GOODLIONTHE CURRICULUM
A repeating two-year cycle designed so that once a cohort completes Year Two, a new cohort begins Year One — serving new students continuously.
Year One
“If Jesus is King, then everything changes.”
Year One builds a Christian worldview from the ground up through the grand narrative of Scripture. You move from the character of God, to the problem of sin, to the identity of Jesus, to the shape of the Kingdom, to the calling and vocation of every believer. This is not religious trivia. This is formation for a whole life with Jesus.
MODULE 01
To redefine what it means to follow Jesus by replacing passive church attendance with the ancient call to apprenticeship. This opening module sets the culture for the whole School of Discipleship: you are not here to consume religious content. You are here to become the kind of person Jesus can actually form.
A lot of young adults have been around church for years but have never been given a vision of discipleship worth their whole life. They know enough to be bored, but not enough to be transformed. This module confronts spectator Christianity and opens the door to a deeper, more demanding, more beautiful way of following Jesus.
The Apprentice Life
What if Christianity was never meant to be something you attend, but someone you become? This opening night asks why you are here in the first place. Not to join another Bible study. Not to level up from youth group. Not to collect more religious information. Jesus called people to follow him, apprentice under him, and become like him. That is the vision this whole school is built around.
MODULE 02
To replace the vague, manageable god of American Christianity with the God who actually reveals himself in Scripture: the God who serves, speaks his name into history, binds himself by covenant, and made humans in his image for a world-transforming vocation.
A lot of people are deconstructing a version of God that was never fully biblical to begin with. If “God” has mostly meant distant judge, cosmic therapist, angry father, or inspirational mascot, this module gives you something stronger to stand on: the God who reveals his name, makes promises, serves sinners, and refuses to abandon creation.
The King Who Kneels
What if the clearest picture of God is not a throne, but a towel? In John 13, Jesus gets on his knees before his disciples and washes their feet. This night confronts the way we usually think about power, leadership, status, and greatness. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to learn the shape of his life. It begins with humility.
Covenant and the Name Above All Names
What kind of God keeps making promises to people who keep breaking theirs? The God of Scripture is not a force, a concept, or a religious idea. He is the God who speaks his name, binds himself by covenant, and commits himself to rescuing creation. You’ll explore why YHWH is the most loaded name in the Bible, why covenant holds the whole story together, and why God’s faithfulness is the only reason the story keeps going.
Image of God, Eternal Life, and the Reuniting of Heaven and Earth
What if your life has a bigger purpose than self-expression, success, or survival? Genesis says you were made in the image of God, which means you were created to reflect God’s presence into the world. This night connects image-bearing, eternal life, and the biblical hope of heaven and earth coming back together. You’ll see that salvation is not about escaping the world. It is about becoming fully alive in God’s renewed creation.
MODULE 03
To show that the gospel is not primarily a private spiritual transaction, but a royal announcement: the King has come, the Kingdom is here, and Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s long story.
A lot of us were handed a gospel too small to build a life around. “Jesus forgives your sins so you can go to heaven” is true, but it is not the whole story. This module reconnects Jesus to the Old Testament, the Kingdom of God, and the massive story Scripture has been telling from the beginning.
It’s Bigger Than You Think
What if the gospel is bigger than “how to get saved” and better than “try harder”? This night clears away the small, flattened versions of Christianity many of us inherited. The gospel is not a self-help plan, a religious résumé system, or merely a ticket out of hell. It is the world-altering announcement that Jesus is King, sin and death are being defeated, and a new creation has begun.
The One They Were Waiting For
What if Jesus was not starting a new religion, but fulfilling a story thousands of years old? For centuries, Israel prayed for a deliverer. This night traces the hope of the Messiah and the mystery of the Son of Man through the Hebrew Scriptures. You’ll see why Jesus is not a disconnected spiritual figure, but the long-awaited King at the center of the whole Bible.
