Tusculum Church of Christ

If we don't pay attention, we might miss the clear messages God is sending our way. Jesus was accompanied by signs, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit. What messages is God sending to you?

Angels are messengers from God. Those who encounter them are in awe of their presence. Yet God has sent us his only begotten Son whose role in our life is of even greater significance.

The fullness of all things resides in Jesus Christ. He is the hope of our ancestors of faith, and the Lord toward whom we journey in this life as he guides and helps us.

Grace truly is amazing! Our youth minister, Will Case, reflects with us on the value of grace and how to both appreciate it and enact it more deeply.

This final conversation takes a serious look at our context at the Tusculum Church of Christ. More than 50% of the population around us are people in their 30s, often with young children. We ask some serious questions about our practices, which were a terrific fit for the mid-1900s when we were growing rapidly, and whether our practices are the best possible fit for the actual people we are trying...

This was the second to last class. Up until this point, Mark Adams and Laura Lasher have always collaborated on class content, and Mark has been the one presenting. For today, Mark presents a Personal Position Worksheet to help participants work through all class content and reach a conclusion about what they believe Scripture teaches regarding women. To demonstrate the result of using this worksh...

Greg Petree lead a second discussion with participants on the class on the subject of women in church life.

This class is a sweeping view of women in the Restoration Movement, beginning in the early 1800s up to the present time. A common misconception among churches of Christ today is that we had general uniformity from our origins up until the last few decades. In fact, women were included in a number of ways in our earlier years that in most churches of Christ they are not today. What led to our tight...

Greg Petree, on behalf of the elders, leads a discussion of the class content up to this point and how people are experiencing it.

Where 1 Timothy 2 tends to be central to a restrictive interpreter's view of women, Galatians 3:28 tends to be central to an unrestrictive interpreter's view of women. We will look at the history of this idea of inclusion throughout Scripture and how it leads into this text. We will also drop by some Patristic writers to see their practices and teachings regarding women.

1 Timothy 2 is one of the most hotly debated passages of Scripture on any topic. It is, of course, central to much of the debate between those who take a restrictive view of women's participation in church life versus those who take an unrestrictive view of women's participation. We will look at some of the historical and religious backdrop of Ephesus. The context played heavily into Acts 19. Ther...

1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is a small passage couched in many interpretive difficulties. In this class we attempt to understand some of the debates around the text, its variant readings, and what to do with it. What do we think about the gifts and talents God gives us and their proper usage? Please note: There were difficulties with the audio for this class and the first five minutes are missing. Part...

This is a deep exploration into 1 Corinthians 11, what it says about women's involvement in the early Church and some possible ideas of what to do with the "head covering" passages. Class begins with an Interlude about commonly held positions regarding Women and their inclusion--or exclusion--from Church life in various settings.

Much like the previous lesson, the topic of Women in the New Testament is far too large for a single class. This lesson provides a brief overview of changes resulting from the intertestamental period for the status of women as well as an examination of key cultural realities for women in the setting where the New Testament stories were lived out and written down. There is a special section that ta...

It is an absurdity to try and cover a topic so large as "Women in the Old Testament" in a single class. However, for the sake of this study, this class is a sweeping overview of women in the Old Testament. We give special attention to the creation of Woman, the Fall, and many harsh realities of women's lives in the cultures represented in the Old Testament.

It is important that we learn how to study and interpret Scripture theologically. This means that we try to take a healthy approach to the entirety of Scripture and particularly what it tells us about God, God's actions, and God's character. Knowing the clear picture of God helps us to discern what we should do with smaller portions of Scripture that are difficult or confusing for us. If we look a...

An introductory lesson for this study which talks about Biblical interpretation and how it works. We spend some time talking on the three part "Restoration Hermeneutic." Mark suggests some best practices for us as we engage God's word on difficult topics.

Given enough time and opportunities, all human beings let us down, at least sometimes. We are frail, imperfect, and subject to the limitations of flesh, blood, time, and fatigue. But God has no such limitations. He doesn't grow tired or need to sleep. Even nature obeys him. Our God is all-powerful.

God provides. He makes a way where there is no way. He sends the sun and the rains. God knows what we need and makes provisions so that we can flourish, even in harsh circumstances.

God will never abandon us. God is the Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to go search for the one who is lost. He is the Father who waits for his child to come home.

We've all had the experience of someone promising to us one thing, then failing to deliver with their actions. But God is trustworthy and reliable, giving us what we need when we need it, and much reason to tell the next generation that "God is faithful."

Many have experienced mistreatment by the hand of the people they needed and trusted most to love and care for them. God is not abusive. God is a healer; our great physician.

People are busy. Under the financial burdens of providing and the stress of working, parents may struggle to tend to their children as well as they'd like, and disconnects can occur. But God is not disconnected from us or our situation. He knows us even better than we know ourselves.

We are emotional beings who long for an emotional connection with others. In fact, if we don't tend to this aspect of our being, we can become withered and discouraged. God is not emotionally distant, but is instead a God of Empathy and Grace.

Some adults, unfortunately, place onto their children expectations that no one could achieve. It is tempting to know the perfection and holiness of God and to experience anxiety born of the worry of never measuring up. Instead, the real God we've come to know is a God of deep compassion.