Contents – Dancing In the Kingdom – Dancing In The Kingdom

Part I – Shadows of the Kingdom

Chapter 1 – Prelude

Chapter 2 – The God who Created

Chapter 3 – The image-bearers

Chapter 4 – Deforming the intended direction for creation

Chapter 5 – Patriarchs

Chapter 6 – A Nation Emerges

Chapter 7 – Settlement

Chapter 8 – Kings and kingdoms

Chapter 9 – The Prophets and Writings

Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed

Chapter 10 – The kingdom enters – hope revealed, unleashing shalom

Looking back – Signs and shadows of the kingdom
- Looking for Messiah
The Messiah comes
- Personal, Not Political
- John the Baptist (Immerser)
- Joseph and Mary
- Expectant Magi and the Non-expectant King
- Immanuel
- Inaugurating the Ministry
  - The Kingdom Is Near Again
  - Baptism, Anointing, Temptation
- The Kingdom Arrives
- Kingdom Questions and Parables
- Inheriting the Kingdom
- The Kingdom Expands
- Passion Unto Death
  - The Darkness
  - Paradise and Resurrection

Chapter 11 – Culture wars

Intertestament Overview
Jewish and other sects in the Time of Jesus
- Essenes
- Gentiles
- Herodians
- Lost Sheep of Israel
- Pharisees
- Sadduccees
- Samaritans
- Scribes
- Zealots
Cultural Issues
- Progressives vs. Conservatives
- Effects of Wealth and Power
- Apocalyptism
- For or Against the Secular Culture
- Legalism
- Originalism vs. Living Interpretation
- Taxation and Representation

Chapter 12 – Launching the Church: Apostles and the Early Church

Preparing the church
- No Detailed Strategic Plan, But Promises and Presence
- The Spirit and the Power
- The Spirit and the Story
- The Spirit and the Scattering
- The Spirit and the Servant-Leaders
Building and Growing the Church
- Basics of the Faith
- Desires and Fruits of Faith
- Disciplines of the Faith
- Community of Faith
- Guarding the Faith
- Future of the Faith

Chapter 13 – The questions and practices of the church

Overview
- Context of Theology
- Limits of Theology
- Challenge of the Church
- Contributions of the Church
  - Science and Education
  - Health Care
  - Social Justice
  - Governance and Economics
  - The Arts
- Historical Issues Affecting the Church
  - OverCurrents
  - UnderCurrents
  - Steering Currents
Interlude
Questions and Practices
- Understanding God
  - How is it that there is only one God and Yet Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God and the Father is God
  - How can Jesus both be God and Human
  - What is the relation of the Holy Spirit to God the Father and God the Son
  - How does one develop knowledge of God
- Understanding the Church
  - What is the Church
  - Who is in the Church
  - Who has authority in the Church
  - What is the role of elder, bishop, deacon and priest
  - What is the function of the Creed
  - Is the Church more than a Jewish sect?
- Understanding our Role in the World
  - What is the prophetic role of the Church
  - In what ways should Christians be involved in “guarding the sacred space” entrusted to us
  - How should Christians respond to the community around them, particularly the unbelievers
- Understanding the Traditions and the Bible
  - What is the relation between the Bible and Church traditions?
  - How were the writings selected to get into the Bible
  - How do we interpret the Bible
  - How do you apply Biblical views to today’s issues when the Bible is silent on those
- Understanding Sin, Salvation and Sanctification
  - How do we inherit sin
  - What did Jesus do to allow our relationship with him to be restored
  - How are we saved from the consequence of our sins
  - What is the role of grace in salvation
  - What does it mean to be saved by grace and yet have expectations to live righteously
  - Since we are under grace, do the commandments still apply to us
- Understanding the Kingdom and Eschatology
  - What is the Kingdom of God/Heaven
  - How and when will Jesus return
- Understanding Sacraments
  - What are the sacraments and how do we practice them
  - What are the different view on communion
  - What are the different view on baptism
- Understanding Worship
  - What are proper ways of worship
  - What about Mary?
  - What are liturgies?
- Understanding Our Humanity
  - What is the effect of sin on our bodies
  - What is the role of spiritual gifts
  - What does it mean to be male and female
  - What are the roles of families, marriage and singleness
  - What is the role of sexuality

Part 3 – Dancing In The Kingdom

Chapter 14 – Remembering our Creation

Our Mandate
Our Relationships
Our Provision
Our Limits
Lamenting our Brokenness
Rejoicing in the hope of God

Chapter 15 – Reforming our Souls

Reforming our Loves
Disciplines of our hearts
- Maturity requires incremental growth, accumulation of experience
- Allowing intentional choices to become habits and the habits to shape our character
- Allowing different disciplines to strengthen each other
- The discipline of the soul is not disconnected from the discipline of the body
Fruits of the Disciplines
- Forming our dependence on the Holy Spirit
- Forming our character/integrity
- Forming our choices
- Forming our virtues
The Disciplines
- The Discipline of Liturgy
  - The liturgical year
  - Sacred time
- Simplicity/Stewardship
  - Setting our priorities
  - Stewarding our resources
- Gratitude
- Fasting
- Lament
  - Rest and Remember
  - Repentance
  - Recompense and Restitution
- Distress
- Generosity
- Bible Disciplines
  - Hearing the Word
  - Reading the Word
  - Studying the Word
  - Memorizing the Word
  - Meditating on the WOrd
  - Obeying the Word
- Prayer
- Worship/Celebration
- Service
  - Change the diapers
  - Different services
- Submission
  - Mutual Accountability
- Resting/Sabbath
  - We work tolive
  - We rest to remember
Discovering how we are formed

Chapter 16 – Fixing Our Eyes

Everything Belongs
Created to grow
The Kingdom is Come and Not Yet
Ministry of Reconciliation
New Jerusalem’s Urban Garden

Chapter 17 – Finding our Place

Relation to Yahweh
Relation to Self
Relation to Church
- Created as parts of a body
- Created to gather and build
- Community of persons, not groups
Relation to the community outside the church
- Not yet, but Already
- Preparing to engage with those outside the Church
- Flourishing community
- Listening to our culture
- Strategies in cultural engagement

Chapter 18 – Entering the Dance

Occupy Till I Come
Charting a Path Forward
- Bottom-up strategy
- Top-down strategy
- vocational stewardship
Reimagining our society
- Reorienting our institutions
- Reclaiming the institutional church
- re-envisioning our culture
- re-envisioning our given environment
- re-envisioning our inhabited environment
Reimagining Our Vocation
- Principles
- Reconciliation
Appendix A – Tips on how to study the Bible
Appendix B – Prophecy Chart
Appendix C – Seven Ecumenical Councils
Appendix D – Ecumenical Creeds of the Church
Appendix E – The Timeline
Appendix F – The Family Tree
Appendix G – Bibliography