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Course Description:

7-week course via Zoom on Wednesdays, September 18 - October 30

In preparation for our election and the times we find ourselves in, what does it mean for us to be Church in today’s world? Through a variety of voices and disciplines, we’ll explore what it means to be people of faith in today’s public life, growing in our awareness of how we’ve been formed in our culture and how we’re being called into new places.

Course Layout:

  • Week 1: An Intro to Faith in Public Life-This first session will introduce the topic, the speakers, the journey we are hoping to go on these seven weeks, and how to best maximize your learning experience through this course. 
  • Week 2: Bonhoeffer's Witness w/ Dr. Reggie Williams, Bonhoeffer scholar, and author of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus - We'll learn about how Bonhoeffer struggled to discern his own Christian faith and life in light of the historical realities of his day, and how his faith was transformed into social and political resistance against Nazism.
  • Week 3: A Living Testimony w/ Stacy Kitahata, Executive Director, Holden Village - Stacy will share aspects of her lived experience as a lay leader, rooted in the particularities of her own identity and God's call on her life into the church's collective public faith for the sake of the world.
  • Week 4: Who is God for you? w/ Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, author of When God Became White - Dr. Kim invites us to interrogate how our image of God has often been entangled with the images of the dominant culture, and how we might find ways forward with greater awareness of "Who is God for you?"
  • Week 5: Can We Listen? w/ Fred Oduyoye, from Reachable Reconciliation Ministries- Listening is key to creating and nurturing sustainable communities, especially when we might understand things differently than others. In this session, we consider an intentional process that shapes our listening practices.
  • Week 6: "In God We Trust" w/ Dr. Justin Latterell, Senior Fellow at Emory University's Center for the Study of Law & Religion - "Does God choose sides in politics and wars?" Drawing from his forthcoming audiobook, In God We Trust: Abraham Lincoln and the Controversial Origins of the U.S. Motto, Dr. Latterell will lead a conversation about the history of religious and political identity in America. We’ll focus on Abraham Lincoln, whose unique theological views during the Civil War challenge people, even today, to reconsider the role of religion in American politics.
  • Week 7: Go and Do Likewise w/ Rev. Terry Kyllo, Executive Director of Paths to Understanding - Terry will bring creative ways we can practice our faith in public life with our neighbors by drawing from his recent book, Go and Do Likewise, and his project Potluck for Democracy & Our Common Future.

What Can I Expect?

You can expect a course designed to be in conversation with where you are as a lay Christian leader and learner. The common thread through the various weekly presents will be to engage various questions, including: How do the various aspects of our life of faith (i.e our understanding of God, church, and world) intersect with our life in society and culture?

  • For instance, in conversation with Reggie Williams, an African American Bonhoeffer scholar, how was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s experience at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, NY was formative for his public witness as a Christian?
  • With Grace Ji-Sun Kim, a Korean theologian, we’ll ask how our understandings of God are often projections of our own bias and influence how we live as church today.
  • With Stacy Kitahata, Terry Kyllo, and Fred Oduyoye, we’ll explore how to live faithfully into the diversity of the world in a way that gives witness to a life of discipleship.

List of weekly topics & speakers coming 

Registration:

Registration for this 7-week course is FREE if your church purchased a Congregational Bundle. Ask your church office for the Bundle promo code. Without a bundle, individual registrations are $50.

Click HERE to Register.

Once registered, you’ll be sent a link to join our Online Learning Platform for course details, zoom links, online discussion.