The Lantern is a new Bible study and discipleship course designed to take a Christian through an introduction to the basic truths of the Christian faith. The booklet has 14 chapters and can be finished in 14 weeks or more. It is our hope and prayer that as believers in our church interact with the truths of scripture they will grow to be more and more like Jesus Christ in their daily lives. And as individuals grow stronger in their daily walk with God, we trust that marriages, families, and eventually the whole church will also be strengthened.
Currently, Pastor Pruden is teaching through the course in our Wednesday night Bible Study (7:00pm weekly) for anyone who wants to come. The main purpose of this approach is to teach the basics of the course to the church’s core attenders so that they will then feel ready to turn around and teach new folks who come into our ministry in small groups or one-on-one discipleship.
Basically, if you join us here at LBC, we hope to be able to take you through this course and teach you the core teachings of the Bible so that you will learn the pattern of how to go to God’s Holy Word and find the answers you are looking for all on your own. We value having an atmosphere where each person is skilled and capable of reading, understanding, interpreting, and applying the Bible to their lives. Throughout church history there have been groups and religions who have placed these tasks strictly on the shoulders of the priests. The result of that approach is that the laity of the church become uneducated in the Bible’s teachings and rely solely on the church to tell them what the Bible says and means - which is a recipe for manipulation, control, and error. There is great accountability and great strength in a whole church family being able to rightly handle God’s Word. And not only that, but God states clearly and repeatedly in His Word that it is intended to be read, understood, and applied by all of His people.
We are excited to see how God will use the Lantern course in our ministry. Please pray for us as we try to teach each other and grow stronger together.
Here’s an overview of what each chapter of the course covers:
Chapter 1 - Salvation: God’s Gift to You
Chapter 2 - Eternal Security: Your Relationship With God
Chapter 3 - Confession: Your Fellowship With God
Chapter 4 - Baptism and the Lord’s Supper: Your Remembrance of Jesus Christ
Chapter 5 - The Word of God: God’s Communication to You
Chapter 6 - Prayer: Your Communication to God
Chapter 7 - The Local Church: Your Place of Ministry
Chapter 8 - Temptation: Your Struggle With Sin
Chapter 9 - The Holy Spirit: God’s Presence in You
Chapter 10 - Progressive Sanctification: God’s Work in You
(Sanctified means “set apart for a purpose.” In Christian doctrine, this refers to the process that God uses to grow you more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ in your day-to-day life).
Chapter 11 - Stewardship: Your Gift to God
(Worshipping Him in thanksgiving with your time, talents, energy, resources, and more).
Chapter 12 - Evangelism: Your Ministry to the World
Chapter 13 - “Baptist?” What it Means to be a Baptist
Chapter 14 - “Fundamentalist?” Defending the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith
(In this context - that is the context of Christian Doctrine - the term Fundamentalist does not mean that we are radical, extremist, or any of the other contemporary associations of this term. It merely means one who identifies a list of fundamental or critical doctrines to our faith, and defends those doctrines as truth.)