Reading Assignment

Instructions

To successfully complete the Christian Theology Track with the DTS Global Institute, you must read all four items listed below. After reading everything listed, please submit your reading report. To do so, simply scroll to the bottom of these instructions, write up answers to the questions listed there, and submit your answers in a single file. This will allow you to reflect briefly on your reading and will confirm that you have in fact read each of the following:

  • Essentials of Christian Theology: Foundations of the Christian Faith by Nathan D. Holsteen and Michael J. Svigel
  • Plain Theology for Plain People by Charles Octavius Boothe
  • Hearers and Doers: A Pastor’s Guide to Making Disciples through Scripture and Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer
  • The Atonement: An Introduction by Jeremy Treat (Short Studies in Systematic Theology)

 

We also recommend reading the following resources, though they are not required for completing the program:

  • Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert M. Wolters
  • Our Legacy: The History of Christian Doctrine by John D. Hannah
  • The Apostolic Fathers in English by Rick Brannan
  • The Nicene Creed: An Introduction by Phillip Cary
  • Words of Life: Scripture as the Living and Active Word of God by Timothy Ward

 

NOTE: All the resources listed here are included in the free Logos package provided to you.

 

A Few Tips on How to Read Well

  • AFTER reading a chapter/section, make a few notes on what the main point was, what you learned or what intrigued you, what questions you have, how this might be helpful in your life/context/ministry, etc.
  • Schedule a regular time at a consistent set of locations to read
  • Read with good posture and with a good light
  • If possible, keep background noise to a minimum
  • Before beginning a reading, think about its purpose in your overall course/program
  • Survey the reading’s headers before doing the reading
  • Take a moment before and/or after reading to turn your heart to the Lord in prayer, asking for his guidance/wisdom and for an open heart to what he might have to teach you
  • It’s OK to scan through sections which are less relevant to you and to read in more detail the sections which are more relevant to you
  • If you get stuck, think about where and why you got stuck, and how you might break through
  • If reading a nonbiblical text, ask yourself how much of what you’re reading aligns with the teachings of Scripture
  • Ask yourself to what extent this reading does or does not align with the prevailing perspectives of your cultural context
  • When reading Scripture, be sure to engage in the three steps of “observe, interpret, apply,” and also ask yourself how this passage connects to the overall biblical story, the drama of redemption
  • It’s OK to reread a difficult section right away, but consider some other options: coming back to it later, taking a break, or talking about it with a friend. Try to read in faith that if something doesn’t make sense right away, clarity will come as you progress. Also, discussing your readings with friends is a good idea in general!
  • At the same time, take advantage of the opportunity to look up unfamiliar terms/concepts
  • Pace yourself, breaking long assignments/books into many shorter sittings (exception: we encourage you to read any book of the Bible through in one sitting if it’s your first time reading it)
  • Read prefaces and summaries, as these can provide important context for a work
  • C. S. Lewis wrote a short book on how to read well entitled An Experiment in Criticism, a helpful summary of which can be found at https://compassclassroom.com/blog/read-well-cslewis/. His main suggestions for those preparing to pick up a text are as follows:
  • Lay aside your skepticism
  • Be receptive
  • Read with your eyes, ears, and imagination
  • Look beyond the mere facts/events to encounter beauty, goodness, and truth
  • Surrender yourself to the experience of the text

 

Reading Report

Once you have finished the assigned reading for your Track, please submit brief answers for the reflection questions listed below. This will serve as confirmation that you have completed the reading assignment.