Rivers in the Desert
What if your deepest thirst is not something the world can satisfy? From Ezekiel’s river to the woman at the well to Revelation’s crystal stream, Scripture tells the story of God bringing life where everything is dry. This night explores Jesus as the source of living water and the gospel as the announcement that God’s Kingdom is reclaiming the world.
MODULE 04
To give a biblically rooted, theologically honest understanding of sin and atonement. Not to produce shame, but to produce wonder at what God has done to rescue us and why the cross had to happen.
A lot of people either feel vaguely guilty and do not know why, or they have rejected “sin talk” because it sounded manipulative and small. This module names what is actually broken in us and in the world, then brings that brokenness to the cross.
The Name of the Problem
What if sin is not just breaking rules, but breaking relationship with the One who made you? This night moves beyond shallow guilt and religious behavior management into the Bible’s deeper diagnosis of the human condition. Sin fractures relationship with God, others, creation, and even yourself. Naming the problem honestly is not meant to crush you. It is the first step toward healing.
Grace and What the Cross Actually Cost
What if God’s wrath is not the opposite of his love, but one of the ways his love takes evil seriously? This night wrestles with one of the hardest and most important questions in Christianity: why did the cross have to happen? You’ll explore the cup Jesus prays to avoid in Gethsemane, the cost of atonement, and the grace of a Savior who drinks what we could never survive.
Sin, Iniquity, and Transgression
Why does the Bible need more than one word to describe what is wrong with us? Scripture is more honest about moral failure than our culture, but also more hopeful. This night explores the biblical vocabulary of sin, iniquity, and transgression, showing how each word reveals a different angle of what has gone wrong and why grace is even more stunning than we thought.
MODULE 05
To normalize doubt as part of genuine faith formation, equip you to walk with others through deconstruction without panic or compromise, and expand your vision of reality through the Bible’s teaching on the unseen spiritual world.
A lot of young adults are quietly doubting, loudly deconstructing, or watching friends walk away from faith in real time. At the same time, many were handed a flattened view of reality where the visible world is all that matters. This module gives you better language for doubt, a better way to love people in spiritual crisis, and a bigger map of the world.
When the Map Breaks
What do you do when the version of faith you were handed stops making sense? This night gives you permission to bring real questions into the room without pretending everything is fine. Doubt is not treated as a disease, a betrayal, or an automatic exit from faith. You’ll explore why deconstruction happens, why so many people are experiencing it, and how Jesus meets honest questions without panic.
How to Walk with Someone Losing Their Faith
What do you say when someone you love is losing their faith? This night is about the ministry of presence: learning how to stay near people in spiritual freefall without offering cheap answers, panicking, or abandoning truth. You’ll think through what helps, what harms, what to say, what not to say, and how to become the kind of disciple people can turn to when everything is falling apart.
Spiritual Beings, Elohim, and the Divine Council
What if the world you can see is only part of the world that is real? The biblical authors assumed a cosmos filled with spiritual beings, heavenly councils, and unseen powers. This night recovers the Bible’s vision of the unseen realm without fear, weirdness, or speculation. You’ll see why the modern world feels thinner than Scripture, and why recovering this biblical imagination changes how you read everything.
Angels, Demons, Satan, and the Angel of the Lord
What if spiritual warfare is not a strange side topic, but part of the Bible’s basic picture of reality? This night explores angels, demons, Satan, and the Angel of the Lord through the storyline of Scripture. You’ll learn how to take the unseen war seriously without becoming superstitious, fearful, or obsessed with darkness. The goal is courage, clarity, and a deeper confidence in Jesus.
MODULE 06
To form a vision of ethics rooted in the character of God rather than cultural pressure, outrage, politics, fear, or performance. This module asks what kind of life actually belongs in the Kingdom of God.
A lot of us have absorbed our moral instincts from the internet, our families, politics, church culture, or whatever tribe we happen to belong to. This module asks what changes when Jesus gets to define goodness, justice, love, rest, holiness, and enemy-love.
