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Adult Education
2011
Fall Christian Education brochure
This year in Adult Education we are pleased to offer a spectacular
line-up of visiting lecturers, seminars, Bible studies, and small
group discussion each Sunday morning at 9:30 in the Friendship Hall
and Adult Education Room.
Becoming a Good
Samaritan ~
September 19 - October
24
Friendship Hall
Love your neighbor,
change the world...
It starts with you.
It starts today.
The homeless man
wandering your town. The disabled forgotten in your
neighborhood. The sick and lonely longing for your touch.
Let's get to work.
This series will help
you learn to live out Christ's love in a world-changing ways, right
now, right where you live.
We will explore such
issues as poverty, social injustice, pandemic diseases, the
environment - and teach you how you can start making a personal,
street-level impact today. You will engage through discussion
questions, radical but commonsense ideas, and personal applications
that will help you live out your faith in ways that will change your
neighborhood, your community, your world.
John Ortberg is your
host for six emotionally-packed sessions featuring such global
Christian leaders as: Eugene Peterson, Philip Yancey, Matthew Sleeth,
Jim Cymbala, Charles Colson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Brenda Salter
McNeil, Kay Warren, Joni Eareckson Tada, Rob Bell, Shane Claiborne,
and many others.
Prepare to have your
eyes opened, your heart stirred, your vision kindled, and your faith
focused and invigorated like never before.
A Candid Camera on
Confirmation ~
October 31 & November
7
Friendship Hall
Bob Ruefle will present
his reflections on the youth confirmation process through a series
of documentary videos collected during last year's Confirmation
class. These candid interviews with the confirmands along with
Bob's more general observations about youth, young adults and
growing to maturity in faith raise some compelling questions about
how Christianity is passed on from one generation to another.
Join us for this extraordinary and often unguarded look into the
faith journeys of the latest generation of young Christians.
Pray Big for Your
Child ~
October 31 -
December 5
Adult Education Room
Talking to your
kids is important. Talking to God about them is critical.
If you're a parent, nothing touches your heart more deeply than your
child. Whether it's learning to talk, choosing a vocation, or
accepting the gift of salvation, every step in your child's life
matters to you - and to God. His Word is filled with promises
just waiting to be fulfilled on behalf of your child. Using
Scripture as your guide, discover how to confidently and powerfully
apply the most effective parenting tool available - prayer.
Learn how to boldly pray big, audacious prayers for any stage or
circumstance in your child's life. Pray Big for Your Child
will teach you relevant prayers to get you started, including
specific prayers for both daughters and sons. It includes a
powerful thirty-one-day prayer guide and twelve around-the-clock
reminders to help you pray for your child throughout the day.
The Upper Room ~
November 14
Friendship Hall
The Upper Room is a
new church plant in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh,
sponsored by Pittsburgh Presbytery, and local churches (including
OPC). The goal of the Upper Room is to be a body of believers
dedicated to the growth of the kingdom of God, who emphasize three
particular callings:
- calling new
people into relationship with Jesus Christ;
- equipping
them as disciples for ministry;
- sending them
into the world in mission.
Join us to find out
how the Upper Room is becoming a cross-cultural, sacramental and
missional community, and what we can learn from their experience.
Garfield Community
Farm ~
November 21
Friendship Hall
During the winter of
2008 a group from the Open Door Presbyterian Church, in partnership
with Valley View Presbyterian Church, began making plans to do
organic gardening on abandoned or unused land in East Liberty and
Garfield. Their plans focused on beginning the reclaimation of
nearly three acres near the water tower in Garfield and small-scale
food production at two smaller gardens, one in Garfield at Valley
View PC and one at the Union Project in Highland Park.
The two small gardens
were successful teaching tools for community and congregation
members. They learned together how to organically and
sustainably care for a garden, harvest produce, and make it
available to the community. In the spring of 2008 the two
churches began work on a large three-acre tract of land in Garfield.
Contaminated soil, invasive plant species and a desire to create
neighborhood ownership and excitement caused the development to move
slowly but with effective plans for long-term solutions. So
far over one hundred different volunteers have put in thousands of
hours at the gardens.
