Christian DISCIPLESHIP
Curriculum
how it works
The Christian Discipleship Curriculum is a three-year program introducing Christian spiritual practice and discernment as a supplement to traditional Christian education and faith formation. The program facilitates an exploration in community of what it means to follow Jesus and embody the Christian faith tradition in the context of everyday life. Building on a foundation of contemplative spirituality, liberation-based readings of Scripture, and dialogic models for small group reflection, the curriculum invites deep discipleship through listening, learning, prayer, and practice. Each class alternates between lectures, contemplative practice, time for personal reflection, and small group discussion.
The"core" curriculum consists of a series of 9 classes that are taken sequentially. The program is designed to coincide with a typical church year, with a longer 10-week class offered each Fall, and two shorter 6-week classes offered back to back in the Winter and Spring (typically before and after Easter). The classes can be done with as few as 6 people, or as many as 30. Participants are placed into small groups of 5-6 people at the beginning of each class. Ideally, cohorts move through the entire curriculum alongside each other as they support one another in learning and growing together.
In addition to the core classes, a "companion" curriculum of Bible Studies and Practice Groups may be offered alongside the core classes, providing opportunities for deeper exploration of topics introduced in the core program. These offerings are completely optional for those going through the core classes, and can be taken by those who are not part of the core program.
The Bible Studies address some of the most vexing questions people tend to have about Scripture in contemporary culture, by providing an accessible introduction to perspectives from modern Biblical scholarship, as well as premodern ways of reading and understanding Scripture that help us move us beyond modern literalist frameworks.
The Practice Groups provide support for those who want to begin practicing new ways of living and being. These offerings help us to get out of our heads and into our bodies, our relationships, and our lives in community. Participants are invited to observe themselves in daily life as they practice new skills, and then reflect on those experiences with others.
PROGRAM outline
YEAR 1: FOUNDATIONS
FALL
CF 1: Following the Way of Jesus (10 weeks)
optional Bible Study: The Bible in Literary & Historical Context (6 weeks)
optional Practice Group: The Way of Kenosis: Suffering, Solidarity, & Love (5 weeks)
WINTER/SPRING
CF 2: Inner Practices of the Way (6 weeks)
optional Practice Group: Models for Contemplative Prayer (6 weeks)
CF 3: Outer Practices of the Way (6 weeks)
optional Bible Study: Sex & Gender in the Ancient World (6 weeks)
YEAR 2: DEEPER INWARD
FALL
CF 4: The Life of the Beloved (10 weeks)
optional Bible Study: Sin, Idolatry, and Sabbath Rest (5 weeks)
optional Practice Group: 12 Steps for the Rest of Us (6 weeks)
WINTER/SPRING
CF 5: Navigating Cultural Addictions (6 weeks)
optional Bible Study: Wealth, Poverty, and Biblical Economics (6 weeks)
CF 6: Navigating Power (6 weeks)
optional Practice Group: Conflict, Dialogue, and Nonviolent Resistance (6 weeks)
YEAR 3: FURTHER OUTWARD
FALL
CF 7: Discerning Call (10 weeks)
optional Bible Study: Listening for God's Call (6 weeks)
optional Practice Group: Eyes to See: Icons of the Divine (5 weeks)
WINTER/SPRING
CF 8: Living Call: Guest Speaker Forums (6 weeks)
optional Practice Group: Meeting Christ in the World (6 weeks)
CF 9: Living Call: Small Group Practice (6 weeks)
optional Bible Study: Collective Trauma and Communal Wisdom (6 weeks)
The first year provides a solid theoretical framework for what it means to follow Jesus today, both in our inner spiritual lives and in our outer relationships and ways of living in community. These first three classes lean more heavily on lectures and readings that introduce liberative ways of reading the Bible, as well as how the liturgical and spiritual practices of the church help to support us in our walk with Jesus.
The second year shifts into a more participatory small group process that invites participants to grapple with the complexities, nuances, and challenges of what it means to acutally embody the way of Jesus in the specific contexts of our own everyday lives. The emphasis of these three classes shifts inward, inviting introspective reflection and small group sharing that promotes a deeper sense of self-awareness and belovedness in community.
The third year guides participants back out into the world through a process of discernment that encourages the discovery of a unique sense of purpose. Participants will use the tools for self-awareness that were introduced during the previous two years to differentiate between the temptations of one's own ego and listening for a true sense of God's call to serve others in community.
CORE Classes
Year 1: Foundations
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
CF1: Following the way of Jesus
The Gospel is situated in its social and historical context to provide a fresh lens for discerning what it might mean to live into the way of Jesus today. The temptations Jesus faces in the wilderness provide a framework for understanding the Biblical narrative, the human condition, and our journey towards wholeness.