  1. Please name ONE brief takeaway from each chapter of Holsteen and Svigel’s Essentials of Christian Theology, including the Prelude. This makes for a total of seven takeaways, and each can be just a sentence or two long. Make sure each insight listed is unique to the chapter in question and fits well with the chapter’s overall argument.
  2. Please name 3-4 brief takeaways which you found to be impactful in reading Plain Theology for Plain People by Charles Boothe.
  3. Please name 3-4 brief takeaways which you found to be impactful in reading Hearers and Doers by Kevin Vanhoozer.
  4. Please name 3-4 brief takeaways which you found to be impactful in reading The Atonement by Jeremy Treat.
  5. If you have any other thoughts about the readings which you’d like to share, please do so here. (Optional)

 

PLEASE NOTE: For this assignment, instead of submitting a written report, you may choose to submit an oral report recorded on audio if you wish. However, if you do this, all the same elements which are required for the written report must be covered thoroughly in your oral report. Also, at present our online platform can only receive submissions less than 100 MB in size, so please ensure that any audio file is smaller than this. You can upload up to five files per assignment if needed, for a maximum of 500 MB per assignment.

Writing Assignment #1

Theological Method Reflection

For this assignment, you will be required to reflect on what you learned in the Theological Method: Scripture and Tradition course and how it connects to your own church context. This assignment will give you an opportunity to dig deeper into your understanding of how theology draws from its source and to consider how to apply what you are learning.

 

Part 1: Theological Method and Your Tradition

In 2-4 pages double-spaced, please reflect on what you learned in the Theological Method free online course. Briefly summarize the main argument presented in the course regarding theology’s source, then discuss how this connects with your own church tradition. To what extent does your church’s teaching agree or disagree with what was presented in the course? Where do you stand on this issue personally? Did you change your mind on anything as a result of this course?

 

Part 2: Significance to Your Life and Ministry

After completing Part 1, please reflect in an additional 2-3 pages double-spaced on how the Theological Method course can be applied to your immediate context. Per the instructions below, address the significance of proper theological method in terms of knowing, doing, and being. The purpose of this is to help you think through the following questions: What should my congregation, audience, or small group apply in light of what was discussed in this course? If I were teaching this to them, what would I want them NOT to forget? And how does it speak to my own life?

  1. KNOWING — Describe three principles or key truths which you gleaned from this course and which you and your congregation will think of when the topic is named.
  1. DOING — What will you lead others to do, based on or suggested by this course? Please name at least two items and reference the course material for support. Clarify what you want to do, how you will implement it, and how you will determine if you have met your objective(s).
  1. BEING — What is one thing which touched your heart as you were taking this course? Specify what the insight was and which portion of the course it came from. How might this change your life and the lives of those around you?

 

Make sure you cite any sources used in this assignment. Feel free to use whichever of the major citation formats you prefer (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), but please do cite your sources.

 

PLEASE NOTE: For this assignment, instead of submitting a written report, you may choose to submit an oral report recorded on audio if you wish. However, if you do this, all the same elements which are required for the written report must be covered thoroughly in your oral report. Also, at present our online platform can only receive submissions less than 100 MB in size, so please ensure that any audio file is smaller than this. You can upload up to five files per assignment if needed, for a maximum of 500 MB per assignment.

Writing Assignment #2

Seven Essentials Discussion

DTS has seven “essential doctrinal commitments” which everyone in the DTS community is required to affirm. When you signed up for the Tracks Program, you also had to affirm these seven commitments. Here they are listed again below:

  1. The Trinity
  2. The full deity and humanity of Christ
  3. The spiritual lostness of the human race
  4. The substitutionary atonement and bodily resurrection of Christ
  5. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
  6. The physical return of Christ
  7. The authority and inerrancy of Scripture

 

For this assignment, you will be required to outline each of these seven in greater detail. In 2-4 paragraphs for each, give the core aspects of what orthodox Christianity has always taught regarding the doctrine in question. Use material from your courses and readings to support your claims—Essentials of Christian Theology by Holsteen and Svigel should be especially helpful. Also, be sure to give scriptural support for each main point. How does theology infer this doctrine from a proper reading of the Bible? It may be easier for you to discuss the scriptural support for each point as you go along, or it may be easier to include your biblical analysis and synthesis in a separate paragraph on its own. Either way is fine.

