The Adult Education Ministry is scheduling a variety of classes for winter/spring 2019:
- January 6: Pastor Beth Carroll will lead a discussion of lectionary texts for Epiphany.
- Jan. 13—Feb. 3:The Reconciliation Ministry will present “Noisy Contemplatives.”
- Feb. 10 and 17: Bored with Fear and Reactivity (your own and everyone else’s)? Hope Church member Ann McKnight will encourage us to have fun exploring Living with Compassion, Clarity and Strength.
- Feb. 24 and Mar. 3: Jim Brownson, James and Jean Cook Professor of New Testament at Western Theological Seminary, will teach about what the Catechism on Sexuality developed by the Regional Synod of the Great Lakes includes and does not include.
- March 10: Palo Naso, an RCA mission partner and coordinator of an interde-nominational partnership called “Being Church Together,” works with the Waldensian Church in Italy. He will speak about his ministry focus around issues of immigration and justice.
- March 17: Ryan Kilpatrick, Executive Director of Housing Next, a collaborative initiative of nonprofit, government, and business partners working to create and promote a strong economic case for additional workforce housing units in the greater Ottawa County region, will discuss affordable housing.
- March 24 and 31: Plans are being developed. For details see March Hope Church News.
- April 7 and 14: Alyssa Cheadle, an assistant professor of psychology at Hope College, will speak about how and why religiousness and spirituality are related to health.
- April 28 and May 5: Peter Boogaart and the Caring for Creation Ministry will present a topic related to the focus of that ministry.
- May 12 and 19:Terry DeYoung, Reformed Church in America Coordinator for Disability Concerns, will discuss ways to prevent suicides and ways to help those who have lost someone through suicide.
Classes meet in Commons I between 9:40 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. each Sunday morning during the school year. They are free and open to all adults. Adult education also happens in Hope Church worship services, book discussion groups, men’s breakfasts, and women’s circles. The Adult Education Ministry is one of several within the Worship and Spiritual Formation area.
Several years ago, those planning Adult Education adopted the following mission statement:
The Adult Education group plans and coordinates educational opportunities for adults using as much as possible the talents and resources of the congregation. Such opportunities are intended for spiritual formation through biblical study and critical examination of cultural, social, and moral issues from a Christian perspective.
Adult Education Ministry members are Jim Brownson, David Myers, Milt Nieuwsma, Judy Parr (chairperson) Jane Schuyler, Eloise Van Heest. Pastors Beth Carroll and Gordon Wiersma support Adult Education. If you have an idea for a course you want presented or would like to join this ministry, contact one of these people.
~Judy Parr, Adult Education Ministry Chair