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Education Opportunities
- Adults
- Children
Adult Education
Solid Foundations
There’s no substitute for a solid foundation. With it everything else becomes more sure. Without it there is always uncertainty, instability. In our journey of faith a solid foundation can mean the difference between experiencing the holy presence of God in worship and experiencing confusion. With a solid foundation the stories of the scriptures lead down pathways that intersect with the stories our own lives. With a solid foundation the history and traditions of our church enrich our relationship with God rather than mystify.
At St. Timothy’s, Solid Foundations is a class designed for the recent comer who is curious to learn more about why we worship the way we do, what makes Episcopalians unique in our beliefs, how our church got started and where we get our traditions from. Solid Foundations is also for longer term Christians / Episcopalians who have developed a curiosity to learn more of “the basics.”
A Mystery No More
Our Bible is a precious treasure trove of stories, teachings and imagery about our God. It is also a complex collection of 66 separate books written in at least six different distinct styles and spanning at least 1200 years. We know that the Old and New Testaments are the foundation of our faith but sometimes wonder how we can take in all that God has to say to us through the Bible without becoming overwhelmed and frustrated.
The key is learning the broad narrative themes that unify and make sense of the vast sweep of the Bible. A Mystery No More is a six week class that will teach you how to recognize where any given passage is in the overall Biblical narrative and identify what it is trying to communicate to the reader. This introductory class encourages participants to bring their questions about scripture so that all can benefit from the discussion.
Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study
The journey of becoming familiar with the Bible progresses in stages. In the beginning we’re simply trying to figure out what the names of all the books are and how to find passages by chapter and verse. We hear scriptures read in church, but we’re not really sure how or why they are chosen or how to plug them into our own lives. In time we learn that there are distinct segments of the Old and New Testament – that not all the Bible is historical narratives. Some is called prophecy. Some is poetic. Some books are called Gospels and others Epistles, and we learn what those terms mean and what the contents of each reveal to us about the character of God and the life of faith we are called to. At a point many people awaken to a particular hunger to learn “what it all means.” We want to integrate the many discrete scenes of scripture that we have seen into a continuous video whose plot, characters and meaning we can track from beginning to end.
Feeding that hunger is exactly what the 35-week scope of Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study is about. Beginning in the first full week of September, students of this course will engage in daily reading and study of the Bible, journal their impressions, insights and questions, view and discuss a weekly video segment of teaching from a variety of Biblical scholars, and make connections between the work of Bible study and developing the characteristics of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is the most in-depth format of Bible study we offer at St. Timothy’s and it is designed for the person who is at the stage of hungering for more than three readings and a sermon on Sunday morning.
As with all commitments, the potential for expanded insight into the Bible and growth as a Christian through this course is limited only by the amount of time devoted it. Therefore enrollees in Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study are asked to commit to attending weekly and doing their reading and journaling daily. Within a group that embraces these disciplines of serious Bible study and reflection, a powerful bond and presence of the Holy Spirit develops.
The Network Course
You are valuable. Do you ever allow yourself to think that way? First Corinthians 6:19 says, “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…” If God is within you then how could you not be like a precious treasure. And like all precious treasure your true value is meant to be discovered and released. God has created you with unique gifts meant for your own enjoyment and for the enjoyment of others. When identified and used they will bring you endless joy and satisfaction, but when let lie dormant they decay and leave an empty void in their place.
As a way of clarifying your God-given value you are invited to participate in a seminar called Network. Network is a process of discovery of the unique spiritual gifts each and every person has. Participants will experience a dynamic program designed to uncover their deepest value, the person God has uniquely made them to be, and become mobilized to enter into a meaningful place of service.
The Network course guides participants through a series of assessments that will reveal their particular passions, spiritual gifts and personal style. Most of us know we should serve. And most of us really want to serve. But many of us are just not sure how we can serve in a way that makes us fruitful and fulfilled. Network helps to answer that question.
If discovering how to experience serving as a privilege rather than an obligation sounds exciting to you; if learning how one more thing on your plate can become energizing instead of draining; if realizing what that one thing is that only you can do for God sounds valuable, then register for this course.
