Possible College Class Topics

My class at church which has college aged and non-colleged aged students (aka 20 to 30 somethings) in it is currently looking for topics of interest to the students. I’m going to outline a couple contemporary and Christian-themed ideas that I think are relevant both to college and post-college young adults. Heres my list of potential class topics:

1) Take any video (or perhaps 3 to 5) from the Nines and discuss it in class. (you might even have the class vote on the topics or videos beforehand) What does this mean? How does it square with scripture? Does this change how you live out your Christianity? (you could actually do an entire series of 4 to 6 classes on the Nines)

2) How do explain deal suffering and Christianity to non-believers? Take the recent book of Rob Bell (his most recent book) and Donald Miller (his most recent book) along with theologians like CS Lewis. The class might also look at two other contemporaries.

3) How do we deal with the issue of atheism? What are the new-atheists saying? How can we answer those issues?

4) How do we deal with the issue the emergent generation? (aka the post-Christian and post-modern generation). What is the role of post modernism? Is there some balance between the modern and non-postmodern that we can strike? Is there some balance between the modern and post-modern that the bible strikes (and that we should strike as Christians)? What does truth mean in an era of relativism? How do we deal with the spiritual, but not religious? Do they like Jesus, but not the church?

5) What is the emergent church? What are the different strains/versions of the emergent church? What can we learn from the emergent church? Is there anything troubling about the emergent church or emergent church theology?

6) How can we deal with money better? What does the Bible say about money?

7) Has the churches values adopted too much of America’s values? What role does this have on our personal lives and Christian walks?

8] How can we meet non-Christians in un-traditional ways? What conversations and non-traditional spaces can we encounter people who don’t share our faith values?

9) How can we serve and love others better as a church? What are the ways other churches are successfully engaging their communities?

10) Take any one of the Rob Bell Nooma videos and discuss it in light of our faith and personal lives.

11) What role does the creation story have in 21st century America? Is there a conflict between religion and science? (this one takes a lot of depth–I believe just saying one side of the discussion isn’t not fruitful for solving this conflict)

12) Relevance vs. religious? Should we engage culture? How? How not?

13) Galatians and the modern day Christianity.

14) How can Christians create a life plan and set spiritual goals better?

15) How can we optimize the talents of our young people in the church?

16) How can we better respond to peoples needs (both physical and spiritual) during the recession?

17) Ephesians and the modern day Christians.

18) Does James change how we evaluate our faith walks? I think the Church poverty curriculum “Perspectives on Global Poverty” by Hope International is helpful in navigating this issue and its free on their website. (its 23 pages and quite extensive in scope)

19) Biblical theme in movies like Spiderman. (sorry I need to find a resource for this one….feel free to suggest one in the comments section)

20) What do business ethics mean to Christians? How can we apply this practically? (this may only seem relevant to 25% to 45% of the class–but almost 100% will have a job which requires them to answer these questions)

21) Should we personally be stewards of the environment? How can we practically do this?

22) What is the role of the sacraments in our lives? How can we step by step move to practicing the sacraments….and more importantly a better walk with God?

23) Suggest your own…… (or combine two of the above)

25) What is the historicity of the Bible? How does the Old Testmament and history provide support to our faith?

26) Can we leverage small groups for good? Is this a Biblical perspective based on the New Testament church?

27) What are the dangers of technology? Can we leverage technology for good?

28) How do we deal with Christians we disagree with? How can we deal with conflict in the church? Are their Christian ways to deal with and resolve conflict?

So what do you think? What are the most important and salient issues for young Christians to be talking about these days. What issues would you add or subtract?