Christian Foundations
Curriculum (for adults)
A three-year program that takes adults on a journey of exploration in community about what it means to embody the Christian faith tradition both inwardly and outwardly in their everyday lives.
CORE PRogram
The core program is a series of classes that must be taken sequentially. Each class combines readings and brief lectures that introduce new learning material with opportunities for personal reflection, discussion, and practice in small groups.
Year 1: Foundations
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
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.
Companion Classes (optional):
PRACTICE GROUP: The Way of Kenosis: Suffering, Solidarity, and Love
BIBLE STUDY: Science, Creation, & the Material World
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
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 experience with our outward lives in community. Participants will be guided through a process of developing a meaningful and realistically sustainable habit of regular spiritual practice, 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)
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 social and clinical psychology (especially 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 In
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
The Life of the Beloved
This course guides participants through a process of deep inner work and healing, inspired by Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved. Through personal reflection exercises and small group sharing, we will journey together in our discernment of what it means for our lives to be taken, blessed, broken, and given. ​
PRACTICE GROUP: 12 Steps for the Rest of Us
BIBLE STUDY: Sin, Idolatry, & Sabbath Law
Companion Classes (optional):
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
Navigating Power
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):
SPRING TERM (6 weeks)
Navigating Cultural Addictions
Drawing on the work of Dorothy Day, Walter Benjamin, Sallie McFague, and M. Douglas Meeks, this class explores our relationship to mammon — both in terms of how we relate to money, material possessions, and socioeconomic structures of wealth, and in the broader context of how “dopamine addiction” has become the 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):
Year 3: FURTHER OUT
Fall TERM (10 weeks)
Discerning Call
The journey of the previous two years will culminate in this exploration of vocational discernment within the context of the Christian faith. Four of the most common models used for discernment within the Christian tradition are introduced: the Ignatian spiritual exercises, the Quaker clearness committee, Four Voices, and Embodied Listening. The benefits and limitations of each model are examined through real-life examples of decision-making that emphasize the need for a balanced approach between both "inward" and “outward" listening postures.
PRACTICE GROUP: Eyes to See: Icons of the Divine
BIBLE STUDY: Collective Trauma & Communal Wisdom
Companion Classes (optional):
Winter TERM (6 weeks)
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 their community. Faith leaders serving in areas like poverty, education, immigration, mental health, housing, criminal justice, and health care will share their experiences of call with the group, and reflect on how their commitment to their work is informed and sustained by their faith practice. 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)
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: Vocation, Discernment, & Hearing God's Call
Companion Class (optional):
Companion Classes
Bible studies and practice groups are offered as a “companion” to the core curriculum, providing opportunities for further exploration of topics introduced in core classes. Companion offerings are open to anyone, including those not taking the core classes. They are completely optional, and can be taken out of order, and at any time.
BIBLE STUDIES
Year 1
Science, Creation, & the Natural World (5 weeks)
This Bible study will review the agrarian context that informed the composition of the Bible in ways that will challenge modern assumptions about the relationship between Scripture, material reality, and the sciences. Through a careful reading of historically contextualized passages from Genesis, Job, the Gospels, and the book of Revelation, we will hear God’s call to a restored relationship between humanity and the rest of creation, while considering the implications of Christ’s incarnation for our understanding of the salvation of the world. Learn more
Sex & Gender in the Ancient WOrld (6 weeks)
How did the communities who composed the ancient texts of the Bible understand the relationship between sex and gender? What is "Biblical marriage"? We will carefully examine a variety of passages and ancient texts that highlight the social, political, and economic structures that influenced how sex and gender were understood and experienced in the ancient world. Feminist and queer readings of Scripture will be introduced that challenge modern literalist assumptions about "what the Bible clearly says" on these topics. Learn more
Year 2
Sin, Idolatry, & Sabbath Law (5 weeks)
Through a careful reading of the Pentateuch and the prophets, this study examines the Biblical concept of “sin” through an ancient Hebrew lens, placing the language of idolatry within the historical context of ancient imperial religion. Contrasting the theology of Israel with the political and economic theologies of the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Romans, this Bible study will highlight the structural and material nature of sin, revealing how the Abrahamic faith lineage emerged within the context of empire as a pathway for restoring right relationship with God, with one another, and with the natural world. Learn more
Wealth, Poverty, & Biblical Economics (6 weeks)
Leaning on the work of Walter Brueggemann, Ched Myers, Liz Theoharis, and M. Douglas Meeks, we will examine Biblical passages about wealth, poverty, and economics through a historically contextual lens that emphasizes the connection between the economies of grain-based empires and practices like slavery, blood sacrifice, and war. Hebrew laws concerning economics - particularly the Jubilee year - will provide important context for New Testament passages in which Jesus speaks directly about economics, greed, and wealth. Learn more
Year 3
Collective trauma & Communal wisdom (5 weeks)
This Bible study looks at passages of lament, anger, hope, and resilience through a trauma-informed lens, focusing especially on the books of Job, Lamentations, Isaiah, and Joel. Drawing insight from David Carr's Holy Resilience: The Bible's Traumatic Origins, we will also examine the impact of the Babylonian exile on the development of the Pentateuch, and how the destruction of the Second Temple informed the theology of the New Testament. Learn more
Listening for God's Call (6 weeks)
This Bible study will look at the "call" narratives of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and Mary, to see what wisdom and inspiration we might glean from their stories of hearing, wrestling with, and accepting God's call. Learn more
Practice Groups
Year 1
The Way of Kenosis: Suffering, Solidarity, & Love (5 weeks)
How does the way of Jesus invite us into a different relationship with suffering? How can we faithfully lean into postures of "self-emptying" without falling into patterns of self-harm? 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 offers theologically and psychologically grounded tools for wrestling with difficult questions in the context of faith.
