2 Years In

Happy Birthdayto us!

This week marks our second anniversary — and we’re both grateful for what has gone on for the past two years and excited for what’s to come. We started with a simple mission: to shape disciples by making the most of online learning technology. The Church has a strong history of using the latest technologies and communication media to spread the Gospel — just think of the printing press and television, and the ways they’ve enabled folks to learn and grow in ways unfathomable to earlier generations.

Over the past two years we’ve launched over 100 courses of rich and engaging content on everything from parenting to grief to Scripture and Church history; marriage and relationships to theology and world religions; liturgy and worship to divorce and social justice. And most of our courses are now available in our alternative “For Groups” format, designed for small group use.

We love hearing all the ways that dioceses, churches, and individuals are using ChurchNext to learn, to build community, and to engage in fruitful conversation and spiritual formation. ChurchNext helps connect folks who can’t make it to services on a Sunday; it offers people a new way to grapple with the issues that concern us all; to ask the big questions and reanimate their faith lives; and to feel educated and empowered as they further the mission of the Gospel in this world.

We’ve offered several “massive, open, online courses” (MOOCs) free to the world, allowing thousands of people from dozens of countries to engage in learning and discussion with seekers far and wide, taught by such luminaries as Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry, activist Cornel West, and Thistle Farms founder Becca Stevens.

We’ve enjoyed the partnership and support of several organizations and companies with similar missions, such as seminaries, churches, non-profits, and Christian publishing houses. We’ve loved meeting folks face to face at conferences and conventions.

And some parishes and dioceses have made use of their subscriptions and of the ChurchNext online learning platform technology to create their own courses and offerings, supplementing such programs as pre-baptism and confirmation education, catechumenate and new-member ministry, and church management and governance trainings.

We thank God daily for the blessings that have come out of ChurchNext already and for the wonderful ways God is using online learning to change lives. We’re excited about our new look coming in August, new courses in the pipeline, new partnerships and ways of reaching people all over the world.

Thanks for being part of our lives over the past two years — we can’t wait to see what God has in store next.

Second of 3 animate: Practices launches today

animate

The second in the animate: Practices series launches today. We’re proud to partner with Augsburg Fortress in presenting some of the animate series as ChurchNext courses. The  series is unique in that it not only tackles some of the big questions of our faith, like “Is God real?” and “Is there such a thing as too much Bible?” but it does so not in order to teach a certain lesson or to impart fixed wisdom, but to challenge assumptions, spark conversation and dialogue, and encourage wrestling with the deep questions of our souls.

In this latest course, pastor Mike Slaughter and author-theologian Phyllis Tickle encourage us to take a second look at our assumptions about and definitions of both “worship” and “sacraments.” Both Mike and Phyllis remind us that these terms mean different things to different people, and that they have become in many ways slippery and changeable terms in our minds. And yet both of these words are crucial to the origins and future of our spiritual lives. Worship is a practice by which we connect with God and within a community of people on the same path; the sacraments can tell us a great deal about both what we believe we’re saying to God and what God may be saying to us as we participate in worship and sacred rites.

Check this course out — it’s a wonderful thought- and conversation-starter on some topics we may rarely consider. Click here for more information or to register.

mikeMike Slaughter, lead pastor at Ginghamsburg Church, is in his fourth decade as the chief dreamer of Ginghamsburg Church and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. His life-long passion to reach the lost and set the oppressed free has now made him a tireless and leading advocate for the children, women and men of Darfur, Sudan, named by the U.N. as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Mike’s call to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted will challenge attendees to wrestle with God and their God-destinies.

Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the Religion Department of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, thephyllis international journal of the book industry, is frequently quoted in print sources, electronic media, and innumerable blogs and web sites.  Tickle is an authority on religion in America and a much sought after lecturer on the subject. In addition to lectures and numerous essays, articles, and interviews, Tickle is the author of over three dozen books on religion and spirituality.Phyllis Tickle, founding editor of the Religion Department of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, the international journal of the book industry, is frequently quoted in print sources, electronic 

 

Instructor profile: Anne Kitch

If you have children or grandchildren, if you teach children, if you’re interested in children’s spiritual formation, you’ll want to get to know the Rev. Canon Anne Kitch (if you haven’t already). We’ve been fortunate to have Anne present several ChurchNext courses; she’s an inspiring preacher, author, priest, and expert in Christian education. kitch

Her book The Anglican Family Prayer Book is a highly-praised and wonderful resource for those in the Episcopal tradition. As a parent herself, Anne knows that children’s faith begins in the home and that home is perhaps the best and most natural place for us grown-ups to teach children about God — and to worship and pray with them. Anne calls this book “a sacred book, a recipe book, a traveler’s guide, and a tool kit.” She emphasizes the importance of modeling an active prayer life with our children, and this book offers easy and everyday ways to incorporate faith practices into your home life. As we know, children are always watching and learning from us, so if we seek to encourage their lives of faith, Anne’s wisdom is absolutely invaluable. She shares some tidbits of this book in her ChurchNext course, Start a Family Devotional Time; this would be a wonderful class for a parents’ or MOPS small group. (One of the great things about ChurchNext courses is that you can take a course after the kids are in bed, on your own schedule, without even having to get a babysitter!)

Anne has also written some wonderful resources on baptism, both baptism for adults and for children. We commend to you her books, Preparing for Baptism in the Episcopal Church; Water of Baptism, Water for Life: An Activity Book; and Taking the Plunge: Baptism and Parenting. Since baptism is arguably the most important day of your life, preparing for it, whether it’s your own or your child’s — is both vital and fruitful. Along with her published works, we commend to you these ChurchNext courses, as either primers or refreshers on baptism:

Introducing Christian Baptism
Adult Baptism in the Episcopal Church
Preparing for Infants’ and Children’s Baptism in the Episcopal Church

Check out also Anne’s other wonderful books for children and families:

Bless This Way
Bless This Day: Toddler Prayers
What We Do in Church: An Anglican Child’s Activity Book
What We Do in Advent: An Anglican Kids’ Activity Book
What We Do in Lent: A Child’s Activity Book
One Little Church Mouse

We’re grateful to have wonderful priests and authors like Anne in the ChurchNext family, helping folks think about, learn about, and enrich children’s lives of faith.

Latest course: animate: Practices 1 with Brian McLaren and Sara Miles

Another fabulous course from Augsburg Fortress and Sparkhouse’s animate series launches animatetoday, called animate: Practices 1. We’re proud to partner with Augsburg Fortress in presenting some of the animate series as ChurchNext courses. The  series is unique in that it not only tackles some of the big questions of our faith, like “Is God real?” and “Is there such a thing as too much Bible?” but it does so not in order to teach a certain lesson or to impart fixed wisdom, but to challenge assumptions, spark conversation and dialogue, and encourage wrestling with the deep questions of our souls.

In this course, Practices 1, Brian McLaren explores the idea of prayer, admitting that he used to think of prayer as something onerous, a duty he was bound to perform and to perform “correctly” — and yet he has come to see the Lord’s Prayer as something simple, something active, something that reanimates our faith and our ability to live faithfully in this broken world. He breaks it down into four “moves” that can help us re-see the prayer given to us by Jesus himself.

Sara Miles tackles the idea of food and eating, noting that it’s (literally) a weighty topic in our society: poor people must think constantly about their next meal, and those with plenty find themselves also obsessed with food — how “pure” it is, whether it can save or kill, where it came from, who’s eating it. Sara challenges us to rethink our relationship with food, doing so with Jesus’ messy, unorthodox, and life-giving lens on the gift and blessing of sharing a meal. After all, she says, the Lord’s supper is for everyone, cannot be bought, and is never eaten alone.

We’re excited to share these talks with you and pray that they may help reanimate your faith and spark conversation in your small groups. Click here for more information or to register.

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is an ecumenical global networker among innovative Christian leaders.

Sara Miles is the founder and director of The Food Pantry , and serves as Director of Ministry at St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Her books include Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead and Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion. She speaks, preaches and leads workshops around the country, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker, and on National Public Radio.

New course: Talking About Same Gender Unions with Bishop Jeffrey Lee

samegenderunions2

You may think the church talks about same gender unions too much; you may think not enough. You may be excited about the latest Supreme Court decision or you may be upset. You may be thrilled at the chance to discuss the issue of same gender unions or you may wish we could talk about something else for once.

