Local News - June 2002

Class completes four-year faith journey

By ANDIE LEATHERMAN, Staff Writer

June 5, 2002 - DENVER — When Paul Deese’s brother-in-law Wayne Griffin was dying, the family gathered around his hospital bed. The priest asked everyone to pray. Deese realized he didn’t know how. It was then that he vowed to find out.

“I made up my mind, when I get out of here, I’m going to learn,” Deese said.

In 1998, when Deese’s church, St. Peter by-the-Lake Episcopal offered Education for Ministry class, he knew he had his chance to learn. Griffin, an EFM graduate, had even encouraged Deese and wife Celia to take the class a few years before.

EFM, which is offered through the denomination, is a four-year program that covers Old and New Testament, church history and theology. Participants estimate they spent 10 hours each week preparing for the class. They read from the Bible and study guides and kept journals.

Deese, his wife Celia, Nancy Brandt and Jim Bowden will graduate from the class Sunday. Eight other church members are enrolled in one of the first three years of the class. All four levels meet at one time.

Participants explain to one another what they studied that week. Brandt found the system helpful.

“There is more of a deeper understanding when you’re trying to explain it,” she said.

The class had two ground rules — participants agreed to respect and not try to change each other’s opinions and they promised to keep confidential the personal issues discussed.

The four say the class deepened their appreciation of scripture.

Brandt said once confusing and seemingly controversial portions of the Old Testament now make more sense.

“When you learn to take them in context, they’re not so contradictory at all,” she said.

Bowden found he got more out of the Bible when he knew to look at who wrote a passage and when it was written.

Paul Deese was able to tie the course material to Father Ron Taylor’s sermons.

According to Taylor, who mentors the class, EFM is designed to help the laity connect their everyday lives with their faith.

“It makes them seven-day-a-week Christians,” he said.

Celia and Paul Deese are enlarging their ministry to senior citizens. Both say the class has helped them become more forgiving.

“It’s easier for me to forgive things now than at the beginning of these four years,” Paul Deese said.

Brandt, who says she has learned the importance of listening, will put that skill to use soon as she starts a support group for women in transition.

Bowden plans to continue serving as a chalice bearer and lay reader. He is considering becoming an ordained deacon.

While the course is designed by the University of the South, it is not a degree program. Graduates will get a certificate though during the 10 a.m. service Sunday.

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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