Here is one opportunity we’re trying to jump on quickly in this unique time.
While the current crisis is interrupting our local gatherings, it also creates opportunities for online training. As a church, we have an opportunity to run one or two cohorts with the online courses offered by the Charles Simeon Trust. These are seminary-caliber courses designed to help you learn how to study and apply Scripture, now available for $9 per participant. (To get seminary credit, students read approximately 800 pages that you will not be required to read, however!)
Josh Fenska would like to begin leading a group (or two if there’s a lot of interest) through the Epistles course next week. Check out course details here, including the full syllabus and bios of the video instructors such as Thomas Schreiner, Mark Dever, Ed Copeland, and David Helm. (If you look at the syllabus, please remember that you are not required to do all of the reading!) Weekly group video calls will include in-depth work on one passage of Scripture per week, so that we are learning to apply the principles of the lectures while studying specific passages.
If you are interested in participating in this course, please email Jill at jpoel@redeemercom.org to sign up. Josh plans to host an informational video call with interested people this Sunday afternoon (March 22) from 1:30-2pm, in which he will answer any questions and talk about the assignments and the schedule. (Note: for logistical reasons, please do not register yourself for the course prior to Sunday’s video call.)
The weekly video calls are penciled in for Saturday mornings from 8-9:30am (March 28 to May 16), but if we have two squads we’ll consider a different time (so if the time is your only hindrance, please note that in your email).
We welcome men or women, younger or older. Since the materials were designed for seminary students with a college degree, the academic intensity of the course would be too demanding for most high schoolers, but if you have questions about that, feel free to contact us to help you figure that out.
We’d like to get this rolling quickly, so please let Jill know soon if you are interested!