Midweek

(This course will not be available for later viewing.)

The Book of Acts famously has an abrupt ending: “For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance.” There is no resolution and certainly no story of Paul’s subsequent martyrdom. So what happened next?

The history of the early church is a powerful story of believers who were emboldened by their faith and the Holy Spirit to share the message of Jesus around the Roman Empire. Beginning in the Levant and spreading to the Greek-speaking cities of the East and then eventually to the Latin-speaking West, the Christian church grew until it eventually become the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. In the process, missionaries and bishops and martyrs gave their lives for the gospel. They interpreted the Scriptures, argued for the truth of the Christian witness, and gathered churches in every place.

Our class this spring will explore this history and discover what we can gain from the example and testimony of our ancestors in the faith. We will look at topics such as the spread of early Christian missions, the experience of martyrdom, the formation of Bible, and the theology of the early church fathers. We will conclude with the fascinating figure of Saint Patrick—a one-time slave who became a bishop and is revered as the patron saint of Ireland.

(This course will not be available for later viewing.)

The world of the Bible is very different from our own. The Bible was written over hundreds of years by many different authors from many different cultures in three different languages. So, when we make cultural assumptions that are foreign to the ancient world, we risk misreading and misinterpreting the Bible to fit our own world instead of the ancient world of the Scriptures. This course will address biblical topics such as cultural values, race and ethnicity, language, time, relationships, and others, and explore how our modern assumptions often cause us to miss the point the biblical writers are trying to make.

(This course will not be available for later viewing.)

In this class, we’ll dive into the book of the same name by James Bryan Smith. We’ll focus on the gospels to understand who God is through Jesus and how to live in response to that revelation. This class promises to deepen your relationship with God in a transformative way.

(This course will be available for on-demand listening.)

Taught by Steve and Faith Dickie, this class will introduce participants to the spiritual authority every believer has over evil and how deliverance is a New Testament mandate which facilitates healing and evangelism.