Jonah and the Scandal of Mercy
What if the person you most want God to judge is the person God is determined to save? This night looks at enemy love through the story of Jonah, a prophet who technically obeys God while hating the people God sent him to reach. Through Jonah, you’ll confront the part of your heart that wants mercy for yourself and judgment for everyone else. Jesus does not let us keep enemy categories untouched. The Kingdom asks whether we can love the people we would rather see lose.
Reclaiming the Biblical Meaning of Mishpat
What if justice is not mainly about proving you are right, but joining God in making broken things whole? The Bible’s vision of justice is deeper, stranger, and more demanding than the slogans our culture usually gives us. This night explores mishpat and tzedakah as restorative, relational, and rooted in the character of God. You’ll see why biblical justice cannot be reduced to political anger, tribal loyalty, or punishment of enemies.
Justice and Generosity
What if your money is not just a private possession, but a test of what kingdom you trust? This night explores how followers of Jesus engage money, power, poverty, and the vulnerable. You’ll see generosity not as optional charity, but as participation in the abundance and justice of God.
Sabbath and Holiness
What if rest is an act of resistance, and holiness is not moral perfectionism but belonging completely to God? Sabbath confronts a world that demands you earn your worth through productivity. Holiness confronts a world that wants every part of you available for consumption. This night recovers two ancient words the Church desperately needs again.
MODULE 07
To give the essential Old Testament narrative architecture: Law, sacrifice, exile, and Temple. Without these, the New Testament becomes flat. With them, Jesus becomes the explosive fulfillment of a very long story.
A lot of people love Jesus but feel lost in the Old Testament. Some are confused by it. Some are embarrassed by it. Some avoid it entirely. This module helps you see that Israel’s story is not background noise. It is the story you have been invited into.
Law, Sacrifice, and Atonement
What if the Law was never meant to be a ladder you climb, but a mirror showing what is broken? This night explores Torah, sacrifice, and atonement as part of Israel’s honest confrontation with sin. The sacrificial system was not primitive religion. It was a way of saying the truth out loud: something has gone terribly wrong, and repair is costly.
Exile, the Temple, and the God Who Moves
What if feeling out of place is not a detour from the biblical story, but one of its central themes? Exile is not just something that happened to Israel. It is the shape of life in a broken world. This night explores exile, Temple, and the hope of God’s presence with displaced people. You’ll see how the Bible tells the story of a God who follows his people into the wilderness, into exile, and ultimately into our humanity through Jesus.
Daniel and the Danger of Private Faith
Can faith still be faith if it disappears whenever it becomes costly? Daniel refused to hide his life with God under pressure from empire. This night looks at Daniel as a case study in visible faithfulness, asking what it means to follow Jesus in a world that pressures you to keep him polite, private, and out of the way. You’ll wrestle with the difference between humility and cowardice, wisdom and silence, faithfulness and fear.
MODULE 08
To anchor discipleship in the most important prayer of the Jewish faith and the most comprehensive command in Scripture, then show what it looks like to actually hear from God and walk into the calling placed on your specific, unrepeatable life.
A lot of young adults want to hear from God, but they do not know what that means without getting weird, vague, or manipulative. Others sense a calling but feel too afraid or unqualified to move. This module gives you a grounded biblical framework for listening and responding.
Hear, O Israel
What if hearing God is less about chasing a mysterious voice and more about becoming the kind of person who listens? The Shema is the central prayer of Israel, and it begins with a command to hear. This night explores what the Hebrew word shema demands that the English word “hear” often misses. To hear God is not passive. It is to listen, trust, obey, and reorient your whole life around him.
Loving God with Heart, Soul, and Strength
What would change if loving God meant bringing every part of yourself before him? The command to love God is not just about emotion. It is a total reorientation of your heart, soul, strength, body, desires, habits, and hidden places. This night unpacks the Hebrew depth behind heart, soul, and strength, and asks what it would mean to offer God your whole self, not just the presentable parts.
