The New York's School of Performing Arts offers its students a path to fame and fortune - but fame costs. Budding ballerinas, musicians, dancers and actors all clamber up the rocky road to stardom in this modern day musical. This film was directed by Alan Parker (The Commitments, Evita) and led to a very successful television series spin-off.

Click here to read session one

The Participant's Guide guides daily study and preparation for discussion in the weekly group meeting. The expectation for daily study will be no more than thirty minutes.

Invitation To The New Testament
8 sessions, 60-90 minutes
Experience required: In Depth

Explore the writings of the New Testament using the story of Jesus as the starting point. This survey of the testament looks at how the early church took ownership of and was shaped by the story of Jesus and how the church learned how to develop as disciples and create communities of faith.

Participants find a deeper conversation with the writers of the NT and a renewal of our commitment to be shaped---personally and communally---by the story of Jesus.

In the weekly video segments, listen as scholars fascinate you with facts and information that opens new understanding and enlightenment for your group. In the second video, sit in on a table conversation between guest scholars and debate key issues in the text.Sessions:
1. Jesus Calls Us Into God's Redemption Story
2. Jesus Calls Us to a Transformed Life
3. Jesus Calls Us to Minister to a Hostile World
4. Jesus Calls Us to Complex Communities of Faith
5. Jesus Calls Us to Serve One Another
6. Jesus Calls Us to a New Relationship With Tradition
7. Jesus Calls Us to Live in Light of His Coming Again
8. Jesus Calls Us to Experience the Gifts of His Dying and Rising

Hellenistic Greek society offered many advantages to the Jew who was willing to relax Torah for the sake of easier relations with the dominant culture. 4 Maccabees was written to reassure Jewish readers that Torah was in fact the sole path to the perfection of the virtues honoured in Greek culture, as it freed the diligent devotee from slavery to the desire, emotion and the domination of pain and pleasure. In brief compass, deSilva provides a detailed look at the rhetorical and philosophical strategy of the author of 4 Maccabees, who redirects the hearers' desire for honour and advancement toward those commitments that will preserve his Jewish subculture from assimilation. This often neglected text becomes an engaging window into Hellenistic Judaism and into some of the concerns that were formative influences on the early church.>