Christianity for the Rest of Us

Purpose of this Course: To provide a Monday evening opportunity, to engage each other spiritually, theologically and practically about what it means to be a radically inclusive church in mission today. Course Goals: 1. To become familiar with the key ideas and discoveries of Diana Butler Bass presented in her book and to apply workable principles to our own Canadian situation. 2. To discuss, debate, learn together and support one another in a community that practices hospitality, authentic humanity, mutual support, relational learning and holy manners. 3. To develop an understanding of why the traditional mainline churches of Canada seem to be displaced in the popular mind and public influence by more conservative expressions of Christianity, and what the 'rest of us' - who have a deep appreciation for the mainline tradition can do about that. (We in the United Church of Canada share many of these mainline concerns with other Canadian Christians - such as elements within the Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, and some Roman Catholic communities as well. We believe that there are certain aspects of conservative Christianity - both Protestant and Catholic - that we can learn from and apply in our own special ways. Our hope is to "learn with and from" other Christians, wherever that is possible. 4 To combine content sessions with purposive group discussion (plenary and small group interaction) as desired by the participants. 6. To recover and re-engage the classic spiritualities of our traditions as introduced in "Christianity for the Rest of Us" and engage members and friends of our congregation in an ever-evolving, transformational faith-journey. 7. To enhance the life of our congregation, build bridges of mutuality beyond St. Davids and support an "Emerging Christian Way" of adult spiritual development (supported by St. David's Adult Spiritual Development Ministry - ASDM) in the process. Monday night studies affirm and attempt to fulfill the mission of ADSM: 1. We believe that adults are spiritual beings who come to St. David's with various understandings of Christ's teaching; and of how to learn and nurture one another in Christian faith. We desire to establish and affirm St.David's as a place of learning and spiritual development for adults. We will continue to create opportunities to strengthen our Christian faith and increase our knowledge and awareness of that faith within a supportive community. Description of Target Audience (Age, gender, etc.): We seek to reach an inclusive range of participants, from young adults through seniors. Program Format: content session(s) (up to one hour throughout the evening) a special period reserved for socializing, a period (or periods) of 30-45 minutes for discussion in small and large groups, and a concluding time of plenary sharing and narrative note-taking. Course Description for Christianity for the Rest of Us Monday Night Study at St. Davids September - November, 2007 We will use - Christianity for the Rest of Us - as the basis for our study,and people will be encouraged to read a manageable number of pages per week. Because our feedback from more recent classes suggests that people want more, meaningful small group discussion on particular themes for the evening, Jock and I hope to make that an important part of each session. We assume people will have read the material and can speak from their own experience as well. We plan several sessions to introduce the subject so that members have some background to what that book is trying to say. We will conclude with several summary sessions to help us wrap up the series in a meaningful. intentional manner. The ten characteristics of renewed congregations determined in the study are these: hospitality, discernment, healing, contemplation, testimony, diversity, justice, worship, reflection and beauty. Five sessions (evenings three to seven, we anticipate) will focus on two of these charcteristics per evening. We are currently asking ten people from the congregation (some from the class, some not) to speak to us briefly, by responding to these concerns: 1. What I have learned from my experience at St. Davids when I was involved in this area of ministy (e.g. the work of hospitality - Inn From the Cold, perhaps, or healing, - the Healing Touch program) etc. 2. What I envision for St. Davids in terms of enhancing and building up this ministry. "This is what I believe our congregation needs to be emphasising today, and why"... At that point, small groups would discuss what they have heard and provide a response which we would collate each evening and then develop into a narrative for presentation to the class as the course is concluding. Our hope would be that from this narrative, and points emerging from it, we could as a group, work out and present a series of recommendations to the Transition Team and the Church Council as our contribution resulting from the study. We are excited about this fomat and hope that many will want to join us. Jock McTavish and Wayne Holst

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