Christian Education Resources

An area in which we would love to grow, as a church, is in our understanding and use of the gifts of the Spirit. As a step in that direction, our June CE class will be seeking to answer some common questions, and connect you with people who have similar giftings, so that you can grow in skill, understanding and courage to use those gifts in the body. Each session will have testimonies and stories from fellow RHCers, as well as group discussions on how we can grow together in this area.

Session One will answer questions such as: What does the bible say about spiritual gifts? What are they exactly? Do all Christians have spiritual gifts? And what purpose do these gifts serve?

Session Two will address various attitudes that people have when it comes to spiritual gifts, good and bad ways to go about discerning your own spiritual gift, and how scripture instructs you to think about it.

Session Three will discuss various reasons as to why we are reluctant to use our gifts, and how instead of neglecting them, we are to grow in our gifts so as to be a blessing to the body. There will be various breakout rooms where people with similar giftings can gather, learn and grow from one another.

“Turn the other cheek”, “Go the extra mile”, “Thou shall not judge” are popularly-used phrases that have entered into our modern lingo. But did you know that they come from a larger coherent Sermon spoken from the lips of our blessed Saviour? What if we navigated these three chapters as they were originally heard: as one cohesive, well-ordered message, intended to challenge us to think differently about how to live a life of wisdom and flourishing?

Session 1: An invitation to human flourishing

Very often, we hashtag #blessed in our social media to express our delight at having received something from God. Occasionally, it is really a backhanded boast of our achievements! What does living a ‘blessed’ life really look like? What does Jesus have to offer to those who live according to his invitation?

Session 2: An inside-out righteousness

Jesus loves you so much that he cares about what goes on beneath the surface. What does Jesus have to say to you about that seething anger? Or that uncontrollable lust? Or that bitter unforgiveness toward those who have hurt you? What does being perfect like our Heavenly Father look like?

Session 3: Whose applause?

Have you ever been overly self-conscious about how others might think about your prayer in public? Do you occasionally drop hints to others about the great things that you have done for God? In what ways might our practice of Christian disciplines slip into a performance mode? How then are we to live our lives before the audience of One?

Session 4: People, Possessions, and Paths to life

We all tend to take money too seriously and people too lightly. What does Jesus have to say about the way we relate to possessions and to people? How does seeking His kingdom and righteousness free us from a life of anxiety?

The Doctrine of the Resurrection is one of the most empowering, encouraging and vital doctrines of the Christian faith. How well do you know and understand it? Do you know its relevance in your life? Without the resurrection of Christ, the cross would be emptied of its power for our salvation and sanctification.

We invite you to join us as we explore the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection and its implications for our lives through a close study of the Scriptures. The material from this class is based on Richard Gaffin’s books on Christ’s resurrection, so that if you want to take your understanding beyond our class you can dig into his books.

Session 1: Christ’s resurrection and Ours

Why is Christ known as the firstborn from the dead? What is the relationship between Christ’s resurrection and the New creation? We are both new creations now and one day in eternity. If so, how should this change the way we think about Christ and our time on earth?

Session 2: Christ’s resurrection and our sanctification

Often we think about justification as something that is done for us by grace, while sanctification is something that we have to do in our own strength. How does the death and resurrection of Jesus make our efforts to live holy lives actually possible, not pointless?

Session 3: Christ’s resurrection and our suffering

If we live long enough, we will suffer or we will know someone who is suffering. Often we think about suffering as a necessary evil that will one day go away, as we patiently await the final day where all tears and sorrows will become untrue. What if our union with Christ means that suffering is God’s gift to us? What if our suffering is not in spite of, but because of having been raised with Christ? What if we can enjoy our final glory provided that we suffer like and with our Saviour?

Come and be enriched and encouraged by a deep dive into the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection.

Do you get less than 6 hours of sleep a night? Or struggle with feeling overwhelmed by the busyness of life? Is your downtime restful and restorative or just a place-holder until you have to jump on the treadmill of busyness all over again?

