Just Launched — Putting Jesus’ Values to Work: Red-Letter Christianity 2 with Larry Stoess

We just launched Putting Jesus’ Values to Work: Red-Letter Christianity 2 with Larry Stoess For Individuals and For Groups. This is the second of two Red-Letter Christianity classes — so called because Larry bases his ideas on the words of Jesus, which many bibles print in red letters. This class explores how we can live out Jesus’ values in our lives and in our communities. The first, related class, examines Jesus’ values in depth.

We hear ab

Chromotypograph of Jesus calling Peter the rock and foundation of his church. This file comes from Wellcome Images, a website operated by Wellcome Trust, a global charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom.

out Jesus’ invitation to follow him throughout our lives. But what does this great proposal really mean? The institution of the Church we have have created is most likely quite different from the path Jesus had in mind when he told Peter he would build his Church “on this rock.”

In this course, Larry Stoess takes us on a journey of of imaging how to put the values of Jesus’ to work in our communities so that we can truly follow him, living and loving as he taught us to among our neighbors. Larry calls us to enter into the mystery of the kingdom of God, into which Jesus invites us, a subject Larry knows well. He wrote the book Think Red, an examination of what a community would look like that truly based its choices on the actions and values of Jesus. Larry has lived into these values in his community in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the co-founder of Church of the Promise in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, The Table Café, a pay-what-you-can community café, and Promise Housing Plus, a non-profit construction company that renovates abandoned homes to create housing opportunities for people in need.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the Little Prince, is often credited with offering a metaphor for how we can follow Jesus’ aspirational vision of the world as it should be, of the kingdom of God, available to us here and now and in the age to come: “If you really want to build ships, teach people to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” In this class, Larry talks about what we yearn for — what Jesus shows us about the vast and endless sea that is the Kingdom of God.

This course will interest anyone who would like to focus on Jesus’ vision and ministry as the gospel writers depict them and anyone interested in ideas on how to build communities based on Jesus’ ideas. For a preview, please click below.

 

Coming Soon: Putting Jesus’ Values to Work: Red-Letter Christianity 2 with Larry Stoess

Next week, we will launch Putting Jesus’ Values to Work: Red-Letter Christianity 2 with Larry Stoess For Individuals and For Groups. If you’re interested in analyzing Jesus’ work and ideas with a strict focus on what he says about them in the gospels, both this class and our other Red-Letter Christianity class (Jesus’ Values: Red-Letter Christianity 1 with Larry Stoess, available in both For Individuals and For Groups formats) are for you.

Part 1 of our two Red-Letter Christianity classes, launched last week, looks at Jesus’ words to determine what values were most important to him. Part 2 will talk about how he wanted his followers to enact these values in the world, in their communities. It talks about how Jesus’ values influenced his vision for the Kingdom of God on earth, and how that vision motivated his mission.

Larry Stoess is an author, community activist, and church planter. The main question he answers in this course is: having determined what Jesus’ values were, what did he want his followers to do with them?

This course will work best if you take Part 1 first, but you can take it as a stand-alone class since Larry does briefly recap his sense of what Jesus’ values were at the beginning of the course. For a course preview, please click below.

 

Just Launched — Jesus’ Values: Red Letter Christianity 1

We have just launched Jesus’ Values: Red Letter Christianity 1 For Individuals and For Groups.

This class focuses on identifying what Jesus cared about  by studying his words in the gospels. Since these words are written in red in some bibles, we are calling this course a red-letter Christianity course. The course can be taken on its own or as part one of two. The second part, which will come out in two weeks, examines how Jesus wanted his followers to live out his values.

We speak of following the way of Jesus, but what exactly does that mean? Have you considered how radical Jesus’ values really are? Have you explored whether you and your community are truly living into them and engaging with them in concrete ways?

Larry Stoess has thought a lot about this subject. Larry wrote the book Think Red, an examination of what a community would look like that truly based its choices on the actions and values of Jesus. Larry has lived into these values in his community in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the co-founder of Church of the Promise in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, The Table Café, a pay-what-you-can community café, and Promise Housing Plus, a non-profit construction company that renovates abandoned homes to create housing opportunities for people in need.

In this course, Larry takes us on a journey of examining Jesus’ values. While not complicated to understand, these values do not fit naturally into our culture. In many ways and contexts, from our societal structures to our personal choices, these values challege us every day of our lives. Larry’svideo lectures include:

  • Relationships
  • Downward Mobility and Human Dignity
  • Radical Generosity
  • Small Beginnings and New Beginnings

This course is ideal for those who want to engage with Jesus’ values in new and deeper ways. For a preview, please click below.