 

Make sure you cite any sources used in this assignment. Feel free to use whichever of the major citation formats you prefer (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), but please do cite your sources.

 

PLEASE NOTE: For this assignment, instead of submitting a written report, you may choose to submit an oral report recorded on audio if you wish. However, if you do this, all the same elements which are required for the written report must be covered thoroughly in your oral report. Also, at present our online platform can only receive submissions less than 100 MB in size, so please ensure that any audio file is smaller than this. You can upload up to five files per assignment if needed, for a maximum of 500 MB per assignment.

Teaching Assignment

Instructions

For this assignment, you will be required to teach the essential Christian doctrine of soteriology in four lessons. Please feel free to do this in whatever way best fits your ministry context! To help you get started, we have provided you with a sample curriculum for three different settings—preaching, small group leadership, and one-on-one discipleship. We suggest you adapt these resources as needed for your ministerial and cultural contexts. You will find them all posted as downloadable files below.

Make sure you split your teaching into four lessons. This should be true whether these are four sermons, four small-group sessions, four one-on-one sessions, something else, or a mix. This will give you multiple instances of practice and will help you have more to reflect on for your final self-evaluation.

Once you have finished teaching all four lessons on soteriology, please return to these instructions and write up answers to the questions listed in the “Self-Evaluation Report” section below. Submit your answers to these questions in a single file. This will serve as confirmation that you have completed the teaching assignment.

 

A Few Points to Note

  • In addition to the sample curriculum we have provided, you will likely find that the three items listed below will be your best resources in preparing to teach these lessons:
    1. The “Our Sin and Christ’s Atonement” course from your required video lectures
    2. Essentials of Christian Theology by Holsteen and Svigel from your assigned reading
    3. The Atonement: An Introduction by Jeremy Treat from your assigned reading
  • You are welcome to teach these lessons in whatever language you like, so long as the final self-evaluation is submitted in English.
  • Read through the self-evaluation questions before beginning your teaching experience so that you have an idea of what to look out for.
  • It may help to keep a journal/notebook throughout your teaching experience so that you can recall your thoughts when you fill out the self-evaluation at the end.
  • Remember: Center your teaching on the Bible, and focus your teaching on your audience!

 

Self-Evaluation Report

Once you have finished teaching all four lessons on biblical soteriology, please submit your answers to the self-evaluation questions listed below (in a single file). This will serve as confirmation that you have completed the teaching assignment.

  1. Looking back on this experience, what were the strong points of my teaching? Weak points?
  2. What would I change if I taught this again?
  3. What did I find most interesting/exciting about this teaching experience? Most frustrating/challenging?
  4. What were my goals in teaching through this doctrine, and why were these chosen?
  5. How well did I meet these goals? Did I encounter any particular obstacles?
  6. Throughout this experience, did I witness any growth in those I was teaching? If so, what specifically?
  7. Throughout this experience, did I witness any growth in myself? If so, what specifically?
  8. Any additional thoughts? (Optional)

 

PLEASE NOTE: For this assignment, instead of submitting a written report, you may choose to submit an oral report recorded on audio if you wish. However, if you do this, all the same elements which are required for the written report must be covered thoroughly in your oral report. Also, at present our online platform can only receive submissions less than 100 MB in size, so please ensure that any audio file is smaller than this. You can upload up to five files per assignment if needed, for a maximum of 500 MB per assignment.


SAMPLE CURRICULUM COMING SOON

Please download and review the sample curriculum below. Although you may end up teaching in a different setting, we have provided curriculum for preaching, for small-group leadership, and for one-on-one discipleship sessions. Feel free to use any of these as they are, alter them as needed, or develop your own lesson plans. Regardless of which option you choose, however, we encourage you to adapt your four lessons to best serve the needs of your current cultural and ministerial context.

SAMPLE CURRICULUM COMING SOON