"Introducing..."

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Last night we kicked off one of the final classes in our spring term. It's called "Introducing..." and each week we'll do an introduction to a book of the Bible. The students will choose which books we look at. In a very few cases, we'll take 2 weeks to do a book.

We started off with a look at how the Bible as a whole is organized. We touched on all 66 books, and how they relate to each other – both in type (law, history, poetry, etc) and in time.

The students then selected which books we would look at for the first several weeks. We had decided ahead of time (with input from those registered) that we would begin with Genesis. The students nominated books, then we voted. There were a couple of rounds of tie-breaking needed. It was gratifying to see that they really wanted to look at more than we can possibly do in the 10 weeks we have! The pictures below show the voting, and the tally on the board. After the decision making was done, we started in on Genesis, which we'll finish next week.

We are seeing a definite pattern of students registering and then not attending. For this class, 5 of the 10 registered came, plus one who hadn't registered in advance. (We're hopeful that 3 of the no-shows will join us starting next week, but we won't know for sure till it happens.) Our policy recently has been to waive the registration fee for students who have completed at least one class with us. This seems to be fostering a somewhat lackadaisical attitude toward the registration process. Is this a problem?  Hard to say. It does make it a little hard on the instructors, not knowing how many handouts to prepare or even how to set up the classroom. Small inconveniences. More importantly, is it good for the students?  Needs some thought. We don't want to create barriers, for sure. On the other hand we definitely want to promote an atmosphere in which Bible education is taken seriously.

Another issue: few of our students who took classes in the fall and winter are signed up for anything this spring. We've of course contacted them all, multiple times, to encourage them to sign up. Do they just need a break?  Are they tired of us?  Are we not offering topics they have an interest in?  We don't really know.

These questions aside, we had a very lively start for what promises to be an interesting series. The students are all very engaged. We have 2 new students, which is great to see. And both of them indicated that they are also very interested in joining our Tuesday night Bible study, currently on 2 Corinthians. Good, positive and exciting things continue to happen!

"Spring Break" classes

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

We had a break in the usual multi-week classes, midway through our Spring term. During this break we had two single-session classes, led by guest teachers.

One lesson learned is that people seem to like the IDEA of keeping classes going all the time, more than wanting to actually attend them!  We did not have a single "regular" student attend either class. (In fairness, we need to point out that illness apparently kept 3 of them home.)  We did, however, have some other people come to both classes. The first one drew a couple of first-time students, which was something we'd hoped for. The second one was attended by some members of the Bloomington meeting, along with 3 people who have been studying with some of our members, but hadn't attended BEC classes.

So, it seems to have been worth doing these classes. During our holiday break in the winter we also found that attendance dropped off quite a bit, but during that break we did have some of the regulars who wanted to stay involved. Taking a break occasionally is (we think) a good thing to do. We'll have to explore how we want to handle future breaks.

Spring Term midpoint reflections

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Classes from the first half of our Spring term completed this week, with the conclusion of the "Living Out Your Faith" and "Life of Jesus" classes. The picture below shows some of the students completing their feedback forms. We rely heavily on the feedback we receive, as we plan future classes.

For the next 2 weeks, both of our primary instructors (Norm and Paul) will be out of town. We're calling it "Spring Break". Several of our students like to stay engaged, so as we did during the winter holidays, we have scheduled two stand-alone classes. Two instructors from Bloomington, our sister ecclesia down the road, will give these classes: Steve Johnson will present "Prophets of the Exile", and Anthony Green will present "True Christianity".

After the break, both Norm and I will have long-running classes that will run through June. Norm is doing our most advanced class yet, "Getting It Right With Jesus". I'll be presenting a series of short studies under the overall title "Introducing...", in which we'll introduce books of the Bible. The students will select which books we look at. So far, I've heard from a couple of students, who would like to learn about Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. Looks like we're going to be spending some time with the poetic books!

