PAPER INSTRUCTIONS AND GUIDE

1. TEXTBOOKS TO BE READ AND CITED AMONG THE 9 SOURCES TO BE CITED

1.  Gorman, Michael J. Cruciformity: Pauls Narrative Spirituality of the Cross. Eerdmans, 2001. ISBN: 978-0802847959. (Read Chapters  5 AND 6 )

2. Whitney, Donald S. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. NavPress, 2014. ISBN: 978-1615216178. ( READ CHAPTERS 1, READ CHAPTERS 2 AND 3 )

3. McClendon and Lockhart, Timeless Church, scan the book. Look through it as an example. This book was designed to identify the overarching characteristics of the early church and argue that these are prescriptive and should be evident in churches today. In a similar way, you are going to be creating a list of the overarching characteristics of a biblical disciple.

OVERVIEW

The church is called to make disciples (Matt 28:19-20). If making disciples is the goal, it is important we are able to articulate what a disciple is, particularly, what characteristics a disciple should exhibit. To develop accurate ministry plans, we must know what the target is. That is at the heart of this assignment. Please take your time. Be specific and clear in the development of this document.

INSTRUCTIONS

For the sake of these instructions, I will use Marks and Characteristics as synonyms. Keeping that in mind, here are the steps you need to take to complete this assignment.

First, study the Scriptures. Conduct a personal study of the Scripture regarding what a disciple looks like. Examine the commands of Scripture regarding the call the follow Jesus. Look at disciples that follow Jesus well. What characteristics seem fundamentally essential? In other words, what are the characteristics that should be evident in someones life who claims to be a disciple of Jesus? Take significant time here, and spend time in the Scriptures studying.

Second, study others. Look up other writers. See what Bible commentaries say on some of the critical verses you examined in the previous step. Look in the textbooks for this course. Read journal articles. Look up sources in the online Liberty Library. See where other scholars agree and disagree with your list. See what characteristics they use and how they describe disciples.

Third, narrow and refine your list. Narrow your list now to the big, essential characteristics. Try to remove overlap between the characteristics. Create a specific, final list. (I recommend having 4 7 characteristics in your final list. If you have too many, youre not getting to the big, essential, umbrella characteristics.)

Fourth, present your list.
    A template for this paper is provided in the course for you to use. This assignment must meet Turabian formatting standards.
    Provide a cover page.
    Provide a contents page.
    Provide an introduction.
    Provide an argument for the essentiality of each biblical mark (i.e., characteristics). Each mark should have its own first-level heading in bold.
o    Present the mark in a clear, concise word or phrase as the heading.
o    Provide a detailed description of the mark you are discussing. Then, present an argument for the essentiality of this particular mark (i.e., characteristic) from Scripture. In other words, demonstrate that this mark is essential and biblically derived. Do not just quote Scripture, but present a conclusion based on your study of Scripture.
o    Each section for each mark must be a minimum of 200 words.
o    A minimum of 8 unique scholarly sources should be cited in this paper. Each mark should have a minimum of two scholarly citations. These sources do not have to be quoted. Sometimes a source is simply cited to show where another scholar has arrived at your same conclusion. Do not cite a website or blog.
    Provide a conclusion.
    Provide a bibliography. Bibliography must include at least 8 unique scholarly sources that are cited in the paper. Remember, both footnotes and bibliography must be in Turabian formatting.

NOTE

1. Only apply to write the [paper if you are good in Turabain Format and have access to the Turabain format

2. Apply to write the paper only if you have access to the 3 textbooks above, atleast the the first two.