What comes to mind when you hear the word “Stewardship”? Most of us merely think of duties and constraints. But in reality, stewardship preaches the freedom that we have in Christ and the goodness of God towards us. In this 3 week CE class we will cover what stewardship looks like with regards to our time, our rest and our bodies.

Session One: Understanding the good news of God’s ownership

In this session you will learn about how to think rightly about stewardship, the implications of our misunderstandings and the freedom that comes when we apply these truths well to our lives.

Session Two: Stewarding time and rest

Busyness and laziness resides in us all as we learn what it means to be good stewards of our time and leisure to the glory of God. This session will unpack some of the deeper motivators, how Christ speaks into these and what are some principles and practices we can apply to our time and rest so that our lives reflect the goodness of God.

Session Three: Stewarding our bodies

There is nothing like good health that leads us to believe wrongly in our invincibility, or poor health that confronts us of our frailty. This session will cover how God views our bodies. What is God’s purposes for good and poor health? How can we practically magnify Christ in our bodies in both seasons of health and sickness?

What comes to mind when you think about Paul’s letter to the Romans? For some of you, Romans is a towering and unapproachable book that you refuse to touch with a ten foot pole; for some of you, Romans seems to be the perfect place for ‘theological types’ to geek out; for others, you have your go-to passages for memorisation, but have no idea how the book hangs together as a whole. To be fair, the immense riches and depths of this magisterial letter accounts for why countless preachers have taken decades to preach through it. John Piper took eight years, while the esteemed British preacher Martyn Lloyd Jones, fourteen!

The overall goal of our Grow in the Word workshop however is far humbler: To acquaint you with the Epistle–particularly through a How-to-read-the Epistles framework–so that you will be willing to explore the book further in your own devotions, one-to-one bible reading, or during your CG meetings.

Each participant will have an opportunity to engage in hands-on practice during the workshop in your breakout groups. You will be given knowledge and skills such as the following:

Discovering the overall theme of Romans by looking at the recipients’ circumstances, author’s occasion for writing and the bookends of the letter

Discerning the main point of a given passage through ‘clues’ like repeated words, connectives, indicatives and imperatives, etc.

Understanding the way in which a passage alludes or refers to another Old Testament passage

Identifying the Fallen condition Focus, Gracious provision and call to action for each passage

Applying the book to our life and ministry

Prior to this workshop, there will be content videos to watch so that we can focus on getting our hands dirty on the day of the workshop. By the end of everything, you will have completed a demonstration video on a particular passage, and worked through two other passages in some depth.

(This workshop included a hands-on session to apply the content above. We highly encourage you to register for future GIW workshops to have a richer experience of the workshop.)

Spiritual Friendship may at first glance seem like a relatively simple and straightforward topic, possibly even unimportant enough to devote an entire CE class to. If this is your thinking, I want to tell you that you can’t be more wrong. Spiritual friendships are not only some of the sweetest and most precious relationships, but they are as complicated as they are necessary.

Session One: Created for Connection

What exactly is friendship? How is the importance of these relationships rooted in God’s biblical design? What happens when we under or over value this relationship? Why are deep relationships so challenging?

Session Two: A picture of true friendship

In this session, we cover 5 things that characterise true friendships and get practical with nuances that don’t often get spoken about. If friendship is crucial, what does that mean for different personality types? If friendship is close, then what must we do to seek or maintain that closeness without suffocating it? If friendship is candid, how do we love in truth without damaging it?

Session Three: Cultivating Connection

This session gets very practical by looking at how friendship with Christ impacts the way we experience friendship. Who can we become close friends with? How do we cultivate healthy friendships? What do we do with broken friendships or disappointments in friendships?

