I am writing to remind you that this Sunday, January 31st, will be a “Brunch”. That means, you should bring a dish of food as a “potluck” meal to share with everyone; bring as little or as much as you like. If, for whatever reason, you are not able to bring a food item, then please don’t let this stop you from being there with us for informal social conversation. The room will be arranged in rounds of tables rather than in the classroom style.
We will have one formal item on the schedule for this Sunday, that is a 15 to 20 minute, live demonstration of our new website by our “webmaster”, Barbara Meehan. I think you will find this one-stop site for our Class to be a valuable resource should you decided to subscribe to its use.
I also want to give you an idea of how the year is stacking up with regards to Christian education for our Class. Meredith and I have been working on a schedule that has quality teachers who will lead us in topics that reflect the theological diversity of our class’ membership. In your evaluation responses, many of you suggested that we invite teachers from within our own Church but also beyond our own walls, especially taking advantage of such resources as Phillips Theological Seminary (PTS). To that end, we have been moving forward with your suggestions.
Ginny Walker, a fellow Class member, has been instrumental in working to engage PTS faculty members to come to our class. Thank you, Ginny! Thus far, we have secured agreements from the following faculty to teach our class: Professors Bernard Brandon Scott, John L. Thomas, and Sandra Costen Kunz. Phillips President Gary Peluso has also committed to teach for us. We are negotiating one or more dates for their presentations in future months as well as seeking others from PTS to lead in our education series.
Dr. Scott, the Darbeth Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Phillips, will be teaching on Sunday, February 7th, and we are discussing his topic currently. When we have defined that subject matter, we will forward more information to you.
Also, we have arranged for ministers at our own Church to teach in our Class including, at present, Debbie Petersen and Bill Crowell.
Finally, we invite those of you who wish to share your faith story or teach in our class to let us know so that we can add you into the year. We are blessed in our class to have fine teachers who present not only at Boston Avenue but other churches and faith-related venues; we will be asking these folks to teach us as well. Let us know if you have favorites who we can consider for the year. Rob Reck will be teaching/reporting to us regarding his trip to England on February 14th, a Valentine’s gift for us all.
See you on Sunday at Maranatha!
Richard Wansley and Meredith Davison
Presidents
Maranatha Class Website 