Study Guides and Class Materials for Past Classes

Here is an archive of the past adult Sunday school classes. Select the links below to jump to their area of the archive.

Living the Questions logoLiving the Questions

Usually during the summer the Wednesday evening class takes the summer off and starts up with a Bible Study in the fall but this summer, there will be a group meeting for seven weeks starting July 9th led by Pastor Pam at the parsonage to view and discuss the "Living the Questions" series. The group gathered at 6 PM and were done between 7:30 to 8 PM.

Pastor Pam says that the series "is an `unabashed' progressive (or 'liberal') view of theology and faith issues. But even if you don't think you subscribe to such a view, you are encouraged to attend so that all voice can be heard." Living the Questions is a DVD-based study with presentations by pre-eminent scholars and theologians followed by plenty of time for all members of the group to discuss what was presented. The sessions are stand-alone so you can join for any particular one or ones you want. Please let Pastor Pam know if you'd like to attend.

The summer Wednesday group will be doing the first of three sets of the series called "Invitation to Journey". Here is a tentative calendar of topics:

  1. July 9: "An Invitation to Journey"
  2. July 16: "Taking the Bible Seriously"
  3. July 23: "Thinking Theologically"
  4. July 30: "Stories of Creation"
  5. August 6: "Lives of Jesus"
  6. August 13: "A Passion for Christ: Paul"
  7. August 20: "Out into the World: Challenges Facing Progressive Christians"

More on Living the Questions:

People know that at its core, Christianity has something good to offer humanity. At the same time, many have a sense that they are alone in being a "thinking" Christian and that "salvaging" Christianity is a hopeless task. What is needed is a safe environment where people have permission to ask the questions they've always wanted to ask but have been afraid to voice for fear of being thought a heretic.

Living the Questions is a source of curriculum and media for both seekers and "church alumni/ae" convinced that Christianity still has relevance in the 21st Century. Providing a variety of flexible resources, Living the Questions can help people explore the future of Christianity and what a meaningful faith can look like in today's world.

Contributors for the entire 3-part series include: Nancy Ammerman, John Bell, Marcus Borg, Minerva Carcaño, John B. Cobb, Jr., John Dominic Crossan, Lloyd Geering, Culver "Bill" Nelson, Siyoung Park, Stephen Patterson, Tex Sample, John Shelby Spong, Emilie Townes, Rita Nakashima Brock, Walter Brueggemann, Ron Buford, Yvette Flunder, James Forbes, Matthew Fox, Hans Küng, Amy-Jill Levine, Meagan McKenna, Rebecca Ann Parker, Helen Prejean, Barbara Rossing, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Bernard Brandon Scott, Rick Ufford-Chase, Winnie Varghese and Mel White.

Themes for the other two sets:

Reclaiming the World
8. Restoring Relationships
9. The Prophetic Jesus
10. Evil, Suffering & A God of Love
11. The Myth of Redemptive Violence
12. Practicing Resurrection
13. Debunking the Rapture
14. Reclaiming the World

Call to Covenant
15. A Kingdom without Walls
16. Social Justice: Realizing God’s Vision
17. Incarnation: Divinely Human
18. Prayer: Intimacy with God
19. Compassion: The Heart of Jesus' Ministry
20. Creative Transformation
21. Embracing Mystery

Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

The adult Sunday morning class, the Wednesday evening class, and the Thursday morning class read and discussed Robert Schnase's book "Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations" in spring 2008.

The Five Practices are:

  1. Radical Hospitality
  2. Passionate Worship
  3. Intentional Faith Development
  4. Risk-taking Mission and Service
  5. Extravagent Generosity

"These words capture the core process by which God uses congregations to make disciples - congregations offer the gracious invitation, welcome, and hospitality of Christ so that people experience a sense of belonging; God shapes souls and changes minds through worship, creating a desire to grow closer to Christ; God's Spirit nurtures people and matures faith through learning in community; with increased spiritual maturity, people discern God's call to help others through mission and service; and God inspires people to give generously of themselves so that others can receive the grace they have known. (p.7)

These fundamental practices are so critical to a congregation's mission that failure to perform them in an exemplary way results in congregational deterioration and decline. By repeating and improving these practices, churches fulfill their mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. (p.7)"

The Soul of Christianity

Class began September 9, 2007 and ran through mid-January 2008 (with breaks for holidays).

Study Guide for Soul of Christianity

Below are outlines and study questions prepared by Nick Strobel as PDFs. Use these outlines to jog your memory of what you read not as a replacement for reading the book. Also, recognize that these are one person's notes from a particular perspective.