Whatever your feelings, our latest course offers new and insightful consideration of this topic. In Talking About Same Gender Unions, Bishop Lee gently reminds us that, as Christians, we must remember that this is a pastoral issue and that it involves people’s hleeearts, relationships, and identities. For that reason, engaging in real listening and respectful conversation is vital. Bishop Lee helps us think about how we might have these conversations, offers hope for hearts, and promises that, in Christ, all things are made well.

We pray that this course, whether you take it on your own or in a Small Group format, will bring wisdom, insight, healing, and hope on a divisive issue that means a lot to many. Click here to register or for more information.

Jeffrey Lee is the twelfth Episcopal bishop of Chicago where he oversees 127 congregations across Northern Illinois. You can find out more about him here.

In The Fold

IMG_8979     IMG_8943

I just returned from a week-long trip with my husband to the Cotswolds, one of the most stunningly beautiful and peaceful areas of England. (In fact, this collection of rural cottages, villages, farmlands, and footpaths has been officially designated an AONB: an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.) The Cotswolds experienced their commercial heydey during the Middle Ages, as their sheep were the sought-after source of the best wool in Europe. The cottages and towns were built, improved, and expanded during this time with the wealth acquired in the wool trade, and each village has a church that was either built or renovated during the Middle Ages, usually by the lord of the village, using wool-trade riches. These churches are beautiful, welcoming, historic, and solid.IMG_9108

Perhaps not surprisingly, though, time brought change to this area. The rise of cotton dealt a serious blow to the economy of the Cotswolds; these villages are now mostly run on tourist dollars and the village churches in many areas have banded together to share clergy and resources, offering services at one parish each Sunday, on a rotation.

IMG_9007

The name Cotswold is popularly believed to be a combination of cote (enclosure) and wold (hillsides). The fields that surround the villages do host flocks of sheep and doves; sheep-cotes and dove-cotes offer shelter; trees and ruins of old manor houses provide shade to weary hikers and livestock alike. And the parish churches of The Cotswolds, too, feel like cotes — housing and protection — for those of us sheep of the Good Shepherd who wander in from the streets and fields around. The churches are cool, quiet, shaded, peaceful. Plaques and engraved stone signs tell the histories of those who worshipped, married, and were buried over the centuries. One gets a sense of the thousands of seekers and believers, the hundreds of years’ worth of song, prayer, and worship, that these churches have witnessed.

 IMG_8947        IMG_9116

No matter the changes and chances of life — the stories of violence and suffering, forecasts of economic doom that seem to surround us — these country churches remind us that our Good Shepherd remains, and that there is always a place of shelter and protection — the same source that has been and always will be — for those who seek it, or those who stumble upon it.

IMG_8946

May we always remember that there is shelter when we need it — whether we enter a stone church, open our Bible, or log on to the internet. The Good Shepherd will be waiting.

To learn more about the Church of England and its traditions, consider any of the following courses:

English Origins of the Book of Common Prayer
The Spirituality of the Prayer Book
Introducing Episcopal Worship

Ashley Denham Busse
Senior Course Producer

Introducing New Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to Your Congregation

M Curry

North Carolina bishop Michael Curry was elected with great excitement, fanfare, and majority – by General Convention here in Utah. He will lead The Episcopal Church for the next nine years. Those unfamiliar with him, his preaching, and his Jesus-centered approach to his ministry are in for a treat. He is dynamic, charismatic, and brimming with infectious hope.

Presiding Bishop-elect Curry is an early ChurchNext supporter who teaches a class for us that is an ideal way for you and your congregation to get to know him.

It’s called ‘How to Be a Crazy Christian with Michael Curry’ and it is available in two formats; For Individuals which is ideal for a person to take by themselves on a tablet or laptop, and For Groups which is ideal for Sunday forums, Bible studies and other group gatherings.

This is a course with a warning label: All who enter here, expect to be transformed. Michael Curry is an inspiring and enthusiastic reformer with a clear call to reinvigorate the Church. Many people have experienced Christ’s transforming power through Bishop Curry’s ministry – you may be next.  Here’a  video preview: