Council Road Institute
by Landry Franks
The second semester of Council Road Institute begins tonight. We are looking forward to studying the Old Testament in our 11-week course and hearing helpful apologetics from Abraham in our five-week course. Some of you might be wondering why we would emphasize CRI as a church, and I wanted to give you the reasons we think it is valuable for church members to study onsite on Wednesday nights for 11 weeks.
Discipleship
The heartbeat of CRI is grounded in biblical discipleship. We hope that the classes you take push you to get to know other faithful Christians at CRBC. We want your conversations around the table to spur you on toward love and good deeds. We hope the people around you won’t just be faces and names, but actual friends who can help you grow and mature in your faith. If you plan to attend CRI this semester, consider the benefit of grabbing lunch or coffee with someone at your table during the week and talking about the material together. Last semester I walked through the material with a friend every other week, and our conversations were rich and helpful in our desire to know and be known by God.
Theological Education
Theology can be an overwhelming and challenging word. You might feel that theology should be left to the pastoral staff and preachers. To some extent, we expect our teachers and pastor to know how to handle the word of God correctly, but one reason I am so passionate about CRI is that theology is not just for those who attend seminary. Instead, theology is something that all of us can know and do. Anytime we pick up the Bible, we process some sort of theology. We think that CRBC should help our members understand good sound, seminary-level theology—for free. Our church wants every member to see the value and importance of knowing what the Bible says, how it fits together and why it matters to your life. We want you to pick up the word and read it from any book with confidence.
Practical Application of the Word
Discipleship and theology are good things, but they are pretty pointless if we can’t use them in our lives. We want CRI to go from your head to your heart to your actions. We believe that studying and giving up time will help you love God and love others. We hope that by taking courses like the ones we have this semester, you can read the word on your own and answer questions and objections others might have. CRI is just the diving board into the deep and rich waters of the word of God, and we hope that learning some practical discipleship and theology will help you wade in those waters for a lifetime.
If you have questions about CRI, email me at lfranks@councilroad.org. I hope to see you here tonight at 6:15 in the Chapel.
Author Bio
Landry Franks is the Groups Pastor at Council Road. He has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Central Oklahoma and a Master in Divinity from Southern Seminary. His children are Asher and Dru, and his beautiful wife is Kayla. He enjoys being outside, reading and hanging with his family.