New Testament Scouting

What is a NT Scouting
Why do a Scouting
Choose Themes
Get Started

Scouting is reading through the entire New Testament in 4 weeks while watching for specific themes and color coding those texts appropriately. It is recommended that you take this journey with one or two others who are looking for the same themes or who are scouting out their own themes. Meet together to share your findings.

Gaining a good understanding of a Biblical topic is uniquely helped by getting a broad exposure to it in its frequency, time and space in the New Testament. Only by this type of broad reading will e gain a proper scope of a concept's frequency, intensity, placement and emphasis for the purpose of understanding and worship

Love Whom? statements calling believers to love God (color 1), love God's family (color 2), love the world

God loves Whom? statements about God's love for God (color 1), love for God's family (color 2), or love for the world

Confidence or Caution? statements inducing confidence in our security with God as believers (color 1) vs statements inducing caution or uncertainty (color 2)

Actions and Deeds? God's actions (color 1) vs our actions and deeds (color 2)

Obey Because? statements of commands being motivated by promises of delight (color 1), warnings (color 2) or straight commands without stated motivation (color 3)

Authority in Text or Men? statements telling believers to look to Scripture/ Gospel(color 1) vs statements to look to individuals/ leaders (color 2) for authority, doctrine, and interpretation.

Covenants? statements about New Covenant (color 1), Old Covenant [Law/ Moses](color 2), Abrahamic Covenant (color 3) or any other covenants (color 4)

Credit and Fault? statements of praise to someone (color 1)vs fault (color 2)

From,To, and By? statements describing "Fall" (color 1), "Offer" (color 2) or "Payment" (color 3)

Obedient Life, Death and Resurrection? statements about Jesus perfectly obedient living (color 1), death (color 2) and resurrection (color 2)

Will of God or Man? Things attributed to the Will and Plan of God (color 1) vs the will and plan of humans (color 2)

Prayer Types? statements about spiritual needs (color 1) vs physical needs (color 2), for believers(color 3) vs unbelievers (color 4), about individual prayer (color 5) or together-prayer [corporate prayer] (color 6)

Disciple Whom? statements about discipleship of believers (color 1) vs discipling of the unsaved [evangelization/ mission] (color 2)

Church Roles? statements about deacons (color 1), pastors/ elders (color 2) and apostles (color 3)

Or choose your own!

  1. Buy a New Testament to mark up (we suggest this panoramic New Testament) and markers (we suggest these pencils).

  2. Select your themes and marking colors you will scout for in your reading through the NT (we suggest picking just 1-3 themes max)

  3. Confirm your reading schedule with your partners:

    • week 1: Matthew, Acts, Galatians, James

    • week 2:Mark, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Titus, Philemon, 1&2 Peter, Jude

    • week 3:Luke, 2 Corinthians,  Ephesians, Philippians, 1&2 Timothy, Hebrews

    • week 4:John, Colossians, 1&2 Thessalonians, 1,2&3 John, Revelations

  4. Aim for a broad exposure, so keep the reading at a faster pace, make appropriate highlights and only make minimal notes.

  5. Summarize your findings at the end and pray through them for learning and worship