Models For contemplative Prayer (6 weeks)
Participants of this practice group are encouraged to build their own repertoire and rhythm of regular prayer or spiritual practice, and then reflect together on the connections they are noticing between their inner prayer life and the ways in which they are showing up for themselves, others, and God in their everyday lives. Practices 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)
This practice group will explore the work of healing and restoration in community through the lens of the 12 step framework, expanded for use beyond addiction recovery contexts through the work of Dr. Gerald May and Fr. Thomas Keating, OSCO.
Conflict, Dialogue, & NonviolenT Resistance (6 weeks)
This practice group introduces a number of tools for engaging in dialogue across difference, and embodying nonviolent postures in interpersonal and social conflicts. Drawing on the 6 principles of Kingian nonviolence, strategies of nonviolent resistance will be explored with tips for how to assess which tool might be most effective in different kinds of real-world scenarios.
Year 3
EYes to see: Icons of the Divine (5 weeks)
This practice group will introduce pre-modern ways of understanding and experiencing sight, as a way of re-calibrating our modern lenses to give us better "eyes to see" the presence of God with us in the material world. Participants will be encouraged to pay attention to their sensory input throughout the day, and to reflect on the differences between a sacramental framework of seeing (informed by the Orthodox practice of praying with icons) and the use of images within a capitalist context as marketing devices designed to create religious devotion to brands.
Meeting Christ in the World (6 weeks)
Where do you see and hear the presence of Christ in the world around you? In this practice group, participants will be invited to reflect together on where they see Christ showing up in their everyday lives - in their encounters with people, animals, stories, songs, art, and the natural world.
About the Program
The Christian Foundations Curriculum is a 3-year program that guides adults on a journey of self-discovery and discernment in community, towards a fuller understanding of what it means to embody the Christian faith tradition in the context of everyday life. At the heart of this formational approach is a commitment to practice-based learning, and a dual focus on both the inward and outward aspects of faith, which are always held together so that both are always informing each other.
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The Core program ​is a series of 9 classes that must be take sequentially. Each class combines readings and lectures that introduce new learning material with opportunities for personal reflection, discussion, and practice in the context of small groups. All of the classes within the core curriculum encourage connections between the inward, personal dimensions of growing in faith and love of God, and the outward, social dimension of living faith out in the context of community.
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Bible Studies and Practice Groups are offered each semester as a “companion” to the core program, providing opportunities for further exploration of topics introduced in the core classes. These groups are open to anyone, including those not taking the core classes. They can be taken in any order and at any time.
History
This curriculum is rooted in the inward/outward model for faith formation developed by Gordon & Mary Cosby in collaboration with Henri Nouwen, Verna Dozier, and the diverse community members at the Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. Beginning in the 1980s, the church hosted a steady stream of visitors from around the country who were encouraged and equipped to return home and seed similar kinds of learning communities.
Inspired by this vision, the Rev. Nelson Johnson, the Rev. Barbara Dua, and the Rev. Zee Holler founded the Servant Leadership School of Greensboro at The Beloved Community Center in 1991, in collaboration with an ecumenical group of clergy and laypeople that included the Rev. Timothy Patterson, the Rev. Frank Dew, Robin Britt, and Jeff Thigpen. 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 more than 15 years.
