By Daniel Wallace
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship today will add the World Wide Web to its stable of ministries and missions with a devotional “e-course.” The digital devotional, which is being offered in partnership with The Upper Room, is titled “God Asks Us Questions with Trevor Hudson.”
The offering gets to the heart of CBF’s effort to nurture believers, said Bo Prosser, coordinator for missional congregations.
“It enhances the ability to grow disciples,” Prosser said. “The bottom line is, we are more about transformation than we are information.”
But there will be plenty of information offered, too. The e-course will feature a compilation of audio clips and video teachings from Hudson, a South African pastor. Online group discussions will be held twice a week along with daily meditations from Hudson, a Methodist pastor from South Africa and author of books including A Mile in My Shoes and Questions God Asks Us. The $45 course runs through May 18 and participants can access the e-course anytime from anywhere they have Internet access.
In a video promoting the e-course, Hudson told Prosser he found that God not only answers questions in the Bible, but asks them as well.
“In my own life, I began to explore these questions with others and these explorations eventually led to the writing of the book,” Hudson said.
In all, his 2008 book God Asks Us Questions picks apart 10 questions God asks throughout the Scriptures. Prosser said Hudson is one of the most insightful theologians he knows and is well respected and revered by many in Baptist life.
“Trevor Hudson is a friend of both The Upper Room and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship so there was a natural connection,” said Sharon Conley, associate director of community networks and learning for The Upper Room.
Upper Room’s offering of cyber courses emphasize daily spiritual practices, which is in sync with more than 75 years of printing its famous daily devotional guide. The guide also has been digitized and is delivered via e-mail.
CBF is its first partner in the e-course venture, which marks a continuation of an existing partnership around printed materials between the two organizations. “Partnership, when it’s at its best, everybody wins,” Prosser said. “The Upper Room partnership is an extension of us living out our core values.”
For participants it means being able to access the information without the burden of traveling to a retreat center or other venue, Prosser said.
“That’s where the Upper Room and CBF staff are on the same page,” Conley said. “Our common desire is to see people be followers of Jesus.”
— E-mail Devita Parnell at Dparnell@thefellowship.info. for more informatoin about the e-course.