Week 8 Exercises — Final Reps Above the Fray

These are the last reps of Level 1, and two of them are the ones the chapter warned you about — the political ones you cannot practice anywhere safer than a private notebook. Do them here, honestly, before you ever do them at a dinner table. The whole point of a gym is that you fail here so you don’t fail out there. Budget about 30–45 minutes across all six, keep your answers in one file or notebook (this becomes raw material for Project 8, your capstone), and remember the rule that has run for eight weeks: gentleness and respect are not softness — they’re the strategy (1 Peter 3:15, ESV).

Ground rules

• Write it in your own words. Don’t have an AI answer these for you. The reps that sting — the mirror, the misuse from your own side — only work if the hand holding the pen is yours.
• Actually say the lines out loud. A reply you only typed is a reply you’ll fumble when a real person is in front of you. Rehearse the wording until it sounds like you, not a script.
• Where you use AI, end with one honest line — what you asked, what it got wrong, and what you verified yourself. That habit is Week 6’s, and it doesn’t retire this week.

Rep 1 — Learn the commander’s answer by heart

Read Joshua 5:13–15 slowly. Then write your own one-to-two-sentence answer to the question every election season asks you: “So which side is God on?” Ground it in the commander’s reply — “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD” (Joshua 5:14, ESV) — and John 18:36. It should communicate, kindly, that God does not enlist in our armies; we enlist in his.

Produce: one or two sentences you could actually say at a lunch table without sounding preachy, then say them aloud twice. Check: does your answer refuse the question (like the commander) rather than pick a jersey — and does it still leave the door open to talk about the King?

Rep 2 — Sort creed from prudence

Take these eight items and put each in one of two columns — Creed (what Scripture settles and the church has always confessed) or Prudence (the political means to a good end, where faithful Christians can land differently): (a) Jesus rose bodily from the dead; (b) which tax rate best helps working families; (c) every human life has worth; (d) which candidate to vote for this fall; (e) the authority of God’s Word; (f) which immigration policy is wisest; (g) God calls his people to care for the poor; (h) whether that care is best delivered by government, church, or both.

Produce: the two-column list, plus one sentence naming the item that was hardest to sort and why. Check: did any “prudence” item sneak into your “creed” column because you feel strongly about it? Strong feeling is exactly what Week 2 taught you not to mistake for evidence — apply it here.

Rep 3 — Answer “the church is just a voting bloc”

Write your own 60-second trained reply to Dana’s line from the chapter: “Church is basically a voting bloc with worship songs.” Build it the way the chapter modeled — honest concession first, then three pieces of checkable evidence (the faith is older than any party and has outlived the empires that tried to wear it; serious believers vote opposite ways; most of the world’s Christians aren’t American), then a question that hands the ball back. Optionally, ask a free AI assistant (Appendix A) to play Dana and push back on your reply twice.

Produce: your written reply, and — if you used AI — the honest usage line. Check: does your reply concede what’s true without conceding the thesis, and does it end by pointing at the real answer (a risen Lord, not a shared ballot)?

Rep 4 — The partisan in the mirror

This is the rep that stings, and it’s private — write it for no one but you and God. Answer the chapter’s self-test honestly: when you meet a stranger, do you feel more instant kinship with an unbeliever who shares your politics than with a believer who votes the other way? Then name one specific relationship where tribal feeling has actually crowded out gospel family, and one concrete thing you’ll do about it.

Produce: an honest half-page. Check: did you let yourself off easy? Romans 14:4 asks, “Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another?” (ESV). The believer who votes “wrong” is still someone else’s servant — and still your family for eternity. If that lands as conviction, the rep worked.

Rep 5 — Spot the misuse from your own side

Here is the discipline that keeps this non-partisan: find one real example of God’s name being drafted to endorse a political agenda — from a side you sympathize with, not the side you oppose. (Naming the other team’s abuse is easy and proves nothing; Exodus 20:7 doesn’t care which party does it.) Write why it’s an Exodus 20:7 problem — “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (ESV) — and the gentle sentence you’d use to name it without turning partisan.

Produce: the example, the one-line “why it’s a name-in-vain problem,” and your gentle naming sentence. Check: did you resist the pull to critique the opposition instead? If your example is from your own tribe, you’re building the exact muscle a visibly un-ownable apologist needs.

Rep 6 — Attest only what’s true

Open the Certification & Commissioning widget below the chapter and read all eight competencies — one per week — slowly. Don’t check a box because the course is ending; check it because it’s true. This is a certification, and your integrity is the seal on it.

Produce: a short list of any competency you’re not yet ready to sign, and the one rep you’ll run to close each gap before you assemble the capstone. Check: if every box is honestly checkable, you’re ready for Project 8. If one isn’t, that’s not failure — that’s the training doing its job. Close the gap, then attest.

Check yourself

A good week-8 set of reps looks like this:

• Your commander’s-”No” answer refuses the question kindly and still turns toward the King — you can say it without notes.
• Your creed/prudence columns keep the resurrection, Scripture’s authority, and the worth of every life out of the “up for a vote” pile, and put candidates and policies in it.
• Your “voting bloc” reply concedes honestly, offers three checkable facts, and ends with a question — no tribal heat aimed at the other jersey.
• The mirror rep drew real blood: you named a real relationship and a real next step, not a tidy abstraction.
• Your misuse example came from your own side, and your naming sentence stays gentle.
• Every box you plan to check on the certificate is honestly true — and you know which rep closes any that aren’t.

When those six are done, you’ve practiced the hardest material in the course. Now go build the capstone: Project 8, your Defense Portfolio and course final.