Come hear more about
this unusual ministry, sponsored in part by OPC.
Friends of HaiTi ~
December 5
Friendship Hall
Oakmont native Dr. Dan Lattanzi
will share about Friends of HaiTi, a collaborative effort to support
the LaCroix New Testament Mission. Lattanzi and one of his
nurses, Andrea Lorther first visited the LNT Mission in 1997,
offering health care to a community that had never seen a doctor or
nurse before. The first "clinic" was held under a tree using
wooden benches as the exam tables and pharmacy. Since then a
more permanent medical clinic and birthing center have been
constructed and staffed, serving about 100 people each day.
The goal of the Friends of HaiTi is to work in partnership with the
people of Haiti through clean water programs, medical support,
construction and education programs to empower the people to improve
their quality of life, within their own culture.
Pastor to the
Presbytery, Sheldon Sorge ~
December 12
Friendship Hall
Sheldon Sorge will give us a
refresher course in Presbytery 101: What is a presbytery? How does
our presbytery work; and how does it compare with other
presbyteries? Sheldon will also share about the staff and the
presbytery’s mission work, as well as answering general questions.
The Me I Want to Be ~
January 2-30
Friendship Hall
The most important task
in life is not what you do but who you become.
There is a me each one
of us wants to be. Someone who's more kind and generous,
patient and loving, but there is a gap between the me I am and the
me I want to be. Oftentimes we find it easy to trust God to
bridge the gap between us and him, but we struggle to really live by
grace and trust God to close the gap between the me I am and the me
I want to be.
Becoming God's best
version of you is both God's desire and the greatest task of your
life. And here's the good news...he's already working on it.
Your life is God's project, not yours. The Me I Want to Be
experience is a powerful way to move toward becoming the unique,
fully alive, flourishing people God intended. Pastor and
author John Ortberg teaches through five sessions how you can move
toward becoming God's best version of you in four specific areas:
your mind, your time, your relationships, and your experiences.
Spiritual growth can
often seem difficult or intimidating, but John Ortberg's humor and
innovative thinking will leave you challenged, inspired, and hopeful
about true spiritual growth happening in you, in your small groups,
and in your church.
Continuing on the
Spiritual Journey ~
February 5-27
Friendship Hall
B.J. Woodworth...more
information coming soon.
Gospel in Life ~
March 6 - April
17
Friendship Hall
Gospel in Life is an
intensive eight-session course on the gospel and how it is lived out
in all of life - first in your heart, then in your community, and
then out into the world.
Led by Timothy Keller,
session 1 opens the course with the theme of the city: your home
now, the world that is. Session 8 closes the course with the
theme of the eternal city: your heavenly home, the world that is to
come. In between, you will look at how the gospel changes your
heart (sessions 2 and 3), changes your community (sessions 4 and 5),
and changes how you live in the world (sessions 6 and 7).
Ancient Christian
Spirituality ~
March 6-27
Adult Education Room
Tim Becker & Matt
Bell...more information coming soon.
Letters to the
Corinthian Church ~
April 3-17
Friendship Hall
Dr. Robert Gagnon...more
information coming soon.
Just Walk Across the Room ~
May 1-29
Friendship Hall
Bill Hybels brings
personal evangelism into the twenty-first century with a natural and
empowering approach modeled after Jesus himself. When Christ
"walked" clear across the cosmos more than 2,000 years ago, he had
no forced formulas and no memorized script; rather, he came armed
only with an offer of redemption for people like us, many of whom
were neck-deep in pain of their own making.
This dynamic four-week
experience is designed to equip and inspire you to participate in
that same pattern of grace-giving by taking simple walks across
rooms - leaving your circles of comfort and extending hands of care,
compassion, and inclusiveness to people who might need a touch of
God's love today.