Learning to Hear
How do you know the difference between God’s voice and everything else competing for your attention? This night gets practical about discernment without becoming mystical fog. You’ll explore how God speaks through Scripture, prayer, community, wisdom, and the Spirit, and what kind of posture makes a person ready to listen.
The Most Unlikely Yes
What if God is not waiting for you to feel ready before he calls you? Gideon is hiding in a winepress when God calls him mighty. He is afraid, underqualified, unsure of himself, and surrounded by reasons to stay small. This night uses Gideon’s story as a case study in calling, weakness, and obedience. It will also open up a conversation about testimony: what it means to have a testimony, why your story matters, and how God can use both your weakness and your witness.
MODULE 09
To anchor your vision of God in what God says about himself, not just what your pain, parents, church background, or imagination have taught you to expect from him.
A lot of people carry an image of God shaped more by wounds than Scripture. Some imagine God as mainly angry. Others imagine him as mainly nice. Exodus 34 gives us something stronger: the God who reveals himself as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, loyal in love, and faithful to his promises.
Compassion, Grace, and the Long Patience of YHWH
What if God has already told us exactly what he is like, and we have barely listened? Exodus 34 is one of the most important passages in the Bible because it is where God names his own character. This night explores compassion, grace, and patience, giving you a vision of God sturdy enough to stand on when life gets confusing.
Hesed, Faithfulness, and the God Who Keeps Every Promise
What if the deepest thing about God is not that he tolerates you, but that he binds himself to you in loyal love? The Hebrew word hesed is hard to translate because it holds together mercy, covenant loyalty, steadfast love, and faithfulness all at once. This night explores the God who keeps his promises even when his people do not.
MODULE 10
To recover one of the most overlooked callings in Scripture: you were made to represent God to the world and bring the world back to God. That is priesthood, and it is not just for religious professionals.
A lot of young adults feel purposeless, or they are waiting for a special “calling” before they take their life seriously. Scripture gives you a calling before it gives you a career path: image-bearer, royal priest, witness, servant of the Kingdom.
Crowned and Consecrated
What if your life has more spiritual significance than you have been told? The story of royal priesthood runs from Eden to Israel to Jesus to the Church. This night traces the priestly thread through Scripture and shows that priesthood is not mainly about robes, rituals, or religious professionals. It is about being set apart to represent God in the world.
Priests in the World
What if your ordinary life is one of the places God wants to make himself known? This night brings the theology of royal priesthood down into real life: work, family, church, friendships, neighborhoods, and hidden faithfulness. You’ll explore what it means to stand between God and the world as someone who blesses, serves, intercedes, and represents the Kingdom.
MODULE 11
To rethink witness and evangelism as the natural overflow of a life genuinely changed by Jesus. Not pressure. Not performance. Not sales tactics. Just honest testimony empowered by the Spirit.
A lot of people feel anxious, guilty, or awkward about sharing their faith. Others have seen evangelism done badly and want nothing to do with it. This module rebuilds witness from the ground up as Spirit-empowered presence, testimony, and courage.
Sent by the Spirit
What if sharing your faith is not about having all the answers, but bearing witness to what you have seen? This night traces witness from the Old Testament prophets to Jesus to Pentecost. You’ll see that evangelism begins with the Spirit, not your charisma, and that your life can become evidence of the Kingdom.
God’s Tests and the Mission He’s Preparing You For
What if the difficulty you are walking through is not proof that God has abandoned you, but part of how he is forming you? Abraham in the wilderness, Joseph in the pit, Moses in the desert, David on the run, and Jesus in the wilderness all show a pattern: God prepares people before he sends them. This night reframes testing as formation, not punishment.
Your Story Is the Message
What if your story is not a distraction from the message, but one of the ways the message becomes visible? This night strips away the pressure to perform and rebuilds evangelism around honesty, courage, and love. You’ll explore how to speak about Jesus without becoming fake, pushy, or weird about it.
