do with an asymptotic approach to truth. Our knowledge is
always partial, and often flawed, but by careful investigation of ‘reality’ and by reexamining our own
assumptions and theories, we can gain a better understanding of truth” (Hiebert, Missiological Implications
of Epistemological Truths, 92). See also, Jared Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway,
2011), 84.
101
Ibid., 102. See also, Webber, The Younger Evangelicals, 90–91.

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Spirit and flesh in the trinitarian life of the believer, and recognizes how critical realism
serves as consistent model with how the Spirit continually moves the Word of God
through the life of the believer. Constantly renewing the mind (Rom 12:2), feeding the
Spirit within them (Rom 8:1-11), and externally manifesting the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal.
5:22–24), believers abide in Christ (John 15) and live on mission with Him by fulfilling
the two mandates of scripture (The Great Commandment [Matt 12:28-31] and The Great
Commission [Matt 28:16]). In this they will live a lifestyle of worship in His (The
Trinity’s) Story,102 namely, a Trinitarian-centered gospel.103
Trinitarian Gospel-Centrality
The Trinity’s story is not a tale that believers memorize through observing it from
the outside, but one that they are immersed in, and implicitly act out. Their lives, James
K. A. Smith upholds, “imbibe the Story as (they) perform it in a million little
gestures.”104 The indwelling of God in the believer, and thus the believer in God, likewise

102
Phillips in The Gospel as Center, 23. Grenz & Franke add, “We believe that Christian theology,
focused as it is on God as the triunity of persons and on humankind as the imago Dei, sets forth a helpful
vision of the nature of the kind of community that all religious belief systems in their own way and
according to their own understanding seek to foster” (Grenz and Franke, Beyond Foundationalism, 54).
Robert Letham offers, “Perhaps the most appropriate response to the postmodern suspicion of claims of
objective, absolute truth is in our focusing on the manipulation–free, self–giving love of God. The
incarnation of Christ demonstrates this beyond parallel” (Letham, The Holy Trinity, 456).
103
Marva J. Dawn, In the Beginning, God: Creation, Culture, and Spiritual Life (Downers Grove:
IVP, 2009), 111. Letham exhaustively yet effectively expounds, “In mission . . . , it is imperative that we
operate with a consistently biblical, Trinitarian doctrine of creation, salvation, and the future. The
centrality of the Holy Trinity is not only vital to worship and prayer, but also in evangelism to individuals
and cultures. At the heart of all this is the way we treat other people, for if God is relational and we are
made in his image, at the center of the Christian faith is the way we deal with other human beings who
share his image” (Letham, The Holy Trinity, 456–457).
104
Liturgies (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 110. Lesslie Newbigin concurs, “We need to learn to
know God as he is. There is no way by which we come to know a person except by dwelling in his or her
story and, in the manner that may be possible, becoming part of it” (Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence:
Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995], 88).

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insets the believer in God’s story. They now live in the Trinity, so they should now live
as Christ would live in the Triune theodrama, on mission to make disciples for the
kingdom of God to the glory and worship of God.105 If identity is integral to participation
in mission, then keeping who God is and what He is about likewise becomes integral to
the process/methodology of making disciples.106 Therefore, a discipleship methodology
which leads believers, and Millennials in particular, to know God as the Trinity, and live
on mission with Him through indigenous lifestyles of worship, must do so through a
gospel that focuses on the Trinity,107 His kingdom,108 and His mission,109 as well as
attention on humankind’s relationship to Him—imago Trinitatis.110

105
Vanhoozer, 111.
106
Grenz and Franke, 170. They write, “In a truly trinitarian theology, the structuring influence of
God’s triunity goes well beyond the exposition of theology proper, extending to all aspects of the
delineation of the Christian belief–mosaic” (Grenz and Franke. Beyond Foundationalism, 170). See also,
Marva Dawn. In the Beginning, God, 12.
107
Svigel, 247. Michael J. Svigel calls this the Trinitarian Creation and Redemption Narrative.
108
Michael W. Goheen and Craig Bartholomew, The True Story of the Whole World: Finding
Your Place in the Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009), 163. See also,
Peter C. Wagner, Church Growth and the Whole Gospel: A Biblical Mandate (Eugene, OR: Wipf and
Stock, 1998), 10–11; and, Ladd, Crucial Questions About the Kingdom of God.
109
Dru Johnson, Biblical Knowing: A Scriptural Epistemology of Error (Eugene, OR: Cascade
Books, 2013), 209.
110
Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine, 81. He notes, “To know God as Savior, then, is to know
the triune God.”

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CHAPTER FOUR
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Introduction
Having addressed the Millennial context and condition and established the need
for both an indigenous/embodied witness and the fostering of a lifestyle of worship to
both reach them and guide them to live on mission with God, the project director seeks to
establish the project elements utilized to measure whether evangelism can become a
natural overflow of being filled with the Spirit, through a Trinitarian understanding of the
imago Dei. To do so, a six-week discipleship Bible study was developed and conducted,
bookended with pre- and post-test surveys at the first and sixth weeks of the study. The
first two weeks sought to establish a conceptual framework of God, His mission, His
kingdom, His gospel, and His story, and weeks 3-6 progressed through the metanarrative
of Scripture (Creation, Fall, Redemption Initiated, Redemption Accomplished,
Restoration). Intentional emphasis was placed on the Trinity and the imago Dei in
Creation—what that entails regarding unification with Christ, as indicated in the Farewell
Discourse (John 14–16), and culminating in Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17)—and
the bearing of these truths should have on a Christian’s part in the missio Dei, namely
missions and evangelism.

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Methodology Description
To see if life on Mission with God can be the natural overflow of an intimate
relationship with Him, an equipping methodology was taken to see if participants
simultaneously grew internally in their relationship with God while reproducing
externally through a natural lifestyle of worship. To accomplish this, the first measure
sought to determine whether or not students grew into a more balanced Trinitarian
theology through a deeper relationship with the Trinity, resulting into a more intimate
relationship with God through reliance on the Holy Spirit within them. The second
measure aimed to demonstrate if this deeper reliance in the Holy Spirit resulted in
naturally living on mission with God, and the sharing of their faith. Serving as the
Associate Pastor of Student Life, the project director conducted all aspects of the project:
administering the surveys, teaching all lessons, and assessing all analysis of the data.
Research Tools and Instruments
Identical pre- and post-test surveys were administered to assess the students. A
copy of this survey can be found in Appendix A of the project. Each survey asked the
respondent their gender, to select an age range (11–13, 14–18, 19–22, 23–25, 26–30, 31);
and, how long they have identified as a Christian (<1yr., 1–5yrs., 6–10yrs., 11–15yrs.,
16+yrs.). The age ranges were selected as so in that at the time of the projects
implementation in 2012, these were the age ranges of Millennials, when dating their
generation from 1980–2001, as stated in chapter one. The survey was then divided into
three sections: Theology, Discipleship, and Evangelism, with four questions concerning
their epistemological views included in the theology section. Each section contained a

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number of statements that the respondents were asked to answer with a number (1-4): 4–
Strongly Agree; 3–Agree; 2–Disagree; 1–Strongly Disagree.
Though statements were intentionally selected and placed in their corresponding
sections, they were not placed in any particular order, so as to lead or guide the student
towards any particular way or line of thought. In some cases, statements were asked a
second time, either reflexively or with a different wording. For example: at one point
students were asked, “The only way to obtain forgiveness of sin is through repenting of
his/her sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness and eternal life;” but, were
later asked, “Jesus is the best way to have a relationship with God, but not the only way.”
This provided the director with a truer plumb line on two levels. First, it allowed for the
assessment of whether or not the students were answering as they truly believed or
merely giving the answer they thought would be the right answer, i.e. the answer the
director wanted to hear. Second, this element allowed for the assessment of the student’s
consistency in their beliefs, so as to provide a more-true gauge of how their orthodoxy
was affecting their orthopraxy, as well as the consistency between the them.
The theological section of the survey presented a statement regarding fundamental
tenets of the student’s doctrine. The students were asked regarding the Trinity, the
Gospel, the Mission of God, the Kingdom of God, the mission of the church, gospel-
centrality, salvation, and the metanarrative of the Bible. Since epistemology is not a
commonly understood word amongst middle, high, and college students, questions
concerning their perspectives on truth were included at the end of this section. These
questions inquired upon the objective or subjective nature of truth, the existence of

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absolute truth, whether one can obtain absolute truth, and whether or not individuals
decide for themselves what is right and good.
The discipleship section sought to understand the student’s perspectives on being
saved, and what having a relationship with God means, as well as what disciplines or
habits they were doing to foster and grow that relationship. Students were asked
regarding how often they prayed and/or read their Bible each week, and whether or not
they felt that their relationship with God was stronger than it was six months ago.
Further, in seeking to discover their understanding of salvation and what it means to have
a relationship with God, they were asked regarding whether their life is about their story,
whether there is room in their life for both them and God, the reasons for why Jesus
saved them, and whether or not having an intimate relationship with God necessitated
being focused on Him.
The final section of the survey inquired about their evangelism habits, what they
understand evangelism to be, whose responsibility it is to do evangelism, and if they were
striving to live evangelistically. The final statements asked how often they shared their
faith, and what they believed constituted evangelism—Did they feel that evangelism must
be intentional; does it occur when they share the gospel with someone or merely through
how other see them live; do they believe it to be more of a program or an event? They
were likewise asked whether or not they have lost friends, or befriend other for the sake
of sharing the gospel, and whether or not they believe people who are lost are going to
hell. Finally, students were asked in regards to where they put the onus of evangelism, on
themselves, churches, those trained in evangelism, or pastors and church leadership. Two

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standout statements in this section were whether or not they felt that they understood the
gospel well enough to share it with others, and if they believed that they are to be a
missionary to their community.
The pre-test was administered at the start of the first week of the Bible study.
After it was conducted, students participated in a six-week Bible study that focused on
the metanarrative of Scripture, which operated with the intention that if the students
understood God and His story then they too would assume their role in that story with
God, and began to live more on mission with Him, and sought to see if there was any
correlation between the two. Upon completion of the study an identical post-test was
administered to compare with the pre-test data.
Project Details
The project was conducted during the four weeks of April and the first two weeks
of May in 2013. Each lesson occurred at Broadway Baptist Church, in the student
ministry area, during the main youth Bible study time, on Wednesday nights at 6 PM.
The structure was as follows:
Week 1, April 3 —God: His Mission and His Kingdom

Week 2, April 10 —God: His Gospel; His Story
Week 3, April 17 —Creation and The Fall
Week 4, April 24 —Redemption Initiated
Week 5, May 1 —Redemption Accomplished
Week 6, May 8 —Restoration
List 4.1. Project Schedule
The project director utilized a leader guide (Appendix B) and PowerPoint, and provided
each participant with a fill-in the blank participant guide (Appendix C). With the
exemption of resources cited, the content of all six lessons was developed by the project

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director. The PowerPoint slides had the necessary blanks underlined, so that the students
could easily identify where to fill-in on their participant guide, while continuing to follow
along with the instructor’s message. Beginning with God, and establishing His mission,
kingdom, gospel, and story, the project director strove to establish certain elements of the
story which would help the hearer understand not only the metanarrative, but also how
God was consistently on mission with the purpose of redeeming and restoring His
children, and the intention that they might experience all that He is, delight in Him,
glorify Him, and live lifestyles of worship.
Twenty-one students attended the first week of the study on April 3, 2012. After
opening with prayer, the time began with weekly announcements regarding the student
ministry. Each student was then given the pre-test survey, completed it anonymously, and
turned it in before the start of the first lesson. The students were then given the first
participant guide, which coincided with the PowerPoint, and the first lesson began—God:
His Mission and His Kingdom.
Conducted on April 10, 2012, the second week continued the opening motif on
God, entitled, God: His Gospel; His Story. All twenty-one students who attended the first
week were present. Week two’s participant guide was picked up from a table by the
door, as they entered the youth room. As the session began, weekly announcements were
made, and a Minute to Win It game was played. After a time of worship and prayer, the
second lesson was conducted with the PowerPoint. The time was closed with prayer.
The third lesson occurred on April 17, 2012. Having established God, His
Mission, His Kingdom, His Gospel, and the existence of His Story in the first two

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weeks, the third week began the Story itself, and looked at Creation and the Fall. Twenty-
one students were present. And, each student picked up their Week Three participant
guide at the door. Announcements were made, followed by a time of prayer. After a two-
minute recap of the previous weeks, the third lesson was taught, partnered with the
PowerPoint for the students to follow along, and complete their participant guide. In this
week, a video by Dr. Alvin Reid was included. Further, the project director taught in
front of five-foot-by-twelve-foot Dry Erase area on the wall of the youth room. With the
onset of the Story, an illustration depicting the Creation and the Fall, which would be
progressively completed through the next three weeks, was began.
Entitled Redemption Initiated, week four was taught on April 24, 2012. Twenty-
one students attended. And, after picking up their participant guides at the door, weekly
announcements and prayer followed. The fourth lesson was longer than the previous
three, as it covered the major motifs of the Old Testament after the Fall. Therefore, while
the time started at 6 PM, just like every other week, the lesson itself began earlier than
usual, to allow time to cover all of the material. A PowerPoint was again utilized, and
Week four’s material was covered on the Dry-Erase illustration.
Week five was conducted on May 1, 2012, and covered the subject, Redemption
Accomplished. There were twenty-one students in attendance, and they picked up their
participant guides as they entered the youth room. Weekly announcements were made,
and after a humorous video was shown, a “wild-n-crazy” game was played. Time was
spent in prayer, after prayer request were received. And, the lesson on Jesus’ birth, life,
death, and resurrection, with emphasis on The Great Commandment and The Great

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Commission, was conducted. A PowerPoint was again utilized, and the Dry-Erase
illustration was updated to demonstrate Christs’ fulfillment of the preceding events of
God’s Story.
Twenty-one students attended the sixth and final lesson, which occurred on May
8, 2012. Participant Guides were provided. Weekly announcements were made, followed
by a time of prayer. The sixth lesson, which was entitled Restoration and looked at the
conclusion of God’s Story and the role Christians today have in it, again utilized a
PowerPoint, and the Dry-Erase board to illustrate what God is doing, and will one day do.
The lesson was concluded with prayer, and the students were then given the Post-Test
Survey. Understanding that the sixth lesson was just given, and that the students had not
yet had time to reflect on the material, nor allow it to yet work in and through them, the
students were instructed to take the Post-Test with them, complete it during the week
ahead, and return it either on the upcoming Sunday, May 12, 2012 or the following
Wednesday, May 15. By May 15, fourteen completed Post-Test had been received.
Conclusion
Striving to see if evangelism can become a natural overflow of a lifestyle of
worship, this six-week study sought to see if an indigenous/embodied witness could
manifest through an understanding of the metanarrative of Scripture with emphasis on the
Trinity (particularly the Holy Spirit, and His indwelling in all believers) partnered with a
Trinitarian understanding of the imago Dei. The six weeks sought to establish who God
is, who we are in relationship with Him, as well as the Story told through His Word
(Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration). The Trinity was seen as the author and point

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of this story, while keeping in mind five questions everyone asks: Who am I?; Where am
I?; What is wrong?; What is the remedy?; and, What time is it (where do I belong in this
story)? In the hopes that hearers would better understand the story and embody their role
in it as witnesses on mission with Him, the first two weeks established the elements of a
story (Exposition, Rising Actions, Climax, and Resolution) as well as certain themes
crucial to comprehending who God is and what He is doing (His Mission, His Gospel,
and His Kingdom). To measure whether or not this endeavor achieved its goals (internal
growth with God that manifested externally, through an indigenous witness), identical
pre- and post-test surveys were administered, whose data will now be analyzed and
assessed.

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CHAPTER FIVE
PROJECT ANALYSIS
Introduction
With all completed surveys collected, the project director assessed both the Pre-
Test and Post-Test data. The analytics for both surveys can be found in their entirety in
Appendix E. This aim of this chapter is twofold. First, to see whether any correlations
exist between the Pre-Test data with assertions made about Millennials in chapter one.
Any connections found will lend credibility to the projects format content, and structure,
along with increasing the viability and trustworthiness of the Post-Test results. The
second goal is to determine through the Post-Test results whether or not the students
simultaneously grew inwardly in their relationships with God while outwardly increasing
in their participation in evangelism. Further, the second goal will look to see if internal
spiritual growth and external effective evangelistic participation are reflexive upon each
other, and thus indigenous by nature—namely, are the students naturally living on
mission with God as the overflow of being filled with the Spirit.
Correlations Between Chapter One and The Pre-Test
Chapter one advanced four assertions regarding Millennials: 1) Millennials are
not Religious; 2) Millennials Have Epistemological Disconnects Which Have Produced
Compartmentalized Lives; 3) The Effects of the Christ-and-Me Approach to a
Relationship with God; and, 4) Millennial Christians Fail to Recognize How the imago

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Dei is connected to the missio Dei. Since the focus group of this project comprised of
Millennials in a student ministry who each professed to be Christians, this project cannot
speak beyond the research cited in chapter one in regards to the first postulation,
Millennials are not religious.
However, although 100 percent of students affirmed that they had shared their
faith in the last thirty days, only 38 percent acknowledged that they had asked for a
response to the gospel in the last three months. As such, the student’s felt that while they
had shared the truth of Jesus without asked for a response to the gospel, they had
nevertheless fulfilled their duty to do so. When partnered with the indication that these
students understood evangelism as a lifestyle that all believers are called to, ambiguity
emerged as to what kind of lifestyle evangelism they adhered to when it does not call for
a response to the gospel they are proclaiming. Further, when cohesively drawn together,
pre-test evangelism figures overall demonstrated that the student’s engagement in
witnessing waned, in that though the majority demonstrated the gospel in deed, nearly
half do not proclaim it in word, and thus likewise failed in calling for a response to that
gospel. Supplementary, in contrast to the irregularities of their evangelism habits,
students answered more consistently with statements within the context of identity than in
any other context addressed in the survey. When students filtered the majority of
statements through their more traditional duty/obligation perspective, their answers
showed continual discontinuity, which in turn resulted in inconsistent lives. However,
when considering their identity, student’s answers were not merely consistent within the
survey, but more consistently biblical as well. Relationships with God operating from

