Fall 2010 Academy for Vital Christianity Class Offerings
Twin Cities Metro Area
Greater Minnesota
* * *
 Christianity’s Enduring Life: Contemporary Stories of Diversity, Renewal, and Global Growth
Concerns about the decline of Christianity and the mainline denominations have fostered conversations that reach across a variety of Christian communities. But statistics and sociological analyses don’t necessarily tell the whole story about the health and creativity of Christianity. In this class, we will look for signs of the vitality and resilience of Christianity and some of the new forms it is taking in the United States and other parts of the world. Our exploration and reflection will be informed by a variety of sources: first-person narratives by people who take Christianity and religion in general seriously; manifestations of religious creativity in the arts and in science; accounts from around the world of new and traditional forms of Christianity; and signs in multiple places of Christianity’s surprising resilience.
Mary Farrell Bednarowski is emerita professor of religious studies at United where she taught for 28 years. Her teaching and research interests focus on the relationships between religion and American culture with special emphasis on theological creativity, gender, literature, spiritual autobiography, and new religions. In addition to editing Twentieth-Century Global Christianity, she is the author of three books on American religion.
Dates: Mondays – October 4 & 11
Times: 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: Wayzata, Wayzata Community Church
Cost: $70.00 ($85.00 after September 20)
Registration deadline: Monday, September 27
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for classes at Wayzata Community Church.
* * *
 Creating Significant Worship
Worship teams, pastors, musicians, and laypersons eager to bring new interest and vitality to worship will find immediate use for this class on worship design and planning. This fresh look at engaging worshipers through senses, images, music, and scripture will provide practical help for the smallest of settings and staffs, as well as varied worship styles, whether thematic or lectionary-based.
Arthur Clyde has spent a lifetime in music and arts ministries. In addition to his experience in congregations, he has created numerous resources and workshops as minister for worship, music, and liturgical arts for the United Church of Christ (UCC). He has been a worship designer and consultant for both UCC and ecumenical national gatherings and synods. He is an adjunct faculty member at United.
Dates: Saturdays – October 2 & 30
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: Alexandria, First Congregational United Church of Christ
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after September 18)
Registration deadline: Saturday, September 25
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
The above class offers congregational discounts for multiple registrants from one church. For congregational discount rates and registration, contact Renee Flesner at 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
 Effective Caregiving
One of the church’s enduring missions is to provide support and care to its members. This course will help laypeople learn how to best respond to members in need and work together to create a caring community. In our four sessions, we will explore the foundational work of careful listening and pastoral presence, as well as the more particular aspects of care, such as grief support, crisis assessment, and inviting stories of hope and possibility in pastoral conversation. Students will leave with new insights, practices, and tools for caregiving.
Christie Cozad Neuger has served as a pastor, chaplain, pastoral
counselor, and professor. An ordained United Methodist elder, she
received her Master of Divinity from United and her Ph.D. from Claremont School of Theology. Over
the past 22 years, she has been a professor of pastoral counseling
at United, Princeton Theological Seminary,
and Brite Divinity School, where she remains a distinguished visiting
professor. She is a Diplomate in the American
Association of Pastoral Counselors and an active member in
the Society
for Pastoral Theology. United recently appointed her as distinguished
senior scholar in pastoral care.
Dates: Mondays – October 18, 25; November 1, 8
Times: 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: Bloomington, Normandale Hylands United Methodist Church
Cost: $140.00 ($180.00 after October 4)
Registration deadline: Monday, October 11
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
The above class offers congregational discounts for multiple registrants from one church. For congregational discount rates and registration, contact Renee Flesner at 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
 How the Congregation Can Empower Its Laity for Ministry
Congregations struggle to find better ways to live out the priesthood of all believers.
This class will familiarize lay leaders and staff members with a theology of gifts and call and expanded and organized approaches to empowering the laity to share in ministry. Included will be innovative and tested methods of discovering members’ gifts, designing lay ministry positions for the 21st century, inviting members to serve, and supporting their efforts. Finally, it will address the issues of how congregations can most effectively initiate and begin to implement these new approaches.
