Summer Adult Bible School 2025
The theme selected for this summer is Peace in Our Hearts: Peace in the World. We live in times filled with many forms of violence and war. And our hearts are often troubled. Indeed, finding the peace of Christ in our hearts, and living with the violence in our world may be one of the greatest challenges facing contemporary Christians.
To assist us in reflecting on and expanding the peace offered to us by God, we’ve assembled ten sessions during the summer. Each session is on Wednesday morning at 10:00am in Fellowship Hall. Please join us as you are able throughout the summer.
Sessions:
June 18 - Larry Pinnow will begin our series with "War, Destruction and Peace in the Bible" Why does there seem to be so much killing and destruction in the Bible? Is peace possible? Who or where is God in all of this? Please register here by June 15.
June 25 - Blake Rohrer will share his extensive work on Palestine and the struggles facing people in the Middle East. Please register here by June 22.
July 9 - Denny Weaver, a retired theology professor from Bluffton College, will share perspectives on peace in the Mennonite Tradition. Please register here by July 6.
July 16 - Margit Gundlach, who has deep family ties to Ukraine and is active in the Ukrainian community in Madison, will focus our attention on peace in the Ukraine. Please register here by July 13.
July 23 - Beth O’Brien, a member of Midvale and a seasoned spiritual director, will present "Inner Peace: Prayer & Presence.” This presentation will offer an understanding of these two virtues of the spiritual journey and how they connect deeply to the inner peace we all desire. Beth will speak from her own life experience as well as offering insights from spiritual authors, while inviting participants into experiential opportunities so that all attendees will leave with concrete spiritual practices to ‘work with and embody’ on the quest for Inner Peace. Please register here by July 20.
July 30 - Jerry Folk, a former executive director for the ELCA's Commission for Church in Society and former executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches, who has studied the work of Gandhi, will focus on Mohandas Ghandi’s Nonviolence: An Alternative to War? How do we fight for the things we believe and the people we love without destroying them? Please register here by July 27.
August 6 - Jack Finney, a member of Midvale and a spiritual director who has led several sessions in our adult learning programs, will share ways we can open ourselves to inner peace even when there are storms around us. We will also share times when we experienced "the peace that passes human understanding." Please register here by August 3.
August 13 - Judy Nolde, a member of Midvale, a deacon in the ELCA, chaplain at Central Wisconsin Center and a spiritual director, will share ways of discovering Inner Peace through Art. Please register here by August 10.
August 20 - Jeff Wild, a member of Midvale who has focused on turning guns into garden tools, will consider Gun Violence and Peace Beyond Prevention. Please register here by August 17.
August 27 - Bonnie Block, a former Executive Director of the Lutheran Peace Fellowship and the Wisconsin Network for Peace, and a former Justice Chair of the National Council of the Fellowship of Reconciliation based in New York, will conclude our series with “The Practice of Active Nonviolence, Civil Disobedience and Public Advocacy in Working for Peace and Justice by Ending Ending Violence and War.” Please register here by August 24.
Please join us for the sessions. You can attend some or all of the sessions. Pre-registration is very helpful. join us once again for thoughtful and inspiring mornings this summer.