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duty and obligation revealed inconsistencies on two fronts—1) Students failed to live out
what they knew God had called them to, and desired from them (Evangelism and
Discipleship). Or, 2) they failed to fully connect certain biblical truths about God, His
kingdom, His mission, and/or His gospel. In contrast, when placed within the context of
identity, their answers remained more consistent. Cumulatively assessed, the results
demonstrated that the students surveyed failed to live on mission with God, yet
understood what God had called them to do evangelistically and missionally, and
answered consistently concerning their identity in Christ. These results give credence to
the fourth notion asserted: Millennials Christians Fail to Recognize How the imago Dei is
Connected to the missio Dei.
The third assertion (The Effects of the Christ-and-Me Approach to a Relationship
with God) strove to establish how a moralistic-therapeutic-deistic relationship with
God—more self-centered and self-serving than Christ-centered and Christ-glorifying—
functions as a catalyst for Millennial Christian’s failing to connect the imago Dei with the
missio Dei. Overall, the affirmations presented to the students in the pre-test regarding
this assertion were continually closely split in half or inconsistent in their responses
altogether—Students were inconsistent in affirming whether or not their life was about
their story or God’s. They viewed Jesus as the centerpiece of creation, and the purpose of
gospel-centrality as adoring and worshipping God, yet affirmed that the point of being
saved was so that they could be forgiven and go to Heaven. And, although the majority
understood that God had sent them on a grand mission to tell others about Him, nearly 60
percent did not affirm that evangelism is important because people were dying and going

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to Hell. The consistent split and inconsistencies on these issues inhibited a firm
affirmation on whether or not a moralistic-therapeutic-deistic relationship with God
served as a catalyst for failure to connect the imago Dei with the missio Dei. However,
whereas the pre-test results revealed that at most, only 38 percent of the students could be
effectively living on mission with God, then 62 percent could not.1 Further, those same
students likewise could not affirm that they understood and lived a Christ-centered
relationship with God.2 Therefore, this survey, partnered with research cited in chapter
one, denoted the possibility and likelihood that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism served as
the defining characteristic keeping them from living lifestyles of worship, and living on
mission with God. With the pre-test providing no definite affirmations at this point,
prudence necessitated a look in the post-test results as to whether affirmations regarding
both Christ-centrality and evangelism rose congruent with one another.
The final claim made in chapter one asserted that Millennials have
epistemological disconnects that lead to compartmentalized lives. While the students of

1
Although 100 percent of students affirmed that they had shared their faith in the last thirty days,
only 38 percent acknowledged that they had asked for a response to the gospel in the last three months. As
such, the students felt that having shared the truth of Jesus without asked for a response to the gospel, they
had still fulfilled their duty to do so. When partnered with the indication that these students understand
evangelism as a lifestyle that all believers are called to, ambiguity emerged as to what kind of lifestyle
evangelism they adhered to when it does not call for a response to the gospel they are proclaiming. Further,
when cohesively drawn together, pre–test evangelism figures overall demonstrated that the student’s
engagement in witnessing waned, in that though the majority demonstrated the gospel in deed, nearly half
do not proclaim it in word, and thus likewise failed in calling for a response to that gospel.
2
76 percent of students declared that they had a closer relationship with God at the time of the
survey than it was six months ago, with nearly half of the students (48 percent) strongly agreeing. When
asked if their relationship with God was constantly growing, the number rose by five percent to 81 percent,
denoting that one person believed that their relationship with God simultaneously grows continually, but is
not currently closer than it was six months ago. Of interesting note—when comparing the figures between
those who believe their relationship with God is constantly growing (81 percent) with those that affirm that
they read their Bible regularly (29 percent) the difference shows that over half the students believe that they
are growing ever–closer to God without reading their Bible consistently. Additionally, though they readily
acknowledged that trusting in Jesus means renouncing everything, they still had no qualms believing that

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Broadway Baptist Church in Lexington, KY did not epitomize the postmodern Millennial
typically represented in Millennial studies (e.g. ascribing to the relativism and
subjectivism of truth), the pre-test results as a whole demonstrated that they have not
escaped postmodernism’s effects en masse. This was shown through both the continual
inconsistencies of their answers, as well as their failure to engage in evangelism. For
instance, although 86 percent agreed that God has sent His church on a grand mission,
and 76 percent affirmed that they are to be a missionary to their community, only 38
percent could be effectively on mission with God, with 43 percent believing that
evangelism was not important because people were dying and going to hell. Further,
while the overwhelming majority understood that the gospel permeates all of life (86
percent), 71 percent likewise affirmed that being saved is not ultimately about being
transformed through experiencing God here and now, but about being forgiven and going
to heaven when they die. Similarly, 86 percent affirmed that the point of gospel-
centeredness is to adore God and worship His Son, while 67 percent simultaneously
maintained that Jesus is the best but not the only way to have a relationship with God. As
a capstone on this, 38 percent believed that some people can go to heaven without
reading or hearing the gospel at all.
While the epistemological disconnects have been demonstrated, the notion
posited, however, is whether or not these epistemological disconnects actually produce
compartmentalized lives. A few correlations provided substance to this belief—while 76
percent understood and believed that they are to be a missionary to their community, only

the responsibility to be better Christians lied on them. Seeing these beliefs coalesce lends one to wonder
whose story students feel they are living, theirs or God’s.

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38 percent actually engaged in this mission with God. Likewise, although 90 percent
believed that it is important to have non-Christian friends, only 57 percent did so.
Whereas 86 percent realized that God has sent them on a grand mission, only 38 percent
shared the gospel and asked for a response. And, while 52 percent of students believed
that it was their job to be more holy, only 29 percent actually read their Bible regularly.
Ultimately, the cycle of the imago Dei came full-circle, in that with these epistemological
disconnects leading to disconnected, compartmentalized lives, students were living this
life thinking that despite living this way their relationship with God is continually
growing (81 percent).
Post-Test Statistics
Participants Professions and Engagement in Evangelism
While twenty-one students participated in the six-week study, only fourteen
students completed the post-test survey the week after, due to summer vacation trips.
Like the pre-test, each student professed to faith Christ as Savior and Lord. Broken down,
one student professed being a Christian 1–5 years; nine students, 6–10 years; and, four,
11–15 years.
Years Since Trusting in Christ

10
0
1-5 years 6-10 years 11-15 years 16+ years No Answer
Graph 5.18. Post-Test – Years Since Trusting in Christ

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One hundred percent of the students indicated that they had shared their faith in the last
thirty days: three students noted that they had shared their faith one time, one student
marked that they had done so twice, with two acknowledging three times, six having
shared four times, and two sharing their faith six or more times in the past thirty days.
Altogether, 57 percent of the students shared their faith four times or more in the previous
thirty days, with 50 percent indicating that they regularly share their faith. Whereas 38
percent denoted on the pre-test that they have shared the gospel message and asked the
person to respond to Christ at least once in the last three months, 35 percent stated on the
post-test that they had done so. Although this is a three percent decrease, it is an
understandable aberration when one considers that twenty-one people took part in the
pre-test compared to fourteen who completed the post-test. Although 33 percent fewer
people completed the post-test, the decrease of those who had asked for a response to the
gospel only decreased by three percent.
Evangelism Activity - Percentages

50
40
30
20
10
0
Shared Their Faith in the Last 30 Days
1X 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X(+)
Graph 5.19. Post-Test – Evangelism Activity

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Evangelism Habits
50
40
30
20
10
0
I regularly share my faith. I have shared the gospel message and asked for the
person to respond to Christ at least once in the last 3
Months.
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
Graph 5.20. Post-Test – Evangelism Habits
Compared to 76 percent of students who indicated in the pre-test that they “know
the content of the gospel well enough to share it with others,” and agreed that they are “to
be a missionary to their community,” 100 percent of students agreed with both statements
in the post test; a 24 percent increase. Further, of those that strongly agreed, the first
statement had a 31 percent increase (from 33 to 64 percent), and the second had a 24
percent increase (from 48 to 72 percent). Further figures on evangelism remained
relatively unchanged between the pre- and post-test surveys: “Evangelism is primarily the
task of pastors (pre- 90 percent disagreed/post- 86 percent disagreed);” “It is my church’s
responsibility to share the gospel with my community (pre- 67 percent agreed/post- 65
percent agreed);” “Evangelism is something done as a church through events and
activities, such as preaching, visitation, VBS, AWANAS, etc. (pre- 48 percent agreed/
post-50 percent agreed).”

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Perspectives on Evangelism
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
I am to be a Evangelism is It is my church's Evangelism is Evangelism is a
missionary in my primarily the task of responsibility to something done as a program or event.
community. pastors. share the gospel with church through
my community. events and activities.
Graph 5.21. Post-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism
In responding to the statement, “I believe evangelism is a program or event,” the
response of those that disagreed rose from 86 percent to 93 percent a 7 percent increase.
Between those that disagreed, an increase of 26 percent of those that strongly disagreed
with the assertion emerged (from 24 percent in the pre-test to 50 percent in the post-test).
Encouragingly, like the pre-test, these figures demonstrate that the students recognized
that while evangelism is the responsibility of the church, it is not exclusively consigned
to its evangelistic endeavors. Further, they understand that while does take place in these
activities, it is something that happens first and foremost in the life of the believer, as
further demonstrated by his or her 100 percent agreement in the declaration, “Evangelism
occurs by others seeing me live,” with 78 percent disagreeing with the same statement
asked retroactively, and 71 percent agreeing that they should demonstrate the gospel
before they articulate it.

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When Evangelism Has Occurred
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
When I Verbally Share the By Others Seeing Me Live The gospel is something I I believe that I should
Gospel am supposed to share, not demonstrate the gospel
live. before I articulate it.
Graph 5.22. Post-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred
In the pre-test survey, comparisons between adherence to lifestyle evangelism
with those that both demonstrate and proclaim the gospel, left only 52 percent who could
possibly be seeking to be on mission with God in both word and deed. When partnered
with figures regarding those who were also asking for a response to the gospel, this figure
attenuated to 38 percent. When assessing these figures in the post-test, the number of
those who were actually demonstrating and proclaim in the gospel rose twelve percent to
64 percent but the those that were asking for a response to the gospel dropped three
percent to 35 percent (noted above). This differential was elucidated in the pre-test by the
fact that while 90 percent of the students agreed that, “It is important to reach out to non-
Christian in genuine friendship for the purpose of sharing Christ with them,” only 38
percent affirmed that they actually did, partnered with 43 percent disagreeing with the
notion that evangelism is important because people who are lost are going to hell.
However, in the post-test, while the percentage of students actually sharing their faith and
asking for a response dropped three points to 35 percent, the number of students who
reported having non-Christians friend rose twenty points (from 38 to 58 percent), and

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those that agreed that evangelism is important because people who are lost are going to
hell increased twenty-two points (from 57 to 79 percent). Such a dramatic increase on
these two points, alongside the twelve percent increase in those who are both
demonstrating and proclaiming the gospel, renders the question of where the disconnect
lies in why students are not asking for a response to the gospel.
Actualites on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective Engagement
100
80
60
40 Students Sharing Their Faith

Sharing Faith and Asking for a Response
20
Adhere to Lifesyle Evangelism
0 Actually Demonstrate and Proclaim the Gospel
Lifestyle
Evangelism Sharing Their
Faith
Graph 5.23. Post-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective Engagement
The overall pre-test evangelism figures revealed that although the majority of the
students understood that as believers in Christ they are called to share His gospel with
others, they sought to do so by living like Christians without proclaiming it, and thus
likewise failed in calling for a response to it. In comparison, post-test results revealed an
increase in all areas. Whereas most increases stood around seven percent, notable jumps
ranged from 19-24 percent: 24 percent more students said that they are to be missionary
to their community, and know the gospel well enough to share it with others; 22 percent
more students believe that evangelism is important because people who are lost are going
to hell; and, nineteen percent more students have intentionally sought out non-Christians

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in genuine friendship, with the hope and purpose of sharing the gospel with them. As
encouragingly as these numbers might be, they are subdued by the fact that with this
increase in effective proclamation of the gospel, calls for response and decision remain
relatively the same (38 percent pre-test/35 percent post-test).
Overall Evangelism Figures

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Believe They Are Believe Share the Gospel Have Shared the Have Lost Believe
to be a Evangelism Through Life, but Gospel and Friends Evangelism
Missionary in Occurs When not Verbally Asked for a Should Be
Their Community Others See Me Response in last Intentional
Live 3 Months
Pre-Test Agree Pre-Test Disagree Post-Test Agree Post-Test Disagree
Graph 5.24. Post-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures
Disciplines/Habits and Views on Discipleship
Whereas only 29 percent of the students affirmed in the pre-test that they read the
Bible four-six times a week (including church times), 43 percent did so in the post-test,
with just over half saying that they did not (57 percent). Partnered with this rise, 93
percent said that they prayed four-six times a week, a 22 percent jump from 71 percent
reported in the pre-test. Pre-test numbers denoted a fissure between identifying as a
Christian and exercising disciplines like Bible study and prayer. Eighty-six percent of
students identified as Christian for six years or longer, but only 29 percent read their
Bible four-six times a week, with 71 percent praying that much. Encouragingly, the post-

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test figures reveal that while 93 percent of the respondents identified as believers for that
same time period, fourteen percent more now read their Bible four-six times a week
(from 29 to 43 percent), and 22 percent more prayed that same amount (from 71 to 93
percent). These figures show a closer balance developing between what the students
believe and how they live.
A further disconnect evidenced in the pre-test was that amidst the low figures in
Bible study and prayer, 76 percent of the students still declared that their relationship
with God was closer than it was six months ago. In contrast, 85 percent now declared a
closer relationship with God (an increase of eight percent). However, whereas the figure
was discouraging in the pre-test, it was an encouraging in the post-, as the 8 percent
increase was backed with the 14 percent and 22 percent increases in Bible study and
prayer, serving as further evidence of the growing balance between belief and practice.
Further, this growth in the lives of the students offered are greater perspective and
understanding on maturity in Christ, as with these more encouraging post-test numbers,
the response of those agreeing with the statement, “My relationship with God is always
growing,” decreased by ten percent (81 percent down to 71 percent).

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Bible & Prayer Habits
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Read the Bible 4-6x a Pray at Least 4-6x a Week Feel that their Relationship Believe that their
Week with God is Stronger than Relationship with God is
it was 6 Months Ago Always Growing
Graph 5.25. Post-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits
Congruent with the overall augmentation of these responses, 100 percent of the
respondents agreed that, “Trusting in Jesus means that I would gladly renounce
everything to follow Him,” 93 percent disagreed with the phrase, “If I am not fixated on
Jesus, then my life will still turn out okay,” and 85 percent disagreed with the statement,
“I can become who God has called me to be by having a relationship with Jesus, but not
being totally fixated on Him.” When considered with the student’s increased participation
in living on mission with God (evidenced by his or her overall evangelism figures above)
partnered with their increase in the spiritual habits of Bible study and prayer, as well as
his or her more mature understanding of what it means to grow in his or her walk with
Christ, these figures supplement and bolster the pattern of balance and growth emerging
between their orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
Views on Theology: God, His Kingdom, His Mission, and His Gospel
Pre-test figures regarding “Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, and His
Gospel” were already high in agreement with 95 percent, 100 percent, 90 percent, and 95

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percent answering that they agreed that God models the importance of relationship(s) in
the Trinity itself, Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection make up the gospel, that the Trinity
is essential to evangelism, and affirming that the understood the phrase “The Kingdom of
God.” Though already overwhelmingly high, these numbers rose to 100 percent in all
four categories in the post-test. Further, significant increases were seen in three
categories: 1) those that strongly agreed that Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection make up
what is called the gospel rose twelve percent (from 81 to 93 percent), 2) strong agreement
rose 34 percent (from 38 to 72 percent) concerning belief that the Trinity is essential to
evangelism, and, 3) understanding of the phrase “The Kingdom of God” increased
nineteen percent (from 38 to 57 percent).
Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, & His Gospel

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
God is a God of Jesus's life, death, and I believe the Trinity is When someone uses the
relationships. He models resurrection make up what essential to evangelism. phrase, "The Kingdom of
the importance of we call the Gospel. God," I understand what it
relationhip(s) in the means.
Trinity itself.
Strongly Diagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
Graph 5.26. Post-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, and His Gospel
Pre-test figures revealed that while the overwhelming majority of the students
who participated in the survey knew and believed in the mission of God (86 percent), and
affirmed that to exist in relationship with Jesus means taking part in this mission (86

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percent), there was slight ambiguity in their certainty of what that mission is (71 percent).
With seven percent and fourteen percent increases regarding the first two, the greatest
increase observed concerned just this—in the post-test 100 percent now said that they not
only agreed that God has sent us on a grand mission and being in community with Jesus
means to take active part in His mission, but also understood the phrase, “The Mission of
God,” a 29 percent increase. This more-balanced missional theology is consistent with
the post-test theme witnessed thus far, a closer balance between the student’s orthodoxy
and orthopraxy, compared to the inconsistencies systemically answered throughout the
pre-test.
The Mission of God

100
80
60
40
20
0
God has sent us on a grand I understand the phrase the To be in community with Jesus
mission. "mission of God." means to take active part in His
mission.
Graph 5.27. Post-Test – The Mission of God
Like the pre-test, following the examination of the student’s perspectives on the
mission of God, the post-test examined their views on the mission of the church. Pre-test
figures again demonstrated inconsistencies in their answers, asserting initially that the
church’s mission is to save the lost, while also affirming the notion that the church’s
mission is to grow our church. As a whole, post-test numbers continued this trend.
Although in the post-test the differential between those that agreed that the church’s

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mission is to save the lost with those that agreed that the mission is to grow the church
decreased from ten percent to eight percent, these numbers were not as encouraging, as
those that answered that church’s mission is to save the lost decreased by three percent
(81 percent in the pre-test to 78 percent in the post). Additionally, those that agreed that
the mission is to grow our church increased by fifteen percent (71–86 percent). This
ambiguity between the student’s perspectives on the Mission of God with the Mission of
the Church, could be what fosters the disconnect between why their orthodoxy and
orthopraxy have become more balanced, yet their calls for response to the gospel have
remained stagnant. Adding further inconsistency to this subject, while fifteen percent
more students affirmed, “Our mission is to grow our church,” there was a 34 percent
increase in those that disagreed with the statement, “The church’s focus should be on its
members,” (52 percent in the pre-test, 86 percent in the post). Thus, while students
recognized that the church’s mission was less about reaching the lost and more about
growing their church itself, they furthered maintained that the church’s focus should not
be on its members. The pre-test figures exhibited the truth that overall the students
viewed the mission of God as something that they, as followers of Jesus, should take part
in, and perceived this mission as reaching the lost for the sake of growing their church,
but struggled with what priority they should place on them once they enter the church.
Post-test results continue this assertion.

