If you would like to advertise Faith Builders’ March Workshops Discipleship at FB, you may download the poster (PDF: 43 KB).  Thanks!

How can Mennonite young people study in college, wrestle with core issues, and confront the complexities of a postmodern worldview without abandoning their own beliefs?

The Seminar (June 29-30) is a one-day conference on “Developing a Christian Mind,” filled with lecture, breakout sessions for discussion and study of the philosophies young people may encounter on college campuses.

The Retreat (June 30-July 2) is a weekend for young people in college to engage peers and mentors with their questions and struggles. It’s a safe place to discuss and think about college experiences and our Mennonite heritage. Activities include small-group discussions, thought-provoking sessions, panel discussion of issues, organized recreation, and times for relaxing and visiting.

Faith Builders hosts both events at the Castle, a turn-of-the-century mansion built by an oil baron, now turned into a retreat center. The Seminar will cost $50 per person, including overnight lodging, meals, and seminar expenses. The Retreat will cost $120 per person, including two additional nights’ stay, meals, and retreat expenses. Students registering for both events will receive priority.

This retreat is limited to the first 42 people who register. You may download the application here (PDF: 42 KB, Word: 58 KB). You may mail or fax your application to the FB office.

PS.  We are testing this method of delivery for applications/brochures.  If you download the application, consider leaving a comment on this post to notify us.  Thanks!

Our newsletter shipped to Haines Printing today!

In this issue, Milo Zehr discusses the issues of mentoring, the subject of FB’s Discipleship at Faith Builders Workshops for March 2006.  Also included in this issue…

• College Student Seminar & Retreat information
• Summer Term classes
• Europe Tour CD picture and information
• Agenda for March Workshops 2006
• Information about scholarships
• Updates on personnel, needs, and projects

Download your copy now (PDF, 765 KB) or request it in the mail!  Those on our mailing list should receive their copy in approximately two weeks.

Join us for five weeks of study!

June 26-July 28, 2006

Classes to be taught at FB’s Summer Term 2006:

• Algebra (3) Koch
• Art Appreciation (1) Sauder
• Basic English (NC-3) TBA
• Beginning Class Voice (1) Mullet
• Child Development (3) Sauder
• Children’s Literature (3) Yoder
• Choir (1) Mullet
• Choral Conducting (1) Mullet
• Creative Writing (3) Sauder
• Educational Administration (1) Miller
• The Exceptional Learner (3) Zucconi
• Foundations of Education (3) Brubaker
• Foundations of Spiritual Formation (2) Zehr
• Galatians (1) Zehr
• Geometry (3) TBA
• Introduction to Computers (3) Zook
• Mathematics for Teachers (3) Brubaker
• Music Fundamentals (3) Mullet
• Music History & Appreciation (1) Mullet
• Principles of Teaching (3) Lehman
• Teaching Practicum (3) Miller
• Teaching Secondary Mathematics (3) Koch
• Trigonometry (3) Koch

Faith Builders will mail the Summer Term Brochure in March. You may download the brochure (PDF, 250 KB).

The Europe 2005 Faith Builder Chorale CD, The Lord is King, will be released soon. Call Christian Learning Resource at 877-222-4769 to order your copy. Price is $15 plus shipping and handling. (Click to enlarge photo)

Join us for our March Workshops
Discipleship at Faith Builders
March 18-19, 2006

Join us to consider issues in discipleship, evaluate strengths and weaknesses of our current mentoring program, and reflect on similarities and differences between student mentoring and church discipleship. We invite prospective students and their friends or parents, pastors or church workers, and anyone interested in developing intentional relationships for personal spiritual development.

SATURDAY MORNING
9:00 – 9:15 Opening
9:15 – 10:00 Biblical Basis for Discipleship – Melvin Lehman
10:10 – 11:00 The FB Mentoring Program – Steven Brubaker
11:10-12:00 Reflections on the FB Mentoring Program – alumni
12:00 – 1:30 Lunch

SATURDAY AFTERNOON 1:30 – 4:00
1:30 – 2:30 Points of Tension in Discipling – Brandon Mullet
2:40 – 3:30 Split Session: Men and Mentoring, Women and Mentoring
3:40 – 4:40 Panel Discussion of Audience Questions

SUNDAY MORNING
9:15 – 9:30 Opening
9:30 – 10:20 Discipleship and the Past – Brandon Mullet
Discipleship and the Future – Steven Brubaker
10:30 – 11:30 Church Discipleship – Dave Hostetler
Church Discipleship – Milo Zehr

Please register if you wish to attend this event. Registration helps us to prepare for meals, lodging, and event accommodation.

