The Oikonomia Network’s Economic Wisdom Project offers students the opportunity to learn from leading theological scholars on topics ranging from Theology to Culture, from Ethics to New Testament studies. This month, we are highlighting EWP Talks on Pastoral Leadership and History, exploring how these areas of study can cultivate a holistic, integrated understanding of Christian life and calling. We can see how the rubber of theological knowledge hits the road of human life by looking at pastoral leadership in the church militant (today) and in the church triumphant (our spiritual ancestors).
This semester, consider assigning your students a talk from our growing library!
On our Pastoral Leadership list, Charlie Self, Chris Armstrong and Christopher Brooks offer insights on how the church can faithfully embody its mission, even in complex contexts. Congregations and communities are transformed by shepherds whose ministries help people discover sacredness in God’s world, adapt to different sociocultural contexts, and prioritize the needs of their surrounding community, including those on the margins.
In our History videos, Chris Armstrong and Keith Reeves find important commonalities between contemporary challenges surrounding work, economic wisdom and Christian discipleship, and scriptural approaches to those questions in the context of God’s people throughout redemptive history. By pointing to the orthopraxy of Christian leaders of many times and places, these talks highlight how theological understanding and the practical life of the church have come together throughout the church’s history.
Below are several highlights of EWP Talks that will be valuable resources to assign students, along with other videos from our complete library.
Pastoral Leadership
Charlie Self | Faithful Churches Create Flourishing Communities: Righteousness, Peace and Joy
Charlie Self of Assemblies of God Theological Seminary draws together God’s communicable attributes with church experiences from Dallas and Oregon all the way to Sri Lanka and Cambodia, presenting the church’s mission embodying righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit within all the world’s communities.
Consider assigning in: Pastoral Leadership, Theology, Culture, New Testament
Chris Armstrong | God’s People, Christ’s Body, Spirit’s Temple: Being a Sacred Church
What if we’re getting the whole sacred/secular problem backward? Chris Armstrong invites us to rethink what the church really is – a visible sign of invisible grace – before we roll up our sleeves to change the world.
Consider assigning in: Pastoral Leadership, Theology, Spiritual Formation, Ethics, History, New Testament
Christopher Brooks | Rethinking Urban Poverty: Context, Data and Collaboration
Christopher Brooks of Moody Theological Seminary, merging theology with his pastoral experience in Detroit, argues that poverty need not be permanent; the truth of the gospel and the imperatives of discipleship demand constructive solutions to poverty.
Consider assigning in: Pastoral Leadership, Ethics, Culture
And Many More:
Tom Nelson | If We Would Be Faithful: Fruitfulness Matters
Anthony Bradley | Christian Personalism: How to Preach a Public Faith without Making Atheists
Vincent Bacote | Sending Disciples to a Pluralistic World: Imagination, Hospitality and Hope
W. Jay Moon | Economics and Mission: The Connected Complexity of Cultures
History
Chris Armstrong | “Vocation? Whatever!” From Work/Life Balance to a Seamless Life
Chris Armstrong of Wheaton College evokes key moments from church history, and from his personal history of struggle with attitudes about rest, home and work, to offer a compelling vision for why a theology of vocation must be central to the life of faith.
Consider assigning in: Ethics, Spiritual Formation, History
Keith Reeves | Family and Opportunity in the Law and the Prophets
Keith Reeves of Azusa-Pacific University describes the connection between the household, family structure, land ownership and economic opportunity in the Old Testament law and prophets, and how these connections apply today.
Consider assigning to: Old Testament, Ethics, History
And More:
Chris Armstrong | God’s People, Christ’s Body, Spirit’s Temple: Being a Sacred Church
Anthony Bradley | Christian Personalism: How to Preach a Public Faith without Making Atheists
