Dear Friend of Theopolis,
I have signed a stack of documents in the years since we started Theopolis, but my heart jumped a few beats as I looked at the thick lease contract.
“This is real,” I thought. “This makes it really real.”
Theopolis has been real for nearly three years. I knew that.
We’ve sponsored two Nevin Lecture series. We’ve invited speakers like Justin Holcomb to Birmingham to talk about sex trafficking, and John Hodges to talk about form and meaning in music. We’ve published a book with Athanasius Press, and we’ve been developing relationships with churches and Christian organizations in Birmingham. We’ve started Theopolis programs in England and Eastern Europe.
The Creator who called everything into existence has made these things a reality.
Most of all, we’ve been teaching and mentoring students. Students like Ben Rossell, pastor of a church in the panhandle of Florida, who was inspired by Rich Bledsoe’s course on urban mission to think about how the church he serves can revitalize downtown Valparaiso.
Students like Dave Shaw, a Beeson Divinity School student who has been fired up about the Bible and liturgy and everything theopolitan since he stumbled into our world at the first Nevin Lecture series.
Students like Sarah Davis, a church musician from Springfield, Missouri, who said the Theopolis intensive on music was “life-transforming.” Or Caleb Skogen, a Covenant Seminary student who was reminded during the same course that the “music of our Christian heritage must not be neglected.”
That is as real as it gets.
We have been taking small steps toward our goal of reforming the church in its understanding of Scripture and liturgy. Through our work, the Spirit is transforming churches by transforming the lives of our students.
Still, my heart jumped a bit as I signed the lease agreements. This is a big deal. Now it’s really, really real.
For the first time in our short history, the Lord has given us a place to call home. A place where all my books – incarcerated for two years in the basement – can live free. A place for lectures and liturgies and classes and conversations and receptions and movies and meals, for laughter and intense discussion, for quiet reading and prayer. A place where the Theopolis staff can work and meet and plan and dream together. A place for a coffee pot.
That’s not the only thing that makes it real. If you click here, you can see the outline of our Junior Fellows Program, the year-long, in-residence leadership training program we’ve been talking up for the past three years. We’ll start taking applications for the program in January 2016 and will hold our first classes in August 2016.
That’s another thing that keeps my heart pumping and jumping.
The Junior Fellows program is the cornerstone of Theopolis. We’ll take students through the entire Bible each year, and give them an in-depth understanding of Christian liturgy. We’ll teach our junior fellows how to think about culture, and how humans fit into God’s creating and redeeming work.
It won’t be all classroom. Each school day will be punctuated by prayer and worship. We’ll invite businessmen, professionals, policemen, and politicians to explain how they work out their faith in their work. Each junior fellow will attend unfamiliar churches to learn practical catholicity, and each will serve at a local Birmingham ministry. Our Theopolis home will be a space of ministry and worship as well as learning.
The Lord has used you to make Theopolis a reality. But we can always use more help. If you are not a Theopolis Partner, please consider becoming one. If you already donate regularly, please consider increasing the donation—or introducing a friend to the work of Theopolis. We are looking for 100 new monthly donors to commit $30 a month to cover our office expenses and help us maintain and beautify our home. That relatively small amount will make all the difference for our first class of junior fellows, and make all the scenes I’ve described a reality. You can donate and become a partner HERE.
We worship the God who calls the dead to life and speaks to things that don’t exist so that they become real. He’s made Theopolis a reality. Keep praying and helping as He makes it really, really real.
Peter J. Leithart, President
P.S. Please remember Theopolis in your year-end giving. Your year-end gift, or new monthly pledge, will allow us to begin what we’ve been building for three years: our Junior Fellows program, in our new home.