Adult Classes

Disciple III 
led by Paul Helvig

Starting in September, 2008 Disciple III will take place on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 p.m. until approximately 9:00 p.m.  The cost is $30 to cover the materials for the class will also be collected in the church office.  Scholarships are available and everyone is encouraged to sign up regardless of ability to pay for your workbook. Feel free to contact Pastor John or Jess Bunger with any questions about the classes.

Lectio Divina
led by Ned Ruete

If you have completed all four Disciples, what are you going to do with your Wednesday evenings? If you can’t commit to 9 months of regular study, what options do you have? Consider joining us for the new Wednesday offering, Lectio Divina.

What is Lectio Divina? Translating the two Latin words literally you get “divine reading.” The sense is sacred reading. The phrase “Lectio Divina” has been used to relate to many practices and these practices have many origins.

For our Wednesday evening study, we will use something very close to the approach used by Barbara Libby in her Thursday morning Bible study during her time with us. We will take turns reading passages from the week’s lectionary. Each passage is read four times, hopefully in four different translations. The first reading is for overall sense and context. After each of the next three, we will pause and give each person a chance to respond to a question. The three questions we will use are:

1.       What word or phrase did you hear that had special meaning? (What did you hear, with no elaboration: just quoting the words that jumped out at you.)

2.       How does the scripture touch your life? (How do you react? What things come up for you: questions, interpretations, feelings, triggers of old feelings, other experiences that relate?)

3.       What are you being invited to do by the scripture over the next few days? (How do you respond?)  

There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. Much of the power of this method comes from the diversity of viewpoints, the number of different ways of hearing the Spirit, that the students bring. Each week, near the end of our time together, we will each get a chance to pray for the person to our right.

There is no need to do pre-reading, and people can join us any time the Spirit calls to them or their schedule allows. You don't even have to answer the questions until you are ready. We will meet at 7:00. Current plan is for one and one-half hours of study, but the people who form the group will decide if it should be shorter or longer. Please join us as you are able.