MODULE 12
To close Year One where the gospel truly begins: with the scandalous grace of God toward the disqualified, the failed, and the afraid.
A lot of young adults quietly believe their past disqualifies them from being used by God. This module closes the year by confronting shame with grace. God keeps calling the unlikely, restoring the fallen, and sending the people who know they cannot save themselves.
Judas, Peter, and What We Do With Our Shame
What if the most important thing about your failure is not how badly you fell, but where you run afterward? Judas and Peter both failed Jesus. Both betrayed him in different ways. Both felt the crushing weight of what they had done. But their stories move in opposite directions. This session contrasts despair and repentance, isolation and return, shame that destroys and sorrow that brings us back to grace.
Peter, Breakfast on the Shore, and the God Who Restores Failures
What if failure is not the end of your story, but the place where Jesus invites you back to the table? John 21 gives us one of the most beautiful restoration scenes in Scripture. Peter has denied Jesus, returned to fishing, and likely feels trapped by his failure. But Jesus meets him on the shore, recreates the miracle of his first calling, prepares breakfast, and asks the question that heals the wound: “Do you love me?” This is not Jesus humiliating Peter. This is Jesus restoring him, recommissioning him, and proving that grace is stronger than shame.
Year Two
“What kind of human does Jesus call blessed?”
An extended, unhurried, deep-dive exploration of Matthew 5–7. The goal is not merely to understand the Sermon on the Mount, but to become the kind of person Jesus describes.
MODULE 01
The paradox that spiritual bankruptcy is the door to the Kingdom (Matthew 5:3)
The counter-intuitive postures of meekness and holy grief (Matthew 5:4–5)
Craving righteousness the way the body craves food and water (Matthew 5:6)
Receiving mercy shapes us to give mercy (Matthew 5:7)
Singleness of devotion; an undivided heart before God (Matthew 5:8)
The Kingdom calls us to make peace, not just keep it (Matthew 5:9)
MODULE 02
What 'fulfill' actually means in Matthew 5:17; why this changes everything
Living as Kingdom citizens whose presence transforms the world (Matthew 5:13–16)
Revisiting the gospel through Galatians; the Spirit's work in forming us
MODULE 03
Why persecution is not a bug in Kingdom life but a feature (Matthew 5:10–12)
Suffering for righteousness; what this looks like for young adults in a post-Christian culture
MODULE 04
Jesus' radical interior ethic on sexuality and the imagination (Matthew 5:27–30)
Non-retaliation, non-violent resistance, and the way of the cross (Matthew 5:38–42)
The most radical command: loving those who actively oppose you (Matthew 5:43–48)
The hard passages of OT violence; how to read them honestly alongside Jesus' teaching
MODULE 05
The anatomy of spiritual hypocrisy; why we perform and how to stop (Matthew 6:1)
Generosity for an audience of One; giving that pleases God, not people (Matthew 6:2–4)
Deception vs. radical transparency; what integrity in ministry actually costs
The self-emptying of Christ as the model for authentic ministry (Philippians 2:5–11)
MODULE 06
Where your treasure is, your heart follows (Matthew 6:19–21)
What Jesus taught about money, possessions, and divided loyalty (Matthew 6:24)
Anxiety, faith, and provision; worry as a spiritual issue (Matthew 6:25–34)
MODULE 07
The shape and posture of Kingdom prayer (Matthew 6:9–13)
Persistent prayer and the lavish generosity of the Father (Matthew 7:7–11)
MODULE 08
Judge Not / Plank in Your Eye — discernment without hypocrisy (Matthew 7:1–6)
A summary of the entire Law and Prophets (Matthew 7:12)
True vs. false disciples; discerning authentic Kingdom life (Matthew 7:13–23)
Will you build your life on the words of Jesus? The finale. (Matthew 7:24–27)
the next cohort
Every session is free. All that is asked is that you show up and keep showing up.
JOIN COHORT 02 →