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The Mission of the Church
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
The church's mission is to Our misssion is to grow The church's focus should I believe that the church's
save the lost. our church. be on it's members primary responsibility is to
teach and train baptized
disciples of Jesus.
Graph 5.28. Post-Test – The Mission of the Church
Pre-test results on discipleship expressed that failures to connect what Christ has
done for them in the past with his work and relevance in their lives today, coincided with
failures to understand God’s mission. However, post-test figures regarding discipleship
and evangelism became more balanced. And, while figures concerning the mission of
God rose proportionately to those two categories, results concerning the mission of the
church did not. Despite answering more consistently in the first two categories, students
still display inconsistencies regarding the missio Dei in that they still do not have
reconciliation between the mission of God with the mission of the church, i.e. that the
mission of God is the mission of the church. Up to this point in the survey two
disconnects have emerged: 1) stagnant numbers regarding student’s calling for a response
to the gospel, despite being more engaging in sharing their faith in both word and deed,
and, 2) failure to recognize the synonymy between the mission of God and the mission of
the church. It remains to be seen whether there is a correlation fostering each other’s

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existence, or perhaps the influence one may have in the other. In the pre-test, perspectives
on the gospel were shown to be heavy impetuses to the inconsistencies amongst
discipleship and missional understanding and engagement, as each categories number’s
rose and fell in similar agreement. The possibility that post-test results on gospel
perspectives might have the same similarities, and possibly demonstrate a connection
prompting the two inconsistencies present thus remain.
One hundred percent of the students affirmed that the gospel includes total life
transformation, a fourteen percent increase from the pre-test, with those strongly agreeing
with the statement rising 43 percent (29 percent pre-test/72 percent post-). Likewise, a
fourteen percent increase rose between the pre- and post-test amongst those who strongly
agreed that the point of gospel-centeredness is to adore God and worship His Son (from
43 to 57 percent), with a seven percent rise in agreement overall (from 86 to 93 percent).
Just as numbers remain 100 percent for both surveys in declaring that Jesus’s life, death,
and resurrection make up the gospel, students answering the statement, “The reason God
saved me is so that I can be forgiven and go to heaven when I died,” also stayed stagnant
at 71 percent.
Initial Beliefs About the Gospel

80
60
40
20
0
I believe that the gosple includes The reason God saved me is so that The point of gospel-centerdness is
total life transformation I can be forgiven and go to heaven to adore God and worship His Son.
when I die.
Graph 5.29. Post-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel

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Similar to the pre-test, these statistics display that while students surveyed
understand that the gospel transforms and affects their entire life, they do not yet have
full resolution concerning its ultimate point. As such, it was pondered during the pre-test
analysis whether a failure to understand the point of God’s message would in turn affect
their engagement in sharing it with other, and living on mission with Him. And, while
post-test data does show how a more balanced orthodoxy has resulted in more
orthopraxy, and students have thus become more engaged in the mission of God and the
sharing of their faith, they have faltered in increasing calls for a response to the gospel.
The question demonstrated through the student’s responses regarded not to the how God
has saved them, or the gospel’s affects in their life, but as to why God has saved he or she
in the first place. Further examination concerning their belief as to the why of God’s
gospel and mission, and whether or not it impacts and/or influences them committing to
asking those they share with if they would like to responds to the gospel of Christ, will be
considered as deeper analysis of their beliefs about the gospel are assessed.
Congruent with the pre-test, 100 percent of the students affirmed that Jesus’s life,
death, and resurrection make up what is called the gospel. However, the number of those
who strongly agreed with the assertion rose from 81 percent to 93 percent. Eighty-six
percent (a 10 percent increase) asserted that the Bible has a singular metanarrative, 100
percent again agreed that Jesus is the centerpiece of that story, with a fifteen percent
increase amongst those who strongly agreed (71 percent pre-test, 86 percent post-).
Despite these encouraging numbers, 71 percent unfortunately still affirmed the statement,

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“The gospel is fully expressed by the ABC’s of salvation: Admit your sins; Believe in
Jesus; Confess Him as Savior.”
This presentation is insufficient because it is incomplete of certain fundamentals
of the gospel. Though there are others, one of special note is the absence of “repentance”
of one’s sin, versus admittance. Admittance looks to be excused, but repentance
demonstrates an acknowledgement of guilt, as well as the need for forgiveness. John the
Baptist (Matt 3:11), Jesus (Luke 3:8, 5:32), the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem
(Acts 11:18), Paul (Rom 2:4), the writer of Hebrews (Heb 6:1, 6), and Peter (2 Pet 3:9)
all emphasize the need for repentance for salvation. Another insufficiency is that this
model places emphasis on the actions, in disregard to one heart. Thus, one could
complete the steps in word and deed, without submitting to the lordship of Christ in their
spirit.
The Gospel: God's Story

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Jesus's life, death, and The gospel is fully I believe that the Bible is Jesus is the centerpiece of
resurrection make up what expressed by the ABC's of one story. all of creation.
we call the gospel of salvation: Admit your
Christ. sins; Believe in Jesus;
Confess Him as Savior.
Graph 5.30. Post-Test – The Gospel: God’s Story
Although in the pre-test, only 66 percent disagreed with declaration, “Jesus is the
best way to have a relationship with God, but not the only way, 79 percent disagreed in

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the post-test. This thirteen percent increase was partnered with a fourteen percent
increase for 100 percent strong agreement that, “The only way a person can receive
forgiveness of his/her sin is through repenting of his/her sin and trusting in Jesus Christ
alone for forgiveness and eternal life.” Whereas the discrepancies between their views of
salvation in the pre-test coincided with the continual inconsistencies demonstrated by the
pre-test en masse, post-test views on salvation demonstrate a more consistent
understanding of the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The only variance
observed concerned the statement, “Some people can go to Heaven without reading or
hearing the gospel.” Although significant growth was demonstrated in regards to the
student’s theologies of both the gospel and salvation, numbers for this declaration
remained relatively unchanged, as only 62 percent disagreed on the pre-test and 64
percent on the post. However, for those that did disagree, the number that strongly did so
rose from 24 to 50 percent, a solid 26 percent increase.
Views on Salvation
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Jesus is the best way to have a The only way a person can receive Some people can go to Heaven
relationship with God, but not the forgiveness of his/her sin is through without reading or hearing the
only way. repenting of his/her sin and trusting gospel.
in Jesus Christ alone for
forgiveness and eternal life.
Graph 5.31. Post-Test – Views on Salvation

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Understanding of Their Identity in Christ
In the pre-test, student responses regarding their understanding of their identity in
Christ stood in contrast to the other sections, as students answered more consistently
throughout that section compared to the recurrent inconsistency of the sections preceding
it. When understood together, the pre-test revealed that when the students filtered the
majority of the statements through a more traditional duty/obligation perspective, their
answers showed continual discontinuity, which in turn resulted in inconsistent lives. But,
when considering their identity, student’s answers were not merely consistent within the
survey, but more consistent biblically as well. With but a few exceptions, most notably
the failure to call for a response to the gospel, post-test figures regarding spiritual
disciplines, the Trinity, His Mission, His Gospel, and their engagement in the Great
Commission have both increased and become more synchronistic with each other,
resulting in a greater balance between their orthodoxy and orthopraxy. With increases
throughout the post-test ranging between 7–23 percent, it remains to be seen if post-test
results regarding a student’s understanding of his or her identity in Christ run congruent.
Like the pre-test, students affirmed with 100 percent agreement that knowing God
is the ultimate point of humankind. However, whereas 71 percent strongly agreed with
the assertion in the pre-test, those that now answered as so rose by fifteen percent to 86
percent. When asked, “All of my life, including even the mundane activities like eating
and drinking, should be lived to the glory of God,” 100 percent of the students agreed, a
nineteen percent increase. However, 55 percent more now strongly agreed so, totaling 93
percent of students in the post-test, compared to 38 percent in the pre-test. A seven

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percent loss was recorded, when asked “We were made to experienced full and lasting
happiness from seeing savoring the glory of God” (pre-test 100 percent, post-test 93
percent). However, those that strongly agreed rose from 38 percent to 72 percent, a 34
percent increase. A full 100 percent affirmed that if their best joy comes from something
other than God, then they are an idolater, and God is dishonored, compared to 77 percent
in the pre-test, a 23 percent increase; and, those that strongly agreed with this affirmation
rose by 43 percent, from 29–72 percent. Finally, an eighteen percent increase occurred,
when asked, “I believe that the church is a people who live in a new world with a new
relationship with God” (85 percent in the post-test, compared to 64 percent in the pre-).
In accordance with the overall trend of the identity in Christ category, this statement had
a 35 percent increase of those that strongly agreed.
Just as each category has had at least one statement whose post-test figures has
moved contrary to the others, a seven percent decrease was observed for the declaration,
“If Christians were taught more about who they are, they wouldn’t have to be told what
to do.” With 67 percent originally reporting agreement with this statement, only 50
percent affirmed it in the post-test. At the heart of this project is the notion that what God
does overflows out of who He is. It is notable here, that while students decreased their
affirmation of this assertion, their overall survey results affirm its actualization in their
own lives, i.e. while they may not comprehend and declare that one’s understanding of
their identity leads to greater obedience and engagement in the mission of God than

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merely being told what to do, the lives they actually live demonstrate its validity and
overall effectiveness.
Post-test increases of the previous sections rose between 7–23 percent.
Concerning their understanding of their identity in Christ, post-test increases were
eighteen percent, nineteen percent, and 23 percent, with one category not rising but
remaining at 100 percent agreement, with increases in strong agreement being, nine
percent, fifteen percent, 34 percent, 35 percent, 43 percent, and 55 percent. In the pre-
test, statements regarding the student’s identity in Christ were already more consistent
than the other categories. And, whereas post-test numbers have increased and balanced,
numbers for this category have become even more solid. These figures indicate that one’s
understanding of who he or she is in Christ serves as a conduit between their orthodoxy
and orthopraxy, which influences their balance and effectiveness in the life of the
believer, and thus the kingdom of God and their engagement in His mission.
Identity in Christ
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
If Christians were Knowing God is All of my life, We were made to If my best joy I believe that the
taught more about the ultimate point including even the experience full comes from church is a people
who they are, they of humankind. mundane activities and lasting something other who live in a new
wouldn't have to like eating and happiness from than God, then I world with a new
be told what to do. drinking, should seeing and am an idolator and identity and a new
be lived to the savoring the glory God is relationship with
glory of God. of God. dishonored. God.
Graph 5.32. Post-Test – Identity in Christ

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Epistemology
From the research conducted on the Millennial generation, chapter one posited
that Millennials have epistemological disconnects, which have produced
compartmentalized lives, and contributed in Millennial Christian’s failure to live on
mission with God, as the mind plays a pivotal role in the imago Trinitatis, and one’s
growth in being conformed into the likeness of Christ. Pre-test results demonstrated that
while the Millennial Christians surveyed did not wholeheartedly embody the typical
characteristics of Millennials, they were not completely immune to the generation’s
epistemological detriments. Thirty-three percent agreed with both statements, “No one
can know for certain that anything is true,” and, “I can’t know anything with complete
certainty.” And, nineteen percent agreed with the declaration, “Absolute truth doesn’t
exist.” When cumulatively assessed, pre-test figures indicated that 43 percent strongly
affirmed the certainty of truth, 37 percent affirm that absolute truth exists but people may
or may not be able to be certain that they have ascertained it, fifteen percent agree that
absolute truth does not exists, with ten percent of that fifteen percent strongly asserting
that it does not exists. When considering the final topic, “Every person has to decide for
themselves what’s right and good,” which sought to see if these Christian students placed
the onus of truth upon the individual, 48 percent agreed, 48 percent disagreed, and one
person abstained from answering.
Post-test figures predominantly showed a different story. Compared to 34 percent
who originally agreed that no one could be certain of truth, only fourteen percent agreed
in the post-test, a twenty percent improvement. Further, a full 100 percent affirmed the

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existence of absolute truth, as zero students agreed with the statement, “Absolute truth
doesn’t exist,” a fourteen percent increase from the 86 percent that disagreed on the pre-
test. In regards to their perspective on the attainability of absolute truth, 79 percent now
believe that it is possible, compared to 67 percent in the pre-test, an increase of twelve
percent. Whereas 48 percent agreed and 48 percent disagreed on the pre-test with the
fourth assertion that examined where the students placed the onus of truth, the post-test
revealed that now only 42 percent agreed with the statement, “Every person has to decide
for themselves what’s right and good,” and 58 percent disagreed.
Epistemology
100
50
0
No one can know for Absolute truth doesn't I can't know anything with Every person has to decide
certain that anything is exist. complete certainty. for themselves what's right
true. and good.
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree No Answer
Graph 5.33. Post-Test – Epistemology
Akin to the previous sections, post-test figures regarding epistemology improve
by an average of twelve percent, with the highest gain hitting twenty percent and the
lowest six percent. These figures run consistent with post-test trends overall, and
demonstrate the living of a more balanced lifestyle of worship, compared to the perpetual
inconsistencies of the student’s theology and lives demonstrated by the pre-test.
Cumulative Results
The graph below represents the cumulative assessments of both the pre- and post-
test surveys. Each point represents one question on the survey, and the percentage of

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those that supported the biblical answer, whether that meant agreeing or disagreeing with
the statement on the survey. Thus, if the statement on the survey read, “Jesus is the best
way to heaven, but not the only way,” and twenty percent disagreed with 80 percent
agreeing, then it would be listed as a twenty below, because that is the more biblical
answer. However, if the biblical answer was an affirmation, such as, “The only way to be
saved is through faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” and 33 percent
disagreed and 67 percent agreed, then 67 would be entered into the graph, as that is the
most biblical answer. Whether the percentage represented agreement or disagreement is a
moot point, as what matters in the graph below is what percentage affirmed the biblical
answer.
When compared, post-test results reveal a line that is more horizontal than its
predecessor, demonstrating that students both answered more biblically as well as more
consistently, resulting in a more balanced orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Namely, though
they are still far from perfect Christians who are soul-winning left and right, compared to
how they lived prior to the project, they are now living more consistent lifestyles of
worship that live on mission with God more naturally, than out of duty and obligation.
Cumulative Trends
150
100
50
Pre-Test Post-Test
Graph 5.34. Cumulative Results – Trends

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Considering the same figures and data, the pre-test difference between the lowest
and highest numerals was sixty-two (low of thirty-eight; high of one-hundred), with an
average score of 78.5 (represented by the triangle in the graph). Comparatively, the post-
test differential between lowest and highest was only forty-two (low of fifty-eight; high
of one-hundred), with an average of 88.8 (represented by the circle). The intersect
between the mean and the average likewise demonstrates a higher consistency and
balance between what the students believe and what they live.
Means & Averages

120
100
80
60
40
20
Pre-Test Mean Pre-Test Average Post-Test Mean Post-Test Average
Graph 5.35. Cumulative Results – Means and Averages
Further, this project purported that the most successful engagement in the mission
of God is an indigenously embodied witness whereby which one displays outwardly what
is happening in them internally through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit within.
Considering this alongside an understanding that personhood is trinitarian (mind, body,
and spirit), and factoring Millennials as the target audience, nine categories were
measured: The Trinity, the Kingdom of God, the Mission of God, the Gospel, Identity in
Christ, Epistemology, Evangelism, Spiritual Disciplines, and Discipleship. In this

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instance, a perfect nonagon would represent Jesus, one hundred in every category. If
believers are called to be transformed into the likeness of Christ (2 Cor 3:18) and told by
Christ that they would do the same kind of works (even greater works) than He did (John
14:12), then the closer Christians come, in this model, to likewise being a perfect
nonagon the better. This radar graph demonstrates how post-test trends moved ever-
closer towards this goal, in comparison to pre-test results. While the pre-test shape was
more oblong, the post-test more closely resembled the general circular shape of a
nonagon, indicative of the more consistent answers that resulted in a more balanced
theology and practice.
Post-Test Pre-Test
Evangelism
100
Epistemology 80 Spiritual Disciplines
60
40
Identity in Christ 20 Discipleship

0
The Gospel The Trinity
The Mission of God The Kingdom of God
Graph 5.36. Cumulative Results – Nonagon
Chapter one advanced four assertions regarding Millennials: 1) Millennials are
not religious; 2) Millennials have epistemological disconnects which have produced c

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compartmentalized lives; 3) the effects of the Christ-and-me approach to a relationship
with God; and, 4) Millennial Christians fail to recognize how the imago Dei is connected
to the missio Dei. As noted above, since the focus group of this project were Millennials
in a student ministry who each professed to be Christians, this project was unable to
speak beyond the research cited in chapter one in regards to the first postulation,
Millennials are not Religious. However, pre-test results affirmed each of the other three.
Students failed to live on mission with God, while understanding God’s missional call on
their lives, and answering correctly and consistently concerning their identity in Christ,
demonstrating a failure to recognize the interconnection between the imago Dei and the
missio Dei. Consistently failing to understand and differentiate their story versus God’s,
the effects of a Christ-and-me relationship with God were demonstrated, indicating the
likelihood that Moralistic Therapeutic Deism served as the defining characteristic
keeping them from living lifestyles of worship, and living on mission with God. And,
epistemological disconnects demonstrated repeated inconsistencies between student’s
orthodoxy and orthopraxy, bringing the trinitarian cycle of the imago Dei full-circle, in
that with these epistemological disconnects leading to disconnected, compartmentalized
lives, the students were living that way believing that they had a continually growing
relationship with God.
Ultimately, the core issue did not reside with any one of these assertions, but the
cohesion of each of them systemically working together to foster and reinforce a self-
centered theology that only motivated any action for the benefit of the individual
(whether consciously or sub-consciously), and paralyzed the them from effective

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kingdom-living. As such, the solution was not in addressing any one issue or category,
but a holistic approach beginning with the Trinity and moving to the individual, so that
the individual might found identity and purpose in the Trinity Himself. In striving to
develop a discipleship methodology that fostered this Trinitarian lifestyle of worship,
whereby which living on mission with God is the natural byproduct of abiding in Him,
post-test results trended in this direction.
After the six-week study, Millennials students who participated were definitely
religious, recognizing that following Christ was not merely something they did, but
something that they were/are, as they now live in Christ, i.e. the Trinity. Recognizing that
through the Holy Spirit, their salvation should permeate and transform every aspect of
their being, that in this new life they are to live on mission with Him, and are beginning
to more effectively engage in this mission, the compartmentalization that was once
indicative of their Christianity was no longer an option, and began to altogether dissipate.
Likewise, allowing God to pervade their entire being systemically moved them into a
more Trinitarian-centered relationship with Him, whereby which they began to live more
Trinitarian lifestyles of worship. All this systemically fostered and reinforced an
understanding and embracement of the interconnectedness between the imago Dei and
the missio Dei.

