The Release of the Spirit by Watchman Nee — Treasury of Christian Literature

Instructor: Dave Shields
Times: Mondays 7:30-8:30PM ET
Class Size: limit of 25

Course Description

How rich are the lives of Christians who know how to walk in oneness with the divine Spirit who indwells them! To them, God is close and their walk is fruitful. Such a life is God’s will for every believer, not a secret held by a few. This quarter, we will look at what is required for such a walk through the ministry of Watchman Nee in his classic, The Release of the Spirit. Our goal is to see what the he saw and experience what he experienced. Thus our own personal Christian lives will be uplifted and enlarged to love the Lord more and to become a greater blessing to those around us.

Syllabus (week by week):
  1. Introductions, Class requirements, Blog, Who was Watchman Nee
  2. Chapter  1
  3. Chapters 2, 3
  4. Chapter  4
  5. Chapters 5, 6
  6. Chapter  7
  7. Chapters 8, 9
  8. Chapter  10
  9. Overflow – Everyone prepare to share something 
Materials

Each student is expected to obtain a copy of the text before the first class. It is available through Amazon here if you need to purchase one.

Homework
  • Reading: Each student will be expected to read the week’s assigned chapters and attend class ready to discuss the material.
  • Blog Posting: Each student will post something about that week’s reading assignment on the class blog located at Christian-Lit.mystrikingly.com. Posts could be about what you especially enjoyed, how something changed in your understanding, how you experienced something Nee wrote about, or questions where you need clarification. The key is to be specific, and not post something general like, “I really liked it.” Feel free to read other’s posts, and if inspired, give a polite reply or a thoughtful answer to a question. This is intended to become an avenue of fellowship between us.
Class Structure

Most of the class time will be used for mutual discussion, led by the instructor, over the week’s reading assignment. Everyone should come on time prepared to speak up and volunteer something profitable. Students who do not volunteer will be called on. No one will be left out.

The Song of Songs: A Journey of Loving the Lord

Instructor: Mark Miller
Time: Tuesdays 8:00-9:00 PM ET
Class Size: No limit on the number of participants

SYLLABUS (WEEK BY WEEK)
  1. Introduction, Song of Songs 1:1-2
  2. Song of Songs 1:2-4
  3. Song of Songs 1:5-11
  4. Song of Songs 1:12-1:17
  5. Song of Songs 2:1-2:7
  6. Midterm Group Projects
  7. Song of Songs 2:8-17
  8. Song of Songs 3:1-5
  9. Final Group Projects
COURSE DESCRIPTION

For centuries, countless Christians have embarked on a journey to love the Lord and to be drawn into a deeper relationship with Him. Thrilled are those who discover that God Himself has laid out a healthy pattern for this journey in His Word, a wonderful book of poetry called “The Song of Songs.” In this class, we will cover the first two stages in this book (1:1-3:5), seeking that we would not only find ourselves in the Lord’s song that is better than all other songs, but also that we would be drawn into more and deeper experiences with Him.

COURSE OBJECTIVE

Through this class, we desire to be people who love the Lord passionately and who are committed to Him and His process for us as we grow to serve Him in our generation.

 BOOKS
FORM OF THE CLASS

Lecture, Small Groups, and Discussion

The more visual we can become, the better readers we will be of the Song of Songs. Students should expect to spend about an hour each week outside of class time reading the Bible and responding to homework designed to help us “see.”

Prophecies of Christ in Isaiah

Instructor: Rex Beck
Time: Wednesdays 7:30-8:30 PM ET
Class Size: No limit on the number of participants.

SYLLABUS
  1. An introduction to the setting of the book: sons who have refused their owner, the vineyard and promises of restoration through the Messiah (Chapters 1, 4, 6)
  2. The virgin giving birth and the Son with the government on His shoulders (Chapters 7, 9)
  3. Christ: the man with the Spirit and the cornerstone. Our enjoyment of His salvation in the church. (chapters 11-12, 28)
  4. Christ, the Shepherd Servant (Chapters 40-42)
  5. Christ the Servant (chapters 48-52)
  6. Christ’s all redeeming death and resurrection (53)
  7. The restoration and enjoyment of God’s salvation (chapters 54-55)
  8. The Spirit of the Lord poured upon Christ and the treader of the winepress of God’s wrath (Chapter 61-63)
  9. The city of light and the new heavens and earth (Chapters 60, 64-66)
COURSE DESCRIPTION

Isaiah is the possibly the most “New Testament” of Old Testament books. Written about 700 years before Christ’s birth, it prophesies the virgin birth, the tender humanity of Jesus, His ministry under the anointing of the Spirit, His death for redemption, His resurrection and the building of the church based on Him as the cornerstone. As literature, the book is written beautifully. The imagery dreamy. The depictions vivid. Isaiah might be the best written, most consequential writing ever. We will study it. We will taste it. We will learn Christ from these beautiful words.

