Assignments
Personal Gospel Presentations (5%)
During the first two weeks of class, each student will schedule a meeting with the professor to a.) communicate a clear gospel message, b.) how they came to believe that message, and c.) how that gospel message has changed them. The (ambitious) goal is for this to be 10 minutes or less.
Academic Journal (25%)
Every time you come to class when there is an assignment due, you are required to actively take notes while reading. These notes will be collected in an academic journal. It should be well organized with a section for every assigned reading. You could take brief notes, ask questions to use in class, but it should be evident that you actually read or watched the assignment.
Debate Week Presentations (15%)
Three times in the semester, we will have a week devoted to a controversial question regarding evangelism or discipleship. TBD
Book Presentations (10%)
At the end of the semester, you will have read a book on discipleship, and you’ll have an half class period to teach the class what you learned. This will require at least three parts: a summary, an evaluation, and application personally and corporately. You have creative freedom in how you want to teach and run the class.
Here is a sample of books to choose from:
Discipleship in a:
- Busy World: Ordinary by Michael Horton
- Technological World: The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch
- Individual World: You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble
- Abusive World: Suffering and the Heart of God by Diane Landberg
- Urban World: Urban Apologetics by Eric Mason
- Rootless Age: From Isolation to Community by Myles Werntz
- Secular Age: The Pastor in a Secular Age by Andrew Root
- Fast Age: Run with Horses by Eugene Peterson
- Inhospitable Age: The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield
Other books need to be approved by professor.
Evangelism Encounters (15%)
An evangelism course that did not seek to practice what is being studied would be not unlike trying to learn how to swim without ever entering a pool. The only sure way to learn how to witness ultimately is to actually do it! Students are therefore urged during the semester to take advantage of opportunities to share their faith with others. While sharing the gospel with large or small groups is commendable, this assignment requires individual conversations with lost persons. Four of these witnessing encounters will be summarized on Personal Evangelism Report forms (available on Blackboard).
Discipleship Meetings (15%)
Each student should, on his or her own initiative, find someone find someone of the same gender in his/her local context to be a discipleship partner for the semester. This can be an employee at Montreat, but preferably it will be someone in your local church that the student views as spiritually mature. Record your semester’s accountability experience according to the sample “Discipleship Partner Participation Report” found on Moodle.. Your discipler will also need a fill out a short form at the conclusion of the semester.
You should meet with your partner at least eight times during the semester, for at least fifty (50) minutes per meeting, at any time and place of your mutual agreement, with no greater frequency than one meeting per week.
The following guidelines should shape the format of your meetings:
- Read part or all of a Psalm.
- Pray.
- Hear each other’s Scripture memory work (optional).
Ask fellowship questions of each other, such as:
- What is the best thing that has happened to you since our last meeting?
- Do you have any unusual burdens or troubles this week?
- How is your school going?
- Where have you seen the Lord at work lately?
- What has the Lord been teaching you recently?
- Have you had any evangelistic opportunities lately?
- Have you had any obvious answers to prayer recently?
- What you have been reading? How has it impressed you?
- Where in the Bible have you been reading lately? What impact has it had on you?
- What is the growth point in your life right now?
- What are you passionate about right now?
Ask personal accountability questions of each other, such as:
- Have you been with a member of the opposite sex in a way that might be considered compromising or questionable?
- Have any of your financial dealings lacked integrity?
- Have you exposed yourself to any sexually explicit material?
- Have you spent adequate time in Bible reading and prayer?
- Have you been meditating on, and not just reading, Scripture?
- Have you lied to me in any of these answers?
Ask personal goal questions of each other. These are questions you may develop for yourself based upon individual goals (personal, physical, spiritual, relational, etc.) you have set for yourself for this semester, and for which you desire the encouragement of accountability.
- Ask each other, “How can I pray for you?”
- Pray.
Final Exam (15%)
There will be a comprehensive Final Exam that will be open note. It will require you to be familiar enough with the concepts covered in class for you to apply the material in specific situations.