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Graph 5.37. Cumulative Results – Imago Trinitatis
Project Process – Strengths and Weaknesses
One weakness resided in the length of the survey. At sixty-one
questions/affirmations across three pages, the surveys were long, resulting in some
students taking as much as a week before completing the post-test, and others not even
completing one at all. Nevertheless, even in the aftermath of the project, their length
continues to appear necessary to effectively measure all areas (mentioned above) required
to address the four issues hindering natural participation in mission sand evangelism.
Assessing all nine categories allowed for a more-sound conclusion on both the research
and project findings. Failure to address any of the nine categories considered would have
left opportunity for questions regarding the certainty of the results of the post-test, as well

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as hindered the validation of the chapter one research and assertions on Millennials
confirmed by the pre-test.
With no singular root cause for Millennial Christian’s ineptness in naturally
participating in the mission of God, another strength of the project was its holistic
approach to teaching and reaching the students. Endeavoring to do so necessitated a large
amount of information be covered by the facilitator and comprehended by the students.
However, although the content was bountiful for each session, limiting the overall study
to six weeks continues to appear a sound decision, in that it did not exasperate the
students’ attention over eight, ten, or twelve weeks, nor went so long that by the final
week the students were unable to connect the final week with the first. Further, aside
from the content, the facilitator sought to offer a holistic presentational methodology: the
lectures appealed to the auditory learners in the audience, while the illustration on the
dry-erase board and PowerPoints sought to reach those that learn visually, and a hand-out
(participant guide, Appendix C) was dispersed each week with fill-in the blanks for
tactile learners. Questions were also received during each lesson, and encouraged to be
asked even during the lesson itself: questions that could be addressed quickly, or in some
way related to the immediate topic being addressed were answered as so. Questions that
required a longer answer, or dealt with a topic related to the study but were not about the
topic being discussed that moment were deferred until after the lesson.
One major weakness concerned prayer: first, the missed-opportunity to put a
greater emphasize on it; and, second, the missed-opportunity to encourage the students to
do so throughout the six weeks. While prayer was present and relied upon, it merely

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assumed its normal place in the service, and its presence was not any more considered
than on any other week. If conducted again, the facilitator would not only put more
emphasize on prayer during each weeks session but would also include a weekly prayer
guide at the end of each week’s handout, from which the students could specifically pray
in regards to points and content of the study itself, e.g. dependence on the Holy Spirit,
asking God to reveal and remove the self from the center of their universe, being
intentional in evangelism, praying for a lost friend and the opportunity to share with
them, divine appointments. Prayer naturally infers the self’s inability, and praying looks
to the only one able to accomplish anything evangelistic and missional. Looking back, it
seemed hypocritical to be emphasizing Trinitarian Gospel-centrality and reliance on the
Holy Spirit, while not being overly conscious and overtly intentional during the lessons to
encourage and hearken the students to pray. Gratefully, the students picked up the
facilitator’s slack, as prayer had strong scores in both the pre- and post-test. The move
toward a more-balanced orthodoxy and orthopraxy hints that perhaps the project
empowered the students to pray more Christ-centered, biblically sound, and in-tune with
the heart of God.
Further Implementation
This project had a very particular target group, which occupied a very specific
demographic. Yet, the theological principles elucidated to address their failure to
naturally live missionally as an overflow of a lifestyle of worship are foundational to the
Christian faith, and transcend the demographic borders of this study. Aside from the
epistemological issues that were contextual to Millennials as a whole, should they be

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true, all other theological assertions would apply to every Christian. As such, it would be
interesting to see if similar results arise, should this project be implemented in other
contexts—other generations, other denominations/non-denominations, and throughout
other regions, ethnicities, and cultures. Contextual factors would have to be considered
for each and every audience, but the concepts of the imago Trinitatis, emphasis on
Trinitarian-Gospel Centrality, one’s identity in Christ, and living a lifestyle of worship
are true for everyone.
Ministry Reflections
How I Grew or Changed
One particular area where I grew concerned the actualization of this project in my
own life. The journey of this project began in 2006. My wife and I returned from
Southeast Asia with the intention of starting the Ph.D. program and doing a dissertation
under Dr. Bruce Little at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary concerning
epistemological hermeneutics, or how our epistemology affects our approach and
interpretation of God’s Word. This topic emerged from reading D. A. Carson’s The
Gagging of God, The Drama of Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and To Know and Love
God by David K. Clark. Upon reading God is the Gospel by John Piper, Father, Son and
Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel by Andreas Köstenberger, The Naked Gospel by
Andrew Farley, and Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith, between 2008-2010, I
was already onto the notions of gospel-centrality. Further, I was also beginning to
recognize that the Trinity must have more relevance in Christians living on mission with
God, the interrelatedness between His mission and His identity, and was allowing them to

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cohesively come together in my theology. Whereas an academic doctorate such as a
Ph.D. would have allowed for these concepts to merely remain only in my theology and
the realm of academia, the project of the D.Min. forced me to think about their
implications on real-life, and their actualization into the world.
As my reading led me in the direction of what it means to be made in the image of
God, I began to better understand how we are made, the process by which we become
what we worship (the imago Trinitatis), and give greater acknowledgement and
dependence on the presence of the Holy Spirit. In this I found a more holistic approach to
discipleship in my own life, and moved toward more closely embracing the Spirit in my
everyday life. Ever-mindful of all three aspects of my personhood, I began to take
account of how I was allowing and embracing the work God was doing in me to permeate
each of them. It did not help for me to gain more knowledge if I did not allow it to
permeate my heart. Allowing my affections to come more in line with God’s was not
beneficial if it they did not result in the proclamation and demonstration of God’s love to
the people around me. As such, I began to see more consistency in my own life between
my orthodoxy, orthopathy, and orthopraxy.
What I Learned About Myself
Over the course of this project, as I came to better understand the imago
Trinitatis, and depend more on the Holy Spirit, so that how I lived on mission with God
was rooted in who I am in Christ, I came to understand that I am more apathetic than I
originally perceived myself to be. Although I understood the needs of others, and the
brokenness and suffering of this world, having dwelt for so long in the mind/body

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dualism in my approach to discipleship (that is taking what I learned about God, and
applying it in the actions of my life, devoid of the Holy Spirit in the process), my heart
was not characterized by love and brokenness for the lost in the same manner that was
exemplified by Jesus. Though I was concerned, I was not sympathetic; while I cared, I
was not broken, nor passionate to see them find redemption and restoration in Christ.
As such, it was far easier for me to grow in orthodoxy and orthopraxy, with less
transformation in orthopathy. In examining both present and past lessons where I had
allowed the Spirit to transform my theology from my head to my heart, I recognized that
there were often years between the two. I could fully comprehend and embrace some
aspect of doctrinal/theological truth, yet still not allow it to permeate who I was. My
pastor growing up would say from time to time, “Most people miss heaven by 17 inches,
which is the average distant between your head and your heart.” He was speaking about
salvation, but I recognized it in my own life regarding discipleship, and being conformed
into the image of Christ.
I also learned that I do not easily recognize and discern the U.S. church context as
well as I do cross-culturally. In struggling to properly assess the environment, likewise
struggle to plot the best course of action to move forward. When working in completely
“unchurched” regions of the world, I understand the spiritual context and issues the
people face, and in recognizing where they need to go, guide them towards living and
being indigenous church planting churches. In all contexts, I understand the place where
we, as a church, are called to go and be, am able to cast that vision, and plot a course
there. But, while on that path, I struggle to foresee, plan, and adjust to the impasses that

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emerge from the prevailing Christian subculture and Moralistic Therapeutic Deism so
wrought in our churches in the America. While on this path, I am strong at assessing
issues and struggles with individuals, but not as strong on the corporate level.
As an example: During a lecture in “Historical and Contemporary Models of
Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth,” Alvin Reid said, “If you are one step ahead
you are a leader, if your ten steps ahead you’re an idiot…or a martyr.”3 At Broadway
Baptist Church (the setting of the project) where I served as the Associate Pastor of
Student Life, this unfortunately proved to be true. For those who recognized that transfer
growth was predominate over conversions/baptisms, I was a leader, coming in at a
pivotal moment in the church’s growth where the church was going to have to make a
choice between being inward-focused or outward-focused, to continue the rapid increase
they were experiencing. More importantly, this group recognized the effects of Moralistic
Therapeutic Deism, and desired something more authentic, recognizing that who we are
outwardly must begin inwardly, and thus cared about and longed for a balance between
spiritual maturity and number growth in the student ministry, and the church as a whole.
However, to those who felt that the church was doing and being exactly what Christianity
and being a church was all about, I was viewed as an idiot, who did not care enough
about numbers. In each of these perspectives, no particular demographic dominated the
population of one perspective. It was not “contemporary” parents and their kids in one
group, compared to senior adult “traditionalist” in another, etc. Each perspective had
members from each demographic in it: I had elderly people who loved the vision and

3
Reid, Alvin, “Historical and Contemporary Models of Missions, Evangelism, and Church
Growth,” Lecture, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC. January 16, 2012.

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path of the student ministry, and parents that hated it, because we were trying to be
something more than a spiritual daycare for the teenagers; and, I had other staff members
who wanted the student ministry (pre-school to college) to be all about numbers, with
parents who desired for their students to cherish and delight in God above and beyond
everything else. In all of this, while recognizing that there would be challenges, I felt that
if I effectively cast the vision of what God desired and where He wanted to go, and
supported it biblically along the way, then over time, everyone related to the student
ministry would begin at least understand what we were trying to do in and through the
student’s lives. Regardless of how different things might have been, I recognize that
throughout my time there, I struggled to recognize and discern the context of the people,
so that I could implement a strategy to move the student ministry towards more Christ-
centered, mission-focused engagement, that accounted for the particular challenges of the
various groups in the church, and where they were at in their walk with Christ.
I also learned through the development of this project that I have difficulty
contextualizing one message/lesson that adequately reaches an audience that ranges from
twelve to eighteen years of age. The bulk of my ministry has been in student ministry, but
in each of those contexts, the target group was a specific student ministry demographic.
With Crossroads ministries, we worked with middle and high schoolers, but at separate
times. At Summit Church, I served as the Middle School Pastor; overseas, my wife and
planted churches amongst college students. And, at Bethel Baptist Church we worked
with high-schoolers. Although I had not noticed it at the time, my service at Broadway
Baptist Church was the first time in which I regularly taught (three times a week) to an

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audience that included both middle and high school students. When separating the two,
my lessons were consistently communicated effectively. However, when together, the
common themes were that they were too deep for some and/or not deep enough for
others.
What I Learned About Ministry
The research and implementation of this project taught me how effective ministry
must be holistic, and seek to minister to the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. In the
same way that the most effective work of the kingdom comes from orthodoxy,
orthopraxy, and orthopathy existing in proper balance, so too must the ministry that one
offers to others look to address every dynamic of personhood. In counseling, strategies
for victorious living must not only give wise counsel to reshape one’s thinking, but also
speak to one’s affections/heart, partnered with the proper action. In discipleship, one
must not only offer doctrinal truth for one to comprehend, but also be balanced with
prayer and submission to the Holy Spirit for effectual heart change, as well as offer
opportunities of action for implementing kingdom living. In these and other areas of
discipleship and ministry, full effectiveness comes from adopting a holistic philosophy of
ministry, that accounts for the mind, spirit, and body. As such, one will empower others
to not only mimic obedience through obligation and duty, but be transformed into the
likeness of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and live a lifestyle of worship.
What I Learned About My Ministry Context
One thing I learned about my ministry context in Lexington, Kentucky—all of the
characteristics of the Millennial generation were present in some degree or another.

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Traditionally, states residing in the South are slower in adopting progressive tendencies,
such as those indicative of postmodern Millennials (relativism, tolerance, and pluralism
[chapter one]). Further, having grown up in the South, as well as ministered
internationally, in New York and northern California, in my observation, as a whole,
Lexington resides in a region even more traditional in its worldview than other areas of
the Southeast. As such, modernism was the overwhelming prevalent worldview.
Additionally, within this context, at the time of the project, Broadway Baptist was a more
traditional church, that had just recently added a contemporary/blended service on
Sunday mornings.
Growing up in this context, one would surmise that while having some exposure
and awareness of the progressive views of other regions of the country, and the
occasional anomalous student, the students of Broadway Baptist Church would, for the
most part, adhere to the principles of their parents. Traditionally, tribes become fixed
points, which “embrace the status quo and drown out any tribe member who dares to
question authority and the accepted order.”4 With Baby Boomers being typified by
traditional evangelicalism, Generation X Christians became more pragmatic while
retaining the vast majority of the ideals of their parents/predecessors.
Pre-test results on the Millennial Christians at Broadway, however, demonstrated
that despite their parents being even more-traditional Boomers and Gen-Xers, the
students affirmed the progressive, postmodern characteristics and tendencies indicative of

4
Seth Godin, Tribes: we need you to lead us (New York: Penguin Group, 2008), 4.

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Millennials in more progressive areas of the nation. This dynamic gives credence to Seth
Godin’s assertion regarding the effect of the internet on society:
Geography used to be important…Now the Internet eliminates geography.

This means that existing tribes are bigger, but more important, it means
that there are now more tribes, smaller tribes, influential tribes, horizontal
and vertical tribes, and tribes that could never have existed before.5
The rise of social media has increased the broadcast reach of tribes, and empowered them
to make connections that would have traditionally been non-existent otherwise.
Millennials are the first generation to have never lived a day on earth without the internet.
As a generation with different peculiarities than their parents, they are finding affinity
with peers across the country and associating with the definitive characteristics of their
generation quicker than Southeastern students of previous generations that had
idiosyncrasies of their generation, but never fully embodied them.
Interestingly of note—while this dichotomy between Millennial students of
Broadway and the previous generations of the family was not obvious, nor easily
discernable when analyzed, it is how the Millennials answered and identified on the
survey. That is, having spent time with them, and getting to know them, the project
director would not naturally assume and expect them to adhere to the postmodern
characteristics common to Millennials, but that is exactly what they affirmed on the pre-
test survey. What they knew was modernism; but, when given the option, what they
chose was postmodernism.
What this engendered was a unique and challenging context for ministry. What
was unique was that in identifying more with the most conservative compatriots of their

5
Ibid., 5.

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generation, the Boomer and GenXer parents at Broadway often failed to not only identify
the generational differences in their children’s worldview, but, regularly struggled to
comprehend their way of thinking. I often met with parents who were completely
confounded and dismayed at the choices or positions their children made and took, not
because they were bad/sinful choices (sometimes they were), but just because they
literally could not understand the reasoning behind their decisions that ever made it a
possible choice to begin with.
The challenge that emerged from this context was in navigating this worldview
landscape. It was often tricky to effectively minister to the students, while simultaneously
communicating to the parents why the philosophy and strategy of the student ministry
was being done the way it was. A correlation materialized here—parents who would not
understand the worldview behind their children’s positions and decisions, likewise
struggled in understanding and accepting the course of action, overall vision and strategy,
and certain choices of the student ministry. While parents who at least comprehended
their student’s worldview, even if not agreeing with it, were not only onboard with what
was happening with the student ministry, but excited about it. Those latter championed
the middle, high, and college ministry, while the former all too often sowed seeds of
discourse and ill contentment.

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APPENDIX A: SURVEY
Gender: Male Female

Age: 11-13 14-18 19-22 23-25 26-30 31-33
How long have you been a Christian? <1yr. 1-5 6-10 11-15 16+yrs.
Theology:
4-Strongly Agree 3-Agree 2-Disagree 1-Strongly Disagree
_____ Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection make up what we call the gospel of Christ.
_____ I believe that the gospel includes total life transformation.
_____ God has sent us on a grand mission.
_____ God is god of relationships. He models the importance of relationships in the
Trinity itself.
_____ If Christians were taught more about who they are, they wouldn’t have to be told
what to do.
_____ Jesus is the centerpiece of creation.
_____ The church’s focus should be on its members.
_____ I believe that the Church is a people who live in a new world with a new identity
and a new relationship with God.
_____ I believe that the Church’s primary responsibility is to teach and train baptized
disciples of Jesus.
_____ The only way a person can resolve forgiveness of his/her sin is through repenting
of his/her sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone for forgiveness and eternal life.
_____ Knowing God is the ultimate point of humankind.
_____ All of my life, including even the mundane activities like eating and drinking
should be lived to the glory of God.
_____ When someone uses the phrase, “the kingdom of God,” I understand what it
means.
_____ I understand the phrase, “the mission of God.”

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_____ The point of gospel-centeredness is to adore God and worship His Son.
_____ To be in community with Jesus means to take active part in His mission.
_____ If my best joy comes from something other than God, then I am an idolater and
God is dishonored.
_____ I believe that Trinity is essential to evangelism.
_____ The church’s mission is to save the lost.
_____ Our mission is to grow our church.
_____ Jesus is the best way to have a relationship with God, but not the only way.
_____ The gospel is fully expressed by the ABC’s of salvation: Admit your sins; Believe
in Jesus; and, Confess Him as Savior.
_____ Some people can go to Heaven without reading or hearing the gospel.
_____ I believe that the Bible is one story.
_____ We were made to experience full and lasting happiness from seeing and savoring
the glory of God.
_____ No one can know for certain that anything is true.
_____ Absolute truth doesn’t exist.
_____ I can’t know anything with complete certainty.
_____ Every person has to decide for themselves what’s right and good.
Discipleship:
_____ I read my Bible at least 4-6 days a week.

_____ I pray at least 4-6 times a week.
_____ My relationship with Jesus is closer and stronger that it was 6 months ago.
_____ My relationship with Jesus is constantly growing.
_____ To attempt to “do” that Christian life by my own strength makes Jesus into my
own image.
_____ Jesus has saved me, but it is my job to become more holy.
_____ Jesus expects me to do the work necessary for me to be a good Christian; he has
done enough work already.
_____ If I am not fixated on Jesus, then my life will still turn out okay.

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_____ I can become who God has called me to be by having a relationship with Jesus,
but not being totally fixated on Him.
_____ I believe that Christ has come into the story of my life.
_____ Choosing to follow Jesus is about learning to obey God’s rules.
_____ My life is about my story.
_____ In my life, there is room for both me and God.
_____ The reason God saved me is so that I can be forgiven and go to heaven when I
die.
Evangelism:
_____ In the last month, I have shared my faith (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6+).

_____ I regularly share faith.
_____ I believe evangelism happens when you tell someone about the gospel.
_____ I believe evangelism must be intentionally done.
_____ I believe evangelism happens through how others see me live my life.
_____ I believe evangelism is a program or event.
_____ The gospel is something I am supposed to share, not something I am supposed to
live.
_____ I believe that I should demonstrate the gospel before I articulate it.
_____ I have non-Christian friends that I have befriended and purposefully share Christ
with them.
_____ I have shared the gospel message and asked for the person to respond to Christ at
least once in the past 3 months.
_____ I share the gospel by letting people see my Christian life, but not by speaking it
verbally.
_____ It is important to reach out to non-Christians in genuine friendship for the purpose
of sharing Christ with them.
_____ It is my church’s responsibility to share the gospel with my community.
_____ The task of evangelism is primarily for pastors and church leaders who have been
trained to share the gospel.