MATERIALS
  • Bible
FORM OF THE CLASS

Lectures with class discussions in small groups.

The Life and Work of Jesus

Instructors: Philip Tsao and Sam Kuo
Time: Wednesdays, 8:00-9:00 pm ET
Class Size: limit of 30

There is no substitute in your Christian life for knowing the life and work of Jesus. The Bible calls us to believe in Jesus, to know Jesus, to follow Jesus, and to love Jesus. But what do these mean? That depends on the question, Who is Jesus to us? From His virgin birth to His momentous resurrection, every deed and word in His life is filled with profound lessons. And ultimately, they bring us to face the question that He once asked His disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” This class will present what Jesus did, what He taught, and who He was on the earth. We will cover step by step the path of Jesus and highlight significant milestones. We’ll cover his birth, gospel, teachings, miracles, death and resurrection. By the end of this class, we hope every student will be able to answer that crucial question for themselves. We expect every student to invest 30 minutes every week on homework.

SYLLABUS (WEEK BY WEEK)
  1. Jesus’s Birth
  2. The Year of Obscurity
  3. First Tour of Galilee: Healing and Casting Out Demons
  4. First Tour of Galilee: Jesus’s Teachings
  5. Second Tour of Galilee: Jesus’s Parables
  6. Training of the Disciples: Who Do You Say That I Am?
  7. Late Ministry: Hard Words and Words of Grace
  8. Jesus’s Death
  9. Jesus’s Resurrection

Hymns III | Bringing History To Your Personal Devotions

Instructors: James Reinarz, Bob Brenneman and Eric Yeh
Time: Wednesdays, 9:00-10:00 pm ET
Class Size: limit of 35

Summary

When you have a hymnal in hand, you have a special treasury of gems from church history. A good hymn is a costly product of a consecrated Christian’s spiritual life, whose sentiments oftentimes speak out longings that are found unvoiced in our own hearts. Rarely does a hymn tell us of the events in the writer’s life, but they give us a window into the inner trials, resolve and hope they experienced as they made history. 

Similarly the Lord Jesus is writing a story in our lives. As we learn the history of what He has done through the hymn writers, we want to pay attention to what He is writing in hearts and begin to contribute our own songs to history. In addition to the history we will study, we will develop ways to use the hymns devotionally and work together on writing our own songs.

Course Material
Reference text

Church History III

Instructors: Jeff Brown and Kurt Sheu
Time: Wednesdays 9:00-10:00 PM ET
Class Size: limit of 30

Course Description

We will continue our study of the growth and the spread of the church over the past 2000 years. We recommend this class because it will help us all realize that “we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us” (the brothers and sisters who have gone before us). When we realize the testimony of others, we can “have strong encouragement to hold firmly to the hope set before us” (serving Christ and His church in this present age). Together we will study at least four areas of encouragement: 1) how to have a consistent and disciplined walk in the Lord (the mystics and Pietists); 2) how the Lord formed congregations that supported and loved one another (The Unitas Fratrum and the (Renewed) Moravian Church; and 3) how the preaching of the gospel reached the community they lived in and the whole world (Moravians, John & Charles Wesley, George Whitfield); 4) revealing many truths in the Bible from the person of Christ to the Lord’s return (the Plymouth brethren). If you feel that you could use some encouragement in any of these four areas, please join us Wednesday night at 9pm. 

David: “A man after my heart, who will do all my will” 

Instructor: Benjamin Sheu
Time: Thursdays 9:00 – 10:00 PM ET
Class Size: No limit on the number of participants

Course Description

Murderer, liar, adulterer. The source of great suffering for a nation, and despised by family. These are probably not the descriptions you would think of when talking about a man after God’s heart, or someone who served the purpose of God in their generation. Yet that was David. This same David was a man who honored God’s anointed even when it hurt, sought God’s leading when it wasn’t convenient, and fought for God’s kingdom even while he was being persecuted.

David’s life surely is confusing, yet amazing, and reading through his stories brings out anger, joy, conviction, worship, or humility depending on where you are. His life shows us that being a man of God is not cookie-cutter. It’s not about being perfect; David was far from that. But through his great heights and depressing lows, David is the only person in the Bible described as being a man after God’s heart who served the purpose of God in his own generation. While nine weeks is only enough time to scratch the surface, through the course of this semester we will look at snapshots of David’s life, and how utterly human yet truly unique he was. I hope in learning lessons from David’s life we will realize how to be people after God’s heart while we face our own challenging lows and wonderful heights of fellowship with God.

