Christ Church Studies

We sing the almighty power of God. Among God’s attributes is his overwhelming power and might, for God’s voice can bring worlds into existence, make mountains tremble, and raise the dead. The power of God is a consuming fire, never safe but always good.

“You are good and do good.” This verse from Psalm 119 identifies one of God’s central attributes: goodness. God is supremely good. He is the most desirable good, and the generous Giver who shares his goodness with others, even before creation itself.

God doesn’t change. His character doesn’t change. His purposes do not change. His will does not change. And in a world of constant change, when so much that once seemed solid and dependable is no longer so, this is enormously good news. For, to quote an Anglican prayer, “we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life” can find rest in the “eternal changelessness” of God.

While it may sound off-putting, the truth that God doesn’t need us is actually wonderfully heartening. God’s self-sufficiency means He depends on nothing for His existence or happiness, enabling Him to love us in perfect freedom rather than from necessity.

To see and to know God—that, according to Jesus, is the goal of human life. That is what will make us happy. That is how our hearts will find rest. But how can we see a God who is invisible? And how can we know a God whose being is beyond our comprehension? In this session, we begin our study of God’s attributes with a discussion of our complete inability to comprehend him and why this matters. 

This final lesson frames parenting as divine vocation within God’s broader calling on Christian life. When parenting feels overwhelming or passes quickly, remembering it as God’s calling can transform how we practice parenting for our families’ good and God’s glory.

This lesson addresses parenting’s significant modern challenge: relating wisely to technology. Digital technology has dramatically changed parenting and childhood in recent decades. Parents must initially shepherd children’s technology relationship, then gradually help them learn to make wise digital decisions independently.

This third lesson reframes discipline beyond simple behavior modification as apprenticing children to gather their energies together toward love’s purposes. Dr. Coolman invites parents to view discipline as apprenticeship into essential skills needed for virtuous living rather than behavioral control.

Dr. Coolman introduces apprenticeship as a transformative framework for reimagining Christian parenting, moving beyond management-style approaches that emerged from recent technological and economic changes in domestic life. This apprenticeship model reframes the parent-child relationship as disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ.

In this first session, Dr. Holly Taylor Coolman provides an overview of the Christian vocation of parenting. Throughout church history, the family has been viewed as a miniature church, a worshipping community whose shared life is fundamentally guided by love.