This Covenant experience will guide participants in a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Bible over twenty-four weeks. Unlike the learning participants may have experienced in other groups, this in-depth study of the whole Bible emphasizes the biblical concept of covenant as a unifying pattern through all the books in the Old and New Testaments. It underscores the unique relationship that God chooses to have with us as God’s people. This relationship is grounded in the faithfulness of God’s love and on our ongoing commitment to stay in love with God while we share signs of that love with others. Each episode connects to an aspect of this covenant relationship, which is summarized in the heading of each participant guide. COVENANT TRANSLATES INTO ACTIONS—into how we behave in our everyday lives. That’s why the second module, Living the Covenant, focuses on how the community lives out their covenant in faithful love—how it’s applied to actual relationships in daily life. The books…

This Covenant experience will guide participants in a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Bible over twenty-four weeks. Unlike the learning participants may have experienced in other groups, this in-depth study of the whole Bible emphasizes the biblical concept of covenant as a unifying pattern through all the books in the Old and New Testaments. It underscores the unique relationship that God chooses to have with us as God’s people. This relationship is grounded in the faithfulness of God’s love and on our ongoing commitment to stay in love with God while we share signs of that love with others. Each episode connects to an aspect of this covenant relationship, which is summarized in the heading of each participant guide. GOD ESTABLISHES THE COVENANT to be in relationship with us. So the first eight weeks, Creating the Covenant, examines how the covenant community is created and established—highlighting several examples throughout scripture. It discusses the story of our origins in…

This Covenant experience will guide participants in a comprehensive, in-depth study of the Bible over twenty-four weeks. Unlike the learning participants may have experienced in other groups, this in-depth study of the whole Bible emphasizes the biblical concept of covenant as a unifying pattern through all the books in the Old and New Testaments. It underscores the unique relationship that God chooses to have with us as God’s people. This relationship is grounded in the faithfulness of God’s love and on our ongoing commitment to stay in love with God while we share signs of that love with others. Each episode connects to an aspect of this covenant relationship, which is summarized in the heading of each participant guide. LIFE, AS WE ALL KNOW TOO WELL, IS IMPERFECT. Difficulties are inevitable. That’s why the final eight-weeks, Trusting the Covenant, looks at the crises that sometimes call covenant life into question, and how we are restored to trust in God when troubling things…

How can we Christians move forward, when our very existence seems imperiled? We already know the way, for we've been through this before. But we have forgotten; we have cryptomnesia. Cryptomnesia is the reappearance of a suppressed or forgotten memory which is mistaken for a new experience. (Collins English Dictionary). The world is changing, and it is changing fast. Social media friendships, global commerce, online education, populist uprisings, e-books, and smartphones are just a sample of the Internet’s growing impact on our lives. Americans are rapidly becoming more mobile, worldly, and secular—all while it feels like the church we know is being left behind. Growing numbers of “spiritual but not religious” show disinterest in church, and mainline churches fear imminent demise. How do we find a way forward? Ironically, by looking backward. We are not the first to experience globalization. In fact, the early church emerged in an age of globalization—the product of the Greco-Roman…