In my last blog post I shared the process I took my students through to come up with a theme statement for the book of Ephesians. It took us an entire week of class, but it was well worth it!

For the second week, I had them work in groups to break down the book into chapters, sub-chapters, and to come up with a heading for each of them. Rather than simply accepting the existing divisions of Ephesians, they came up with their own analysis of the structure of the book. Below is a sample of their work. Once they broke down the book into their own divisions, they used the existing chapters and verses to communicate how they believed it should be organized. As you can tell, their outline is very similar to the existing outline in the Bible!

Chapter I: Salvation Through Christ (1:1-23)

One of the most disconcerting trends of 2011 is the continued lack of theological knowledge among the church, as demonstrated in the Barna 2010 Trends. As Christians we simply don’t have theological depth or know how to relate it to our lives. And we spend little time studying the Bible, despite Paul’s strong admonition to Timothy (2 Tim. 2:15). Even though we claim to believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, it tends to take a back seat to other priorities in our lives.

Why is this? Many possible reasons come to mind. One reason is that we are simply busy. Are lives are filled and studying the Bible takes time and effort. Another reason is that we simply don’t know how to study the Bible. I’m convinced that if more people in the church truly knew how to study the Bible, and saw the fruits of increased understanding, they would make time for it.

“And then she told me, ‘Your father, your girlfriend, and your brother were run off the road. They didn’t make it. They’re dead.’ I didn’t know what to say. How do you respond to hearing those words over the phone?”

As he told me this story, my friend began to subtly cry—one small tear at a time. I didn’t know what to say either. But I quickly realized, there’s nothing to say—just listen. In listening, I learned something profound.

The art of listening alone is profound. But I learned something else from my friend on Tuesday night. After telling me his story, he began to talk about something that is shockingly taboo: Christ is mystery.

The words of Paul suddenly rang in my head. Paul says to the Ephesians:

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Last night I attended a screening of Dan Merchant’s new Michael Moore-esque documentary, Lord Save Us From Your Followers.  It’s a film about how Christians have a huge PR problem and how “the culture wars” are exactly the opposite of what Christians should be battling in this world. The real war concerns things like poverty, injustice, and loving the unlovable, suggests Merchant. If Christians just loved better, befriended drag queens, and washed homeless people’s feet, our image crisis would go away.