Adult Education

Adult Education bridges our faith tradition with real life.

Adult Education for 2021-22

Building the Beloved Community: Construction, Restructuring, and Repair

Scripture tells us that we will be known as Jesus’ disciples by how we love each other and that the entirety of scripture can be summed up in two commands: Love God and love your neighbor. Last year, we saw increased awareness about the need to love better–more justly, mercifully, and humbly–but we also saw chasms deepen along political and social lines. Under these circumstances, how should we (and can we?) live together as Beloved Community? We have begun to move past the crisis of COVID, but after a long time of physical separation, how do we come together again and move forward while also remembering what we’ve learned? As the crisis of racial injustice continues, what commitments have we made to new ways of living and being together and how can we build habits and systems that reinforce those? Rather than “getting back to normal,” how do we construct a new normal? What can we learn about healing and repair from Jesus’ approach to connecting with those different from him or the margins?

Join Adult Education this year on Sundays at 9:15 am in person and through Livestream beginning, and watch previous classes on the church’s YouTube channel.

The Bible Then and Now

This occasional multi-week class explores themes from the Bible that relate to how we live out our faith. By looking deeper into the ways the Bible first spoke in its original cultural settings, we are better prepared to think faithfully and creatively about what Christian belief should be now, in our culture. Learn more.

How Might Christianity Be Good for Democracy?

For six weeks in Fall 2021 we will offer a new Adult Education opportunity examining Christianity and democracy. In this program we will consider how the Christian church’s scriptures, symbols, values, and history influence how we think about democracy, its vitality, the influence of religious groups, and our obligations as followers of Jesus. We will turn to the Bible and other readings and ask how they set the stage for conversations about how we can move forward, promoting love and justice in a changing world.

Mondays, September 20-October 25
7-8:30 pm | Recreation Room or Zoom
Register online through Realm.

Living the Faith in the 21st Century

This Wednesday evening class, led by Dr. Chad Quaintance, explores what it means to live as faithful Christians today. Participants grow through learning and conversation. This class is held via Zoom.

Mini-Pilgrimages

Content experts from the Westminster community have developed a series of self-guided educational tours around the Twin Cities to significant sights with accompanying interpretive and devotional materials to help learners dig deeper. Learn more.

Small Groups

If you are looking for a way to connect more deeply with others at Westminster, consider joining a small group. These groups gather to grow in faith and study to learn and live into God’s Word. To join a group, contact Mahin Hamilton.

New Groups for 2020 included:

• LGBTQIA+ This small group will be open to members and  allies of the LGBTQIA+ community, a welcomed and integral part of Westminster Presbyterian Church.
• Spiritual Practices: Creating Calm in the Midst of Chaos Martha Rockenstein will lead a 6-week group on “Spiritual Practices: Creating Calm in the Midst of Chaos.”
• Glory Happening: In a Season of Loss, How Do We Find “Enough” This small group will explore the book Glory Happening by Kaitlin B. Curtice, which describes encounters with the Divine in everyday moments. How can we learn to perceive and relate to God, even in the small and mundane moments of our life?

Lenten Covenant Groups

During Lent, Westminster hosts Covenant Groups as a way for our community to deepen our spiritual journey during the five weeks of Lent. Groups typically meet during the Adult Education hour on Sunday mornings (9:15 am) or pre-existing groups transition into a Lenten Covenant Group for five weeks (such as WestConnect, Moms Group, small groups, etc.). In 2021, the groups met online and the theme was “The Listening Season.”

All-Church Book Read

If Beale Street Could Talk, by James Baldwin

In January 2021, Adult Ed hosted discussion groups of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. This novel about the false criminal accusation of a Black man gives us the opportunity to explore persistent and continuing inequities in our so-called justice system and highlights the beauty and power of Black love, romantic and familial.