Upcoming Educational OPPORTUNITIES

One way Willow Avenue seeks to embody Belonging, Inquiring, and Transforming is offering sporadic educational opportunities. Stay tuned for more details about events for 2025. For any inquiries or more information, contact brian@willowmennonite.org. Information about prior offerings is available below.


  • Join the Rev. Dr. Melly Howard for a special Zoom-based course this March - New Testament Basics: The Gospels. This course will explore each of the four gospels in their historical, social, and literary contexts. Sessions will be on Zoom from 6:30 - 8:00pm on Thursday Mar 6th, 13th, 20th, and 27th. Expect a safe-space to try this approach to reading the gospels in dialogue with others. Mark Allan Powell's Introduction to the Gospels will be a recommended companion text. Please consider a $40 donation to WAMC for the course, but don’t let this be an obstacle if you’re interested. Email brian@willowmennonite.org to RSVP or for more information. A shareable flyer is available here and below.


Previous Educational OPPORTUNITIES

The drop down menus and flyers below provide more information about prior educational opportunities we’ve hosted. For any inquiries or more information, contact brian@willowmennonite.org.

  • In the fall of 2024, we hosted a three-part series: “Living Faithfully in our Watershed.” If you missed the series, the presentations are available on our website here. Dates, topics, and speakers include:

    • October 13th - A Natural History of our Watershed with Dr. Michael Kunz

    • November 10th - Ecological Issues in our Watershed with Rachel Friesen, M.A.

    • December 8th - Watershed Discipleship, with Dr. Laura Schmidt Roberts

  • Join us on Sept 29th at 6:30pm for a special presentation by Dr. Ken Martens Friesen, Professor of History at Fresno Pacific and author of Energy, Economics, and Ethics: The Promise and Peril of the Global Energy Transition. Dr. Friesen will discuss how the challenge of climate change requires a dramatic shift to electrifying everything around us. The challenge is as enormous as the stakes – the future habitability of our planet. Dr. Friesen will discuss both the necessity of this shift to electrification and how the Inflation Reduction Act can make your house, your car, and your life more efficient and sustainable while saving you thousands of dollars along the way. Elementary aged childcare available. A shareable flyer is available here and below.

  • Join us for a four-week series introducing a historical-critical approach to the types of literature in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Sessions will be October 2, 9, 16, and 23rd from 6:30-8:30pm. Please email brian@willowmennonite.org to RSVP. A shareable flyer with more information is available here and also below.

  • Join us for a non-partisan Ballot Forum on Oct. 20th from 7-8:30pm. Particular candidates up for election will not be discussed. This forum will promote thoughtful and knowledgeable voting by

    • Deciphering the propositions on the November ballot

    • Clarifying what a “yes” or “no” vote means

    • Hosting a panel discussion in which panelists discuss how and why they plan to vote on those propositions

    Elementary aged childcare available. A shareable flyer is available here and below.

  • Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is offering a four-session online workshop entitled "Seeking Repair with Indigenous Communities" from 4-5:30pm PST on Nov 5, 12, 19, and 26. It will be taught by Katerina Gea. A group of WAMC attenders will be taking this online workshop together and WAMC's Outreach Commission has made scholarships available to attend. Our conference room will be available to attend this workshop. For more information, contact brian@willowmennonite.org. Additional course information can be found on AMBS's Website.

  • Images of Jesus abound and they substantively shape understandings of the Christian life that follows. But who was Jesus? How might the historical Jesus relate to the descriptions of Jesus in the Bible and the images seen today? In this course, you won’t be asked to subscribe to any particular ideas about Jesus. Instead, you are invited to a safe-space to explore your own ideas in conversation with others as you wrestle with one scholar’s attempt to reconstruct the historical Jesus and the implications that could follow. The insights, questions, doubts, and wonderings of each participant will be welcome. Light readings from Marcus Borg’s Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time will help prepare for each discussion-based session. A flyer for this course is available here