The early church was growing rapidly. For three hundred years, despite discrimination and persecution, people took the risky step of being baptized and entering into the life of an exciting but despised religious minority. What was it that attracted people to become Christians? How did the Christians share their message with others? How did worship make Christianity attractive? Did the emergence of emperor Constantin I in the early 4th century change things?
In six half-hour presentations, Alan Kreider works with students to answer these questions. Together, without rehearsal, they look at visuals of early Christian life and read the writings of early Christians. In effect, they have a conversation with the early Christians, gaining relevant clues about the ways Christians can live and share the Good News today.
Special DVD features:
Chapters:
- Odd but intriguing
- Spiritual power and life-giving deviance
- Living and talking
- Becoming a Christian
- Worship shapes witness
- Losing vision - and regaining it
Alan Kreider (Ph.D, Harvard) is a teacher, scholar and missionary who studies the early church as a resource for discipleship and mission. He is a Professor of Church History and Mission at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN, and author of The Change of Conversion & the Origins of Christendom (1999).