In the post below, Pastor of Church Life Micah Pattisall, explains the purpose of Salem U and the topic of our January class Salem 101.
Salem U is the educational ministry of Salem Chapel. While our primary means of Biblical instruction is through preaching the Word in our worship services, Salem U classes tailor specific Biblical content to supplement the direct needs of our church. Our topical and systematic studies use smaller settings to promote both learning and conversation. We design the classes to strengthen your faith and build community in the church body.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8 ESV
Biblical education through study and acquired knowledge of God’s holy Word is a component of our walk with Christ. As this passage notes, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ helps to secure our faith, steadfastness, brotherly love and godliness. It is an essential layer in the process of sanctification. In other words, we are not designed as repositories of raw data, but we learn with the purpose to apply God’s gifts and promises to our daily lives. Drilling into the depths of God’s Word deepens our relationships with God and fellow believers.
We believe in biblical education so much, we pressed pause on our Life Group ministry and invited everyone to attend Salem U in the month of January. We presented a special class called Salem 101. This class represents the core of our church’s foundational and theological convictions. It explains why we do what we do, and how our members and attendees can be a part of our local body. Salem 101 acts as a prerequisite class for membership at Salem Chapel. For those that missed the class, it will be online soon and there is a study guide available to use for the course.
We are excited about the development of Salem U to offer a variety of content and provide relevant resources that meet specific needs of the church body. We trust that you’ll look forward to our next classes and be a part of this growing ministry.
