Most North Americans grow up in a culture that worships money, embedded in an economic system that holds money up as the only true measure of value. But money is a failed god, as we see in the fear that threatens our personal well-being and our relationships, in the overwork and overwhelm that guts community …
View course details “Putting Money in Its Place”
Fast-Track Development With Andy Piercy (UK), Rachel Wilhelm (United Adoration), & Mike O’Brien (Vineyard) In this three-day seminar, Andy Piercy and friends will offer workshops and teaching for any active volunteer and staff worship leaders looking for practical and easily accessible advice to improve, deepen, and refresh their ministries. Join others involved in music ministry …
View course details “Worship Leader Training”
“Striving for transformation in a personal sense requires unflinching honesty about our own thinking, and a willingness to change our mind.” (Tara Swart) Human transformation and growth are common themes in the Gospels. New Testament conversion narratives tell of people who changed their lives as a result of encountering Jesus or the message of the …
View course details “A Journey of Transformation”
All descriptions of the death of members of monastic communities in the Middle Ages have in common that music and song are part of the scenario. Nobody had to die in silence. The community accompanied their brothers and sisters on their last journey with singing. Death and dying are also important subjects in the history …
View course details “Sounds of Death and Mourning: Requiems and Funeral Songs through the Ages”
The early eighteenth-century British-American philosophical theologian Jonathan Edwards has often been called a “mystic.” Through a selected series of primary and secondary readings, supplemented by presentations and discussions, this course seeks to evaluate Edwards’ place within the mystical tradition, the contours and nature of his mysticism, and his appraisal of how mystical experience was appropriated …
View course details “Jonathan Edwards, the Mystical Tradition, and Revivalism”
This course will explore the combination of literary and conceptual elements of the most intriguing of Gospels. The gospel displays a wide variety of literary techniques, many associated with ancient drama, and it engages the reader with complex theological issues about how God is known, about what God has done in the life and death …
View course details “Salvific Drama in the Gospel of John”
Abide considers ten topics that are relevant to Christian spiritual formation. The topics are explored through readings, teachings, conversations with authors, group discussions and communal prayer. The curriculum offers an orientation for personal spiritual growth that is based on the fruit of the Holy Spirit that will be evidenced in the lives of those who …
View course details “Abide: Certificate in Spiritual Formation”
The Song of Songs, or “Song of Solomon,” is among the strangest books of the Bible. It is difficult to translate, hard to understand, and impossible to reconcile with moralistic styles of religious belief. The title of the course, “Locksmithing,” alludes to a famous Jewish saying that sums up both the enigma and attraction of …
View course details “Locksmithing: Unlocking the Song of Songs”
The poet Dana Gioia once asked in a book of this title, “Can Poetry Matter?” That question of course begs another question: matter in what ways? We may read poetry for any number of reasons, but this class considers how poetry nurtures, and enriches, our spiritual lives. By our close reading of poems together from …
View course details “Reading Poetry Devotionally: How Poems Nurture Our Spiritual Lives”
Don’t we just pick up the Bible and read it? What are various ways of interpreting the text and why do these methods matter? With attention to texts of the Hebrew Bible, this class offers an introductory sampling of different approaches in biblical studies, reading with feminist, disability, African, queer, and childist lenses. Course elements …
View course details “The Joy of Text: Reading the Bible with Liberating Lenses”