Bishop Kemper School for Ministry
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August 2019 Course Descriptions

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August Overview
  • Classes meet  August 10-11 from Saturday at 12:30 pm (lunch at noon) to Sunday at 12:00 noon.
  • Classes begin on Monday, July 15.
  • Classes end on Friday, September 13 (if taken for credit).
  • Tuition is $100 to audit, $195 for credit, which includes your overnight stay at Upton Hall & all meals.
  • If you prefer a hotel, BKSM has a special rate of $75.50 (including tax) at nearby  Senate Luxury Suites.
  • Apply for the $100 Jim Upton lay scholarship.
  • Register online for classes.
BKSM welcomes you to take courses with us for personal enrichment or continuing education. Classes are always richer with occasional students around the table.  We encourage you to experience this remarkable, uplifting community of learning, worship and fellowship for yourself!

Christian Spirituality
This course acquaints you with some of the major themes, traditions and practices of Christian spirituality, introduces you to resources so that you may assist others with their spiritual journey, and provides you guidance in developing your own Rule, or way of life, to sustain you through the discernment and/or education process and your current and future ministry.
Book List            
  • Guenther, M. At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us. New York: Seabury, 2006.
  • Cox and Brown, V. Fully Alive: Inside Stories of Ordinary People and Extraordinary Authenticity. Dunnegan, MO:  Rivendell Press, 2012.  2 vol.  (available through instructor)
Your Instructor
  • The Rev. Virginia Brown brings wide pastoral experience to the ministry of teaching, having served congregations of various sizes in small town and urban settings, a new church plant, and college chaplaincy. In addition to teaching, her ministry has particularly focused on offering spiritual direction and retreats.

Christian Theology II
Christian Theology II provides a biblical, historical, and systematic overview of the following Christian concepts: Christ and Salvation, the Holy Spirit, Church and Sacraments, and Eschatology. The goal of this course is to provide diaconal candidates (as well as lay persons interested in personal enrichment) with a theological foundation for effective ministry in the world today.
Reading List     
  • McGrath, Alister. Theology: The Basics, 4th ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2018.
  • McGrath, Alister. Theology: The Basic Readings, 3rd ed. Wiley Blackwell, 2018.
Your Instructor
  • Dr. Wilburn (Bill) T. Stancil is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Rockhurst University, Kansas City.  Since 1980, he has taught theology at four different universities and theological seminaries.  Dr. Stancil is a licensed lay preacher in the Episcopal Church and a frequent speaker to civic groups and churches of many denominations in the Kansas City area.

Homiletics for Lay Preachers
This course provides students an overview of basic homiletical principles as these pertain to the ministry of lay preaching. Students will offer practice sermons.
Reading List     
  • Long, Thomas G. The Witness of Preaching, third edition. Westminster John Knox Press. 2016.
Your Instructor
  • The Rev. Dr. Bill Fasel has been an Episcopal priest since 1990. He currently serves as the Ministry Developer for the Northeast Episcopal Regional Ministry in the Diocese of West Missouri. He is also the Assistant to the Bishop for Leadership Development. Fasel holds a D.Min. in Congregational Development from Seabury-Western.

Old Testament II: Pentateuch & Histories
This course is a close examination of the Pentateuch/Torah and the historical books of the Hebrew Bible (which, for our purposes, will include Gen, Exod, Lev, Num, Deut, Josh, Judg, 1 and 2 Sam, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chr). The course will focus on the historical settings, literary artistry, and major themes of these books and is meant to equip participants with the tools necessary to read biblical texts critically and to appreciate their complexity. To these ends we will read the biblical text primarily from the perspectives of its ancient authors and readers.
Book List            
  • New Revised Standard Version of the Bible (a study Bible will prove most useful, e.g., The HarperCollins Study Bible or The New Oxford Annotated Bible)
  • Dozeman, Thomas B. The Pentateuch: Introducing the Torah. Introducing Israel's Scriptures series. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2017
  • Levenson, Jon D.  Sinai and Zion: An Entry into the Jewish Bible. San Francisco: HarperCollins. 1987.
Recommended:
  •  Coogan, Michael D. The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 
  • Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, Michael Fishbone, eds., The Jewish Study Bible: Featuring the Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Your Instructor
  • Dr. Melissa Tubbs-Loya has a PhD in Hebrew Bible from Boston College and a masters in the subject from Yale Divinity School. Her current research interests focus on prophetic warnings of decreation. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
Register Now for August Courses
Address for Tuition Payments/Donations:
The Very Rev. Don Compier, BKSM Dean
410 SE Independence Ave.

Lee’s Summit, MO 64063
Physical Address:
Bishop Kemper School for Ministry

701 SW 8th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66603

The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry is a collaborative venture of the Episcopal Dioceses of Kansas, West Missouri, Nebraska and Western Kansas.
BKSM also partners with the Central States Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
BKSM offers classes and programs to educate people for church leadership in both lay and ordained vocations.