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_____ I know the content of the gospel well enough to share it with others.
_____ I am to be a missionary in my community.
_____ I think of evangelism primarily as something we do as a church through
preaching, visitation, VBS, AWANAS, and other church activities.
_____ I believe evangelism is important because people who are lost are going to hell.

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APPENDIX B: LESSON PLANS (LEADER)
Week 1 – God: Himself and His Mission
God: Himself –
It all starts with God. It is all about God.
“Worship is ultimate…because God is ultimate, not man.”1
For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through
Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And
He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything He might be preeminent. – Col. 1:16-18
The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from
seeing…the image of God. – 2 Cor. 4:4
God’s Mission:
The Mission of God is not the same as what we refer to as missions.
The Mission of God is God’s purpose to draw all people to Himself.
“The God-centered love of God is foreign to fallen human beings, especially those who,
like most of us, have been saturated for decades with doctrines of self-esteem. We have
absorbed a definition of love that makes us the center. That is, we feel loved when
someone makes much of us…This love is wholly natural. It operates on the principles
that are already present in our fallen, sinful, and spiritually dead souls. We love the
praise of man. It feels good…The ground of natural love is finally me, not God.”2
…I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the
nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am
the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their
eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you
into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all

1 John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd Edition

2 John Piper, God is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway, 2005), 148–149.

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your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new
heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. – Ezek.
36:23-28
God’s desire and purpose to draw all people to Himself, is His mission.
Missions is the discipline utilize by Christians in seeing the fulfillment of the Mission of
God.
Missions: The strategic use of pre-evangelism, evangelism, and post-evangelism in cross-

cultural situations, which may or may not be limited to geographical or socio-political
national borders.
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because
worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.”3
As Missions occurs, worship takes place, and communities of faith emerge.
God’s Kingdom:
The Kingdom of God is the rule of the eternal sovereign God over all creatures and
things. It is synonymous with the “kingdom of Heaven.”
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. – Ps.
103:19
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. – Dan. 4:3
What is the point of these two passages?

Is it the Kingdom of God?
No. Though they refer to the Kingdom of God, it is not the point of either of them, is it?
The better question is, “Who is the point of these passages?”
The point isn’t the kingdom; the point is God. The Kingdom of God is only valid by the
One who has established it, God.
His kingdom is for us. His kingdom is created for all, every person.
But, remember, 2 Corinthians 4:4

3
Piper, Let the Nations be Glad, 11.

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Satan is working to turn people away from God, and God is on mission to draw all people
to Himself. His kingdom is the place He has prepared for them.
But, how will He get them there?
Week 2 – God’s Gospel; His Story
The gospel is God’s story of His redemptive mission to draw all men to Himself, by
restoring the brokenness of humankind and all of creation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Because the gospel is the story of all of God’s mission, it includes all of scripture.
Everything is about God; and the Gospel is His story.
Why is it important to understand the Bible, that is the Gospel, as one single story?
1. The Bible is one big story.

2. The story has a plotline (Creation, Fall, Redemption, & Restoration).
3. The theme of this story is God’s grace. Jesus’ rescue of sinners and
redemption of the world.
4. We are all participants in this story.
Elements of a story:
Exposition
- The beginning: setting, protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters.
Rising Action
- The stage has been set, the characters introduced, and the point of the
story has been explained. The characters are playing their parts and
moving the story to the high point.
Climax
- This is the high point of the story, where the agenda of the protagonist
and the antagonist collide. Here the conflict rages and then is resolved
when the hero wins.
Resolution
- The conflict has been laid to rest, and the end of the story unfolds. The
protagonist has won; the supporting characters quickly fade.
The gospel is good news because it announces to us that God has acted in Christ not just
that we may have heaven, but so that we may have God…The greatest good of the gospel
is “having God” as our treasure forever.

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“The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing & savoring the beauty and value of God…The
ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s glory and removal of every obstacle to
our seeing it & savoring it as our highest treasure. “Behold your God!” is the most
gracious command & the best gift of the gospel.”4
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will
come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” – Isa.
35:4
“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. – Jer. 3:22
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with
strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!” – Isa. 40:9
God loves us by giving us himself to enjoy.
that we may have heaven, but so that we may have God…”
The greatest good of the gospel is “having God” as our treasure forever.
Week 3 – Creation and The Fall
Most people live life trying to answer these four questions.

Who am I? – What does it mean to be human?
Where am I? – Where did our world come from?
What is wrong? – Why does the world seem to be so troubled?
What is the remedy? – Can humans alone fix the problems of this world?5
However, people that begin to believe that they find an answer or two quickly find
themselves with another question.
What time is it? – Where do I belong in this story? How does the story shape
my life today, in the present?

4
5
Michael W. Goheen and Craig Bartholomew. The True Story of the Whole World:
Finding Your Place in the Biblical Drama. (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009), 15.

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The rise of charity and social causes is an indicator that the new generation (both
Christians and those that are unchurched) is working through these five questions,
convicted to play a part in the story and make a difference in the world.
Toms shoes, Charity: Water, and Thousand Hills Coffee are just a few examples.
Five Questions Every Person is Asking:

1) Who am I?
2) Where am I?
3) What is wrong?
4) What is the remedy?
5) What time is it?
Creation: God Establishes His Kingdom (Genesis 1 & 2):

It all begins with God:
He is eternal.
He is the creator of everything.
He is king and sovereign ruler of all.
He is the holy and righteous judge.
He is love.6
He is Trinitarian.
Trinitarian:
Gen. 1:26 – “Let us make man in our image.”
- God is Father, Son, and Spirit.
o God himself exists in community.
o It is His nature to be relational.
- In being made in His image, we too are trinitarian: mind, body, and spirit.
o We are likewise created to be relational beings.
Man and Woman (Gen. 1:28-30):

1) Above everything else in the universe that was made.
2) Told to fill the earth with worshippers of God.
3) Commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:16-
17).
Fall: Rebellion in the Kingdom (Genesis 3):

Everything is affected by the entrance of sin into the world.
Serpent/Satan:
- A descendant of woman will come and destroy him (Gen. 3:15).
-

6
The Story Guide: Leader Edition, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. Bloomington, IL: Spread Truth
Publishing, 2011, 45–46.

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Woman:
- Extreme pain in childbirth, and she will desire to rule over her husband as
the leader of their family (an ever-constant picture of what they just did to
god.) (Gen. 3:16)
Earth:
- The ground is cursed; it will be hard to get food from it, instead of
growing all that they needed on its own. In fact, it will actually produce
things to hinder you from farming (3:17-18).
- It will live in constant brokenness (cf. Noah and the flood, Gen. 6), and
groan for the restoration of all things (Rom. 8:22).
Man:
- Work will be hard, and after a life of hard labor you will die and return to
the dust you have worked against your whole life. (Gen. 3:19).
Mankind’s disobedience in the garden was a desire to remove God from His position, and
place themselves there.
By disobeying what God had said, they were saying that they knew better and more than
God did.
Though they might not have realized it at the time, when the man and woman disobeyed,
they were essentially saying that they could do just as good of job as God could.
By disobeying, they were declaring that they were on the same level as God
Instead of worshipping God, by their one act they were saying that they were equal with
God.
People don’t worship those they consider to be equal with.
They were rebelling in the kingdom.
The trick was that while they did remove God as the ruler of their universe, they did not
become equal with Him.
In fact, they soon found out that they were now ruled by another.
Satan was now the new ruler in town, and his dominion/kingdom is sin and death.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (god of this world)
Adam and Eve were once free citizens, enjoying their king and all of his kingdom he had
made.
Seeking to rule, they became slaves.

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Where there was to be endless days of enjoyment, laughter, and good times, there would
now be struggle, hunger, and hardship.
Where there was to be never-ceasing enjoyment of life, there would now be suffering day
after day, which would only be ended by death.
Instead of beauty and unity, there would not be brokenness, ugliness, and disorder.
All of this is the result of sin (disobeying god).

Sin:
- In our very nature, we are sinful.
- Each of us has sinned by breaking God’s law in thought, word and deed.
- Each of us has sinned by trying to keep His word and law in self-
righteousness.
- Each of us has sinned by making the good things of life (money,
relationships, world pleasures, etc.) ultimate things—we have replaced the
Creator with the created. This is called idolatry.7
Separated from God, humanity and creation are both broken:

- Spiritually – disconnected from God.
- Physically – disease and death.
- Relationally – conflicts in families and marriages as well as friendships.
- Emotionally – sadness, depression, etc.
- Morally – people do bad things, and can be hateful.8
Where is the prophesied seed? (Gen. 3:15)
Flood (Gen. 6:5-9:17)

- Sin was rampant; it was the more instinctive thing.
- Sin was pervasive; it affected everybody.
o Every intention of the heart was evil (Gen. 6:5).
- God covenants with one man.
- Where is the seed?
Babel (Gen. 11)

- Sin proves to be further divisive.
- The unity of creation was being furthered with the division of peoples.
- The problem has only gotten worse; different languages made unity
impossible.

7
The Story Guide: Leader Edition, 2nd Edition, Volume 1 (Bloomington, IL: Spread Truth
8
Ibid., 67.

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Week 4 – Redemption Initiated
Shalom – not just peace, but wholeness.
The brokenness was throughout all of creation. It has affected our Trinitarian
making.
- Instead of our lives living in balance, sin has corrupted who we are. Just as the
shalom of creation has been disrupted, so too has our shalom; our wholeness
is gone (Rom. 3:23; 6:23a).9
- Now our Trinitarian being is distorted from how God created us to be.
o Some us struggle more physically.
o Some us struggle more emotionally.
o Some us struggle more mentally.
- Remember, sin has affected every person (Gen. 6:5), and has divided people
from God, the earth, and each other (different language, Gen. 11).
The brokenness brought by sin in the world, is throughout all of creation.
Therefore, God’s rescue plan must be complete.

- God’s rescue plan must redeem man, woman, all of creation, as well as
destroy Satan, sin, and death.
Redemption Initiated
Abraham (Genesis 17:1-8)
- God covenants with one family.
- Promises:
o Great name.
o Land.
o Great nation (Numerous descendants).
- It will be an everlasting covenant.
Where is the prophesied seed?
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph (Egypt)
Moses
Exodus
Sinai
- Ten commandments (Ex. 20).

9
R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1980), 930.

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- God covenants with one nation (Ex. 24:8).
- They are to be a kingdom of priest (Ex. 19:6).
- Their distinctiveness is not for them to be the best nation, but that they
would display who God is to the other nations of the world, so that those
nations would come to know God.
- Though Abraham’s promises (great name, land, and descendants) are
being fulfilled, they are earthly and temporary…not everlasting.
Where is the everlasting promise?

Where is the seed?
Priests
- Functioned as mediators between God and the people.
- Carried out duties associated with worship and sacrifice.
o Taught the people (Lev. 10:8-11).
o Served as judges to resolve controversy (Duet. 21:5).
o Offered sacrifices (Ex. 29:38-42).
o Kept the tabernacle (Num. 3:38; 4:16).
Although the sacrifices of priests atoned for the people, they could not last and had
to be repeated every year.
- We need an eternal high priest!

Where is the seed?
Judges
- The people want God’s blessings, without giving Him their lives (Judg. 17:6).
- The people continue in a cycle of sinàrepentanceàrevivalàsin, because
they struggle to give God everything.
o When they are far from God, God uses Israel’s neighboring nations to
oppress them.
o God then calls someone from the people, to lead them to victory, which
demonstrates to the people God’s goodness, and calls them to repentance
and revival.
The judges themselves, however, are flawed men and women who are also sinful,
and need of repentance and forgiveness.
- We need a righteous and holy judge!
Where is the eternal promise?

Where is the seed?

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Kings
- Instead of being an influence to the other nations, they are influenced by them,
desire to be like them, and want a human, earthly king of their own (1 Sam.
8:4-18).
David
o David seeks to know God with all of his being (mind, body, and spirit) (1
Sam. 16:7, 18; Ps. 23).
Though he sin’s in some big ways, God still promises him that one of his
descendants will rule forever (2 Sam. 7:8-16; 1 Chron. 17:11-14).
- We need an eternal king with an eternal kingdom!

Where is the seed?
Prophets (Deut. 18:18-19)

- The prophets stood before the people as one who has stood before God.
o Their primary role was to speak with or to the people about the words and
will of God in their specific situations.
- When the prophet knows the heart and mind of the Lord, they speak the word
of the Lord to the people.
o The acted as God’s megaphones, declaring whatever God commanded
them to say.
- Because his words come from the heart of God they are powerful and
effective.
We need a prophet who knows God in all His fullness, who not only proclaims the
words God give him, but is the very word of God!

Where is the seed?
For God’s Rescue Plan to be Complete:

1) We need an eternal high priest.
2) We need a righteous and holy judge.
3) We need an eternal king with an eternal kingdom.
4) We need a prophet who knows God in all His fullness, who not only
proclaims the words God give him, but is Himself, the very word of God.


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Week 5 – Redemption Accomplished
Jesus
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes
in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Birth (Luke 2:1-20)

- Born of a virgin, Jesus is fully God and fully man.
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him, and without him was not anything made that was made…And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the
only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:1
- For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things
were created through him and for him. – Col. 1:16
Life and Teaching

1) The Great Commandment:
- “Love is the new commandment (John 13:34). Love unselfishly with
everything that you are. (Mark 12:30)”
2) The Great Commission:
- “As you live, make disciples, baptizing them in name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them all that I’ve commanded. (Matt.
28:19-20)”
3) “You will be able to do this, because my Spirit will come to live in you. (John.
15-16)”
- “In me you will be one with God (John 17 & Gal. 2:20).”
4) “So, abide in me. (John 15)”
Death
- Sinless and perfect, He died the death that we deserved, suffering and dying
on the cross, and paying the penalty for our sins.
- For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good
person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
- It was a perfect sacrifice by a perfect person to perfect some very imperfect
people. By that single offering, he did everything needed to be done for
everyone who take part in the purifying process. – Hebrews 10:14

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Resurrection (Matthew 28)
- The wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23), but Jesus was a sinless sacrifice;
therefore, the grave could not hold him.
- We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death
no longer has dominion over him. – Rom. 6:9
- Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though
he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in
the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore,
God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every
name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. – Phil. 2:5-11

proclaims the words God give him, but is himself, the very word of God.

Jesus is…
Priest –
- Functioned as mediators between God and His people, carrying out duties
associated with worship and sacrifice: taught the people, served as judges
to resolve controversy, offered sacrifices, and were responsible for all
things regarding the tabernacle.
- For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin. – Heb. 4:15
- …we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in heaven,… – Heb. 8:1
Jesus now stands between us and God. He is the one we have to go through to have
access to God. He sacrificed himself on the cross so that we can have a right
relationship with God. Jesus is the eternal High Priest, forever and ever.
Prophet –
- The prophets proclaimed the word of God to Israel.

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- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life,
and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. – John 1:1-5
- And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:14
- And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning himself. – Luke 24:27
Jesus as the very Word of God is the prophet of God who has revealed God to us by
both His words and actions.
King –
- The kings served as the leaders and authority of Israel.
- And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me.” – Matt. 28:18
- …he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, who alone has immortality,… - 1 Tim. 6:15
Jesus is the forever king over everything, the descendant of David who shall rule
forever.
Judge –
- In the Old Testament, God used His judges to defeat enemies of God, and
draw Israel back to repentance.
- I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the
living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom… – 2 Tim. 4:1
- Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his
presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw
the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.
Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the
dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to
what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found
written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. – Rev. 20:11-15
Jesus is the judge who will judge everyone. As the High Priest, He stands between
God and every person. Only those who have heard His Word and freely made the
choice to make Him their king by trusting in Him by faith for salvation will find a
right relationship with God.

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Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a
flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one
knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is
called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and
pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with
which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread
the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh
he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev. 19:11-16)
…the everlasting promise and the prophesied seed. –

- Because He was a sinless sacrifice that conquered the grave, and rules as an
eternal king of an eternal kingdom, He is the everlasting promise of Abraham.
- Though Satan bruised His heel on the cross, He rose from the dead,
conquering death and Satan (crushed His head, Gen. 3:15).
Jesus is the everlasting promise and the prophesied seed, who is our High Priest that
as the Word of God displays and proclaims who God is to the world, reigning
eternally as the King of Kings, who will one-day judge with holiness and
righteousness.
Week 6 - Restoration
Acts: The Coming of the Holy Spirit & The Beginning of the Church
The Assurance of Jesus (Acts 1:6-8)

- Jesus declares that we do not know when the Kingdom’s fullness will come.
But, soon the Holy Spirit will come, and his disciples will be His witnesses in
Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
- In today’s terminology, this would be like Jesus saying, “You will be my
witnesses throughout the United States, North America, and to the ends of the
earth.”
The Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9-11)

- Jesus then ascends to Heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of the
Father (Mark 14:62; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:1, 12:2; Rev. 4:2).
- He will one day return and bring about the fullness of His kingdom, which He
has started through His life, death, and resurrection.
Pentecost – The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2)

- When the Holy Spirit came, the presence of God truly came to live within His
children. It is no longer them and God, but is now and forever God in them.