Jean Morris Trumbauer is director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at United. She is a former church consultant, a workshop leader across the country, and the author of Sharing the Ministry: A Practical Guide to Transforming Volunteers into Ministers and Created and Called: Discovering Our Gifts for Abundant Living. She has worked ecumenically with congregations and judicatories for nearly 30 years.
Dates: Saturdays – November 6 & 20
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: St. Paul, St Paul’s United Church of Christ
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after October 23)
Registration deadline: Saturday, October 30
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
The above class offers congregational discounts for multiple registrants from one church. For congregational discount rates and registration, contact Renee Flesner at 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
Love Songs to Lament: Poetry and the Hebrew Bible
This class will explore the dialogue between contemporary poetry, biblical poetry, and our own lives. Students’ creativity will be nurtured and their spirits fed through the art of poetry. Beginning with scripture, we will listen to the voices of ancient Israelite poets as they lament their suffering or praise their loves with surprising relevancy to our lives today. This class is co-led.
 Carolyn Pressler is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and Harry C. Piper Jr. professor of biblical interpretation at United. She has written numerous articles dealing with gender studies and the Bible, biblical law, and the Psalms, and is the author of two books, The View of Women Found in Deuteronomic Family Laws and Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Currently, she is working on a commentary on the book of Numbers for the Abington Old Testament Series. Pressler received her M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.
 Pamela Wynn is a poet who teaches poetry and creative, liturgical, and expository writing at United. Author of Diamonds on the Back of a Snake, she has published widely and received support for her work from the Dayton Hudson, Jerome, and General Mills Foundations, and others. She has completed a libretto for an opera based on the book of Ruth in collaboration with composer Barbara Rogers, which was first performed in April 2008.
Dates: Thursdays – October 28; November 4, 11, 18
Times: 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: Wayzata, Wayzata Community Church
Cost: $140.00 ($180.00 after October 14)
Registration deadline: Thursday, October 21
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for classes at Wayzata Community Church.
* * *
 Making Sense of Paul in a Global Village
What sense does it make when current thinkers--including those not at all interested in religious faith--refer to the apostle Paul as “our contemporary” and hail him as an important key to the global future? This class introduces some of the lively issues in current debate over Paul; explores the politics of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus; describes the marks of the global church from a “Pauline” perspective; and asks whether there are realities in our own day that “can separate us from the love of God.”
Neil Elliott holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary and serves as an Episcopal priest and scholar-in-residence at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Hill in St. Paul. He is editor in biblical studies at Fortress Press and the author of numerous articles and books in biblical studies, most notably Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (1994) and The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire (2008). He is adjunct instructor at United and Metropolitan State University.
Dates: Saturdays – October 16 & November 6
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: Plymouth, Messiah United Methodist Church
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after October 2)
Registration deadline: Saturday, October 19
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
 Reading the Prophets in the 21st Century
The Old Testament prophets were immersed in the religious, political, and social realities of their own times, seemingly so different from ours. Yet they spoke to them so powerfully that their words echo across the centuries. Although their language is not necessarily ours, their speeches still illuminate our own social, political, and religious questions. Often seen as critics, the prophets actually were carriers of a powerful vision and hope for what human life together could be. This course will help you hear the accents of these ancient voices in order to bring their sense-making power to your own deep questions and struggles.
Richard Weis is in his 13th year as dean of the seminary and professor of Old Testament theology at United. An internationally recognized scholar specializing in the book of Jeremiah, he is writing a commentary on Jeremiah for Eerdmans and editing the Hebrew text of Jeremiah for a new scholarly edition of the Bible. Over the years he has successfully nurtured a love of the Old Testament among students with a wide range of attitudes and levels of knowledge about scripture.
Dates: Saturdays – October 16 & November 13
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: Duluth, Peace United Church of Christ
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after October 2)
Registration deadline: Saturday, October 9
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
 Reimagining the Church for Our Contemporary Time
The world is undergoing a major change, and so is the church—a part of the world. How the church responds to the change will have a serious impact on its life and continuing vitality. This class dares to take up the challenge by helping churches reimagine old/new ways of understanding identity, mission, and ministry that are both faithful to their tradition and creatively responsive to their new context. Participants will have the opportunity to explore various lenses of interpreting our current context, wrestle with the traditions, and play with images that may give wings to the imagination, heart and hands for the ministry, feet and spiritual nourishment for the journey.
