A provocative new study will begin on Sunday afternoons beginning February 12, 2012 as the Sunday Afternoon Study Group discusses Gregory A. Boyd’s book, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church.

In writing of this book, Tony Campolo says that it “addresses a major concern of evangelical Christians who are fearful that patriotic zeal is being confused with Christianity and that Christianity is being used to legitimize a socio-political system that ought to be biblically critiqued.  We’ve needed this book.”

The author, Greg Boyd, is the founder and senior pastor of the mega-church, Woodland Hills Church, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here are details of the class:

• Sundays, beginning February 12, 2012
• 4:30-6:00pm
• In Room 302.
• Childcare available upon request
• Cost for the book:  $11 (you must pay for the book before the church can order it for you)
  (if you’d like to order the book yourself, click the image of the book above).
• Register NOW below!

For more information about this study,
contact Rev. Troy Sims
(tsims@fumcwf.org or 940-766-4231, x229).

Order a book for you?

YES, and I understand I must pay for the book before it can be ordered. NO

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This documentary follows former priest, James Carroll, on his journey of remembering and reckoning as he considers some of Christianity’s dark history.  It traces the legacy from the Emperor Constantine’s vision of the cross as a sword and symbol of power, to the rise of genocidal antisemitism, to modern-day wars sparked by religious extremism.

On:

• Sunday, January 22, 2012
• 4:00-6:00pm (we’ll start promptly at 4:00pm – PLEASE, don’t be late!
• On the 3rd Floor of the Education Wing

we’ll watch this movie on the big screen and briefly discuss it after the fact.

For more information, contact
Rev. Troy Sims
(tsims@fumcwf.org or 940-766-4231, x229).

Register now below!

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Come read and study the book that Rev. Troy Sims says has been the most transformative book he has ever read!

The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by Walter Wink makes us re-think our worldview, reclaiming the divine realm as central to human existence by offering new ways of understanding our world in theological terms. It reformulates ancient concepts, such as God and the devil, heaven and hell, angels and demons, principalities and powers, in light of our modern experience.  Wink helps us see heaven and hell, sin and salvation, and the powers that shape our lives as tangible parts of our day-to-day experience, rather than as mysterious phantoms.  Equipped with this fresh world view, we can embark on a new relationship with God and our world.

Cost of the Book:  $11 (we must receive payment before the book can be ordered, but feel free to order yourself by click thing image of the book below)

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Preferred Day:

Thursdays, 10:30-12:00noon; Sundays, 4:30-6:00pm

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Join us for “Jesus for the Non-Religious:”

• Sundays, beginning July 10, 2011
• 4:30-6:00pm
• Rm 302
• Cost:  FREE, and there is no necessary outside preparation!

for this 4-week DVD-guided study featuring John Shelby Spong.   This study is a perfect companion piece to this bestselling author’s book of the same name.  The Jesus for the Non-Religious DVD is a 68-minute distillation of Bishop Spong’s understanding of the God-presence in Christ. In this lecture, Spong explores:

• The meaning of ‘Christ;’
• Images of Messiah;
• How Christ has been experienced through the ages; and
• How the divinity of Christ has its ultimate expression in a fulfilled humanity.

“Jesus calls you to be whole, not religious. Jesus calls you to be real, not religious. Jesus calls you to be loving, not moral and righteous. Jesus calls you to be inclusive, not hating everybody that disagrees with you and claiming your superiority over them. That’s what this Jesus portrait is about and that’s why people believed that they experienced all that God is in the life and in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.”

-John Shelby Spong
From Jesus for the Non-Religious DVD

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Beginning Sunday, June 12, 2011 (4:30-6:00pm), a new 4-week Bible Study will begin that will focus on some of the parables of Jesus.  Rev. Troy Sims will lead the study using the book, Re-Imagine the World: An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus by Bernard Brandon Scott.  If you’d like a copy of the book, it costs $14 (must have payment before book can be ordered).

This study sets the interpretation of key parables of Jesus in the context of other things Jesus said and did (and in the context of the 1st century). The result is a startling and provocative picture of Jesus as an historical figure and the challenge he presents to contemporary life.

Register below or contact Rev. Sims (tsims@fumcwf.org or 766-4231).