Class Structure

Lecture, Discussion, Small Groups

The Life of Abraham

Instructor: Antipas Desai
Time: Saturdays 12:00 (Noon)  – 1:00 PM ET
Class Size: No limit on the number of participants

SYLLABUS (WEEK BY WEEK)

Following the chapters in the book of Genesis:

Chapter 11:27-32 & chapter 12 
Chapters 13 &14
Chapter 15
Chapters 16 & 17
Chapter 18
Chapters 20 & 21
Chapter 22
Chapters 23 & 24:1-9
Review and Presentations

Course Description

“By faith…” Thus begins perhaps the most inspiring chapter of appraisal in the New Testament of eminent men and women of the Old Testament. How could one such man, living in an idolatrous land, respond to a call from God to leave his country, his relatives and his father’s house to go to an unknown land, unsure of the way and the result? What prompted him to pay a high price to undergo a journey fraught with uncertainty and danger, concluding with the ultimate price that would be required of him? What kept him steadfast in his journey with God, despite failures and weaknesses, his eyes fixed on the goal, seemingly ending up with nothing, yet possessing everything? Why did a man who received the promises, oath and covenant from God eventually not receive what was promised, yet whose name is emphatically featured in the distinguished roll call of faith in the New Testament? Join us as we explore together the life of Abraham, a man in the Old Testament whose impact has lasting repercussions, laying a foundation for some of the profoundest New Testament truths. Classes will be lecture style, with a 10-15-minute forum for discussion in break out sessions. Students will be expected weekly to prepare a one-slide powerpoint file of their inspiration based on their reading of the relevant chapters of the book of Genesis and other passages in the New Testament, and present it in class. This same course will also be offered in French for those who are French speaking, more comfortable in French or learning French.

RESOURCES

Genesis, The Bible
A Sketch of Genesis, Titus Chu

STRUCTURE

Lecture with a 10-15 minute question/discussion period

HOMEWORK

Students will be expected to devote 30 minutes each week to preparing a weekly one or two slide powerpoint file of their inspiration based on their reading of the life of Abraham in the Bible and the prescribed reference text. The slide(s) should also demonstrate a practical response (“what is my next step?”).

La vie d’Abraham

Professeur: Antipas Desai
Heure: Le samedi 13H30 – 14H30 HNE
Limite de classe: pas de limite de classe

SYLLABUS (SEMAINE PAR SEMAINE)

Suivant les chapitres de la Genèse:

  1. Chapitre 11:27-32 & chapitre 12 
  2. Chapitres 13 & 14
  3. Chapitre 15
  4. Chapitres 16 & 17
  5. Chapitre 18
  6. Chapitres 20 & 21
  7. Chapitre 22
  8. Chapitre 23 & chapitre 24:1-9
  9. Révision et présentations
Résumé

“C’est par la foi …” Ainsi commence peut-être le chapitre d’appréciation le plus motivant dans le Nouveau Testament d’hommes et de femmes distingués de l’Ancien Testament. Comment un tel homme, vivant dans un pays idolâtre, pouvait-il répondre à un appel de Dieu à quitter son pays, sa patrie et la maison de son père pour aller dans une terre inconnue, incertain du chemin et du résultat? Qu’est-ce qui l’a poussé à payer un prix élevé pour entreprendre un voyage chargé d’incertitudes et de dangers, se terminant par le prix ultime qui lui serait demandé? Qu’est-ce qui l’a gardé ferme dans son cheminement avec Dieu, malgré les échecs et les faiblesses, les yeux fixés sur le but, se terminant apparemment sans rien, mais possédant tout? Pourquoi un homme qui a reçu les promesses, le serment et l’alliance de Dieu n’a-t-il finalement pas reçu ce qui lui avait été promis, mais dont le nom est clairement présenté dans l’appel de foi impressionnant dans le Nouveau Testament? Rejoignez-nous alors que nous explorons ensemble la vie d’Abraham, un homme de l’Ancien Testament dont l’impact a des répercussions durables, jetant les bases de certaines des vérités les plus profondes du Nouveau Testament. Les cours seront de type conférence, avec un forum de discussion de 10 à 15 minutes en petits groupes. Chaque semaine, les étudiants devront préparer un fichier PowerPoint d’une diapositive de leur inspiration en fonction de leur lecture des chapitres pertinents du livre de la Genèse et d’autres passages du Nouveau Testament, et le présenter en classe.

Livres
  • La Genèse, la Bible
  • Une Esquisse de la Genèse, Titus Chu
STRUCTURE

Conférence avec une période de questions/discussion de 10 à 15 minutes

DEVOIRS

On s’attend à ce que les étudiants consacrent 30 minutes chaque semaine à la préparation d’un fichier PowerPoint hebdomadaire d’une ou deux diapositives de leur inspiration en fonction de leur lecture de la vie d’Abraham dans la Bible et du texte de référence prescrit. La ou les diapositives doivent également démontrer une réponse pratique (« quelle est ma prochaine étape? »).