Transformation for Congregations and Churches

e-Newsletter - Volume 3, Number 66
The Lecture for the Fourth Sunday of Advent has Been Posted In the Rick Lowery's Audio Lecture Series
by Bill Anderton

The lecture for the fourth Sunday in Advent has been posted in Rick Lowery's Lectionary Lecture series.

If you have already registered for the course, click here log into the course's Virtual Classroom to hear the lecture. User username/password is required.

While you are in te Virtual CLassroom, please introduce yourself in the Class Forum and complete the Class Roster!

Please Refer Our Free Offer To Your Friends and Colleagues

Our 10-day FREE offer for this course is open to anyone! Please refer the offer to your friends, congregants and colleagues.

No strings attached! If your friends register for the "free look," they will get full access to the Virtual Classroom for this series for 10 days; they can come and go in the classroom as often as they wish during the free period. Hear all of the past lectures PLUS any new lectures posted in the free-access period. They can post in the Class Forum or comment on threads posted by others.

If they wish to continue, they can simply purchase the subscription to the series when they are ready.

Your friend can get the access by clicking here to register -- it is FREE! No credit card will be required to register, the price of this free offer is truly $0.00.

Please note that this free offer will expire on December 21, 2013. Until then, anybody can register at any time for 10 days of free access of all of the previously-posted lectures plus any new lectures posted in the period.

Dr. Rick Lowery, renowned Bible scholar and popular Bible teacher -- especially in the disciplines of First Testament Studies -- will begin to deliver regular lectures in his role as a Christian College of George Faculty ,starting with Lectionary "Year A". His teaching began just before Advent, 2013, and will continue for twelve months. Through a series of Audio Lectures, Rick will guide listeners through examination of the First Testament lections and will not only help us to understand the context and nuances of centuries-old history, prophecy, wisdom, and literature, but will also bring to life -- in his own inimitable way -- the meanings of the Scriptures for living, learning and loving as Christians and as Proclaimers of the Gospel in the twenty-first century.

Students will want to pay special attention to the texts, which are noted in all popular Lectionary guides, and to the contemporary events in our world today as they listen to and learn with Rick. While there will be lectures for the specific texts for Advent, as we move through the liturgical year the lectures will become periodic -- announced to those who have enrolled and on the public pages of the Online Learning Platform -- and will address several lections at one time. This teaching method will afford the students an overview, a kind of broad-brush sweep of the context and content of a "season" of Scripture.

In online forums, participants will then share their observations of the texts and the teaching with each other -- even uploading their own exegesis, reflections and homiletic material. With this format, we will surely experience a community of continuing education about the Lectionary, the First Testament, and the various tasks and creative encounters with the text which contribute to meaningful preaching.

For those who desire to attribute this learning experience to their porfolios for ministerial competency, you may surely draw attention to the two competecy areas of Biblical Knowledge and Proclamation of the Word. If you seek specific guidance in this task, contact your Commission on Ministry or Dr. Bob Harris, President of Christian College of Georgia (770-815-9078).

Students will be engaged in new ways with new insights as they come around the "radio-styled" lectures with Rick and hear his depth of understanding and explanation of the texts.

Preachers will find stimulation for study, hearing a living commentary on the First Testament while reflecting on their own familiarity with the Gospel lections from Matthew (and John as we move into Easter).

Adult learners will find that Rick's teaching reinforces their own commitment to life-long learning and encourages them to draw closer to the written Word of God.

And the Church, particularly when study groups join together to listen to Rick and share with one another their own understandings and questions, will find new places of renewed vision and vitality.