Courtesy of Church Next Facebook events page:

From January 27 through February 3, the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, will teach The Big Class, a program of ChurchNext. The course will expand on Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus published by Church Publishing Inc. The book is based on "We Need Some Crazy Christians," a widely acclaimed sermon the bishop preached at the Episcopal Church's General Convention in 2012.

"We thought about putting a warning label on this course: Danger, Your Life Will Be Transformed,'" said the Rev. Chris Yaw, founder of ChurchNext, a producer of online Christian learning. "In a world that constantly sanitizes Jesus' radical message, Bishop Curry's clarion call to deeper discipleship has changed lives. We pray all who take this course will experience God's transforming power."

 The Big Class is a worldwide online course for all who want to go further in their walk with Christ, and is free to everyone, everywhere thanks to the support of Bexley Seabury, Church Publishing Inc., the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and Forward Movement.Special materials will be available for congregations and adult education classes who desire to take the class together as part of their Epiphany season study.

 Bishop Curry will moderate the course and answer online questions during the week of The Big Class. Participants can take the course anytime during the week at www.churchnext.tvand will take 45 minutes to complete. The course need not be taken in one sitting and no special software is required.

 "We thought about putting a warning label on this course: Danger, Your Life Will Be Transformed,'" said the Rev. Chris Yaw, founder of ChurchNext, a producer of online Christian learning. "In a world that constantly sanitizes Jesus' radical message, Bishop Curry's clarion call to deeper discipleship has changed lives. We pray all who take this course will experience God's transforming power."

 The Big Class is a worldwide online course for all who want to go further in their walk with Christ, and is free to everyone, everywhere thanks to the support of Bexley Seabury, Church Publishing Inc., the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and Forward Movement.Special materials will be available for congregations and adult education classes who desire to take the class together as part of their Epiphany season study.

 In his book, Bishop Curry writes, "We need some crazy Christians. Sane, sanitized Christianity is killing us. That may have worked once upon a time, but it won't carry the Gospel anymore. We need some crazy Christians like Mary Magdalene and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Christians crazy enough to believe that God is real and that Jesus lives. Crazy enough to follow the radical way of the Gospel. Crazy enough to believe that the love of God is greater than all the powers of evil and death."

 "It's exciting to see all the new ways technology is being leveraged to help folks go into a deeper awareness of and relationship with the living God," said Bishop Curry. "Online education is an excellent example of it. It allows folks to learn, to interact, exchange ideas and, ultimately, to share what they learn with others. The process is exactly what we as Christians are called to do; an online classroom just gives us one more way to do it.

 Visit churchnextblog.wordpress.com/the-big-class/ to learn more about The Big Class.