Course Overview

CLA Volunteer Teacher Assistant: Chileshe Mulenga

Email: earlychurchsupport@christianleaders.net 

Ministry Training Resources: Christian History Institute



Course Outcomes:

1. Know essential events, persons, and trends in the earliest centuries of church history.
2. Discern God’s purposes and faithfulness to his people during those years.
3. Understand developments in early Christian doctrine and church government.
4. Be encouraged by past heroes who withstood persecution and resisted error, and emulate them in the present.
5. Identify false ideas and evil conduct in those centuries and avoid similar things in the present.

Resources: James Orr, The Early Church: Its History and Literature (Provided online; no book purchase is necessary.)

Assignments:

1. Watch the videos for each unit.  Professor Bob Zomermaand lectures about the early church.
2. Read book chapters. Our textbook is The Early Church: Its History and Literature by Dr. James Orr.
3. Read articles. These readings are primarily from the archives of Christian History magazine. Thanks to CLI's partnership with Christian History Institute, you have access to great material from excellent church historians without needing to purchase any books. The readings include source materials, covering topics such as the Didache, Constantine's conversion, the Council at Nicea, and the teachings of Augustine. Most excerpts from source documents were chosen and introduced by church historian Stephen Tomkins. You can use them to teach in a class or small group study.
4. Use the discussion forum to ask questions and exchange ideas with others.
5. Take the online quiz for each unit. You will have 75 minutes to answer 20 multiple-choice questions for each quiz. Once a quiz starts, you must finish it and can't retake it. So be ready ahead of time. Each quiz covers readings and video lectures for that unit. While taking the quiz, you may use your notes and refer to articles and other materials. Tip: First, answer all the questions you know. Then try to look up answers to questions you don't know. When you have entered an answer for every question, submit the quiz for grading before the 75-minute limit.

*The course has a total of 240 points: 20 points for each of the twelve quizzes.

Grading Scale:

A 95-100%   A- 90-94%   B+ 87-89%   B 83-86%   B- 80-82%   C+ 77-79%   C 73-76%   C- 70-72%    D+ 67-69%   D 63-66%   D- 60-62%   F 0-59%

Your average for the course must be at least 60%. Otherwise, you will fail the class and will receive no credit.

Deadline: You have 180 days to finish the course. Complete all assignments before the final deadline, or you will be automatically unenrolled, and all coursework will be removed. You will have to start over and take the class again to receive credit.

Course Forum: Each course forum is at the beginning of the course, right before the first course content section, and has comments and questions from other students in the class. The forum is a great way to post a question or comment for other students who are currently enrolled in the course to see. Additionally, you can search the forum to see if anyone in the past has addressed or discussed the issue, question, or comment you were wanting to post about.