Five Years of CCS Live
- Keith Stanglin
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Keith D. Stanglin
As we look back on the first five years of the Center for Christian Studies, a recurring theme is how we started out with nothing but good ideas and, by the grace of God and support of so many partners, we have built a foundational set of resources that continues to grow in number and expand in reach.
Just as we knew video series, books, and a journal would be an important part of this ministry to churches, utilizing the means of print and digital technologies, we also knew that live instruction—including in-person gatherings—would be essential. Even the print and video resources we produce are intended to be engaged in groups, with discussion questions and prompts accompanying the videos and books.
On a personal note, oral teaching is how I began in this vocation of academic scholarship and congregational ministry. Before I ever published an article or a book, and long before I ever filmed a video series, I was teaching people in churches and, soon, training ministers in academic institutions. Live instruction, as humans have done it through the greater part of our history—before screens, before print, and even before writing—is the most effective and most meaningful way to communicate.
Live instruction (usually in person, but sometimes mediated through video conferencing) remains at the heart of what we do at the Center for Christian Studies. In our first five years, we have offered more than 50 live events of various types for Christians: from the annual CCS – First Things Lecture to the annual winter class, church leadership seminars, and classes for the whole church.
We provide a wide variety of seminar topics. In our first five years, some of the most popular seminars have been: Teaching Bible Classes, Christians and Politics, Sexual Ethics, Baptism, Christian Evidences (Faith and Reason), History of Christianity, and, of course, our leadership retreats (with Jim Martin and Steve Cloer).
But don’t just take my word for it.
“The CCS Leadership Seminar conducted by Keith Stanglin and Jim Martin was truly a milestone for our congregation. The number of men who attended from both our English and Spanish members (translation was provided) was in and of itself a great encouragement. But even more, Keith’s and Jim’s presentations were a wonderful complementary blend of scholarship and down-to-earth practical wisdom. Everyone I spoke with after the seminar was eager to find some way to serve in the various ministries of the church. Thanks to Keith and Jim and to CCS for their good work for the Kingdom.”
—Mike Young, Elder, Walnut Hill Church of Christ
“Upon completion of the CCS retreat, I feel like I have drunk out of a firehose! There was still so much to digest. Thank you so very much for your excellent direction and Spirit-filled guidance. Your encouragement and concern for this eldership and ministers were so evident and much appreciated. I particularly appreciated that the direction was scripturally focused. Practical suggestions and use of examples were so helpful. I am so very thankful for the introduction to CCS resources and I look forward to looking closer into these. I strongly believe that any church group could benefit from this type of retreat (deacons, young families, women, etc.). Overall, this retreat provided a time of healing, rejuvenation, and focus that I believe our eldership very much needed. Thank you for this! May God continue to bless this wonderful ministry!”
—Steve Moore, Elder, West Side Church of Christ; Professor of Biology, Harding University
“We loved having Keith visit and speak at our church. His Saturday morning workshop on Effective Bible Class teaching was not only well-attended, but well received. I believe that our Bible class hour as churches is important to church health and spiritual growth, and it was so useful to gain more tools to help this happen. Keith’s workshop helped us with understanding our goals for classes, resources to make Bible study/teaching more effective, and a practical example of how we can do this. Time well spent!”
—Kelly Neill, Lead Minister, Bentonville Church of Christ
We tailor our seminars to just what a church needs, designed to help your congregation grow in knowledge and to inspire believers for faithful living. See our fuller list of seminar topics and contact us about offering one for your congregation.