No one wants to make a bad decision, whether it be at work, in a relationship, with our finances or in following God. But how exactly do we go about making these good decisions? We know 8 balls, tarot cards and horoscopes aren’t the way and yet we can still be tempted to use God just like that. What does it mean to seek God for guidance and how do we practically do it so that we can make God-honouring, good decisions? Does God care who you date? Should you quit your job before having a new one? You aren’t sure if you should buy or sell your stocks - is this something you should even pray about? How would God answer these questions?

In this CE class you will learn:

Session One: Understanding God's Ways and Guidance

How does God’s sovereignty over not just the big things but his meticulous interest in the small things impact us?

Should we seek signs?

How does God guide?

Session Two: Understanding Our Responsibility

Does God have a secret will for my life and am I meant to discover it?

What happens if I make a ‘wrong choice’?

Shouldn’t I just be pragmatic about my decisions?

Session Three: How to Make Decisions

What are some wrong ways to use scripture and common mistakes

Learn a practical framework to help you in God-honouring decision-making

Did you know that the Prophets occupy one-third of the Old Testament? To skip over them is to deprive ourselves of the riches of God’s complete revelation. The central message of God’s judgement and restoration in the Prophets is no less than the story of the gospel to the nations. Israel’s exile and restoration is but a movie trailer of what is to come for all who would put their trust in God’s saving purposes!

In this workshop, you will learn:

- How to orientate yourself to the timeline of the Prophets and their audiences

- How to identify the promised blessings and curses of the Law of Moses in the Prophets

- How to discern common characteristics of prophetic literature (e.g. oracles, disputation, lawsuits, etc)

- How to understand the different levels of fulfillment of a promise (e.g. immediate, Christ, and final fulfillment)

- How to apply the Prophets (both promises of judgement and mercy) to our daily lives

(This workshop included a hands-on session to apply the content above. We highly encourage you to register for future GIW workshops to have a richer experience of the workshop.)

This class explores “What God has to say about Singleness” with our special guest, Sam Allberry. Sam is a pastor, apologist, speaker, and author of a number of books, including 7 Myths About Singleness.

Sam will help us begin to process the experience of being single in today’s world by viewing the common struggles and misconceptions through a gospel lens. How does the Bible speak into the desires for companionship, security, and sexual intimacy? How does the Word of God expose the lies that are sown by the prevailing cultural narrative? Lies that tell us that marriage is guaranteed, or that our value comes from becoming a spouse, or that singleness consigns one to a life of loneliness? Join us as we explore how we can wrestle with God well in the midst of this pain, and the ultimate hope we have in Christ. As Sam writes in his book, “If marriage shows us the shape of the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency.”

This class is for all of us—singles and marrieds. We want to equip ourselves as a church to be able to love and serve our single brothers and sisters well, and this CE class is one way we desire to take steps forward in this conversation. In the same way that we need one another in our marriages and parenting, let’s begin to see how we can grow as a church family alongside our single brothers and sisters—that no matter what season of life we’re in, to help each other be single-minded in our pursuit of Christ as our greatest treasure.

How we raise children in the ways of the Lord is a question that produces an array of responses. Some of us are excited to grow in our parenting, while others feel defeated by a sense of constant failure. The goal of this class is to help you consider your heart, your children’s heart and how to embody Christ to them.

Part 1: The Heart of Empowered Parenting

Repeating patterns in your child’s behaviour and your own can feel so defeating. Guilt is often a close companion of many fathers and mothers. This session will primarily help you to understand yourself, your child and your God who is at work. We will give you a framework from which you can understand the multiple influences that are impacting your family dynamics such as culture, family background, temperament, values, and sin.

Part 2: The Way of Empowered Parenting

None of us are static. We are always moving toward God and life, or away from Him toward death. This means we need to be thoughtful and intentional about where we are moving and leading our families. This session answers the HOW question. How do I make the most of teaching moments throughout the week? How do I plan and execute family devotions? How can I get help from the other families in the church to parent in my own brokenness?

