romans class information

Thanks for your interest in the FUMC Romans class. I will be co-leading the class with Jonathan Griesse (which should lead to confusion at least once). I’m excited about the class; it should be a great opportunity for us all to learn and grow together.
Here are some of the basics:

There will be two meeting times -

The class will be starting January 21st/22nd and will last for 12 weeks, ending on April 22/23.  This includes a break for Ash Wednesday (and Thursday) and for the week of spring break..

We will be using the study Invitation to Romans as our study guide.

A short word about Romans:
Romans is an important book of the New Testament. It is rich in content, so much so that many of our spiritual heirs have pulled much of their theological understanding from this letter. Thinkers such as St. Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and even our own John Wesley have all been deeply influenced by their reading Romans. The problem today is that it is difficult for us to read Romans without reading it through the lens of these writers. Many understand Paul’s letter as only a treatise on personal salvation through one’s justification through faith; my hope is that this study will allow each of us to explore the richness of Paul’s letter, and come out with a better understanding of what God is doing/has done in the world.

Another note of interest:
We have created a website for the class, FUMCclass.com. We will be experimenting with something new through this site. Not only will it be a place for basic class information, on what to read this week, times, & places, etc, but also it will have additional content posted to the site each week–things which should provoke more conversation while also discussing things we have to skip over in class due to time constraints. All the web content will be completely optional to the regular meeting, yet it should hopefully spur everyone to greater depths of understanding Paul’s most difficult letter. I should have some introductory content posted by this weekend, God be willing.

Thanks again for your interest, I look forward to meeting each of you. If you have any additional questions or comments, please just leave a comment below and Jonathan Griesse or I will get back to you.