Order a book for you?

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2011 Lenten Study -
Countering Pharaoh’s Production-Consumption Society Today:

• Thursdays (10:30-12:00noon),
  beginning March 24; or
• Sundays (4:30-6:00pm),
  beginning March 27
• Cost:  $5
• Register NOW below!

This 5-week maximum Lenten Study from www.LivingTheQuestions.com helps us to reconsider the meaning and importance of covenant and how to live out our covenants with God and one another.  The weekly sessions will be:

This 5-week study will cover these topics:

• The Way Out – Exodus 1-19
• The Decalogue – Exodus 16, 17, 20
• Countering Caesar – Luke 2-3; John 19:14-16; Acts 17:6; Romans 12
• An Act of Imagination – Psalm 73
• On Not Doing God Any Favors – Deuteronomy 6; Psalm 50

This video study features Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament scholar and retired professor from Columbia Theological Seminary.  Also a United Church of Christ minister, he has authored hundreds of articles, several biblical commentaries, and more than 50 books.  He was also our 1988 Perkins Lecturer!

Looking for a Lenten Study for women?
Consider this study of Ruth!

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Preferred Day:

Thursdays, beginning March 24 Sundays, beginning March 27

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Come study this book considered a part of the Bible by the Roman Catholic Church and Greek Orthodox Church but not by Protestants like ourselves!

This book reads like an historical novel rife with warfare, lust, espionage, and intrigue!  Join us:

• Thursdays beginning February 17
  from 10:30-12:00noon; OR
• Sundays, beginning February 20
  from 4:30-6:00pm;
• Cost is $5!

For more information, contact Rev. Troy Sims (tsims@fumcwf.org or 940-766-4231, x229).

Name:

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Preferred Day:

Thursdays, beginning March 24 Sundays, beginning March 27

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Join us for this new Bible Study coming:

• Sundays, 4:30-6:00pm, starting January 9; or
• Thursdays, 10:30-12:00pm, starting January 13.

This is a study of the book of Esther, a book of the Bible that NEVER mentions God! We’ll enter into an exotic kingdom with lavish banquets, extreme beauty treatments, and dangerous liaisons at every turn. Throughout, we’ll see how the beautiful and courageous Esther averts disaster for her people.

The cost is only $5 / participant to cover the cost of handouts!

For more information, contact Rev. Troy Sims (tsims@fumcwf.org or 940-766-4231, x229).

REGISTER NOW BELOW!

Name:

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Preferred Day:

Thursdays, beginning March 24 Sundays, beginning March 27

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Comments:

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Register TODAY for the new video-guided Bible Study from Living the Questions called Uppity Women of the Bible!  We’ll start with Volume 1, a 6-week study of the book of Ruth under the leadership (via video) of Dr. Lisa Wolfe, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible at Oklahoma City University.

You currently have TWO (2) opportunities to take this study:

• Sundays, 4:30-6:00pm beginning September 12; or
• Thursdays, 10:30-12:00noon beginning September 16.

Other information:

• Childcare available upon request;
• The cost of the handouts that come with this study is $5 / participant; and
• Rev. Troy Sims will lead the discussion.

Sign up now below!

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Saving Jesus from the Church: How to Stop Worshiping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin Meyers- what a provocative title!  In this book, Meyers takes the best of biblical scholarship and recasts core Christian concepts in an effort to save Christianity from its obsession with only personal salvation.  This is not a plea to try something brand new, but rather the recovery of something very old.  Saving Jesus from the Church seeks to show us what it means to follow Jesus’ teachings today.

Note these endorsements by past Perkins Lecturers:

• “Meyers’ insightful and provocative critique of contemporary Christianity will stimulate energetic theologizing: deconstruction, reconstruction, or impassioned defense of the inherited tradition. Thank you, Robin, for convening this urgently needed conversation.” (Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., president and founder of The Healing of the Nations Foundation)
• “The time is right for this book and this book is right for the time.” (Fred B. Craddock, Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament Emeritus, Emory University)

Class details:

• Sundays, beginning May 2, 2010
• 4:30-6:00pm
• Rec. Lobby
• Book costs $12 (we must receive money before ordering the book)

Register for this class below!

Name:

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e-Mail:

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