The Marriage Course

Thursdays, Sept. 19- Nov. 7, 2019 (No class Oct. 31), 6-8:30 p.m. | Blacknall Fellowship Hall

REGISTER HERE

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An 8-week series for couples who want to invest in their relationship and build a strong marriage. The course is designed to help couples build strong foundations, learn to communicate more effectively and resolve differences well. Each week you will fed a delicious meal at an intimate table for two, listen to a practical talk, and have time for private discussion between you and your partner. Childcare is available. Contact: Joyce Kight.

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Interested?

Click here to learn more about the course.

Marriage Course Testimonial from Matthew Tay & Emmaline Thor – “We'd like to invite every married couple in Blacknall to attend the Marriage Course. The course provides practical tools for each couple to improve their marriage, including communication, conflict resolution, and how to love each other better. More than 50 couples have now attended the course at Blacknall, and have all found the course to be beneficial. We have had couples on the course with great marriages who felt that they grew even closer on the course. We have also had couples who were separated who decided to take the course together and sat and talked and laughed with each other and worked together at restoring their relationship. Emm and I have gone through the course 5 times now (once as participants, then as leaders), and each time we still learn something new to apply to our marriage. Meals are provided, and all communication is private between you and your spouse - you'll be seated at a  table for two, and you won't have to share anything that you discussed. There will also be childcare available. Please allow the Marriage Course Team to bless you.”

God at Work: Jeff's Story

 The Elders were recently asked to write about three pivotal moments in their Christian formation and many have generously offered to share them in the newsletter. Look for a different story each month. If you would like to share about God at work in your life, contact Mary Grimm.

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By Jeff Baker

If I’m honest, I would have to say that reading has been one of the most deeply formative practices of my journey with Christ. And here I include reading not only Scripture, but books by Christian authors. This is the kind of practice that can, of course, get out of hand. There is an old Twilight Zone episode, “Time Enough At Last” about an old man who hides in a bank safe to curl up with a book. The Bomb falls while he’s inside, and he escapes to find himself the world’s sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Seeing piles of books lying around, he’s elated—until his glasses fall and shatter into pieces (I thought of that moment in June when I sat on my own glasses on Day 2 of a pilgrimage walk in Spain).

But in our age of perpetual distraction and on-line diversion, I still think that the practice of reading can offer one path of resistance. And like many of us, I suspect that I am less in danger of literary overconsumption than simply finding any time for sustained reading.

I want to emphasize that Scripture is our primary book. I discovered the Bible via a strange path. I grew up in an Episcopal church that was better at preaching manners and politeness than the Gospel, and can still remember clandestinely buying my own story bible and being fascinated by the colorful stories—especially in the Old Testament. I started reading actual Scripture in 8th grade after getting a copy of Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth, a rather colorful apocalyptic thriller that did at least prod me to open the Bible. And when I heard the lyrics of Jesus Christ Superstar, the only rock album allowed in our household in 1972, I started reading the Gospels, wondering how many of the lyrics were really in the New Testament.

Looking back, I see a pattern here. C.S. Lewis spoke of how his imagination had to be baptized before he could believe. I suspect that a similar kind of “baptism” was taking place in my own story well before the moment when I received Christ during my senior year of high school. It happened through reading the plucky adventures of a little misfit hobbit (not unlike myself), and C.S. Lewis’ space trilogy, which I read before any of his nonfiction.

I think I may have consumed just about every book Lewis wrote on Christianity while I was in college. Now I struggle just to stay awake while reading at bedtime. I still try, however, to remember something Lewis wrote that I have never forgotten: reading old books frees us from the parochialism of the present. It can be hard to get past differences of style or assumptions, but it is really amazing when you can connect with a Christian from a different era. I read Augustine’s Confessions while walking on a dark road myself, and was deeply affected by how my own struggle with the world’s brokenness echoed the words of someone who lived over 1500 years ago (even if my transgressions were rather comparatively mundane).

I still agree with Lewis’ comment on reading to challenge parochialism, but would add that you don’t have to go back in time to do this. Lately I’ve been reading the autobiography of Pauli Murray, a woman who grew up in Durham and later became both a civil-rights pioneer and the first African-American woman to be ordained in the Episcopal church. Her life was utterly different than mine in so many ways, yet she clearly witnessed to a powerful Christian character in her life, hard work, and convictions. Paul Murray, to be sure has been embraced today by a very different crowd than the C.S. Lewis club, and I am still getting acquainted with her story. My point is that it’s very different learning about her from her own book rather than a google search.

Again, I want to put these thoughts in perspective. My time devoted to this kind of reading is mainly limited to late evenings (if I’m awake) and Saturday mornings. My more consistent daily practices center on morning Scripture, reflection, and prayer. I try to memorize scripture, often carrying an index card, though am not very good at it. I still struggle with breaking down the lines between my inner life and how I actually live. I have much to learn, and far to travel on the road ahead. To paraphrase a line from The Hobbit, I am only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all.

The Parenting Course

Wednesdays, Sept. 18- Nov. 20, 2019, 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Fellowship Hall (dinner) and Community room (discussion)

REGISTER HERE

This fall, Blacknall will be offering Alpha’s Parenting Course during the TableTalk time slot. Single parents, guardians, and grandparents raising their grandchildren are welcome. Participants do not need to be Blacknall members, we encourage Blacknall families to invite a friend to take the course with them!

Over ten sessions, the course will help you to:

  • Build strong foundations

  • Meet your children's needs

  • Set clear boundaries

  • Teach healthy relationships

  • Consider your long term aim

Format:

Families will eat together in the Fellowship Hall from 5:30-6. Childcare opens at 6 p.m., parents should drop off their kids and be in the Community Room by 6:15, when the session begins. The course is video-based, with time for small group discussion after each segment. Parents will be grouped in tables based on their kids’ ages, a table host will facilitate the discussion using the workbook as a guide.

Please note: The Parenting Course is being offered as one of Blacknall’s TableTalk offerings, but will start one week before and end one week after the other TableTalk classes to accommodate the ten sessions. We ask participants to commit to attending at least 8 out of 10 sessions. Registration is limited, please register by Sept. 9.

Meal Cost: $50-$150 for 10 weeks, depending on family size. No charge for childcare or class materials.

Please contact Ali Shoenfelt with any questions.

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Interested?

Learn more about the course.

Watch the promo video.

Women’s Morning Colossians Study

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Register here

Thursdays starting Sept. 12, 9:30-11:20 a.m.
Join in a semester-long study of the book of Colossians using the study He is Enough: Living in the Fullness of Jesus. Components of the day are singing, teaching, fellowship and small group time. Childcare is provided for children through age 4. New this year — on two of the Thursdays this semester, guided solitude time is offered. Fee for the semester is $20. Contact: Tana O’Keeffe.