Classes for Adults
Adult Sunday School and More
January Adult Sunday School
In January, Adult Sunday School will meet at 9:55-10:45 am. Please click on the titles below to read the full class descriptions and for the links to join us online. We hope to see you there!
Parent Gathering: Will continue to meet each week, starting January 9.
3-week mini sessions: January 9, 16 and 23 we offer the classes below.
January 30: We'll meet together in Stone Hall for a presentation by Dr. David Renwick titled Why I Believe: God, Jesus and the Bible. This class will also be available online here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87391794908
Location: Chapel and online
Teacher: David Siegrist
Dates: January 9, 16 & 23
“By their fruits you shall know them.” We will examine cosmic clues about the creation, and seek to gain greater insight into the motivation and intent of the creator.
If you would like to join us online, please use the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87391794908
David Siegrist is a longtime Presbyterian who has taught in NPC’s Wrestlers Class and in previous January terms. He has a PhD in Biodefense from George Mason University. His dissertation researched sought to evaluate statistical anomaly detection—identifying events and circumstances that one wouldn’t expect in the normal course of things. Dr. Siegrist currently works for the MITRE Corporation. However, the remarks that he expresses here are strictly his own.
Expanded Class Description: Compelling evidence shows that the universe had an abrupt beginning some 14 billion years ago. Space, time and matter came into being when they had not existed before. Something transcending space, time and matter must have caused that. We’ll take a look at the mystery. Christianity also implies that humans should have a special place in the universe. Does science provide any clues that that is true? Finally, can we examine the creation and see if it provides deeper insight into the Creator or even suggest a motive?
Location: Parlor and online
Teacher: Carol Cadou & Donald Borchert
Dates: January 9, 16 & 23
Missed the January 9th session? Please click here to watch Week 1: Do We Know That God Exists? online.
An exploration and conversation about questions that prompt Christians to understand and explain God’s existence, the problem of evil, and the reality of death.
If you would like to join online, please use the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84836422836?pwd=T0JsVFZTQWw4MmtCWVQ4NzR0QUV4dz09
Meeting ID: 848 3642 2836
Passcode: npcclass
Donald Borchert is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Ohio University, where he taught philosophy and religion for 42 years. He is a graduate of the University of Alberta (AB), Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div., Ph.D.) and eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Th.M.). He is the author of several books and textbooks, including serving as Editor in Chief for the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (second edition, 2006), a major reference work in the field.
Carol Borchert Cadou is a member of National Presbyterian Church, where she has served as a deacon and is a member of the Adult Nurture Committee. She serves as the Executive Director of the NSCDA and National Headquarters, Dumbarton House Museum. Previously Carol served as the Director and CEO of Winterthur, after serving George Washington’s Mount Vernon for nineteen years—eventually as Senior Vice President for Historic Preservation and Collections.
A graduate of Wellesley College, her post-baccalaureate education includes the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture and M.B.A. from Ohio University. She is widely published in the area of historic museum collections, and is co-teaching this class with her father, Donald Borchert.
Expanded Class Description:
Week 1– Do we know that God exists?
* Knowledge involves beliefs that are justified by evidence and truth.
* For a belief to be justified, evidence is needed.
* Possible evidence for the belief that God exists,
* Do miracles provide evidence for the existence of God?
* Do the philosophical proofs provide evidence?
* If miracles and proofs have serious limitations what is left?
Week 2– Why are there evils like Covid 19 in a world created and managed by an all-good and all-powerful God?
* The Stoic Dilemma
* Either God can not or he will not abolish evil. If he can not, then he is not all-powerful. If he will not, then he is not all-good.
* Some attempts to deal with the dilemma (called theodicies)
* The messages from the book of Job.
Week 3– What, if anything, can we expect to encounter when we die?
* The answer from Socrates
* The answers from Judaism, Islam, and Christianity
Third Session Wrap Up: the need for intellectual humility.
Location: Garden Room C
Teacher: Margaret Gardner
Dates: January 9, 16 & 23
An exploration of poems, scripture and the spiritual practices that draw us closer to God.