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The Church (Acts 2)
- With the coming of the Holy Spirit, 3,000 people trust in Jesus as their Lord
and Savior (2:41).
- The newly formed church involves itself in six fundamental activities:

o Bible study (4:42a)
o Prayer and worship (2:42d, 45-46a, 47a)
o Fellowship (2:42b)
o Sharing and caring (2:44, 46c, 47b)
o The Lord’s Supper (2:42c, 46b)
o Signs and wonders (2:43)
Paul’s Missionary Journeys (Acts 13-14; 16-17; 19-20)

- Though the church’s initial center is Jerusalem, it spreads outward across the
world (Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth).
- Individuals and groups are commissioned by the Jerusalem church to take the
gospel to different regions, as far as India, Egypt, Rome, and Spain.
Revelation: The Restoration of All Things

- When Jesus returns to bring the fullness of His everlasting Kingdom, what has
already happened in us spiritually will also be completed physically.
- When the Kingdom of God comes with Jesus’ return, God will dwell with His
children, and the shalom (the wholeness) of creation will be restored:
o There will be a new heaven and a new earth, with no sin (Rev. 21:1).
o He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, there will be no more death,
nor sadness, crying, or pain, for the former things of the sinful world will
have passed away (Rev. 21:4).
o Satan, those that followed him, and people who did not trust in Jesus as
Lord will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-15; 21:8).
- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and
they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things
have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all
things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy
and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of
life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will
be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the

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detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and
all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which
is the second death.” – Rev. 21:1-8
- The shalom of all creation will be restored:10
o The unity between God and man will be restored.
o The unity between people will be restored.
o Creation will be restored to its original greatness.
- As the Prince of Peace (Isa. 53), Jesus is the messianic prince, who brings
wholeness and righteousness to the earth, and redemption to mankind.11
Today
Today we live between the Cross of Jesus and the Restoration of all things.
This is time and place that where we are in the Story.
Just as Abraham, Moses, David, and all the characters of the Bible had their place in the
Story, so do you and I have our place in the Story.
Jesus has given us two mandates to live by in our part of the Story. He has entrusted us
with two things – the Great Commandment & the Great Commission:
1) Love as He has loved: Love God with all that we are (mind, body, and spirit);
and love other people just as much as we love ourselves (John 13:34, Mark
12:30).
2) As we live our lives abiding in Him, we are to make disciples, baptizing them
in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all
that He commanded (John 15; Matthew 28:19-20).
Jesus understands today, just as He did then, that life is hard and is filled with struggles.
So, He encourages us today with the same words that He encouraged His disciples with
in Matthew 28:21, declaring to us that He is with us always, because He is now in us. He
lives in us through the His Holy Spirit.
To accomplish these, Jesus tells us to live in the same power of the Spirit that He lived
(Luke 4:1):
- Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit will be what gives them the
courage, power, and strength to abide in Him and make disciples (Acts 1:8).
- After he ascended into Heaven He sent the Holy Spirit who filled His
disciples (Acts 2:4).
Today, when we repent of our sins, and trust in Jesus, we receive the Holy Spirit (Acts
2:38); this is what Paul means in Galatians 2:20 when he says, “Christ lives in me.”

10
R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament.(Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1980), 930.
11
Ibid., 931.

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When we trust in Jesus, He lives in us from the moment of our salvation!
Illustration AB.1. Imago Trinitatis – The Holy Spirit

Imago Trinitatis
When the Holy Spirit comes to live in us, our spirit is dead in the grave (Gal. 2:22), and
we are united with God (John 17).
We spoke two weeks ago about how each of us struggle in different ways, our trinitarian
being is out of balance:
- Some of us struggle more emotionally.
- Some of us struggle more physically.
- Some of us struggle more mentally.
As we grow in the love of Christ, His Spirit within us is moving our being in balance,
so that our life might be more and more like Jesus, and show to the world who Jesus
is, by talking and living as Jesus would, if He was living our life.
How do we grow in this love?

- Like any relationship, our relationship with God grows by us spending time
with Him.
o Prayer is how we speak with God. And the Bible is how He speaks to us.
o His Holy Spirit lives in us, helping us recognize how to pray, as well as
helping us understand the Bible.
Illustration AB.2. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God

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That is why it is important to rely on the Holy Spirit in our life.
Having a daily time of prayer and reading God’s Word is essential. If you don’t
spend time with someone, your friend for example, how will you get to know them?
However, it shouldn’t just end when we say “Amen,” or shut our Bible. Our relationship
continues to grow as we recognize that we can pray throughout the day, as well as
continue to think about what we have read in the Bible.
Since the Holy Spirit in us every moment of every day, God is with us every moment
of every day, meaning that our relationship with Him can constantly grow.
And, while we are growing, we should be sharing what He has done in our life with
others.
Conclusion:
GOD (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) has a desire for His children to
experience all that He is, because He knows that that is what we are created for, will
truly find who we are, and experience real life in all of its wonderful fullness. His
KINGDOM is the place He has prepared for us to experience Him. And, His
MISSION is His purpose to bring us into it. His STORY is His gospel (His good
news to the world), which tells us of all that He has done to fix what we have broken
by our sin, and calls us to take our place in His story, that others might find and
experience Him, and in turn discover what they are created for, will truly find out
who they are, and experience the fullness of life.

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APPENDIX C: LESSON PLANS (PARTICIPANT)
Week 1 – God: Himself and His Mission
God: Himself:
It all starts with . It is all about .
“Worship is ultimate…because God is ultimate, not man.” – John Piper, Let the Nations
be Glad
For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through
Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And
He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything He might be preeminent. – Col. 1:16-18
God’s Mission:
God’s Mission is His purpose to .
“We have absorbed a definition of love that makes us the center. That is, we feel loved
when someone makes much of us…This love is wholly natural. It operates on the
principles that are already present in our fallen, sinful, and spiritually dead souls. We
love the praise of man. It feels good…The ground of natural love is finally me, not
God.” – John Piper, God is the Gospel
…I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the
nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am
the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their
eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you
into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all
your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new
heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. – Ezek.
36:23-28

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God’s desire and purpose to draw all people to Himself, is His mission.
“Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because
God is ultimate, not man.” – John Piper, Let the Nations be Glad
As Missions occurs, takes place, and communities of faith .
God’s Kingdom:
The Kingdom of God is the of the eternal sovereign God over
___________________________________. It is synonymous with the “kingdom of
Heaven.”
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. – Ps.
103:19
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation. – Dan. 4:3
The point isn’t the ; the point is . The Kingdom of God is only
valid by the One who has established it, God.
His kingdom is for . His kingdom is created for ,
But, remember, 2 Corinthians 4:4.
Satan is working to turn people away from God, and God is on mission to draw all people
to Himself. His kingdom is the place He has prepared for them.
But How will He get them there?
Week 2 – God’s Gospel; His Story
The gospel is God’s story of His to draw

all men to Himself, by restoring the brokenness of humankind and all of creation through
His Son.
Because the gospel is the story of all of God’s mission, it includes .
is about God; and the Gospel is His .

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Why is it important to understand the Bible, that is the Gospel, as one single story?
1. The Bible is one story.

2. The story has a .( , ,
, &________________________).
3. The theme of this story is God’s . Jesus’ rescue of sinners and
4. We are all in this story.
that we may have heaven, but so that we may have God…The greatest good of the gospel
is “having God” as our treasure forever.
“The ultimate good of the gospel is & the

______________ and of …The ultimate aim of the gospel is the
of ________________________ and of every obstacle to our seeing it &
savoring it as our . “Behold your God!” is the most gracious
command & the best gift of the gospel.” – John Piper, God is the Gospel
Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will
come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” – Isa.
35:4
“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. – Jer. 3:22
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with
strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!” – Isa. 40:9
God loves us by giving us to enjoy.
that we may have heaven, but so that we may have God…”
The greatest good of the gospel is “having God” as our treasure forever.
Week 3 – Creation and The Fall
Five Questions Every Person is Asking:

1) Who am I?
2) Where am I?
3) What is wrong?

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4) What is the remedy?
5) What time is it?
Creation: God Establishes His Kingdom (Genesis 1 & 2):

It all beings with God:
He is .
He is the creator of .
He is and sovereign of all.
He is the holy and righteous .
He is .1
He is trinitarian.
Trinitarian:
Gen. 1:26 – “Let make man in .”
- God is Father, Son, and Spirit.
o God himself exists in .
o It is His nature to be .
- In being made in His image, we too are trinitarian: mind, body, and
spirit.
o We are likewise created to be relational beings.
Man and Woman (Gen. 1:28-30):

- Above everything else in the universe that was made.
- Told to fill the earth with worshippers of God.
- Commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
(2:16-17).
Fall: Rebellion in the Kingdom (Genesis 3):

- is affected by the entrance of sin into the world.
Serpent/Satan:
- A descendant of woman will come and him (Gen. 3:15).
Woman:
- Extreme in childbirth, and she will desire to rule over her
husband as the leader of their family (an ever-constant picture of what they
just did to god) (Gen. 3:16).
Earth:
- The ground is ; it will be hard to get food from it, instead of
growing all that they needed on its own. In fact, it will actually produce
things to hinder you from farming (3:17-18).
- It will live in constant (cf. Noah and the flood, Gen.
6), and groan for the restoration of all things (Rom. 8:22).

1
Publishing, 2011), 45–46.

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Man:
- Work will be , and after a life of hard labor you will and
return to the dust you have worked against your whole life (Gen. 3:19).
Sin:
- In our very , we are sinful.
- of us has sinned by breaking God’s law in thought, word and
deed.
- Each of us has sinned by trying to His word and law in self-
righteousness.
- Each of us has sinned by making the things of life (money,
relationships, world pleasures, etc.) —
we have replaced the Creator with created things. This is called idolatry.2
Separated from God, both humanity and creation are both broken:
- – disconnected from God.
- – disease and death.
- – conflicts in families and marriages as well as
friendships.
- – sadness, depression, etc.
- – people do bad things, and can be hateful.3
Where is the promise seed (Gen. 3:15)?
Week 4 – Redemption Initiated
Abraham (Genesis 17:1-8)

- God covenants with one family.
- Promises:
o Great .
o .
o Great (Numerous descendants).
- It will be an covenant.
Moses (Exodus)
Mt. Sinai
- God covenants with one nation (Exodus 24:8).
- They are to be a kingdom of priest (Exodus 19:6).
- Though Abraham’s promises are being fulfilled, they are earthly and
temporary…not ___________________.

2
The Story Guide: Leader Edition, 2nd Edition, Volume 1. (Bloomington, IL: Spread Truth
Publishing, 2011), 70
3
Ibid., 67.

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Priests
- Functioned as between God and the people.
- Carried out duties associated with & .
o the people (Lev. 10:8-11).

o Served as judges to resolve (Duet. 21:5).
o Offered (Ex. 29:38-42).
o Kept the (Num. 3:38; 4:16).
Although the sacrifices of priests atoned for the people, they could not last and had
to be repeated every year.
- We need an !
Judges
- The people want God’s , without giving Him their ________
(Judg. 17:6).
- The people continue in a cycle of sinàrepentanceàrevivalàsin, because
they struggle to give God everything.
- God then calls someone from the people to lead them to victory, a judge.
- The path to victory always calls for of their sins, and
leads to a period of revival through the nation.
The judges themselves, however, are flawed men and women who are also sinful,
and need or repentance and forgiveness.
- We need a !
Kings
- Influenced by other nations, Israel desires to be like them, and wants a
human/earthly king of their own. (1 Sam. 8:4-18)
David
- David seeks to God with all of his being ( , , and
__________) (1 Sam. 16:7, 18; Ps. 23).
Though he sin’s in some big ways, God still promises him that one of his
descendants will rule forever (2 Samuel 7:8-16; 1 Chronicles 17:11-14).
- We need an king with an eternal !
Prophets (Deut. 18:18-19)

- The prophets stood before the people as one who has stood before God.
- When the prophet the heart and mind of the Lord, they
the word of the Lord to the people.
- Because his words come from the heart of God they are and
.

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Sadly, the prophets did not know God in His fullness, but only knew what He
showed them. They could only speak the word He told them to.
- We need a prophet who knows God in all His , who not
only proclaims the words God give him, but is the very word of God!


Week 5 – Redemption Accomplished

Jesus
John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Birth (Luke 2:1-20) –

- Born of a virgin, Jesus is God and man
(John 1:1; Col. 1:16).
Life and Teaching –

- The Great :
o “Love is the new commandment (John 13:34). Love unselfishly with
everything that you are (Mark 12:30).”
- The Great :
- “As you live, make disciples, baptizing them in name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them all that I’ve commanded (Matt.
28:19-20).”
- “You will be able to do this, because my will come to live
in you. (John. 15-16)”
o “In me you will be one with God (John 17 & Gal. 2:20).”
- “So, in me (John 15).”
Death –
- and , He died the death that we
deserved, suffering and dying on the cross, and __________________
for our sins (Rom. 5:6-8; Heb. 10:14).

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Resurrection (Matt. 28) –
- The wages of sin is (Rom. 3:23), but Jesus was a
; therefore, the grave could not hold him
(Rom. 6:9; Phil. 2:5-11).



Jesus is…
Priest –
- Functioned as mediators between God and His people, carrying out duties
associated with worship and sacrifice: taught the people, served as judges
to resolve controversy, offered sacrifices, and were responsible for all
things regarding the tabernacle.
- Jesus now stands us and God. He is the one we have to
go through to have to God. He sacrificed himself on the
cross so that we can have a right with God. Jesus is the
eternal High Priest, forever and ever (Heb. 4:15; 8:1).
Prophet –
- The prophets proclaimed the word of God to Israel.
- Jesus as the very is the prophet of God who has
God to us by both His ____________________ (John 1:1-5, 14; Luke
24:27).
King –
- The kings served as the leaders and authority of Israel.
- Jesus is the over everything, the descendant of
David who shall _______________________ (Matt. 28:18; 1 Tim. 6:15).
Judge –
- In the Old Testament, God used His judges to defeat enemies of God, and
draw Israel back to repentance.
- Jesus is the judge who will judge . As the High
Priest, He stands between God and every person. Only those who have
heard His Word and freely made the choice to make Him their king by

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trusting in Him by faith for salvation will find a right relationship with
God (2 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 19:11-16; 20:11-15).
…the everlasting and the prophesied .–

- Because He was a sinless sacrifice that conquered the grave, and rules as
an eternal king of an eternal kingdom, He is the everlasting promise of
Abraham.
- Though Satan bruised His heel on the cross, He rose from the dead,
conquering death and Satan (crushed His head, Gen. 3:15).
Jesus is the everlasting promise and the prophesied seed, who is our High Priest that
as the Word of God displays and proclaims who God is to the world, reigning
eternally as the King of Kings, who will one day judge with holiness and
righteousness.
Week 6 - Restoration
Acts: The Coming of the Holy Spirit & The Beginning of the Church
The assurance of Jesus (Acts 1:6-8):

- Jesus declares that we do not know when the Kingdom’s fullness will
come. But, when the Holy Spirit comes, His disciples will be His
witnesses in , , and
_________________________________________.
The Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9-11):

- Jesus then ascends to Heaven, where He is now seated at the right hand of
the Father (Mark 14:62; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:1, 12:2; Rev. 4:2).
- He will one day and bring about the of His
kingdom, which He has started through His life, death, and resurrection.
Pentecost – The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2):

- When the Holy Spirit came, the presence of God truly came to live within
His children. It is no longer them God, but is now and forever
God them.
The Church (Acts 2):

- With the coming of the Holy Spirit, people trust in Jesus as
their Lord and Savior (2:41).
- The newly formed church involves itself in six fundamental activities:
o (4:42a)
o (2:42d, 45-46a, 47a)
o (2:42b)

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o (2:44, 46c, 47b)
o (2:42c, 46b)
o (2:43)
Paul’s Missionary Journeys (Acts 13-14; 16-17; 19-20)

- Though the church’s initial center is Jerusalem, it spreads outward across
the world (Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth).
- Individuals and groups are commissioned by the Jerusalem church to take
the gospel to different regions, as far as India, Egypt, Rome, and Spain.
Revelation: The Restoration of All Things

- When Jesus returns to bring the of His____________________
Kingdom, what has already happened in us spiritually will also be completed
______________________.
- When the Kingdom of God comes with Jesus’ return, God will dwell with His
children, and the (the wholeness) of creation will be restored:
o There will be a heaven and a new earth, with no (Rev. 21:1).
o He will wipe away every from our eyes, there will be no more
, nor , , or , for the former things
of the sinful world will have passed away (Rev. 21:4).
o , those that followed him, and people who did not trust in Jesus as
Lord will be cast into the (Rev. 20:7-15; 21:8).
Today
- Just as Abraham, Moses, David, and all the characters of the Bible had their place
in the Story, so do you and I have place in the Story.
- Jesus has given us two mandates to live by in our part of the Story. He has
entrusted us with two things – the Great Commandment & the Great Commission:
1) : Love God with all that we are (mind,

body, and spirit); and love other people just as much as we love ourselves
(John 13:34, Mark 12:30).
2) As we live our lives in Him, we are to ,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and
(John 15; Matt. 28:19-20).
- To accomplish these, Jesus tells us to live in the same power of the Spirit that He
lived (Luke 4:1):
o Jesus told His disciples that the will be what gives
them the courage, power, and strength to in Him and make
disciples (Acts 1:8)

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o After he into Heaven He the Holy Spirit who
filled His disciples (Acts 2:4).
o Today, when we repent of our sins, and trust in Jesus, we______________
the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38); this is what Paul means in Galatians 2:20 when he
says, “Christ lives in me.”
When we trust in Jesus, He lives in us from the moment of our salvation!
Illustration AC.1. Imago Trinitatis – The Holy Spirit
As we grow in the love of Christ, His Spirit within us is moving our being into
balance, so that our life might be more and more like Jesus, and show to the world
who Jesus is, by talking and living as Jesus would, if He was living our life.
How do we grow in this love?

- Like any relationship, our relationship with God grows by us
________________ with Him.
- is how we speak with God. And the is how he speaks
to us.
His Holy Spirit lives in us, helping us recognize how to pray, as well as helping us
understand the Bible.
Illustration AC.2. Imago Trinitatis – The Word of God

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Having a daily time of prayer and reading God’s Word is essential. If you don’t
spend time with someone, your friend for example, how will you get to know them?
This is why it is important to rely on the Holy Spirit everyday of our life.
Conclusion:
GOD (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) has a desire for His children to experience all
that He is, because He knows that that is what we are created for, will truly find
who we are, and experience real life in all of its wonderful fullness. His KINGDOM
is the place He has prepared for us to experience Him. And, His MISSION is His
purpose to bring us into it. His STORY is His gospel (His good news to the world),
which tells us of all that He has done to fix what we have broken by our sin, and
calls us to take our place in His story, that others might find and experience Him,
and in turn discover what they are created for, will truly find out who they are, and
experience the fullness of life.