Part 3: Parenting in a Fallen World

Our children live in a world whose secular narratives on sexuality, social media, stress and special needs, go against the grain of the biblical narrative. Listen to conversations on these topics:

How to parent in a hyper sexualised culture

The Tech wise family - navigating social media and screen time

Mental Health and Family - Stress/Anxiety/Fear (in both parents and children)

Parenting special needs children

What does it mean when you don’t feel close to God? Is “communing with God” just a subjective experience? Is God working to close that gap or He is the unchanging one who doesn’t move and it’s up to us to draw near to Him? This class explores what it means to have a life connected and alive to God.

Part 1: How Would God Rate the Relationship?

When we aren't sure what someone thinks about us, it makes us tentative. Yet we delight to spend time with people who make us feel safe and unconditionally loved. This session will unearth the false beliefs we have about God’s disposition, and explore who he really is.

Part 2: Diagnosing the Disconnect

Do you pray and read your Bible every day, yet still feel disconnected with God? This session wrestles with the difficulty of communing with God in a fallen world.

Part 3: Habits of Purpose in a Distracting World

Ever wonder why it’s so easy to form bad habits, yet so hard to change them? This session shows us how Scripture speaks practically to these physical realities and calls us to think about spiritual disciplines in a completely different way.

This class will prepare you for the Grow-in-the-Word workshop on ‘How to read the Old Testament Prophets’.

Part 1: Around the Bible in 60 Minutes

Have you ever read the Bible and wonder how all the seemingly loose stories tie together? Have you ever wished that someone would give you a ‘Bible map’ so that you can orientate yourself whenever you open God’s word? In this first part, we will do a breath-taking jet tour, spanning 66 books by over 40 authors from Genesis to Revelation, all in 60 minutes!

Part 2: ‘It’s All About Jesus’

If you have been in RHC long enough, you would have realised that the answer to almost everything seems to be ‘Jesus’. Have you ever struggled to ‘locate Jesus’ in the Old Testament? When you are reading the Psalms or any Old Testament passage, do you conveniently skip over ‘getting to Jesus’ because you are clueless on how to do so? We will look at the right and wrong ways to get to Christ as well as see how Jesus is actually at the heart of both the Old and the New Testament, so that we would not only improve in our Bible reading skills, but increase in our adoration for our Saviour.

Part 3: Our Place in God’s Story

How do we fit into the storyline of the Bible? How does knowing God’s story reshape our own life story? In this class, we will take two themes--namely, idolatry and Sonship-- and trace them through the Bible to see how they impact our walk and our ministry.

Many of us have our go-to Psalms. We all love how they speak to our souls, especially in particular seasons of our lives. They contain God’s words to us as well as our words back to Him. However, what about the lesser known Psalms? Or the ones that we don't quite relate to? Are individual psalms meant to be read without connection to the rest? Or is there an overarching message and purpose to the book of Psalms? Why does God use imprecise poetry instead of direct commands? Do we pray Psalms that call down judgment on our enemies? Essentially, how can we pray the Psalms rightly in Christ?

The teaching videos will cover skills such as:

How to breakdown the Psalms to see their structures

How to identify genres within the Psalms

How to understand Hebrew poetic devices

How to read the Psalms with reference to Christ

(This workshop included a hands-on session to apply the content above. We highly encourage you to register for future GIW workshops to have a richer experience of the workshop.)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!” (Eph 1:3)

What are these spiritual blessings that Paul is speaking of? How do we get them in Christ?

Unit 1: The Aspects and Nature of Our Union with Christ

Expressions such as “in Him”, “in Christ”, and “in the beloved” are used over 160 times in the New Testament. This session seeks to explore both the nature and the different aspects of our union. It is “in Christ” that believers are elected, buried, raised, live out their Christian lives and die. How does knowing this change the way we see Christ and our identity?

Unit 2: Union with Christ and Our Justification

Is God unjust to declare sinners righteous? How does being in Christ deal with the guilt that we have inherited while we were in Adam? This session will explore how Jesus’ resurrection becomes the basis for God for declaring us righteous in Christ.