Margaret Gardner is a member of National Presbyterian Church who has taught adult Sunday classes and served on Session as an elder for both missions (Serve) and education/ discipleship (Grow). She joined the NPC staff this fall as a part-time Associate for Small Group Ministry and Adult Discipleship. Margaret has a B.A. in English and History from UNC-Chapel Hill, an M.A. in Literature and Language from UVA, and a Masters of Theological Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary, with a specialization in Theology and the Arts. In her early career, Margaret worked in curriculum development for The Trinity Forum and served as an editor and contributor to their Invitation To The Classics: A Guide to the Books You’ve Always Want to Read.
Expanded Class Description: Christians pray because we want to know God more fully and to know our own hearts more fully. Many of us would like to enrich our prayer lives, developing a deeper relationship with God and further inner transformation. Often a limited understanding of what communicating with God means keeps us from growing into a richer experience of God. For prayer to open our hearts and minds to our relational, Trinitarian God it must include all life’s experiences, not just those parts we think God would approve of or wants to hear. As Catholic theologian Thomas Merton wrote: "Prayer is not just a formula of words, or a series of desires springing up in the heart – it is the orientation of our whole body, mind, and spirit to God in silence, attention, and adoration... prayer is a conversion of our entire self to God." To offer this level of engagement, prayer should include all aspects of our lives – doubts and complaints, as well as praise, thanksgiving, and supplication. As C.S. Lewis suggests, “We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us.” Scripture contains many types of prayer and many expressions within prayer, including humor, irony, lament, and confrontation. We too can debate God, challenge God, beg from God, and wait on God, as well as worship, praise, and thank God. But how do we expand our conversation with God? How do we grow comfortable sharing these many styles and approaches?
This is the realm of poetry. As a means of connecting with the transcendent, poetry explores what is most beautiful and painful in our lives as created beings. In his essay “The Social Function of Poetry,” T. S. Eliot describes the ability of poetry to express feeling and emotion, the “common language of all people,” which he connects with religious sensibility and its decline in the 20th century. “The trouble of the modern age is not merely the inability to believe certain things about God and man which our forefathers believed, but the inability to feel toward God and man as they did. A belief in which you no longer believe is something which to some extent you can still understand; but when religious feeling disappears, the words in which men have struggled to express it become meaningless” (On Poetry and Poets). Prayer, like poetry, should be spoken in a way that joins our emotional and spiritual life to God. Poetry also connects us with God’s creative power. As Eugene Peterson, writes, "Poetry is language used with intensity. It is not, as so many suppose, decorative speech. Poets tell us what our eyes, blurred with too much gawking, and our ears, dulled with too much chatter, miss around and within us. Poets use words to drag us into the depths of reality itself, not by reporting on how life is, but by pushing-pulling us into the middle of it. Poetry gets at the heart of existence. Far from being cosmetic language, it is intestinal. It is root language” (Living the Message).
Writing poetry can be a spiritual practice, and one we may try in this course, along with exercises in scriptural meditation, lamentation, and memorization. In studying related Scripture a few poets who wrestled with God in their poetry, we will seek to gain lessons in both personal expression and theology as it relates to prayer. Poems in the class will reflect on the means of knowing God, wrestle in conversation with God, and contemplate God’s presence or absence. They will inform our exploration of related biblical passages and our approaches to prayer. In addition, our optional spiritual exercises will seek to enrich our engagement with Scripture and prayer by building our relationship with God. We may begin them in class and offer ways to continue to work on them throughout the week. As a class our goal is to reorient our approach to prayer, through poetry and Bible study, that we may receive new insights into God’s work in our hearts, minds, and lives, and new access to God’s transforming, loving power.
Location: Garden Room A
Teacher: Patrick Zhou
Dates: January 9, 16 & 23
A case-based introduction to clinical ethics and bioethics with considerations on how faith and theology, free from sloganeering, should help shape some of our important medical decisions.
Patrick Zhou is a member of National Presbyterian church and a volunteer leader in our Youth program. He works as an Operations Research Analyst at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He has a B.A. in Biology and an M.A. in Theological Studies from Boston College, where he focused on Bioethics. He has taught as an adjunct instructor in bioethics for the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.
Expanded Class Description: We’ll consider three case studies, one each week:
- The Father, The Daughter, and the Kidney Donation: and What is Bioethics?
