OC Bible professors speak in the Central European Faith Talks this fall

Biblical educators around the world worked with two European missionaries to reach church members through a discussion series hosted online during the pandemic.

November 18, 2020

Through this season of social distancing and online connections, several of Oklahoma Christian University’s Bible professors have been involved in Christian conversations that have resonated with Christians in Europe. This work has been done through a virtual convention called the Central European Faith Talks. Jordan Arnold, an OC Master of Arts in Christianity and Culture student and current missionary in Slovakia, coordinated the OC professors and other biblical educators across the nation to take turns speaking on an assortment of topics. 

OC Bible professors Charles Rix, Jim Baird and John Harrison gave virtual presentations for the series. Rix, who also serves as OC’s dean of the College of Humanities and Bible, led a session on suffering and pain within the love of God, a series he had done previously in 2019 for the Advanced Bible Study Series for Church of Christ Missionaries. The online forum required him to join virtually to share through two live streams on Sept. 4-5.

Rix was thrilled to see a diverse audience attending his series that provided new and exciting perspectives to his topic. 

“To see perspectives from the rest of the world and the vast differences in culture of those who tuned-in to listen to the talks was so interesting,” Rix said. “There were quite a few people who plugged in from all over the world. Some from Australia and Iran; it was all over.”

Beginning in June of this year, Jordan Arnold partnered with minister Jaro Marcin from a church in Prague to arrange and produce mini lectures to enhance the faith of Christians in the Central European area, hence the name Central European Faith Talks. During COVID-19, Jordan saw a need for Christian conversations to be facilitated through Zoom calls with qualified teachers. This provided the opportunity for question and answer forums, which were later streamed on Facebook. Thanks to online options, deeper online studies of the Bible havee been offered to the churches Arnold and Marcin serve.

For more information, read the Christian Chronicle’s story on Arnold’s online work during the pandemic or the Arnold family’s missions website.