Eleazar S. Fernandez is professor of constructive theology at United and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. He earned his M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines, his Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Reimagining the Human: Theological Anthropology in Response to Systemic Evil.
Dates: Saturdays - October 16 & November 13
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: Rochester, Christ United Methodist Church
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after October 2)
Registration deadline: Saturday, October 9
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
 Understanding the New Testament in Today’s World
There are many ways to read the New Testament. This is nothing new! In this class, we will consider the particular challenges to understanding the New Testament in our world today. How do we decide whether a passage “means what it says” or must be interpreted a new way? We will try to understand passages that trouble us. Participants will discuss the relevance of the New Testament for understanding our lives in today’s world.
Marilyn Salmon is professor of New Testament theology at United. She is an Episcopal priest and an associate at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul. Her book, Preaching without Contempt: Overcoming Unintended Anti-Judaism, invites Christians to read the New Testament with a more accurate understanding of Judaism.
Dates: Saturdays - October 16 & November 6
Times: 9:30 AM-3:30 PM
Location: Mankato, Centenary United Methodist Church
Cost (includes lunch): $190.00 ($240.00 after October 2)
Registration deadline: Saturday, October 9
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above class.
* * *
What does the Bible have to do with Life Today?
Many of us are uncomfortable with theological arguments that end: “the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it” but aren't aware of alternative ways of reading the scriptures. In this class we will return to the basics about what the Bible is, how it came into being, and how to approach it in a way that honors both faith and reason. We will reflect on how to approach this book containing the basic foundations of our beliefs in a way that has integrity, understanding, and faithfulness. We will address concerns related to texts that have been used to hurt or alienate different groups in society. We will learn how to read the Bible in a way that acknowledges the contexts in which it was written and doesn’t attempt to impose the world we live in today on the world in which it was written.
Neil Elliott holds a Ph.D. in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary and serves as an Episcopal priest and scholar-in-residence at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on the Hill in St. Paul. He is editor in biblical studies at Fortress Press and the author of numerous articles and books in biblical studies, most notably Liberating Paul: The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle (1994) and The Arrogance of Nations: Reading Romans in the Shadow of Empire (2008). He is an adjunct instructor at United and Metropolitan State University.
Dates: Thursdays - October 7, 14, 28; November 4, 11
Times: 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: Lakeland, St. Croix Valley United Methodist Church
Cost (includes lunch): $175.00 ($225.00 after September 23)
Registration deadline: Thursday, September 30
Registration required: Printable Registration Form (form can be mailed, scanned and e-mailed, or faxed) or call 651.255.6138.
Download a Bulletin Insert for the above.
Classes Previously Offered
Bible 101, with Carolyn Pressler
Bringing Global Music into Worship, with Arthur Clyde
Creation or Commodity: Biblical Perspectives on the Environment, with Richard Weis
Engaging the Arts to Revitalize Worship, with Arthur Clyde
Essentials of Christian Education, with Barbara Anne Keely
Evangelism, Embracing the ‘E’ Word, with Cindi Beth Johnson
From One Jesus to Many Christianities, with Paul Capetz
Interpreting the Older Testament with Integrity, with Carolyn Pressler
Reading the Gospels Today, with Neil Elliott
The Spiritual Life of the Congregation, with Barbara Anne Keely
The Spiritual Lives of Children and Youth, with Barbara Anne Keely
Stewardship: Grateful and Graceful Living, with Joseph Bush
The Great Theologians of Church History Speak to Today, with Paul Capetz
Transforming Conflict: Dealing with Difficult People in Your Congregation, with Mark Sundby
Welcoming the Stranger: The Church’s Response to Immigration, with Sharon Tan
Wrestling with the Problem of Evil and Suffering, with Eleazar Fernandez
|