This real case came in an email to my graduate school advisor from the Chief Medical Officer at University of Maryland Medical Center. The summary is that during a routine pre-transplant workup for a father who needed a kidney, they found out that the daughter is not his biological daughter during routine genetic cross-matching. She is not adopted and there's reason to believe that no one thinks she isn't the biological daughter. Yet, miraculously, the daughter turns out to be a match for the kidney donation. I'll facilitate a discussion there to open up some conversation--what would you do if you were the physician? Would you want to know if you were the father?Then I'll introduce myself to the group a little and offer up my background. Explain what bioethics is, the limitations of trying to identify direct scriptural correlation to some contemporary issues, yet how faith and theology still plays a critical role. I can close with a few cases regarding Jehovah's Witnesses (at Georgetown Medical Center, I believe) whose theology prohibits them from accepting blood transfusions and what happens when that conflicts with necessary life-saving procedures. - Buck v. Bell: and Bioethics in Public Life--Religion, Law, and Politics
Buck v. Bellwas a landmark 1927 Supreme Court decision in which a Virginia woman with intellectual disabilities, Carrie Buck, was forced to undergo compulsory sterilization under a newly passed Virginia law. The justices, in what is considered one of the worst SCOTUS decisions in history, sided with the state, 8 assents to 1 dissent, and Carrie Buck was given a tubal ligation against her will. Remarkably, the decision has never been overturned. (This case also relied on an earlier decision ,Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which has recently been used to argue for mask mandates on one side of the aisle and against vaccination mandates on the other side).The theme of this week is to broaden the scope of what bioethics looks like played out in our society writ large. I'll be sure to steer clear of anything too political to be productive or edifying but there are some additional cases that are worth noting. Tuskegee Syphilis Study for one. There was also a strong cultural shift in how we treat neonates with Down's Syndrome as well so I might bring something in about that. I'll be sure to bring in some discussion questions to make it interactive. - End of Life Considerations: How does theology inform our end-of-life medical decision making?
Most of the previous subjects highlight some of the less personal or less common decisions individuals might face but I believe End of Life is an important consideration for all Christians. And one that we will all face at some time, not just for us, but often, for a loved one. I'll need to revisit the most recent data but back in 2009 JAMA had published an article that suggested that the more religious a patient was (included prayer, meditation, religious study), the more they tended to request more aggressive end-of-life treatment/measures... which always seemed counterintuitive to me. I can find a specific case to talk about as well as provide some frameworks or theological principles for consideration.
Location: Jones Hall in the Education Building
Facilitators: Kristin Franke and others
Dates: starting Jan 9 and continuing
Join parents of similar ages and stages for fellowship for a reflection on the Scripture teaching from the Youth and Children's Sunday school program, and to support one another in raising your children to know Jesus Christ as Lord. This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow parents and enjoy a great cup of coffee accompanied by meaningful conversation about the Bible lesson your kids are engaging each week.
Other Classes
Women’s Bible Study
This diverse group of “sisters in Christ” studies the Bible in an interactive way, prays for each other and supports each other in times of personal needs.
Pathway of Christian Discipleship Class January 2022
Please RSVP by January 12.
Register NowSpring 2022 Adult Sunday School Classes
These classes will begin Sunday, February 6, 9:55-10:45 am. Please click on the title to read the full description. We hope to see you there!
Online option:
This spring, we are offering R.V. Seep's class Protestant Christian Traditions Part 2 both in-person and online. To join online, please click here on Sundays at 9:55 am starting February 6.
Location: Chapel and online
Teacher: R.V. Seep
Class notes coming soon
This class will be offered both in-person and online. To join via Zoom online, please use this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87391794908
We will continue our examination of the various Protestant traditions in the historical order in which they emerged. We will probe the historical background and growth of each tradition, its distinctive beliefs, its contemporary setting, and conclude with some observations and general comments. The forces separating us in our culture seem all out of proportion to those uniting us both in our national politics and in our faith commitments. We will examine our calling as the Church of Jesus Christ to witness to and serve that culture in a calmer and more hospitable environment. The course intends to be an invitation to theological generosity and an opportunity to understand the various Protestant traditions as they understand themselves (at least as much as we can manage that). There is a prior perspective that needs to be applied to appreciate the common ground we share and to put our divisions and differences in their proper context.
