Academy & Spiritual Growth Course Descriptions 

Winter and Spring 2010

  • The Book of Galatians

  • World Religions

  • Science, Faith and Atheism

  • The German Church Struggle in Nazi Germany

  • Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, For Young Adults

  • Finding God in Harry Potter

  • The Financial Peace University

  • Presbyterian 101

  • Second Chapter: A divorce Recovery Group

  • Celebrate Recovery

  • So You Have a Teenager? Now What?

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Learn about Other Bible studies

Winter and Spring 2010

The Book of Galatians

  Facilitator:

  Rev. Dr. Robert P. Boell

  Dates   January 10 Through Feb 14
  Time   Sunday Mornings 9:00 am
  Location   Chapel

The course Paul's letter ot the Galatians, written around 55 AD is both simple and complex. It is simple because it focuses on a single objective - telling the original readers that God's actions through Jesus Christ are decisive and sufficient.  It is complex because Paul's  train of thought can at times be hard to follow.  The Book of Galiatian has had a great impact on Christian theology, especially during the since the Protestant Reformation.  Both Augustine and Luther call it on eof Paul's most significant letters. The book offers a model of how to think theologically about challenges found in community life as Christians.  It is not about how a person gets saved, but how a saved person lives.

 

World Religions

  Facilitator:

 Jeff DeSurra, Princeton Seminar Intern

  Dates  Jan 10 through Jan 24
  Time  Sunday Mornings,  9:00 AM
  Location  room 413

Is Jesus really the only way?  Have you ever met someone who was an outstanding moral person but believed something completely different from Christianity? OR have you run into people who seem to believe what Christians believe but have some different beliefs?   Though the Bible seems to say in John that Jesus is the only way to slavation, we are often confronted with situations where people from other religions appear to be living lives just as good, if not better than us. Join Jeff DeSurra, our Princeton intern, as he explores what the Bible has to say about other religions and how  Christianity interacts with them.  This class will include looks at Judiasm, Islam, Mormoninsm, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhism, and Hinduism as well as others. 

 

Science, Faith, and Atheism

  Facilitator:

 Grant Wadley, Princeton Seminar Intern

  Dates  Jan 10 through Feb 14
  Time  Sunday Mornings,  10:30 AM
  Location  Chapel

This course will involve a survey of some of the popular intellectual obstacles, and objections to religious faith by critics such as Richard Dawkins, scientist and author of The God of Delusion (2006). We will discuss the modern perception that religion is contradictory to science and whether this need be the case; or whether science and religion are rather two inseparable descriptions of one reality.  We will conclude by discussing the way that our conclusions should affect evangelism - the way that we explain our faith to the unsure and the skeptical.

 

The German Church Struggle in Nazi Germany

  Facilitator:

  Dr. Claude Foster

  Dates   Jan 12 through Feb 16
  Time   Tuesday Evenings , 7:00-8:30 PM
  Location   Choir Room

In order to confront and to expose the hersey of the counterfeit church of the "German Christians", which the Nazi regime established to coordinate the Christian Church in Germany, the Confessional Synod of the German Evangelical Church convened in Barmen, Germany from May 29-31 1934.  By his feigned piety, Adolf Hitler successfully duped many Christians into believing that he was God's anointed political messiah to liberate his people from the national malizise of humiliating defeat, political anarchy and economic crises.  The Confessing Church, which resisted Hitler and his nationalistic "German Christian Church," was severely persecuted and many Confessing Church Christian were martyred. How was it possible for Hitler to gain support for his pagan ideology from so many Christians? What are the lessons for the Christian Church, in her relationship with secular political authority, which may be derived from the witness of the Confessing Church and the Barmen Confession.

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, For Young Adults

  Facilitator:

 Erin Hayes, Grant Wadley, Jeff DeSurra

  Dates  Begins Jan 24
  Time  Sunday Evenings,  6:00 -7:30
  Location  Bell Room

Simply Christian is for anyone and everyone desiring a deeper head and heart knowledge of the way of Jesus. Topics include: justice and spirituality, relationships, beauty, God, Israel, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, worship and prayer, Scripture, church and new creation.

Finding God in Harry Potter

  Facilitator:

 Jeff DeSurra, Princeton Seminar Intern

  Dates  Jan 31 through March 7
  Time  Sunday Mornings,  9:00 AM
  Location  Chapel

 

Do you enjoy reading? Join Jeff DeSurra as he teaches us how reading can be a form of siritual formation.  Starting with the parables found in teh Gospels, explore how reading can help us grow and explore the Christian faith from devotionals to fantasy to history and historical fiction.  Class will include excerpts from books by authors including J.K. Rowling, rederich Buechner and David McCullough.

Financial Peace University

  Dates   Feb 21 at 2pm preview at 2pm, starts Sunday March 7
  Time   Sunday Afternoon, 2:00 - 3:30 PM
  Location  TBD

The course is Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Dave Ramsey, a personal money management expert, is a popular national radio personality and author of  the New York Times bestsellers The Total Money Makeover, Financial Peace, and More Than Enough.  During this life-changing class, you will learn how to Get Control of Your Money, Stop Struggling to Make Ends Meet, Tell Your Money What to Do, and Change Your Familiy's Future.  Come to the Preview Session on Sept 2 where you can experience a lesson and see the materials. The Preview Session is at no cost. Membership in the Financial Peace University with course materials is discounted to $93 per couple.  

Presbyterian 101

  Facilitator:

 Rev. Dr. Robert D. Young, Gary ArnTessoni

  Dates  Begins Feb 21
  Time  Sunday Mornings,  9:00 AM
  Location  Chapel

   No Course Fee.  

Second Chapter: A divorce recovery Group

  Dates  Feb 22
  Time  Monday Evenings 

For More information Contact Gary ArnTessoni

 

Celebrate Recovery

  Dates  Feb 28
  Time  Sunday Evenings 6:30-9:30 PM

We have all been hurt by other poeple, we've hurt ourselves andwe'ver hurt others. As a result, every single one of us ends up with some sort of hurt, hang up or habit.  The Big question is "where can  find help and support?" Celbrate Recover (a Christ Centered Recovery ministry) offers God's healing and strength to face and move beyond our hurts, habits or hang ups.  Meeting Weekl, CR leads participants through topical and Biblical studies fo Recovry principles and discussions based on the 12 steps.  At CR you will find a community of peopleworking their way along the road to recovery and finding God's grace and forgiveness in solving their problems. For more information contact Rev Gary ArnTessoni.

So You Have a Teenager? Now What?

  Facilitator:

 

  Dates  
  Time   Wednesday Evenings, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
  Location  TBD

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