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APPENDIX D: PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Beginning with God, and establishing His mission, kingdom, gospel, and story,
the project director strove to establish certain elements of the story which would help the
hearer understand not only the metanarrative, but also how God was consistently on
mission for the purpose of redeeming and restoring His children, with the intention that
they might experience all that He is, delight in Him, glorify Him, and live lifestyles of
worship.
Titled, God: His Mission and His Kingdom, week 1 stressed that as a story the
Bible starts with God and is all about Him, and emphasizing that worship is ultimate
because God is ultimate, not man.4 Colossians 1:16-18 was referenced, as it declares that
all things are created through God and for God, so that in everything He might be
preeminent. However, as the ruler of this world (John 12:31; Eph. 2:2; and 2 Cor. 4:4),
Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers, keeping them from seeing the image of God
(2 Cor. 4:4). Beginning with God, the worship He is due, and Satan, the need for His
mission was established, and provided transition to it.
Defined as God’s purpose to draw all people to Himself, God’s missio Dei was
referenced with Ezekiel 36:23-38, where God declares that He will bring righteousness to
His people, and put a new heart/spirit within them, His Spirit, so that they will be able to
walk in statutes, i.e. live as He would live. This demonstrated to the students that God’s
mission is not merely a New Testament initiative that started with the Great Commission,
but is rooted as a metanarrative theme since Creation. To sum up the lesson to this point,
and keeping worship as the core theme, John Piper was once again referenced, “Missions
exists because worship does not. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is
ultimate, not man.”5 As mission occurs, worship takes place, and communities of faith
(churches) emerge. These communities of faith populate the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God was defined as the rule of the eternal and sovereign God
over all creatures and things, and is synonymous with the Kingdom of Heaven. Psalm
103:19 and Daniel 4:3 were cited, and were shown to demonstrate that in both passages
the Kingdom of God is not the point, the God of the Kingdom is; His kingdom is only
valid because He is the one who established it. This continual emphasis on God sought to
demonstrate that although His kingdom is for His children, and created for every person,
everything is still about His worship. The theme that delighting in God was where His
children would truly be most happy was established; we find who we truly are in Him. At
this point, a video with Dr. J.D. Greear of the Summit Church from The Story Guide:
Leader Edition entitled “God is the Main Character” was shown. To bring the lesson
full-circle, 2 Cor. 4:4 was again referenced to show that Satan (the god of this world) is
working to deceive people away from God, while God is on mission to draw all people to

4
John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions, 2nd Edition (Grand
Rapids: Bake Academic, 2003), 11.
5
Ibid.

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Himself. Concluding with the question, that if this is the case, “How will He get them
there?”
The Gospel was posited as the answer to that question in Week 2, God: His
Gospel; His Story. Building on the missio Dei in week 1, the gospel was defined as God’s
story of His redemptive mission to draw all men to Himself, by restoring the brokenness
of humankind and all of creation through His Son, Jesus Christ. The metanarrative was
again underlined in that because the gospel is the story of all of God’s mission, it includes
all of scripture; remembering that everything is about God, and the Gospel is His story.
Four points were taught as why it is important to understand the Bible (the Gospel) as one
single story:
- The Bible is one big story.

- The story has a plotline (Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration).
- The theme of this story is God’s grace: Jesus’ rescue of sinners and the
- We are all participants/characters in this story.6
List AD.1. Four Points About the Story of God
Further, the conductor gave a 30 second rundown of the elements of a story (Exposition,
Rising Action, Climax, and Resolution) so as to establish a framework from which the
students could understand the Gospel. The gospel was explained as good news because it
announces that God has acted in Christ not just that His children might have heaven, but
so that they may have Him. The greatest good of the gospel is “having God” as their
treasure forever. Piper was once again referenced:
The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and
value of God…The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God’s
glory and removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our
highest treasure. “Behold your God!” is the most gracious command and
the best gift of the gospel.7
God loves us by giving us himself to enjoy. Therefore, it was reiterated that the gospel is
good news because it announces to us that God has acted in Christ not just that we may
have heaven, but so that we may have God; the greatest good of the gospel is “having
God” as our treasure forever.
Having established God as the point, His mission to bring His children into His
Kingdom, and the Gospel Story as the means by which He is accomplishing it, week 3
entered into the metanarrative, beginning with Creation and the Fall. The lesson began
establishing that people live asking four questions:

6
7

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- Who am I? – What does it mean to be human?
- Where am I? – Where did our world come from?
- What is wrong? – Why does the world seem to be so troubled?
- What is the remedy? – Can humans alone fix the problems of this world?8
List AD.2. Four Questions Every Person Asks
These four questions were followed with a video by Alvin Reid from The Story Guide:
Leader Edition entitled “The Whole Story,” which explained how stories in general, and
movies in particular for today’s generations, resonate so deeply within people. Thus, it
was posited by the project director that subconsciously or consciously, people also ask a
fifth question, “What time is it? – Where do I belong in the story? How does the story
shape my life today, in the present?”9 Increased participation by both Christians and non-
Christians in social causes and organization such as Toms, charity: water, and Thousand
Hills Coffee was cited to show how people are working through these five questions
today. The dilemma in churches today, is that answers to these questions are all too often
offered through biblical themes from scripture, apart from the metanarrative in which
they encompass. To demonstrate the shortcomings of this approach, a follow-up video to
Dr. Reid’s (above), from The Story Guide: Leader Edition entitled LOTR Themes was
shown; this video presented a myriad of micro-themes from The Lord of the Rings
overlaid with music from the film’s soundtracks apart from the overall metanarrative of
the trilogy, ending abruptly with no resolution.
Entering into Creation, it was accentuated that the text begins with God,
establishing five truths about God from Creation, covered in The Story Guide: Leader
Edition:
- He is eternal.
- He is the creator of everything.
- He is king and sovereign ruler of all.
- He is the holy and righteous judge.
- He is love.10
List AD.3. Five Truths About God from Creation
The conductor added a six truth about God from Creation, “He is Trinitarian.” As the
Father created through the Word, with the Spirit hovering above creation, each person of
the Trinity took part in the creation of the universe. Highlighting this established the
presence of the Trinity from the onset of the metanarrative, and began to demonstrate it
as a continual theme through the Story.
This Trinitarian theme continued into the making of man, where God said, “Let us
make man in our image (Gen. 1:26).” Whereas “us” was demonstrated as the Trinity at
the onset of Creation at the beginning of the passage, it is inferred that us in verse twenty-
six denotes the Trinity still. Thus, like the Trinity itself, being made in the image of God

8
Place in Biblical Drama (Grand Rapids: Faith Alive Christian Resources, 2009), 15.
9
Ibid., 155.
10
The Story Guide: Leader Edition, 45–46.

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is both economic and immanent: it is economic in that just as God himself exists in
community and it is His nature to be relationship, so too are humans created as relational
beings, as evidence by God creating woman to be with man (Gen. 1:28-30); the imago
Dei is likewise immanent, in that just as the Father, Son, and Spirit are distinctly three
person yet unequivocally one, so too are humans, in that they are mind, body, and spirit
(imago Trinitatis).
To show the metanarrative and the progressive revelation of God’s story, a
graphic was drawn on the dry-erase board, which developed week by week. Each story
covered was given a pictorial representation on the timeline, and included the major
points/characteristics of that story, as well as carrying the continual themes of the
metanarrative. At the top of the illustration was God, the Trinity; and, for Creation, man
and woman were pictured at the start of the timeline near the top, yet not equal to God,
the goodness demonstrating of creation before sin entered into the world.
Three truths about humankind important to the metanarrative are displayed in the
first two chapters of Creation: 1) Man and woman have been created above everything
else in the universe that was made; 2) They were told to fill the earth with worshippers of
God; and, 3) They were commanded to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil
(Gen. 3:16-17). In falling to keep God’s commandment, it was taught that everything was
affected by the entrance of sin into the world. Nothing in all of creation escaped its
effects. Satan/Serpent – A descendant of woman would come and destroy him (Gen.
2:15). Woman – She would now have extreme pain in childbirth, and would desire to rule
over her husband as the leader of their family (an ever-constant picture of what they just
did to God) (Gen. 3:16). The Earth – The ground is cursed, and it will be hard to get food
from-instead of growing all that they needed on its own, it will now actually produce
things to hinder them from farming (Gen. 3:17-18). Man – Work would now be hard, and
after a life of hard labor he would die and return to the dust he had worked against his
whole life (Gen. 3:19).
By disobeying what God had said, they were, in fact, saying that they knew better
then God did. This truth was expressed to institute how although everything is about God,
His creation was rebelling – the kingdom was striving to usurp their king – thus tying
together weeks 1, 2, and 3. Satan was now the ruler in town, and his dominion/kingdom
is sin and death (2 Cor. 4:4—He is the god of this world). Having continued the themes
of God and His Kingdom, and begun the Story (the Gospel), the need for His Mission
was established. As such, four characteristics of sin from The Story Guide: Leader
Edition were cited:
- In our very nature, we are sinful.
- Each of us has sinned by breaking God’s law in thought, word and deed.
- Each of us has sinned by trying to keep His word and law in self-righteousness.
- Each of us has sinned by making the good things of life (money, relationships,
world pleasures, etc.) ultimate things—we have placed the Creator with the
created. This is called idolatry.11
List AD.4. Four Characteristics of Sin

11
The Story Guide: Leader Edition, 70.

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Adam and Eve were once free citizens, enjoying their King and all His Kingdom He had
made; yet, in seeking to rule, they became slaves. Where there was to be endless days of
enjoyment, laughter, and good times, there would now be struggle, hunger, and hardship;
where there was to be never-ceasing enjoyment of life, there would now be suffering day
after day, which would only end with death. Instead of beauty and unity, there would now
be brokenness, ugliness, and disorder. All of this is the result of sin (disobeying God).
Separated from God, humanity and creation are both broken:
- Spiritually – Disconnected from God.

- Physically – Disease and death.
- Relationally – Conflicts in families and marriages, as well as friendships.
- Emotionally – Sadness, depression, etc.
- Morally – People do bad things, and can be hateful.12
List AD.5. Five Results of Sin (Being Separated from God)
To carry the gospel theme through the metanarrative, the question “Where is the
prophesied seed mentioned in Gen. 3:15?” was then asked. On the illustration, a vertical
line was drawn, and the timeline was continued lower than before, demonstrating
mankind’s separation from God, with the four characteristics of sin and five degrees of
separation from God (above) included. At the bottom, the question was asked, “Where is
the prophesied seed?”
To demonstrate the continuation of sin, and the effects of the Fall, two
traditionally familiar stories were used as illustration for the disparity of mankind: The
Flood narrative (Gen. 6:5-9:17), and the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Three points were
made concerning the Flood, with a fourth being the continual question, with a two-point
summary illustrated on the dry-erase board with an ark depiction:
- Sin was rampant; it was the more instinctive thing to be and do.
- Sin was pervasive; it affected everybody (Gen. 6:5).
- God covenants with one man.
List AD.6. Lessons from the Flood
Concerning Babel, four characteristics were included, with a depiction of the tower set as
an illustration:
- Sin proves to be further and ever-divisive.

- The unity of creation was being furthered with the division of peoples.
- The problem has only gotten worse; different languages made unity impossible.
List AD.7. Lessons from Babel
The Flood and Babel demonstrate the ever-present destruction of sin, and the ever-
necessity of God’s mission and gospel. In having demonstrated that as the creator of

12
Ibid., 67.

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everything, it is all about God and He is worthy of worship, that He has established His
Kingdom in creation through mankind, the need for His mission through the presence of
sin and its ever-destructive effects, and the gospel story as the means in which He is
accomplishing it, the pre-narrative themes of weeks 1 and 2 have been carried and
demonstrated in week 3, and paved the way for week 4: Redemption Initiated.
Week 4 began with the introduction of shalom (‫)שלם‬, which is most often
translated as peace, but most truly understood as wholeness.13 When sin entered the
world, the wholeness of creation was broken; this brokenness likewise affected the imago
Trinitatis in humankind. Just as the shalom of creation was disrupted, so too has man’s
(Rom. 3:23; 6:23a).
Instead of living their lives in balance, sin has distorted the trinitarian being of
how God created them to be. While everyone is affected in the totality of their being,
people also struggle more intensely in particular areas of their personhood. Some struggle
more physically (body/flesh and sensory experience). Some struggle more emotionally
(heart/spirit and emotions/passion/desires). And, some struggle more mentally (mind and
will). Recounting that sin has affected every person (Gen. 5:5), and has divided people
from God, the earth, and each other (different languages, Gen. 11), it was demonstrated
that the brokenness brought by sin in the world is throughout all of creation. The
brokenness is complete; therefore, God’s rescue plan must be complete. His plan must
redeem man, woman, and all of creation, as well as destroy Satan, sin, and death.
Having left the metanarrative at the end of the Tower of Babel in week 3, week 4
was entitled Redemption Initiated, and moved through Abraham (signified by a mountain
on the dry-erase board), Moses (signified as two tablets), and the institution of the priests
(lamb), the judges (sword), the king (crown), and the prophets (a scroll). In
demonstrating that with Noah God covenanted with one man, in looking at Abraham, it
was shown that God covenanted with one family, promising him a great name, land, and
a great nation (numerous descendants) (Gen. 17:1-8). Further, God declared that this
covenant with Abraham would be an everlasting covenant (vv. 7-8); and, this promise
was evidenced through God’s continual faithfulness to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And,
yet, it was asked, “Where is the prophesied seed?”
In continuing with God’s progressive revelation through the metanarrative,14 with
Moses and the Exodus, God was now covenanting with one nation (Ex. 24:8), and giving
to them The Ten Commandments. As His covenanted nation, they were to be a kingdom
of priest (Exodus 19:6). Their distinctiveness as a nation was not for them to be the best
nation, but that they would be His nation, and display Him to the other nations by
revealing who God is and how He would live (The Ten Commandments), in the hopes
that those nations would come to know God as well. However, although Abraham’s

13
R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1980), 931.
14
With Adam and Eve, it was revealed what sin is, and that it is against God; however, with Noah,
in covenanting with one man, the totality of sin is shown and the story displays that God does not like sin, it
is detestable, and completely antithetical to Him; and, with/through Abraham, covenanting with one family,
God reveals a bit more about Himself, showing that He would/will be eternally faithful to His promises,
through the establishing of an everlasting covenant that would continue through Abraham’s entire family.

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promises (great name, land, and descendants) are being fulfilled, they are earthly and
temporary…not everlasting. Therefore, “Where is the prophesied seed?” was not only
asked, but also, “Where is the everlasting promise?” was posited.
In the establishment of the nation of Israel, God instituted priests who functioned
as mediator between God and His people, to carry out duties associated with worship and
sacrifice: They taught the people (Lev. 10:8-11), served as judges to resolve controversy
(Deut. 21:5), offered sacrifices (Ex. 29:38-42), and were responsible for all things
regarding the tabernacle (Num. 3:38; 4:16). However, although the sacrifices of priest
atoned for the people, they could not last and had to be repeated every year (they were
not everlasting). As such, we need an eternal high priest! And, so the questions were
again asked: Where is the everlasting promise; where is the prophesied seed?
As the nation grew, rather than being a kingdom of priests that revealed God to
the nations around them, Israel was susceptible to idolatry. Israel wanted God’s blessings,
without giving God their lives (Judges 17:6). The people continued in a cycle of
sinàrepentanceàrevivalàsin, because they struggled to give God everything. As such,
when they were far from God, He would use a neighboring nation to oppress them; then,
He would call someone from the people, to lead them to victory, which demonstrated to
the nation God’s goodness, and called them to repentance and revival. The judges,
however, are flawed men and women who are also sinful, and need of repentance and
forgiveness. We need a righteous and holy judge! And, it was asked, “Where is the
everlasting promise?” “Where is the prophesied seed?”
Instead of being an influence to the nations, Israel was influenced by them, and
desire to be like them, wanting a human, earthly king of their own (1 Sam. 8:4-18). After
Saul, Samuel anoints David to be the second king of Israel. David seeks to know God
with all of his being (mind, body, and spirit) (1 Sam. 16:7, 18; Psalm 23). Though David
sins in some big ways, God still promises him that one of his descendants will rule
forever (2 Sam. 7:8-16; 1 Chron. 17:11-14). Although he is a descendant of Abraham,
David’s rule would one day pass; his reign was not everlasting. Of all the kings after him,
none truly seek God, and the nation of Israel would eventually fall into servitude to
Assyria and Babylon. We need an everlasting king with an eternal kingdom! But, where
is the everlasting promise? Where is the prophesied seed?
The final role God instituted in His Story is that of the prophet. The prophets
stood before the people as one who has stood before God, and were present in different
capacities from around the end of the Judges until the fall of Israel to Assyria and
Babylon, prophesying along with the reign of the kings. Their primary role, it was
asserted to the class, was to speak with or to the people about the word and will of God in
their specific situations. When the prophet knew the heart and mind of the Lord, they
spoke the word of the Lord to the people, acting as God’s megaphones, declaring
whatever God commanded them to say. Because the prophet’s words come from the heart
of God they are powerful and effective. Sadly, the prophets did not know God in His
fullness, but only what He showed or revealed to them. They could only speak the words
He told them to. In contrast, we need a prophet who knows God in all His fullness, who
not only proclaim the words God gives him, but is the very word of God, Himself! But,

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again it was asked, “In the story thus far, where is the everlasting promise of Abraham;
where is the prophesied seed of Eve?”
It was here recounted that because sin had completely broken the wholeness of all
of Creation (between humankind and God, humankind with creation, and humankind
with each other), God’s rescue plan must be a complete rescue that returns its wholeness
(shalom). The metanarrative reveals that for God’s rescue plan to be complete:
- We need an eternal high priest.

- We need a righteous and holy judge.
- We need an eternal king with an eternal kingdom.
- And, we need a prophet who know God in all His fullness, who not only
proclaims the words God given him, but is himself, the very word of God.
List AD.8. Four Conditions for the Completion of God’s Rescue Plan
Week 4 thus concluded, establishing that now were we not only looking for the
everlasting promise, and prophesied seed; we were now looking for a promise and seed
who could stand as an eternal high priest, reign as an everlasting king, judge holy and
righteously, and not only proclaim the word of God, but be the word of God, Himself.
Focusing on Jesus, week 5 (Redemption Accomplished) began with John 3:16.
The students were asked, “This seems to be the most well-known verse in the Bible;
some say it sums up the gospel in a single verse…Why?” The lesson looked at the
incarnation, dividing Jesus’ life into four parts: birth, life and teaching, death, and
resurrection. Referenced by Luke 2:1-20, it was emphasized that Jesus was born of a
virgin, and was fully God and fully man. John 1:1-3, 14 and Colossians 1:16 were quoted
to demonstrate that as the Word of God, Jesus was present from the beginning, and took
part in the creation of all things discussed in week 1, as all things were created by Him,
through Him, and for Him. And, if this is to be the case, then it means that His coming in
the flesh (born in the likeness of men [Phil. 2:7]) is the centerpiece of the Story.
Four primary points were addressed regarding His life and teaching. The first two
were the two Great Mandates: The Great Commandment and The Great Commission.
Concerning the Great Commandment, Jesus told His disciples that love is the new
commandment by which all the Law is summed up and kept (John 13:34); and, they are
to love unselfishly, with everything that they are (Mark 12:30). As they live out these
love-filled lives, they are to take part in His Great Commission by making disciples,
baptizing them in the name of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), teaching them
all that He has commanded them (John. 15-16) (third point). As He is in them, they will
be in Him, and they will be one with God (John. 17). So, he urges and emboldens, “Abide
in me (John. 15) (fourth point).”
Sinless and perfect, He died the death that we deserved, suffering and dying on
the cross, and paying the penalty for our sins (Rom. 5:6-8 and Hebrews 10:14). The
wages of sin is death (Rom. 3:23), but Jesus was a sinless sacrifice; therefore, the grave
could not hold Him, and He resurrected on the third day (Matt. 28). As the Lamb of God
who died a sinless sacrifice, and conquered the grave, God has highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus
everyone will one day bow down to Him, and confess His as Lord (Phil. 2:5-11).