Companion Classes (optional):
BIBLE STUDY: The Bible in Literary & Historical Context
PRACTICE GROUP: The Way of Kenosis: Suffering, Solidarity, and Love
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
CF2: Inward Practices of the way
An introduction to contemplative spirituality within a Christian theological framework that connects inward postures of personal prayer and individual spiritual experiences with our outward lives in community. Participants will be introduced to a variety of spiritual practices and guided through a process of developing a meaningful and realistically sustainable habit of regular prayer, utilizing a variety of tools for honest self-assessment and practical suggestions for how to adapt traditional monastic forms of prayer to modern everyday life.
Companion Class (optional):
PRACTICE GROUP: Models for Contemplative Prayer
SPRING TERM (6 weeks)
CF3: Outward Practices of the way
Examples from the life of Jesus, the disciples, the desert fathers and mothers, and Christ-followers from throughout history will provide inspiration for reflecting on how we might live more fully into beloved community in our families, our workplaces, and our global and local communities. Drawing wisdom from clinical and social psychology (particularly Bowen theory and person-centered listening), we will begin to practice together what it looks like to embody Christ in our everyday lives and relationships.
Companion Class (optional):
Bible STudy: Sex & Gender in the Ancient World
Year 2: Deeper Inward
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
CF4: The Life of the Beloved
This course guides participants through a process of deep inner work and personal healing, inspired by Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved. Through reflection exercises, small group sharing, and working with the Enneagram, we will journey together in our discernment of what it means for our lives to be taken, blessed, broken, and given. Major themes include grace, forgiveness, trust, compassion, radical acceptance, letting go, and recovery from shame.
PRACTICE GROUP: 12 Steps for the Rest of Us
BIBLE STUDY: Sin, Idolatry, & Sabbath Rest
Companion Classes (optional):
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
CF6: Navigating Cultural Addiction
Drawing on the work of Dorothy Day, Sallie McFague, and M. Douglas Meeks, this class explores our relationship to mammon — both in terms of how we relate to money, possessions, and economic structures of wealth, and in the broader context of how “dopamine addiction” has become the new basis for a globalized "economy of attention.” Inspired by early Christian examples of wealth redistribution and resistance to greed, participants will come away with tools for navigating the everyday temptations of consumerism, while advocating for a more Biblical approach to economic wealth distribution.
Bible Study: Wealth, Poverty, and Biblical Economics
Companion Class (optional):
SPRING TERM (6 weeks)
CF5: Navigating Power Dynamics
Rooted in examples from Jesus and the early church, and drawing on wisdom from a variety of social theorists, theologians, and everyday Christians, this class will provide an opportunity for participants to explore their own relationship to power, both in their personal lives and in the context of the larger social structures within their communities. Leaning especially on the work of Walter Wink, Paulo Friere, Kazu Haga, and Loretta Ross, participants will come away with tools for navigating everyday power dynamics and engaging in conflict more productively and effectively.
Practice Group: Conflict, Dialogue, & Nonviolent Resistance
Companion Class (optional):
Year 3: FURTHER OUT
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
CF7: Discerning Call
The journey of the previous two years will culminate in this exploration of discernment and call in the context of the Christian faith. Four of the most commonly-used discernment models in the Christian tradition will be introduced: the Ignatian spiritual exercises (discerning with God), the Quaker clearness committee (discerning with community), Four Voices (discerning with the church), and Embodied Listening (discerning within ourselves). We will also look at some of the most common methods for ethical decision-making, and ask how these might factor into faithful discernment. The benefits and limitations of each approach will be examined through real-life case studies that emphasize the need for a balanced approach between both "inward" (personal) and “outward" (communal) listening postures.
PRACTICE GROUP: Eyes to See: Icons of the Divine
BIBLE STUDY: Vocation, Discernment, & Hearing God's Call
Companion Classes (optional):
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
CF8: Living Call: Guest Speaker Forums
This course will invite participants to continue reflecting on their personal sense of call alongside a holistic engagement with some of the most pressing issues being faced by the most vulnerable in the community. Faith leaders serving in areas like poverty, education, immigration, mental health, housing, criminal justice, and health care will share their experiences of listening for, and responding to, the call to serve God's dream for a world transformed by love poured out freely. Participants will be invited to consider both immediate and systemic community needs while continuing to discern where God might be calling them in the next chapter of their lives.
