28 March, 2024

Partnering to Teach the Bible

by | 24 September, 2016 | 0 comments

By Jennifer Johnson

Southland Christian Church (Lexington, KY) has created a way to engage people who are interested in deeper study of the Bible, maintain their interest and involvement, and even train current leaders and discover future staff members: Southland University.

“We”re trying to meet the needs of many different groups,” says Derrick Purvis, formation pastor at Southland. “Weekends are “˜bottom shelf” and designed to be as accessible as possible. Programs that go a bit deeper are the next step.

Seminar“But we also knew a number of people wanted more challenge and more growth. The problem is it takes a huge amount of effort and time to do that right””to prepare material at that level. We also needed to figure out retention, because often people begin something like that with a lot of enthusiasm and then attendance drops.”

To solve these problems, Southland partnered with Cincinnati Christian University to create a Bible Certificate Program that launched last fall. CCU professors teach six classes””Ethics, Old Testament 1 and 2, Paul and His Letters, Christology, and Apologetics””over the course of three years. Each class meets on Thursday evenings for six weeks, and each one costs only $10.

“The registration fee is just so people get some skin in the game and take it seriously,” Purvis says. “We also require students to write a “˜comprehension paper” at the end of each class to demonstrate that they understood the course work. The whole idea is growth and comprehension.”

He says that compared to other initiatives, retention for the certificate program classes has been “off the charts,” and people have responded well to the higher-level learning.

In addition to this “101” series of classes, Southland also created a Future Leader Program for volunteers who want to learn more or might be considering ministry as a future career. This invitation-only “ministry school” gives participants a deeper understanding and hands-on experience in a variety of different ministry areas, including students and children, communications, local and global outreach, weekend programming, and even finance.

“Spend a little time with the finance team, and you have a whole new appreciation for the budget process!” Purvis says. “Same thing with operations; suddenly you understand the importance of our processes and planning.”

He hopes much of their hiring can eventually come from the Future Leader participants.

“It”s a great group of people who are already invested in Southland and wanting to learn,” he says. “Fourteen people participated in the first cohort, and it will continue to grow.”

http://southlandchristian.org/university/

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