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At this juncture in the lesson, a moment was taken to review the things necessary for
God’s rescue plan to be complete, as established through the Fall and the rest of the Old
Testament (Redemption Initiated):
- We need an eternal high priest.

- We need a righteous and holy judge.
- We need an eternal king with an eternal kingdom.
- We need a prophet who know God in all His fullness, who not only proclaims the
words God gives Him, but is Himself, the very Word of God.
Lists AD.9. Four Conditions for the Completion of God’s Rescue Plan
Further, it was recounted that mankind is looking for both the prophesied seed and the
everlasting promise. Jesus’ embodiment of all these was then expounded.
The priests functioned as mediators between God and His people, carrying our
duties associated with worship and sacrifice (above). Hebrews 4:15 and 8:1 were then
shown in the PowerPoint, and it was explained—Jesus now stands between us and God.
He is the one we have to go through to have access to God. He sacrificed Himself on the
cross, so that we can have a right relationship with God. Jesus is the eternal High Priest,
forever and ever.
The prophets proclaimed the word of God to Israel. John 1:1-5, 14 and Luke
24:27, which speak of the Word being in the beginning with God, becoming flesh and
dwelling amongst us, as well as how Jesus explained how all the Scriptures concerned
Him, were looked at as evidence for Christ as prophet. It was then demonstrated, “Jesus
as the very Word of God is the prophet of God who has revealed God to us by both His
words and actions.”
The kings served as leaders and authority of Israel. Matthew 28:18 and 1 Timothy
6:15 proclaim that Jesus has authority over heaven and earth, and is the immortal King of
kings and Lord of Lords. Thus, Jesus is the forever king over everything, the descendant
of David who shall rule forever.
In the Old Testament, God used His judges to defeat those who opposed and/or
defied Him, and drew Israel back to repentance. Paul demonstrates that Jesus will judge
the living and the dead when He returns (2 Tim. 4:1); and, John describes his vision of
that very event in Revelation 20:11-15. Therefore, “Jesus is the judge who will judge
everyone. As the High Priest, He stand between God and every person. Only those who
have heard His Word and freely made the choice to make Him king by trusting in Him by
faith for salvation will find a right relationship with God.” Revelation 19:11-16 was then
examined, and it was noted how this one passage demonstrates Jesus as Priest, Prophet,
King, and Judge.
What was left is whether or not Jesus is the everlasting promise of Abraham and
prophesied seed of Eve. Fully God, in being born of a virgin, Jesus was a son of Eve, and
thus her seed; though Satan hurt Him through the Cross (bruised His heel), in rising from
the grave, He sealed Satan’s death and destruction (crushed His head). As both his
mother Mary and earthly father Joseph were Israelites, then Jesus was likewise the
everlasting promise of Abraham. Week 5 (Redemption Accomplished) was concluded as
follows, “Jesus is the everlasting promise and the prophesied seed, who is our High Priest

232

that as the Word of God display and proclaims who God is to the world, reigning
eternally as the King of Kings, and will one-day judge with holiness and righteousness.
Week 6 covered Restoration (Revelation), and included Acts, as upon the coming
of the Holy Spirit, the church exists in a Restoration Initiated age, whereby which they
are to give the world a preview to the kingdom that is to come. Concerning Acts, five
points were addressed: 1) The assurance that Jesus would always be with His disciples
(Acts 1:6-8); 2) Jesus’ ascension, and intercession at the right hand of the Father until His
return (Mark 14:62; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; Heb. 8:1, 12:2 and Rev. 4:2); 3) The coming of
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2); 4) The emergence of the Church and it’s defining
characteristics (Bible study [Acts 4:42a], prayer and worship [Acts 2:42d, 45-46a, 47a],
fellowship [2:42b], sharing and caring [2:44, 46c, 47b], the Lord’s Supper [2:42c, 46b],
and signs and wonders [2:43]); and, 5) Paul’s missionary journeys (Acts 13-14; 16-17;
19-20). The goal here was to emphasize the early church’s dependence of Christ through
the Holy Spirit, as well as accentuate the truth that the characteristics that defined the
church in the New Testament were the natural overflow of the work of that Spirit within
them. This life in the Spirit led to a lifestyle of worship, which in turn naturally led to the
proclamation of the gospel of Christ. In demonstrating Jesus in both word and deed, this
lifestyle of worship sought to spread the gospel outwards from Jerusalem across the
world (Acts 13-14; 16-17; 19-20), and saw people regularly come to faith and trust in
Christ, as evidenced by the existence of the New Testament epistles written to the various
churches throughout the Roman Empire.
Turning to Revelation and the restoration of all things, no time was given to the
first 18 chapters which recount how things will be in the end, but focused entirely on the
restorative aspects of chapters 19-21. It was recounted that when Jesus returns to bring
the fullness of His everlasting Kingdom, what has already happened in us spiritually will
also be completed physically. As such, with His return, God will dwell with His children:
1) There will be a new heaven and a new earth, with no sin (Rev. 21:1); 2) He will wipe
away every tear from our eyes, there will be no more death, nor sadness, crying, or pain,
for the former things of the sinful world will have passed away (Rev. 21:4); 3) Satan,
those that followed him, and people who did not trust in Jesus as Lord will be cast into
the lake of fire (Rev. 20:7-15; 21:8). As evidence, Revelation 21:1-8 was presented in its
entirety. Further, the shalom (the wholeness) of creation, which was broken by sin in
three ways, will be restored, as was prayed for by Jesus in His High Priestly Prayer in
John 17: 1) The unity between God and man will be restored not just spiritually, but
physically as well; 2) The unity between people will be restored; 3) Creation will be
restored and glorified.
In having spent time in both the past and the future, the study was brought home,
to the here and now, looking at the truth that if we live between the Cross of Christ and
the Restoration of all things, then we too live in this Story that we read about in Scripture.
Just as Abraham, Moses, David, and all the characters of the Bible had their place in
God’s Story, so do you and I have ours. In this, Jesus has given us two mandates to live
by, two things He has entrusted us with: The Great Commission and the Great
Commandment. The Great Commandment tells us to love as He has loved; first, love
God without being (mind, body, and spirit), and to love others as much as we would love

233

ourselves (John 13:34; Mark 12:30). And, as we are living these love-filled lives, abiding
in Him, we are to be making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all that He commanded (John 15; Matt. 28:19-20).
Understanding today, just as He did then, that life is hard and filled with
struggles, Jesus encourages His disciples with the truth that He is with us/them always
(Matt. 28:21), because He lives in us through His Holy Spirit, we are to in turn live in
Him (Luke 4:1), as the Holy Spirit is the one who transforms and empowers us to
accomplish these two great mandates (Acts 1:8). The imago Trinitatis was again
revisited. Illustrated on the screen, it was shown that when the Holy Spirit comes to live
in us, and we are united with God (John 17). While each of us struggle in different ways,
for each of us, we are entirely fallen, and our Trinitarian being is out of balance (Week
4), with some of us struggling more emotionally, some more physically, and some more
mentally. In this, as we grow in the love of Christ, His Spirit within us moves our being
more and more in balance, so that our life might be more and more in the likeness of
Christ, and show the world who Jesus is, by talking and living as Jesus would, if He was
living our life.
The question was in turn asked, “How do we grow in this love?” Like any
relationship, it was stressed, our relationship with God grows by us spending time with
Him. The conversation occurs by two means: prayer and the Bible. Prayer is how we
speak to God; and, the Bible is how He speaks to us. The Holy Spirit within us is
constantly at work, helping us recognize how to pray, as well as granting us insight and
revelation in understanding His Word. In the hand-out provided to the students, the
illustration of the imago Trinitatis, which demonstrates the cycle of how the Holy Spirit
moves the Word of God through the Trinitarian cycle of our being
(mindàSpiritàfleshàmind) was given and explained, stressing the importance of
relying on the Holy Spirit in and through life. It was emphasized that having a regular
time of prayer and studying of God’s Word is essential; because, if you do not spend time
with someone, you never get to know them.
However, our time with God should not end when we say, “Amen” at the
conclusion of this time. Our relationship with Him continues to grow as we recognize His
presence in every moment of our life, and that we can pray throughout the day, as well as
continue to think/meditate about what we have read in the Bible. And, as we are growing
into a more intimate relationship with the Trinity, we should be sharing with others, in
both word and deed, what He has done and is doing in our life.
The series was concluded with this comprehensive summary: GOD (Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit) has a desire for His children to experience all that He is, because He
knows that that is what we are created for, will truly find who we are, and experience real
life in all of its wonderful fullness. His KINGDOM is the place He has prepared for us to
experience Him. And His MISSION is His purpose to bring us into it. His STORY is His
Gospel (His good news to the world), which tell us of all He has done to fix what we
have broken by our sin, and calls us to take our place in His story, that others might find
and experience Him, and in turn discover what they are created for, will truly find out
who they are, and experience the fullness of life.

234

APPENDIX E: PRE- TEST AND POST-TEST STATISTICS
Pre-Test Statistics
Students Participating in Survey (Pre-Test)

13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Graph AE.1. Pre-Test—Years Since Trusting in Christ

40
20
0
Shared Their Faith in Last 30 Days
1X 2X 3X 4X 6X(+)

Graph AE.2. Pre-Test –Evangelism Activity

235

Evangelism Habits
60
40
20
0
I regularly share my faith I have shared the gospel message and asked for the
person to respond to Christ at least once in the past 3
months.
Graph AE.3. Pre-Test –Evangelism Habits
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Graph AE.4. Pre-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Graph AE.5. Pre-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred

236

100
50 Students Sharing Their Faith

Adhere to Lifesyle Evangelism
Lifestyle
EvangelismSharing Their
Faith

Graph AE.6. Pre-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective Engagement

100
80
60
40
20
0
Live 3 Months
Agree Disagree

Graph AE.7. Pre-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Graph AE.8. Pre-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits

237

Views on Sanctification
50
40
30
20
10
0
Jesus epects me to do the It is my job to become The reason God saved me Choosing to follow Jesus
work necessary for me to more holy. was so that I could be is about learning to obey
be a good Christian; he has forgiven and go to Heaven God's rules.
done enough work already. when I die.
Graph AE.9. Pre-Test – Views on Sanctification

100
80
60
40
20
0
Trinity itself.
Graph AE.10. Pre-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom and His Gospel

238

The Mission of God
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
God has sent us on a grand mission.I understand the phrase the "mission To be in community with Jesus
of God." means to take active part in His
mission.
Graph AE.11. Pre-Test – The Mission of God

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
disciples of Jesus.

Graph AE.12. Pre-Test – The Mission of the Church

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
when I die.

Graph AE.13. Pre-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel

239

90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
resurrection make up what expressed by the ABC's: one story. all of creation.
we call the gospel of Admit your sins; Believe
Christ. in Jesus; Confess His as
Savior.

Graph AE.14. Pre-Test – The Gospel: Gods Story

Views on Salvation
100
80
60
40
20
0
Jesus is the best way to have a The only way a person can can Some people can go to Heaven
relationship with God, but not the receive forgiveness of his/her sin is without reading or hearing the
only way. through repenting of his/her sin and gospel.
trusting in Jesus Christ alone for

Graph AE.15. Pre-Test – Views on Salvation

240

Identity in Christ
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
taught more about the ultimate point including even experience full comes from church is a people
who they are, of humankind. the mundane and lasting something other who live in a new
they wouldn't activities like happiness from than God, then I world with a new
have to be told eating and seeing and am an idolator identity and a
what to do. drinking, should savoring the glory and God is new relationship
be lived to the of God. dishonored. with God.
glory of God.
Graph AE.16. Pre-Test – Identity in Christ
Epistemology
Epistemology
80
60
40
20
0
true. and good.
Graph AE.17. Pre-Test – Epistemology

241

Post-Test Statistics

10
8
6
4
2
0
Graph AE.18. Post-Test – Years Since Trusting in Christ

50
40
30
20
10
0
Shared Their Faith in the Last 30 Days
1X 2X 3X 4X 5X 6X(+)

Graph AE.19. Post-Test – Evangelism Activity
Evangelism Habits
50
40
30
20
10
0
I regularly share my faith. I have shared the gospel message and asked for the
person to respond to Christ at least once in the last 3
Months.

Graph AE.20. Post-Test – Evangelism Habits

242

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Graph AE.21. Post-Test – Perspectives on Evangelism

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Graph AE.22. Post-Test – When Evangelism Has Occurred
100
80
60
Students Sharing Their Faith
40
20 Adhere to Lifesyle Evangelism
Lifestyle
EvangelismSharing Their
Faith
Graph AE.23. Post-Test – Actualities on Evangelism Beliefs vs. Effective Engagement

243

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Live 3 Months
Pre-Test Agree Pre-Test Disagree Post-Test Agree Post-Test Disagree
Graph AE.24. Post-Test – Overall Evangelism Figures

60
40
20
0

Graph AE.25. Post-Test – Bible and Prayer Habits

244


100
80
60
40
20
0
Trinity itself.

Graph AE.26. Post-Test – Initial Views of the Trinity, His Kingdom, and His Gospel

The Mission of God

100
80
60
40
20
0
God has sent us on a grand I understand the phrase the To be in community with Jesus
mission. "mission of God." means to take active part in His
mission.

Graph AE.27. Post-Test – The Mission of God

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
disciples of Jesus.

Graph AE.28. Post-Test – The Mission of the Church

245

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
when I die.

Graph AE.29. Post-Test – Initial Beliefs About the Gospel

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
resurrection make up what expressed by the ABC's of one story. all of creation.
we call the gospel of salvation: Admit your
Christ. sins; Believe in Jesus;
Confess Him as Savior.

Graph AE.30. Post-Test – The Gospel: God’s Story

246

Views on Salvation
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Jesus is the best way to have a The only way a person can receive Some people can go to Heaven
relationship with God, but not the forgiveness of his/her sin is through without reading or hearing the
only way. repenting of his/her sin and trusting gospel.
in Jesus Christ alone for
Graph AE.31. Post-Test – Views on Salvation
Identity in Christ
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
taught more about the ultimate point including even the experience full comes from church is a people
who they are, they of humankind. mundane activities and lasting something other who live in a new
wouldn't have to like eating and happiness from than God, then I world with a new
be told what to do. drinking, should seeing and am an idolator and identity and a new
be lived to the savoring the glory God is relationship with
glory of God. of God. dishonored. God.
Graph AE.32. Post-Test – Identity in Christ

247

Epistemology
Epistemology
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
true. and good.

Graph AE.33. Post-Test – Epistemology

248

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288

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289

VITA
Cameron W. Wooten
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Business Address: Corporate Chaplains of America phone: (919) 570-0700

1300 Corporate Chaplains Dr. email: cwooten@chaplain.org
Wake Forest, NC 27587 web: www.chaplain.org
EDUCATION:
1997–2001 B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies (Christian Studies & English)

North Greenville College
Tigerville, SC
2002–2007 M.Div., International Church Planting w/ Biblical Languages

M.A., Intercultural Studies
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wake Forest, NC
PRIMARY EMPLOYMENT HISTORY:
2014–2016 IT Assistant
Corporate Chaplains of America
Wake Forest, NC
2012–2013 Associate Pastor of Student Life

Broadway Baptist Church
Lexington, KY
2010–2012 Minister of Students

Bethel Baptist Church
Greenville, SC
2004–2006 Director of Collegiate Ministry and Short-Term Volunteer Coordinator

International Mission Board
Shanghai, China
2002–2004 Middle School Pastor

The Summit Church
Durham, NC

Trinitarian and Epistemological Implication For Spiritiual Formation Among Millenials

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SOUTHEASTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

WAKE FOREST, NORTH CAROLINA

TRINITARIAN AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION AMONG MILLENNIALS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

PROJECT REPORT APPROVAL SHEET

Student Name: Cameron Wayne Wooten Student ID # 000-205061

Ministry Project Title:

TRINITARIAN AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

This Ministry Project Report has been approved.

Date of Defense: November 11, 2016

Faculty Supervisor/Chair: Alvin Reid

Faculty Reader: Robert Alton James

Faculty Reader: George G. Robinson

PROJECT REPORT PERMISSION FOR ACCESS

X 1) I consent to the use of this Ministry Project Report by any person

2) Because of sensitive material contained in my Ministry Project

3) Because of sensitive material contained in my Ministry Project Report,

November 11, 2016 Cameron W. Wooten

To my wife, who has so ever-

And, for my daughters, who ever-

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. xiii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1

Project Objectives ............................................................................................................2

Professional Objectives ................................................................................................3

Ministry Context ..............................................................................................................4

Broadway Baptist Church ............................................................................................5

Millennials as a Generation .........................................................................................9

Millennials Are Spiritual, Not Religious ..............................................................13

Millennials Have Epistemological Disconnects Which Have Produced

The Effects of the “Christ-and-Me” Approach to a Relationship with God ........17

Millennials Christians Fail to Recognize How the Imago Dei is Connected to

Project Rationale ...........................................................................................................23

Evangelism as Obligation .........................................................................................23

Issues of Evangelism Affecting Millennials .............................................................26

Reaching Millennials ................................................................................................29

The Need and Challenge Towards an Indigenous Lifestyle of Worship ......................40

Definitions of Terms .....................................................................................................48

Limitations and Delimitations .......................................................................................49

Who God Is ....................................................................................................................52

The Trinity .................................................................................................................52

The Son is the Focal Point .........................................................................................53

God’s Mission Flows From His Identity .......................................................................55

Missio Dei is Missio Trinitatis ...................................................................................55

The Upper Room/Farewell Discourse (John 14–16) .................................................56

Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (John 17) ........................................................................57

Verses 1–5 ............................................................................................................58

Verses 6–19 ..........................................................................................................60

Verses 20–26 ........................................................................................................65

Man Made in the Image of God - The Imago Dei .........................................................68

Traditional Views of the Imago Dei ..........................................................................70

The Structural View .............................................................................................71

The Relational View .............................................................................................73

Imago Trinitatis ........................................................................................................77

The Soul ...............................................................................................................80

Mind and Heart (Spirit) Transition .......................................................................89

Heart (Spirit) and Flesh (Body/Strength) Transition ............................................92

Flesh and Mind Transition ...................................................................................97

The Holy Spirit ..............................................................................................................99

The Believer’s Identity is in God, Through Life in the Spirit .....................................103

CHAPTER THREE: MINISTRY FOUNDATIONS ......................................................112

In Christ, the Old Self is Dead .....................................................................................112

Epistemology: Modernism’s Dilemma and the Condition of Postmodernism ............119