2023

Kara Gilliard, CFO, The Oikos Institute for Social Impact
Simone Craig, Financial Services Consultant, Crossing Capital Group

Course Description:

Are your organizational finances in order? Do you have an annual budget? If you were presented with a grant opportunity today, would you have complete and accurate financial statements ready to go? This course will equip you with the knowledge to develop or enhance your institution’s essential fiscal management practices. You also will gain a better understanding of the steps needed to successfully position your institution to receive grant funding.

James Woods II, Associate Pastor, First UMC McKinney, Adjunct Lecturer and Certificate in Spiritual Direction Faculty, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description: 

The Labyrinth Workshop will explore the ancient practice of the prayer labyrinth as a means of engaging sacred space both without and within. As all contemplative disciplines are balanced by pragmatic action, this course will holistically combine brief classroom learnings on the history and symbolism of the labyrinth with the practical experience of navigating the labyrinth within the Perkins cloister.* The class will conclude with a moment of mutual sharing and reflection.

*The use of ‘finger’ labyrinths will likewise be available for those whom walking proves challenging.

Heather Gottas Moore, Assistant Director for Lifelong Learning, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description:

What if we could understand human sexuality in a way that brings about healing for ourselves and our churches without having to be “right” or “wrong”? Discussions of human sexuality in the church are fraught. Most often, the discussion is narrowly focused, causing contention and disagreement, further entrenching an “us vs. them” mentality. The harm done by this conflict is extensive. In this course, students will recall their individual understandings of sexuality, learn to redefine human sexuality as a natural and integral part of who we are as created beings of God, and begin to reframe human sexuality more broadly to include areas of our lives that are intrinsically expressions and manifestations of our sexuality.

Abraham Smith, Professor of New Testament, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description: 

As one response to the popular-but-flawed expression “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it,” the course will seek to show how the formation of the New Testament has had a long gestation from the development of the term "New Testament" as a collection of individual books to the canonization of 27 books and on to the popularizing of these Greek-language texts into English language translations that we can read and use in our churches today. On the one hand, the course seeks to dispel the idea that the New Testament as we know it has been stable and changeless from its roots to its reception in our contemporary world. On the other hand, the course seeks to show that the vitality of these ancient works as witnesses for faith, study and practice can be seen in the centuries of efforts to preserve and, yet, popularize these works for succeeding generations.  

Robert Hunt, Director, Global Theological Education and Center for Evangelism and Missional Church Studies, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description:

In this short seminar, we'll learn what AI really is, and is not, and the basics of how it works. We'll look at how AI can be a tool for use by churches in ministry, how it can replace some kinds of ministers and, most importantly, how it is changing our concepts of what it means to be human (and thus challenging not only our ethics but the way in which we interpret and bear witness to the gospel). 

Dallas Gingles, Director, Houston-Galveston Extension Program and Perkins Fellow in Systematic Theology, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description:

Christians are often tempted to confuse their own pet political project with the will of God. Both the practice of prayer and the work of politics challenge this simplistic and self-congratulatory confusion. This course locates prayer and politics within the Christian doctrine of providence, in order to help us think about faithful Christian action in these particularly challenging political times. 

Hal Recinos, Professor of Church and Society, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description:

This course will be largely taught in the style of a poetry writing workshop in which participants will present work and the entire class, led by the instructor, will provide feedback of a constructive nature to the learner/poet. The learner/poet will engage in a process of looking at one’s culture and the world one inhabits, thus deepening self-identity in that culture and articulating a poetic response to/from it. The goal of the class is to bring poetry to life and to help you in the effort to write your own poems. In class, let us explore statements such as this: Is poetry helpful and relevant, or is it just a form of entertainment? How can we see the issues in our own lives reflected in the poetry we read, and, through an historical perspective, gain wisdom on how to live? What matters most—the author’s intent, or the reader’s response?

Click here for recommended readings.

Myles Werntz, Associate Professor of Theology, Director of the Baptist House, Abilene Christian University

Course Description:

Christian nonviolence has a long and storied history which dates back to the earliest decades of Christianity, and which was maintained in various forms and fashions until the present. In the 20^th century, the story of Christian nonviolence became pluralized in ways which complicated and deepened its commitments to peace in the way of Jesus. In this seminar, we will read selections from some of the 20^th century’s leading proponents of nonviolence, and see what Christian nonviolence might offer to conflict today.

Elias Lopez, Associate Director of the Intern Program, Perkins School of Theology

Course Description:

In this workshop, we will consider what Jesus meant by calling us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Using the Good Samaritan parable as a foundation, the workshop will study the basic components of pastoral care to help participants identify supportive and caring approaches for providing spiritual care to those in need. In doing so, we will consider the uniqueness of all individuals as we explore loving ways to build compassionate relational connections.