The study guides available on this website are available by selecting the link to one you want below. You will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF document. Select the link to the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the free reader to your computer.

Synopsis

The Sunday morning an adult class will be reading and discussing "The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition" by Huston Smith author of the bestselling The World's Religions. The ISBN of the book is 0060858354 (paperback) and costs between $10.25 and $15, depending on the bookstore. Participants will read a section of the book before coming to class and will then share their insights of what they read on Sunday morning. Below is a description of the book from the jacket cover.

In his most personal and passionate book on the spiritual life, renowned author, scholar, and teacher of world religions Huston Smith turns to his own life-long religion, Christianity. With stories and personal anecdotes, Smith not only presents the basic beliefs and essential teachings of Christianity, but argues why religious belief matters in today's secular world.

Though there is a wide variety of contemporary interpretations of Chrstianity—some of them conflicting—Smith cuts through these to describe Christianity's "Great Tradition," the common faith of the first millennium of believers, which is the trunk of the tree from which Christianity's many branches, twigs, and leaves have grown. This is not the exclusivist Christanity of strict fundamentalists, nor the liberal, watered-down Christianity practiced by many contemporary churchgoers. In exposing biblical literalism as unworkable as well as enumerating the mistakes of modern secularists, Smith presents the very soul of a real and sustantive faith, one still relevant and worth believing in.

Smith rails against the hijacked Chrstianity of politicians who exploit it for their own needs. He decries the exercise of business that widens the gap between rich and poor, and fears education has lost its sense of direction. For Smith, the media has become a business that sensationalized news rather than broadening our understanding, and art and music have become commercial and shocking rather than enlightening. Smith reserves his harshest condemnation, however for secular modernity, which has stemmed from the misreading of science—the mistake of assuming that "absence of evidence" of a scientific nature is "evidence of absence." These mistakes have all but banished faith in transcendence and the Divine from mainstream culture and pushed it to the margins.

Though the situation is grave, these modern misapprehensions can be corrected, says Smith, by reexamining the great tradition of Chrsitianity's first millennnium and reaping the lessons it holds for us today. This fresh examination of the Christian worldview, its history, and its major branches provides the deepest, most authentic vision of Chrstianity—one that is both tolerant and substantial, traditional and relevant.

The Heart of Christianity

In spring 2005, we studied Marcus Borg's book The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith. Although the class finished in May 2005, this section will remain because the class leader, Nick Strobel created a study guide that needs to remain accessible.

Borg writes about how we can live passionately as Christians in today’s technologically-advanced, secular world in a way that transforms the world into one that values love and justice (& not be a defense against or isolation from the world). How we can rediscover a life of faith without turning our brains off. Borg writes in a very accessible way for the general layperson who doesn't have theology training but has a earnest desire to make Christianity relevant to their entire life (on Sunday morning AND in their work and play in the secular world).

Marcus Borg writes about the "emerging paradigm" of the past 100+ years that is the "product of Christianity's encounter with the modern and postmodern world, including science, historical scholarship, religious pluralism, and cultural diversity." Borg gives a refreshing and clear response to our questions: "In this time of change and conflict within the church, what is the heart of Christianity? What is most central to an authentic Christianity and Christian life today?" The study will last several months and you will want to be part of it from the beginning.

Go to the Internet Reference Collection created by St. David's United Church in Calgary, Canada for further readings and comments on the issues Borg covers in his book.

Study Guides

Below are outlines and study questions prepared by Nick Strobel as PDFs. Use these outlines to jog your memory of what you read not as a replacement for reading the book. Also, recognize that these are one person's notes from a particular perspective.

The study guides available on this website are available by selecting the link to one you want below. You will need to have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view the PDF document. Select the link to the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the free reader to your computer.

Methodism 101

The Methodism 101 class in the spring 2006 began with a "nuts and bolts" overview of the United Methodist Church structure following the order of Bishop Jack M Tuell's book "The Organization of the United Church (2005-2008 Edition)" (Select the link to bring up the book description on the Cokesbury site in another window.) We looked at topics/terms such as General Conference, Annual Conference, districts, Social Principles, Ordained Elders, etc. Bishop Tuell first wrote the book in 1970 after the union in 1968 of The Evangelical United Brethren Church and The Methodist Church and he has revised it every four years following each General Conference.

Study guides for the UMC structure overview (select the link to go to the class page)

Then we looked at the major United Methodist beliefs using Bishop Mack B Stokes' book called "Major United Methodist Beliefs". (Select the link to bring up the book description on the Cokesbury site in another window.) The book has a study guide at the end of it.

 

Wesley United Methodist Church -- Bakersfield, CA