ADULT

Formation

Growing in faith is a lifelong journey.

Growing in faith is a life-long journey and we offer many opportunities for adults to explore the Christian faith and discover how to live out their faith in the world. At Good Samaritan, we value questions, wrestle with doubts, and don’t settle for easy answers. Learning together in community helps us understand more about God, the world, and ourselves. Our formation opportunities for adults are safe places to wrestle with real life and discover how God is present through every stage, experience, or challenge.

Adult formation is offered in a variety of ways, including Sunday morning formation during the academic year, small groups, retreats, and weekly Bible studies.

Current Adult Formation Series:

October 11-November 22

Fire and brimstone? Pitchforks and pointy tails? Oh my! This fall we are going to be taking on the hottest topic in theology and the devil really is in the details. Over seven weeks, we’ll ask what Scripture actually says about where the dead go (you might be surprised). From there we’ll trace how Jewish and Christian thinkers, including the early Church Fathers, filled in the blanks. Then things really begin to heat up as we delve into how human imagination took over. We’ll dip into Dante’s Inferno and C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. Together we will sample a few key passages to see how their images still shape the way we may think about hell today. Then we’ll weigh the “hellish options,” from eternal conscious torment to annihilation, and follow Jesus on Holy Saturday as he harrows hell and breaks down its gates. Along the way, we’ll discover that what we believe about hell says a great deal about what we believe about God. We’ll finish with thinkers who have dared to cross the threshold and ask whether hell even exists or has any permanent residents at all. No need to abandon all hope when you enter here. Bring your questions, bring a friend, and join us Sundays at 9am before hell freezes over.

Past Sessions:

Previously we covered a broad range of topics. Here is a sampling of the sessions we had:

  • Common Ground: Creation, Empire, and the Monastic Way
  • 1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture
  • The Bible Said What? About What? Mythbusting the Bible
  • Supper is Served: The Evolution of Worship
  • Mother of God: Meeting Mary Again
  • Hygge and Holiness
  • Discernment of Spirits
  • Faith and Fear: Macabre Moments in Church History
  • All Things Made New: Teilhard de Chardin, Creation, and Hope for Our World
  • The Holy Spirit, The Trinity, and Us
  • Creeds
  • Jesus, How Do I Pray?
  • The Transfiguration Icon
  • Why we do what we do when we do it and other peculiarities of church
  • The Power of Gratitude
  • Monsters in the Bible
  • The Story of the New Testament: Books and Readers in the Early Church
  • Clobbering the Clobber Passages
  • Miracles of Jesus
  • Finding God Through Our Senses
  • The Wild and Surprising World of Angels
  • Light of the World: Looking at Advent with New Eyes
  • Surprising Saints

NEW TO GOOD SAMARITAN?

The journey is richer and fuller when traveled with others.

We can’t wait to welcome you!