by Patti Holman, Elder for Adult Christian Education

Are you someone who characterizes yourself as having a quiet faith—its a personal thing? Maybe you have been comfortable with prayer, church and a small group, and that's all you've heard emphasized. Jesus doesn't just call us to practice behind closed doors. He Himself commissions us to go out.

As followers of Christ, we want our lives to count for God's Kingdom. We are bought with a price—Jesus' life given up on the cross—and brought from death and futility into life and meaning.
We want God to work through us, to bring light and life to those around us. Yet the pressures of daily responsibilities often dominate us, and the ways our culture defines fruitfulness constantly drive us. We want to be driven by God's Spirit and defined by Christ and Christ's purposes. But how?

Our lives are our greatest resource, and how we spend our lives becomes our signature investment; the Christian vocation is stewardship of one's life. We think a lot about how we are spending our money, but how are we spending our lives? How are we living out our stewardship? The Fully Alive series will help us rethink the core decisions that determine how we are spending our lives.

For eight weeks we will journey together exploring the great themes in Scripture that define God's purposes for our lives. Through this we will understand more fully what God desires for us to make the most of the rest of our lives—and how we can be used by God to enable the world to experience the best of life.

Designed for Christians of all ages—those just starting out and those seeking to more deeply invest the years still before them in God's purposes—this course will result in each participant charting out the next steps in their pilgrimage of following Christ into the world. Our hope is to encourage one another into awareness of the larger world's suffering and into more seriousness about what Christ asks us to do—within our borders as well as beyond.

Class sessions integrate extensive discussion, small group exercises, personal reflection and exploration of Scripture together. Participants will be encouraged to invest an hour each week outside of class in personal study, and have a brief conversation (by phone if most convenient) with a study partner.

This course has been developed by World Vision International, initially to help their 24,000 staff around the world face the complex challenges in our world with the resources of God and confidence that they are walking in God's ways. Now it is being adapted for churches in the 100 countries where World Vision works. This session with Bethany and University Presbyterian Churches will be the pilot of this, so we'll have the opportunity to shape the program for ourselves—and for others.

It's facilitated by Tim Dearborn, a Presbyterian pastor, former professor for Fuller Seminary and currently the Associate Director for Faith and Development for World Vision International—and a great teaching team of members of Bethany and UPC.