You may download the poster here (PDF: 43 KB).

As I prepared information and an application for College Student Retreat 2006, I realized that some of you may enjoy a collection of photos about CSR 2005. If you would like to see some CSR photos, browse to http://www.hometown.aol.com/bakuniancheese/index.html, where Cory Anderson has posted some digital photos from last year’s retreat.

If you would like to receive periodic updates from Faith Builders via email, please email fbep@fbep.org and request to be added to the FB elist.

Each email will contain instructions for changing, adding or removing your email address from our list.

I was impressed with the music courses taught by Brandon Mullet. If you are at all interested in making music a part of your life, you should take Music Fundamentals! It’s not easy, but it’s worth it!

Waiting is bold surrender to desire. This Winter Term has been all about seeking to understand desire for me. Trust must co-exist with desire and leads us to Christ’s face. The short times that I spent with my “group of guys” really enriched life over the last three weeks. I would like to especially recognize our mentors Nate Hochstetler and Allen Roth. Your insights and honor blessed my heart.

I enjoyed my two weeks at FB in Steven Brubaker’s class “Introduction to Worldviews.” It broadened my thinking about the various worldviews people express in their beliefs, writing, and speech. Taking the class also inspired me to understand my own worldview more clearly, identifying both strong areas and weak points, and helped me to begin to strengthen and correct those areas.

The theme that seemed to keep coming up for me this term was kingdom living. It started in the Divine Conspiracy class but continued throughout the term to the Kingdom Colloquy this past weekend. I’ve been challenged with the thought, “What does it mean to live the kingdom life right here, right now?” It will be an exciting journey with God!

A rattling good time.

I took Christian Counseling by Kenny Kuhns. He wanted for us all to learn to know God, and how He works in the world.

This Winter Term has been a great experience. I enjoyed having great discussions with various different people and hearing their opinions. Classes were lively and the instructors were interesting. I did a lot of work but also had a lot of fun.

This winter term was a highlight! I was taking classes that I really wanted to. My favorite class was “Divine Conspiracy.” I definitely learned the most in Music Fundamentals; I’m glad to have that as a class that “I have taken” even though it was incredibly stretching in the moment. Steven and Brandon did very well at keeping this wide variety of people on the same page with them in their classes. As to student body, everyone was so industrious! We all seemed to be taking more classes than we needed to. There were just way too many good classes to choose between! I also loved reconnecting with friends who came just for winter term.

Highlights: choir, colloquy, high-speed internet, small groups

First impression: frigid hallways

Lasting impression: warm fellowship

Favorite class: Steven Brubaker’s Bible Study Methods

This term I was very busy with my classes but found all of them to be very useful. Each of them gave me a new perspective on some part of my experience. Choral Conducting and Music Fundamentals were probably most exciting, in that they significantly broadened my understanding of music theory and performance, which are among my favorite subjects.

I observed the degree of thoughtfulness and care, both in students and staff. I was challenged to be more thoughtful and caring in my relationships as a pastor.

A highlight for me is the Bible Study Methods class. Steven Brubaker has a wonderful way of incorporating everyone into the class and knows just how to manage discussions. I have been greatly enjoying the new methods he has given us to understand the Bible. We have been focusing a lot on the Sermon on the Mount. I memorized it in school several years ago, and have studied certain parts of it a fair bit since, but as we studied it these several weeks I noticed things there that I had never seen before. I credit this at least partly to the wonderful tools I have been equipped with. Thanks to everyone who makes these winter terms possible. I greatly appreciate it, and have grown in my Christian life since I am here.

“God wants to save us even more than we want to save ourselves.” ~ Milo Zehr

“Education is very dangerous, but the lack thereof is even more so.” ~ Steven Brubaker

“God never destroys what He creates. He redeems it.” ~ Milo Zehr

“When people say, ‘We should let our lives speak for us,’ that’s camouflaging that we don’t live that well. Only one person lived such a life and he still went out witnessing to the lost.” ~ Allen Roth

“The highest study one can engage in is the study of who God is.” ~ Kenny Kuhns

Thanks to all those who contributed. If you would like to share your response to Winter Term 2006, email fbep@fbep.org.

We are preparing our 2006 Summer Term Brochure. Until it is released to this site, you may want to download last year’s brochure (58 KB, PDF) for reference.