FAll 2024 Classes: now open for registration

Only a few places remain in our fall Disciple classes. Register today!

Disciple I Tuesday evenings: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Classes will begin around September 3rd. Please look at your calendar for 2024-25 and register as soon as possible. The course will be 24 weeks, plus one orientation meeting. Click on the class title to register.

Disciple I Wednesday mornings: 9:30-11:30 am. Classes will begin around September 4th. Please look at your calendar for 2024-25 and register as soon as possible. The course will be 24 weeks, plus one orientation meeting. Click on the class title to register.

Disciple III Tuesday evenings: 6:30-9:00 p.m. Classes will begin around August 27th. Please look at your calendar for 2024-2025 and register as soon as possible. The course will be 32 weeks, plus one orientation meeting. Click on the class title to register.

Disciple III Wednesday mornings: 9:30 a.m. -12:00 p.m.. Classes will begin around Aug 23rd. Please look at your calendar for 2023-24 and register as soon as you possible. The course will be 32 weeks of class, plus 1 orientation meeting. Click on the class title to register.

Jesus in the Gospels Wednesday mornings: 9:30-12:00 p.m. Just like all classes, the prerequisite for Jesus in the Gospels is Disciple I, Since this class is in the Second Generation of Disciple Bible Studies, Disciple I and two other long Disciple classes are the prerequisites for an optimal experience.. Skill in comparing and analyzing various Gospel passages, and biblical knowledge that enables participants to place particular New Testament passages about Jesus in their Old Testament context is necessary. Some pastors have claimed Jesus in the Gospels is at the level of courses they took in seminary. Classes will begin around September 4th. The course is 30 weeks plus one orientation meeting. Click on the class title to register.

Disciple Class Descriptions

Traditional DISCIPLE classes,

Any of the following may be offered in any given year. Not all classes are offered every year.

DISCIPLE I: Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study: A thirty-four week or twenty-four week (Fast Track) journey through the Biblical story from Genesis to Revelation, the first half of this course is devoted to the Old Testament and the second half to the New Testament. Daily reading assignments require 30 to 45 minutes, six days per week. Completion of DISCIPLE I is a prerequisite to all other studies in the DISCIPLE program.

DISCIPLE II: Into the Word Into the World: This study encourages people to open themselves to hearing what God has to say to them through the Bible and to be guided into their particular ministry in the world by Scripture and their study of it. Concentration is on four books: Genesis, Exodus, Luke and Acts, Fast Track Disciple II is 24 weeks. The full course is 32 weeks.

DISCIPLE III: Remember Who You Are: This study, makes a connection between memory and identity as the people of God. Themes include: the call to remember; the call to repentance; the need for renewed vision; and the place of community. Sessions cover the major and minor Old Testament prophets (excluding Daniel) and the thirteen letters traditionally attributed to Paul. Fast Track Disciple III is 24 weeks. The full course is 32 weeks.

DISCIPLE IV: Under the Tree of Life: This study covers the Writings in the Old Testament – Ruth, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations and Daniel. New Testament Scriptures include the Gospel of John; 1,2,3 John; James; Jude; and Revelation. Emphasis is on worship and the sense of living toward completion – toward the climax of the message and the promise pictured in Revelation.

CHRISTIAN BELIEVER: This is a topical study that presents, explains, and interprets Christian doctrine as the basic teaching of the church. Scripture passages selected in relation to each topic come from both the Old and New Testaments. Concentrating on the classical doctrines of the Christian faith – that emerged in early Christianity and that have remained central to church teaching, readings include Scripture, early and modern church leader writings, and the study manual. Christian Believer is 30 weeks.

JESUS IN THE GOSPELS Concentrating on the portraits of Jesus that emerge from the four Gospels, this 30 week Bible study takes critical scholarship seriously. Skill in comparing and analyzing various Gospel passages, and biblical knowledge that enables participants to place particular New Testament passages about Jesus in their Old Testament context is necessary. Participants need to have taken Disciple I and at least two other Disciple classes (not including the short-term classes).

Short-Term Disciple Classes

One or more of these shorter 6 - 8 week studies are typically offered in the spring and fall.

Invitation to the Old Testament: This eight week study approaches the study of Hebrew Scriptures by inviting participants to hear the story of God and God's calling of the people of Israel through the many "voices" of the biblical text. Narrative, poem, history and prophetic utterance all have their own distinctive characteristics and purpose, arising out of a particular historical, social, and cultural setting. Video presentations of recent archeological findings and their significance in our understanding of the Hebrew people and scriptures are especially interesting. Through this study, participants will be invited to listen afresh to the witness of the Old Testament to hear God's call and purpose for their own lives and respond to that call.

Invitation to the New Testament: Using Matthew's Gospel as a starting point, this eight week study explores how the New Testament and the early Christian community wrestled with the coming of Jesus--his life, actions, death and resurrection--and the implications of his arrival for their lives and their communities of faith. The overarching themes from this story of Jesus provide the conversation topics for each of the eight sessions. Each theme is then traced through other related passages in the New Testament. Who is Jesus and what is his significance for our lives? participants are invited to join this conversation, to study afresh this story of Jesus, and to learn more about their calling to discipleship and to community.

Invitation to John: In its wisdom, the early church chose to keep four Gospel accounts of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. Three of these Gospels are very similar to each other in both what they tell about the story of Jesus and how they tell it. However, the Gospel of John stands apart. In it, we find Jesus speaking not in parables but in lengthy discourses. We overhear Jesus talking with Nicodemus, a Samaritan woman, and Mary Magdalene. We marvel at Jesus turning water into wine, calling Lazarus from the tomb, and washing his disciples' feet. We linger over Jesus' great promises: "For God so loved the world..."I am the bread of life..." "I am the resurrection..." "Peace I leave with you...". This eleven week study invites participants to come and see this Jesus--to hear him speak, to see his signs,--and to consider anew what it means to be his followers.

Invitation to Psalms: The human emotions expressed in the book of Psalms rise to peaks of joy and descend into valleys of despair. In the Psalms, the promise of the reign of God meets the historical experience of God's people. Faith in God's faithfulness collides with human experiences of pain and suffering, enslavement, oppression, and exile. God's people--given voice in the Psalms--struggle to make sense of who God is and who they are, and in so doing they have composed a collection of moving testimonies of grace, glory, sorrow, and beauty unmatched in sacred literature. For students of Psalms today, this ten week study offers great understanding of how these ancient texts of praise, lament, worship and prayer can still speak to us and for us.

Invitation to Genesis: "In the beginning..." These first words in Genesis may be among the most familiar words in all the Bible. Many readers of the Bible recognize Genesis as a book that describes the beginning of all things: the Creation. This is certainly true but is only part of the story--the creation of the world only takes up the first two chapters of a fifty-chapter book. What are the other chapters about? This ten week study approaches the Book of Genesis not simply as a story of the beginning but as a story of beginnings from start to finish. Through the study, participants will be invited to listen afresh to the witness of this opening book of the Hebrew Bible and to understand more clearly God's purpose in beginning to form a people with the likes of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, and Jacob and Esau.

Invitation to Romans: It is difficult to overstate the importance of Romans in Christian tradition. Some of the great formers and re-formers of church teaching were themselves formed by their reading of Romans. As a result, Paul's teachings in Romans come to us mediated through the history of the church's interpretations of his letter. The challenge of reading Romans, then, is to learn to have our own interpretive conversation with the text itself, in spite of centuries of commentary on the text. One of the aims of this eight week study is to invite us into conversation around several key themes: (1) Paul's emphasis on communal salvation; (2) the centrality of God's righteousness; and (3) the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and the relationship of both to God.