PRACTICE GROUP: Meeting Christ in the World
Companion Class (optional):
SPRING TERM (6 weeks)
CF9: Living Call: Small Group Practice
In the final weeks of the program, participants will meet in small groups to continue reflecting together on where they are encountering God in their everyday lives, and where God might be calling them in the next season of their lives. Reflection questions and small group exercises will point participants towards re-integration and connecting with the wider community, whether through church participation, volunteer work, community organizing, or just continuing to meet together as a small group after the completion of the program.
Bible STudy: Collective Trauma & Communal Wisdom
Companion Class (optional):
Companion classes
BIBLE STUDIES
Year 1
The Bible in Literary and Historical Context (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF1: Following the Way of Jesus, this Bible study offers an introduction to modern Biblical scholarship and historical-contextual ways of understanding the Scriptures in their historical, literary, and socioeconomic context. Topics addressed include the dating of various books of the Bible, how these texts were translated and transmitted, the canonization process (and why different religious groups treat different texts as sacred), parallel literary texts from the ancient world that shaped the multilayered lenses through which these texts were originally written and understood, and Biblical literalism as a modern phenomenon that distorts both fundamentalist and scientific materialist ways of reading Scripture. Learn more
Sex & Gender in the Ancient WOrld (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF3: Outward Practices of the Way, this Bible study addresses questions relating to how the communities who composed these ancient texts understood the relationship between sex, gender, and religious life, particularly in the ancient socioeconomic context of pastoralism and agriculture. Topics addressed include ancient constructions of sexuality and gender, early Christian examples of gender bending, marriage as an economic construct in the Old and New Testaments, translation issues, and modern feminist and queer readings of some of the most problematic passages for contemporary culture. Learn more
Year 2
Sin, Idolatry, & Sabbath Rest (5 weeks)
Offered alongside CF4: The Life of the Beloved, this Bible study carefully examines the concept of “sin” through an ancient Hebrew lens, looking specifically at Genesis 2-5, the Exodus narrative, and the Sabbath Law tradition. Situating the concept of idolatry within the historical context of imperial religion, Israel's "wilderness theology" is contrasted with the political theologies and sacrifice rituals of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Romans, showing how the Abrahamic faith tradition offered a unique pathway in the ancient world for the restoration of right relationship between humanity, God, and the rest of creation. We will also look at how these ancient concepts were further developed by John the Baptist, Jesus, Paul, and the early Christians. Learn more
Wealth, Poverty, & Biblical Economics (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF5: Navigating Cultural Addictions this Bible study builds off of the previous one with a specific focus on idolatry and Sabbath law as it relates to cultural addictions, labor, and economics. Drawing on the work of Walter Brueggemann, Ched Myers, Liz Theoharis, and M. Douglas Meeks, this Bible study addresses how slavery, debt, war, and coinage were understood in the ancient world, how to make sense of the Sabbath Law tradition in light of its economic context, how to read the New Testament passages in which Jesus speaks about economic issues within the context of the Hebrew Sabbath Law tradition, and how we might apply the moral sensibilities of Biblical economics within the current context of late capitalism. Learn more
Year 3
Listening for God's Call (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF7: Discerning Call, this Bible study will look specifically at the "call" narratives of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Mary, to see what inspiration and wisdom we might glean from their stories of hearing, wrestling with, and accepting God's call. Learn more
Collective trauma & Communal wisdom (5 weeks)
Offered alongside CF9: Living Call: Small Group Practice this Bible study offers a "capstone" experience of looking at the Biblical narrative as a coherent whole that addresses the human experience of suffering through a redemptive lens of communal, ancestral wisdom. With particular attention to the impact that the Babylonian exile and the destruction of the Second Temple had on the development of the Old and New Testaments, a variety of passages from throughout the Bible will be read through a trauma-informed lens that draws insight from David Carr's Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins. We will see how the different books of the Bible are "in conversation" with each other concerning the complexities of grief, and how they make room for the full spectrum of the human experience, while encouraging mature integration of difficult emotions that inspire solidarity with the suffering and the oppressed. Learn more
Practice Groups
Year 1
The Way of Kenosis: Suffering, Solidarity, & Love (5 weeks)
Offered alongside CF1: Following the Way of Jesus, this practice group grapples in a more focused way with tough questions relating to Christ's path of suffering and solidarity. How does the way of Jesus invite us into a different relationship with our own suffering and our encounters with the suffering of others? How can we lean into postures of "self-emptying" without falling into patterns of self-harm? How do we offer solidarity to others who are suffering while avoiding paternalistic "savior" postures? Drawing on the work of Sarah Coakley, Walter Wink, and Barbara Holmes, as well as clinical resources for building resilience in and through experiences of grief, this practice group invites participants to begin examining their own default postures with regard to suffering, and to begin incorporating some theologically and psychologically grounded tools for wrestling with the difficult realities of the human condition in the context of faith.
