Course #4: Doing What You Were Meant to Do

How to Get the Most from this Course

IMPORTANT NOTE: The first three lessons of this course require that you take a spiritual gifts analysis and personality assessments before the classes. Before beginning your first lesson, please click on the tab under Brave New Discipleship for Online Assessments on the home page, or on How to Use This Course page for Course #4, or on the Lesson Video Page for lessons 1-3. Follow the links you’ll find there for how to take your free online assessments. Take the appropriate assessment prior to each of the first three classes.

Course #: Each lesson in Course #4 includes a video with a corresponding Transcript, Handbook, and an optional Digging Deeper. Lesson #4 only has a review section and an Answer Key.

1. Watch the video lesson without taking notes or following along in the learner’s manual. Simply watch the lesson as an interesting and enjoyable experience. That is the first dimension of the learning experience (right brain).

2. After viewing the video, do the exercises and reviews for the corresponding lesson in the Personal Ministry Plan, which is the second dimension of the learning experience (left brain).

In this course, the exercise and review section (Personal Ministry Plan) is different from the previous three courses. Chapter 4 is the only chapter in Course #4 that has a knowledge-oriented review involving: (1) review for memory, (2) review for understanding, and (3) review for application.

In the rest of the lessons, the review exercises are “evaluation” or “planning” oriented. The differences are because of how the brain works. To review for memory, it takes a different methodology than review for understanding or application. Those methods are different from evaluation and planning. Each of the reviews has been specifically tailored to its purpose.

You will use the Transcript to refresh you memory when completing your Handbook review for chapter 4. In the Transcript, you will notice that some words in the text are bolded. Each bold word is an answer to a fill-in-the-blank exercise in the Review for Memory section of the Bible Knowledge Handbook. In cases where the word is in a title heading that is already bold, the word is underlined.

It is vital that you complete the exercises in your Handbook at the end of each lesson. Otherwise the final impact of the course will be greatly diminished. It is only as you watch the lesson, and then follow it up with the review exercises, that the right brain and left brain combine for a complete learning experience.

3. At the end of each lesson, there is an optional Digging Deeper section. This includes three parts:

#1. Read
#2. Study
#3. Memorize

• Read:The books recommended for further reading are books that expand on the subject of the lesson. With a couple of exceptions, the recommended book is from a series of books authored by BNDS creator, Max Anders. They are compactly condensed, easy-to-read expansions of the material found in the lesson. You can further your grasp of the subject by reading the recommended book.
• Study:The study sections are simple and easy-to-complete studies of key passages. If you are a new Christian, this will provide you important information at a glance. If you are an established believer, the information may not be new, but will be a helpful review.
• Memorize:This is a central passage for the subject of the lesson, and memorizing these verses will make a valuable contribution to your life.

The Answer Key for the “Study” part of the Digging Deeper section is included at the end of each Deeper Digging section.

4. Be sure to use your Bonus material: NanoSummary

Studies at Carnegie-Mellon University have demonstrated that the brain retains more from a concise summary of a subject than it does from a full presentation. That is one of the benefits of this course. It is a concise summary of larger subjects that have been written about in books and taught in Christian colleges and theological seminaries.

However, even the Brave New Discipleship System courses have each been further abridged into a separate, tightly compacted video NanoSummary, one per course, approximately 12-15 minutes long per video. The NanoSummary is a powerful tool for reinforcing what has already been studied and helping you retain it.

If you want to maximize your ability to retain and recall what you have so diligently studied, you must follow up with the NanoSummaries to lock in your knowledge of this vital material. After completing a course, simply view the corresponding NanoSummary once a day until you have mastered the material. A self-evaluation accompanies each NanoSummary video download, which can be used repeatedly to measure your increasing grasp of the material. The NanoSummaries will help strengthen you spiritually, as well as increase your capacity and confidence to share your faith with others. The NanoSummary is an effective and valuable tool that will help you master this material and be able to use it quickly and easily.