Faith Academy

Now in its second year, the purpose of the Myers Park Faith Academy is to offer opportunities for learning and reflection that will help us to grow in our faith.  Such a purpose prompts many questions.  What does a faithful life look like?  How do we grow in our faith? 

What does a faithful life look like?  Jesus was once asked to name the greatest commandment.  He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”  Based on Jesus’ words, a faithful life is one dedicated to loving God and loving our neighbor.  It is at once private and personal, involving us in a deep relationship with God, and also public and social, drawing us into a relationship with others. 

How do we grow in our faith?  We grow in our faith as we seek to love God and our neighbor, both as individuals and as the Body of Christ.  Such a faith can be divided into four areas of action: Worship, devotion, compassion, and justice. Through acts of devotion, we can grow in our love for God through personal, private spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible reading, and inward reflection.  When we come together as the Body of Christ to experience God’s grace, we also love God through acts of worship. God’s Word and Sacrament enable us to build each other up in the faith.  Through acts of compassion, we express our love for neighbor through simple acts of kindness, offered to anyone who is in need anywhere in the world.  But we not only minister to people in need.  We must also ask why they are in need in the first place.  Thus, acts of justice involve us in the work of bringing God’s righteousness and justice to life in our world.

The courses of the Faith Academy are centered on these four areas: Devotion, worship, compassion, and justice.  Our hope is that as we learn together, we will discover how God is moving in our midst, calling us to get up and go, to move and change with Jesus, and to grow in the image and likeness of God. 

Learn about Winter, 2011 classes and register online.

Find out more about the habits and practices explored in the Academy.


 

The logo for the Myers Park Faith Academy is a modern representation of a tree, growing at the intersection of two rivers. It is based on Jeremiah 17:7 and a verse from Thomas Troeger’s hymn, Praise the Source of Faith and Learning.

“Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream,”

“As two currents in a river fight each other’s undertow, till converging they deliver
one coherent steady flow, blend, O God, our faith and learning till they carve a single course,
till they join as one, returning praise and thanks to you, their Source.”