As quoted from the Chicago Church of Christ’s website

The staff of the Chicago church recently had an exciting opportunity to be spiritually enriched with a class titled Spiritual Formations in Ephesians. The class was presented by Dr. Richard Oster of the Harding Graduate School.

The recording of this class is available by following these links. (Presented in Windows Media Format.)

* Part 1 (Ephesians 1-3)
* Part 2 (Ephesians 4-6)

It’s a good lesson so far. I am listening to it as background while I’m attacking the demons of PeopleSoft Pension. I hope to take notes later this week.

In a broader sense, this is another example of outside help that is essential for any real change. Yes, Harding University is a conservative Church of Christ college and some of the biases of the conservative CoC comes out. However, three things stand out about the entire situation; the lesson was provided for free, it was presented to the leaders, it was from someone that was flown from outside.

As a person that espouses free software (free as in speech and free as in beer), anytime that wonderful material like this is available, I believe it should be made available to all. A small church like mine can’t get the calibre of folks from Harding or Abilene. I do hope to get someone from within town that will do similar things, but to have this for the enrichment of all is a good thing. Secrecy is abhorent and aberrant to the human mind; besides, everything is plain to God anyway, so why hide from a mere person or group of people? As a side note, I wish the Q&A had been recorded – that would have been most interesting.

It was presented to the leaders, and that brings out a temptation to assess motives. I wish that this lesson was done later this September at the Leadership Conference. I’ll hold off on thoughts of Reaganomic Spirituality(tm)(that changes in leadership trickle-down to the membership) and other things. Why? The entire event is a good thing: since the lesson is widely available, the intended audience is not so much a factor. Besides, by doing it this way, it allowed for a Q&A session that wouldn’t have been possible in a larger setting.

Lastly, I wonder if he was offered an honorarium. I wonder if he accepted it. I wish I could be there to hear his reaction. It’s a minor point in this context, but I had to admit the thought crossed my mind.

In any case, glory be to God that someone is looking to something outside the former ICoC. How cool is that?