In addition, for those interested, there will be readings from W. David Buschart, Exploring Protestant Traditions, An Invitation to Theological Hospitality. Purchase online from Amazon, Christianbook.com, Barnes & Noble or at your local bookseller.
Location: Garden Room A
Teacher: Quinn Fox
We will continue our reading of the Bible both chronologically (as we did three years ago in The Story) as well as theologically, in order to engage in greater depth the redemptive message of the Bible that shapes and informs our lives as Christians. In an age of competing world-views and alternative narratives that claim to explain reality, there is a genuine need for a fresh vision of God’s plan of redemption for his creation. The Bible, in all its diversity, is a single redemptive story that begins in Genesis and concludes in Revelation. We will pick up with the end of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the exile to Babylon, followed by the expectation and fulfillment of God’s messiah coming in Jesus Christ to redeem the world, as we focus in depth on the identity and character of God and his saving plan for humanity in Jesus Christ that is revealed in the pages of the Old and New Testaments.
Supplemental study materials (outlines, maps) and optional books will be made available to those who join the class.
Location: TBA
Teacher: Nancy Fox
Delving into the stories of God’s faithful people from Scripture and contemporary times, along with sharing our own stories, can build wisdom and courage for living towards God’s call to “justice, mercy and humility" in the face of racial and other contemporary divisions and injustices. We will all read Required: God’s Call to Justice, Mercy, and Humility to Overcome Racial Division, by Bishop Claude Alexander (Senior Pastor in Charlotte, NC) and Dr. Mac Pier (active with Lausanne and founder of Movement.org and the Concerts of Prayer Movement). You can meet them through this Trinity Forum Online Conversation. We will also learn from Brenda Salter McNeil’s applications from the book of Esther to Dr. Brenda's own story in Becoming Brave: Finding the Courage to Pursue Racial Justice Now (your own copy is optional).
Purchase either resource from Amazon by clicking on the title in the description above.
Location: Garden Room C
Teacher: Currie Renwick
Near the end of his gospel, the apostle John explains why he is writing: “Jesus gave a great many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that in that faith you may have life as his disciples.” (John 20: 30-31). We will continue to read about and discuss these wonderful signs that John shares that we began in September, beginning with John 11. There is still much to talk about as we learn together about the God who promises us eternal and abundant life through Jesus Christ, “God’s word who became a human being and lived among us.” (John 1:14)
We will be using N.T. Wright’s guide, John: 26 Studies for Individuals and Groups. Purchase online from Amazon, Christianbook.com, Barnes & Noble or at your local bookseller.
Location: Room #109
Facilitator: Elder Peggy Lewis (Chair, Race Task Force)
On April 16th, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a letter from Birmingham City Jail in response to eight white regional religious leaders whose passive pleas for “a more subtle and patient way,” asking, “Can't you just wait, Dr. King?” His Letter from Birmingham Jail soon became the manifesto of the civil rights movement. Over the half century that has passed since the publication of King’s Letter; much has transpired and progress has been made. Long gone are the burning crosses, biting police dogs and angry mobs; in its place we find the very passivity called for by the religious leaders, as well as cynicism and avoidance. Fortunately, a number of leaders from today's church have emerged declaring that we cannot wait. These diverse voices are grateful for the laws that the civil rights movement were able to change, but also acknowledge that while the movement could change laws, it could never change hearts. Only the cross and empty tomb of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ can do that. Letters to a Birmingham Jail is a collection of essays written by men of various ethnicities and ages, yet all are committed to the centrality of the gospel, nudging us to pursue Christ exalting diversity. The gospel demands justice in all its forms - spiritual and physical. This was a truth that Dr. King fought and gave his life for, and this is a truth that these modern day "drum majors for justice" continue to beat.
Purchase online from Amazon, or Christianbook.com, or at your local bookseller.
Location: Jones Hall in the Education Building
Facilitators: Kristin Franke and others
Join parents of similar ages and stages for fellowship for a reflection on the Scripture teaching from the Youth and Children's Sunday school program, and to support one another in raising your children to know Jesus Christ as Lord. This is a great opportunity to connect with fellow parents and enjoy a cup of coffee accompanied by meaningful conversation about the Bible lesson your kids are engaging each week.