Models For contemplative Prayer (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF2: Inward Practices of the Way, this practice group encourages participants to begin building and practicing their own repertoire and rhythm of prayer and self-reflection, and to observe the connections they are noticing between their inner prayer life and the ways in which they are able to show up for themselves, others, and God in their everyday lives. Small group sharing provides the context for support, accountability, and the exchange of communal wisdom. Some specific spiritual practices that will be introduced as part of this group include centering prayer (silent prayer), lectio divina (meditative reading), and praying the hours.
Year 2
12 Steps for the Rest of US (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF4: The Life of the Beloved, this practice group explores the inner work of healing, forgiveness of self and other, and restoration to community through the lens of the 12 step framework, which is expanded for use beyond addiction recovery context through the work of Dr. Gerald May and Fr. Thomas Keating, OSCO. Participants are invited to practice each step in small ways in their everyday lives and contexts, while reflecting on where they might be in their own personal journey towards healing and wholeness.
Conflict, Dialogue, & NonviolenT Resistance (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF6: Navigating Power Dynamics, this practice group introduces a number of clinical and social tools for identifying underlying power dynamics in relationships, engaging in dialogue across difference, embodying nonviolent postures in the midst of conflict, and learning how to more strategically disrupt and resist open violence as well as passive aggression. Staying rooted in the instructions Jesus gives to his own disciples for navigating conflict, we'll learn about - and begin to practice - the 6 principles of Kingian nonviolence, the Nonviolent Communication (NVC) postures developed by Marshall Rosenberg, and insights from Dr. Ramani Durvasula on navigating narcissistic and antagonistic relationships. Tips will be offered for how to assess which tools might be the most applicable in different kinds of real-world scenarios and contexts.
Year 3
EYes to see: Icons of the Divine (5 weeks)
Offered alongside CF7: Discerning Call, this practice group introduces pre-modern ways of understanding and experiencing sight, in order to re-calibrate our modern lenses to give us better "eyes to see" the presence of God-with-us in the material world. Participants are encouraged to pay careful attention to their own everyday visual sensory input, and reflect on the impact of the images they take in throughout the day. Particular focus is given to the impact of digital screen content and advertising, contrasted with the experience of seeing people, animals, plants, and other objects in material reality. These experiments offer a framework for developing a more sacramental "lens" that allows us to resist capitalist idolatry and to see the sacred within the material world of God's creation. The Orthodox practice of praying with icons is extended specifically to the practice of seeing Christ in other people, especially the poor and those that are hardest for us to love.
Meeting Christ in the World (6 weeks)
Offered alongside CF8: Living Call: Guest Speaker Forums, this practice group invites participants to engage with community organizations that allow them to be in relationship with people who are experiencing poverty, homelessness, or some other acute hardship that they have not personally experienced. Participants will regularly reflect together on what they are learning from their experiences, and where they see Christ showing up in their interactions.
Program History
The Christian Foundations Curriculum is a three-year experience that seeks to guide diverse and intergenerational groups of adults on a journey of self-discovery and discernment, towards a fuller understanding of what it means to embody the Christian faith in the context of everyday life. At the heart of this approach to discipleship is a commitment to practice-based learning, and a dual focus on both the "inward" (personal) and "outward" (social) dimensions of living faithfully in the footsteps of Christ. The curriculum is affirming of traditional liturgical practices and the communal creeds of the church, while cultivating an ecumenically-friendly space for honest self-reflection, theological exploration, and practical discernment that is open to anyone interested in learning more about what it means to follow Jesus today.
The underlying logos and pedagogy this curriculum has been heavily influenced by the inward/outward model for faith formation developed by Gordon & Mary Cosby in collaboration with Elizabeth O'Conner, Henri Nouwen, Verna Dozier, and the diverse community members of the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. Beginning in the 1980s, the Church of the Savior hosted a steady stream of visitors from around the country who were encouraged to return home and seed similar learning communities of discipleship. Motivated by this vision, the Rev. Nelson Johnson, the Rev. Barbara Dua, and the Rev. Zee Holler founded the Servant Leadership School at The Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC in 1991. In collaboration with an ecumenical group of clergy and laypeople that included the Rev. Timothy Patterson, the Rev. Frank Dew, Dr. Ruth Anderson, Dr. Dee Irwin, Marilyn Wolf, and Robin Britt the curriculum was expanded and developed over the course of the next 15 years. In 2002, the Servant Leadership School was relocated to Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, where it thrived as an innovative hub for adult Christian formation in central NC for nearly two decades.