Raising a
Modern-Day Knight ~
May 1-29
Adult Education Room
What does it mean to
be a man? Moreover, how does a father instill these qualities
in his son? Using as an example the process by which a boy
moved through the medieval stages of knighthood, we'll identify
parallel stages for today's fathers to create ceremonies to
commemorate significant milestones in a young man's journey toward
becoming a modern-day knight. Beginning with a biblical
perspective of manhood, we'll examine how Robert Lewis shares a
unique approach to shaping a boy into a man by equipping him with
three essential elements: a vision, a code of conduct, and a cause
(Christianity) in which to invest his life.
New Members Class
with Steve Wilson
If you're curious
about joining OPC we invite you to attend one of our New Members
classes in the fall or spring. Led by Senior Pastor Steve
Wilson the class will examine essential Christian beliefs, what life
in OPC has to offer, and let you get to know the folks you've been
sharing a pew with.
Weekly Bible Studies
Weekday Bible
Studies
Each week two weekday
Bible studies meet at OPC. Guided lessons and supplemental readings
provide access to learners of all stages of Biblical familiarity,
and the weekly discussion format is equally suitable for
participants attending on a regular basis or simply as able,
and new members are always welcome! The Food for the
Journey Bible Study meets Wednesdays at noon in the Adult
Education Room. We’ll begin reading through the good news of Luke (August
4th); good news not only of Jesus’ birth but of
what he offered to everyone through his ministry. To the sick he
offered healing. To the hurting, comfort. To the outcast,
acceptance. In this study you will discover that this message of
hope and joy is for you as well. The Sleepers Awake Bible Study
meets Thursday mornings at 6:30 am in the Adult Education Room.
We are currently studying Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians,
as we spend some time learning just how the early church made sense
of Jesus’ call, and lived out the life of faith. Come join us for
either of these compelling studies and enjoy the blessings of
growing and sharing in the life of faith seeking understanding.
For more information contact Brad Walters
(bwalters@oakmontpresby.org, 412.828.5770).
For more
information about either of the above studies please contact Brad
Walters (412.828.5770,
bwalters@oakmontpresby.org).
Women's Bible
Study meets on Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Marie Berg
Room. If you have
questions about this group please contact Jessica Walters (412.401.3963,
kipjess1@comcast.net) or Jane Kinter (412.828.5770,
jkinter@oakmontpresby.org).
Men's Bible
Study meets on Saturday morning at 8:00 am at various local
restaurants. If you have
questions about this group please contact Eric Walker (412.953.0249,
ewalker@alcco.com)
or Nick Cratsa (412.400.2366,
nick@cratsa.com).
Christian Education
Holidays
- November 28th, 2010 ~
Thanksgiving Break
- December 26th 2010
~ Christmas Break
- April 24th, 2011 ~
Easter Break
Click on the links below for more information about:
Sunday School
Film Discussion Series
For more information
about education at OPC please contact our Education Coordinator, Bev
Taylor.
412.828.5770
btaylor@oakmontpresby.org
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Young Adult
Discussion Class ~
September 19 - May 29
Youth Multipurpose
Room
New for this fall...check out our Young Adult Class, led by actor
and filmmaker Bob Ruefle. We'll engage in a variety of
conversations, seasoned with reflections from the popular
Convergence series, on such topics as:
Spiritual Practices:
How to meet God in the Everyday
- What is a spiritual
practice?
- Why should Christians
do spiritual practices?
- Did Jesus engage in
spiritual practices?
- Can spiritual practices
bring me closer to God?
- How do I start
practicing them in my daily life?
- What should I expect
from spiritual practices?
Breaking the Ice:
Learning to Share Our Stories
- What's my story? Why is
it important?
- How have places
impacted my life?
- Who are the key people
who have shaped my life?
- What have been the key
conflicts in my life? How have they shaped me?
- What can I learn from
listening to someone else's story?
Frustrations and False
Gods: Living in a Fallen World
- Are Christians supposed
to be happy all of the time?
- Why is life so
unsatisfying?
- What do I use to fill
my heart? My time? My mind?
- What does the Gospel
have to say when I am disappointed with life?
- How are we to live in a
world filled with God's goodness yet plagued by sin and
disappointment?
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