One of the great things we continue to see is that most students stay after the classes for conversation (as seen in the picture above). They are building relationships with each other, as well as with us. The BEC classes have become a regular part of several students' lives. Since we opened the doors 8 months ago, we have had 68 students register for one or more courses. Of course a number of these never actually get started, and some others start but don't finish. We've had 24 students complete at least one course – and of these 14 have completed more than one. Six students have completed 6 or more courses. (This does not even count the visitors we have for our Tuesday night discussion Bible class, or our adult Sunday School study – both of which have faithful visitors that attend regularly.)

We feel we've made some real connections in our community, and are making a difference in the lives of the people we are serving. This is what we hoped for when we opened the Center, and we believe that God has blessed us very greatly.

Recognition pix added

Some pictures from our recognition event have been added to the posting below.

Blitz day!

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

Today we did a leafleting "blitz", distributing 2,500 brochures for our upcoming classes at the BEC. We had great help from 3 other Illinois ecclesias: Seth & Jessica Turner, Hannah Fadelle, and Russ & Sherry Johnson from Rockford; Arlene & Jared Johnson from Bloomington; and Trent & Sue Johnson from Chicago. From the Champaign ecclesia we had Ray & Dana Pratt and Paul & Jane Zilmer. Many thanks to all who helped out!  We had a day of enjoyable fellowship, working together in our Lord's service.

And we must recognize our support crew: Deb & Abby Fadelle from Champaign staffed the BEC, served lunch to us all, and cleaned up after us. Thanks to you as well — couldn't have done it without you!

Before the first member of our team got back to the Center, there was already someone who had gotten a brochure, who came in and signed up for a class. We pray that there will be many more!

Plans change

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

This week we've come across two situations where we've needed to adjust our plans. Flexibility remains a key element in our approach!  We continue trying things, and then adjusting as we learn.

One class extended, another postponed.

Our Wednesday night class has been "Living Out Your Faith", with 10 students attending. Our premise is that our faith has to show in the way we live, and God has expectations of us, and will hold us to account. Our approach has been to explore a significant number of scripture passages that have plain teaching about what we should DO, and what we should NOT do. We have built lists on flip-chart paper as we accumulated the Bible's teachings. After we add to the list from a given passage, we then look at Bible examples of faithful people actually putting these into practice, or in some cases unfaithful people failing to do as God directs. The pictures below show the DO and NOT lists we've been building on the wall.

The students have been very engaged in these explorations, and as we were nearing the end of the 4 planned weeks, one student asked that we extend the class. I put it to the rest of the students, and nearly all agreed, including all of those who were scheduled to start on the next scheduled class ("Bible History and Geography"). With that input, we are now going to carry on the Living Faith class for 2 more weeks, and we will re-schedule the History & Geography class for another time. For the current class, anyone who has completed the originally planned 4 sessions will be counted as a completer.

Teen activity put on hold, for now

Dana Pratt and Jennifer Millay have been trying for several weeks to get an after-school teen activity off the ground. There has been interest, but not much attendance. Two teen girls came one week, and that's been it. With nicer weather now here, it seems even less likely that we'll get teens stopping in. So Dana has decided to put this activity aside for now. She will try again in the fall. We still believe that there is an opportunity here for something really good — we just need to a couple of kids to try it & find it enjoyable, then tell their friends.

Recognition for winter completers

(posted by Paul Zilmer)

We didn't have as many people turn our for our recognition event as we had hoped. The completion results were excellent — 17 students completed at least one course from Dec thru Feb. We offered 7 on-site classes and 2 self-study courses. One student completed 6 classes, and two others completed 5. But a number of people had conflicts and some simply didn't show. The ones who came heard a nice Bible talk from Norm, who spoke about "Telling Another Person About Jesus", using examples from the New Testament, as well as examples from among our students, many of whom have told friends & family members about their experience at the BEC, and those people have now also become students.

We've now had two recognitions on Saturdays, one am and one pm. The am time got better response, but we would still like to get more. Next time I think we'll try a weeknight. As you can tell, we're still experimenting, holding onto what works, and trying something else when we think we might do better.

Bottom line - we were very proud of our students, many of whom are taking class after class with us. The level of commitment to study God's word is awesome.

Here are some pictures, mainly showing the informal interaction while we enjoyed the appetizers provided by the sisters.