The Global Role of U.S. Denominations
(Adult Study)

Churches in North America are facing a crisis in global mission unlike any we have experienced before. Mainline churches send fewer missionaries overseas on long-term service, and mission programs have been drastically reduced in churches facing fina...

(Adult Study)

How good is your church community at welcoming people with disabilities into the life of your church? Perhaps you have taken steps to make the church accessible. But how much are people with disabilities really welcomed to participate?This one-sessio...

Witnessing to the Holy Spirit Then and Now
(Adult Study)

Along with Christmas and Easter, Pentecost recognizes a major milestone in the Christian story. It was on that day, fifty days after the resurrection of Christ, that the church was born through the fire of the Holy Spirit. Although Pentecost does not...

(Adult Study)

Why is the church decorated in purple during Lent? Why is Christmas always on December 25, but Easter is on different dates all the time? What is Ordinary Time? These and other basic but often unanswered questions in the liturgical life of churches a...

(Adult Study)

Christian fundamentalism is a Christian theology. While fundamentalists embrace a set of specific doctrines, many nonfundamentalist Christians also share some of these beliefs. Fundamentalists believe themselves to be returning to past conventional s...

(Adult Study)

The emerging church is a broad phenomenon that has caught the attention of mainline Christianity. Emergent proper began as a group of friends (and now often calls itself Emergent Village to distinguish itself from the broader emerging movement). Some...

(Adult Study)

What is ecumenism, and what are its biblical and theological roots? How have churches worked together in the past, and what should they do together now?Beginning in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, the modern ecumenical movement emerged with increasing ...

Division or Discernment?
(Adult Study)

Several denominations in the United States are wrestling with division, even to the degree that members are considering breaking away to become part of a different denomination. The identified trigger for schism is usually a particular issue over whi...

(Adult Study)

Do we need organized religion in order to be a people of faith? To those who use these two words interchangeably this may seem an absurd question, but to others there is a real distinction, and while religious people pretty much always consider thems...