Unit 3: Union with Christ and Our Sanctification

How is the power of sin broken in Christ? What guarantees our progress in holiness? How can we have assurance that God will save us to the end? Find out how our growth in holiness is ultimately not about what we can achieve, but primarily what God has first done for us in Christ, to make us like Christ.

Someone once wrote, “Once you have your eyes opened to this concept of union with Christ, you will find it almost everywhere in the New Testament”!

Since the beginning, as part of God’s good creation, mankind has been given the mandate to work. This mandate is to reflect God’s image and bring His dominion into the world. Fast forward to our present day. Work is often bemoaned. It’s the cause of much toil, suffering, futility, and idolatry. What implications does the Gospel have for our work now? This class explores work under the themes of:

Creation

What’s the original purpose and meaning of work?

The Fall

What are the implications of the Fall (and how we consequently may struggle with the idolatry of work)?

Redemption

One strand of the redemptive work of the Gospel is rest from our labour: the Sabbath. How do we properly Sabbath in 2020 and beyond?

This class explores issues such as the use of social media, sexuality, and politics from a Christian perspective. Learn how to think through these issues with a Christian mind.

Unit 1: The Christian & Social Media

Should Christians avoid or embrace social media? What does following Jesus on social media look like? What are some of the pitfalls/usefulness of social media? What does it look like for us to disciple each other in the use of social media?

Unit 2: The Christian & Sexuality

How has the Fall resulted in sexual brokenness? How can I learn to find my identity outside of my sexuality? How can I navigate the issue of sexuality in an ever-changing climate? Learn about the hope that God holds out for the sexually broken in His gospel.

Unit 3: The Christian & Politics

Who would Jesus vote for? What does God and The Gospel have to do with politics? How can we pursue a gospel unity when our political convictions divide us? This unit will provide a Biblical framework through which we can think about these questions, and better understand the relationship between God’s Kingdom and the kingdoms of the world, and what that means for you and me.

Sometimes when we hear the word “doctrine”, we assume it is meant only for ‘heady’ Christians who like engaging in intellectual arguments. However, in this class, you'll see how it plays an important role in our practical lives and ministry, and explore how these doctrines can speak to our fears and anxieties during these strange and troubling times.

Unit One: God’s Providence, a Comfort in Crisis

Many of us have partial views of God’s sovereignty. Some of us think that God is sovereign but unkind; some of us wonder if He is sovereign over the minutiae of our lives; others believe that God’s sovereignty excuses Christians from living responsibly in prayer and trust. How can the knowledge that He is in control help us to suffer with a faith that both honours Him and encourages others?

Unit Two: Remember Death

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Yet death remains a taboo in all cultures. We either avoid talking about it, or pretend that it is natural. How should a Christian think about death? Where happens after we die? How can we grieve with hope over the death of others? How can we wisely prepare ourselves for death?

Unit Three: Christian Assurance Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares

Am I truly a Christian? Few questions cause more fearful trembling than this one. Why do so many of us lack assurance, especially in seasons of sin and suffering? Can a Christian have assurance of his salvation? How can we grow in the assurance of faith?

This class explores how the Gospel redeems relationships, and works out how to practically apply the concepts taught in the sermon series to our relationships—with friends, family members, spouse, or colleagues.

Session 1: Understanding Love

All of life is lived either in the Spirit by loving God and loving others, or in the flesh by following our own ways. Rightly orientating your heart is the first step of the Gospel breaking in to restore us.

Session 2: Understanding Yourself

Many of us live without the full awareness of what motivates us, why we behave in certain ways, and what we desire. Understanding yourself allows the Gospel to work in a focused way on your heart to bring about freedom and joy.

Session 3: Understanding Others

As you seek to change certain dynamics in a relationship, the first step is to seek to understand the person in front of you. This session will practically help you grow in understanding others.

Session 4: Gospel Renewal Dynamics

How does it all tie together? We will explore how we can allow the Gospel to break certain destructive patterns and further strengthen those that are good.