Join us this summer for Churches of the New Testament, our 2026 Tuesday evening lecture series running June 2 through August 30. Each week, a different speaker will take us inside one of the congregations we meet in Scripture—from Jerusalem's first days to Laodicea's last warning, from Philippi's joy to Smyrna's quiet courage. These churches weren't perfect, but every one of them was precious to the Lord, and their stories are still ours.

Whether your faith is strong, struggling, or somewhere in between, you'll find that Christ still walks among His churches—strengthening, correcting, and calling us forward. Come early, bring a friend, and pull up a chair. We'd love to have you.

Lesson Synopses

• June 2 — Timothy Ruffin — Jerusalem: The First Church Where it all began. Born at Pentecost, the Jerusalem church gave itself to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer—and the Lord added to their number daily. We'll see how a young, persecuted, Spirit-filled congregation set the pattern every church since has been measured by.
• June 9 — Wilson Adams — Antioch: A Mission-Minded Church. The first place believers were called Christians, and the launch point for Paul and Barnabas. Antioch shows us what happens when a church refuses to turn inward: it sends, it gives, it grows. A timely lesson for any congregation tempted to settle.
• June 16 — Cloyce Sutton — Galatia: Guarding the Gospel. Paul's sharpest letter went to a church that was drifting fast. Galatia reminds us that "another gospel" rarely arrives wearing a sign—it sneaks in through good people with sincere intentions. We'll look at why the gospel of grace through faith has to be guarded in every generation.
• June 23 — Mike Stephens — Philippi: Joy in the Lord. Lydia by a riverside, a jailer in the middle of the night, a slave girl set free. Philippi was born in unlikely places, and it became Paul's most generous partner in the gospel. From a Roman prison, he tells them—and us—that joy isn't a mood; it's a discipline.
• June 30 — Phil Robertson — Thessalonica: Faithful but Anxious. A young church that became an example to all Macedonia and Achaia. Yet they carried real worry about loved ones who'd died and about the Lord's return. Paul's two letters give us comfort, clarity, and a call to keep working while we wait.
• July 7 — Kerry Brown — Colossae: Rooted in Christ A church Paul never visited, threatened by a hollow philosophy stitched together from human tradition, ritual, and mystical experience. The answer wasn't a longer list of rules; it was a bigger view of Christ. Rooted, built up, established in the faith.
• July 14 — Scott Taylor — Ephesus: Strong Yet Drifting Paul gave them three years of his life. They became a pillar congregation. But by Revelation 2, the Lord said they'd left their first love. Sound teaching without warm devotion is its own kind of danger, and Ephesus shows us how quietly that drift can happen.
• July 21 — Lawrence Kelly — Philemon and Laodicea: Fellowship and Lukewarmness A double feature on what fellowship really is and what it isn't. Philemon shows the gospel rewriting a master-slave relationship into brotherhood. Laodicea shows a wealthy, self-satisfied church the Lord threatened to spit out. Two pictures—one to chase, one to flee.
• July 28 — Albert Dickson — Smyrna: Faithful in Persecution. Poor in possessions, rich in faith, slandered and pressed toward death—and Jesus had no rebuke for them, only a crown. Smyrna teaches us what faithfulness costs and what it's worth when the pressure comes.
• August 4 — Keith Stonehart — Pergamum: Truth Compromised. The city where, Jesus said, Satan's throne was. They held fast to His name even when Antipas was killed for it. But they tolerated teaching they should've confronted. A sobering picture of what it looks like to be brave in public and careless at home.
• August 11 — Dale Robins — Sardis: Wake Up! A reputation for being alive while actually being dead—it's hard to imagine a more painful diagnosis. Yet even there, a few hadn't soiled their garments. The Lord's word to Sardis is the word every drowsy congregation needs to hear: wake up, strengthen what remains, repent.
• August 18 — Clay Gentry — Rome: A Gospel-Centered Church Jews and Gentiles together in the empire's capital, and Paul writes them the most thorough explanation of the gospel ever penned. Justification, life in the Spirit, the shape of a redeemed community living under Caesar's nose. Romans isn't a treatise—it's a letter to a real church facing real tensions.
• August 25 — Jarrett Ferguson — One Body, Many Struggles A capstone lesson. Thirteen congregations, one Lord, one faith. Different problems, the same Savior walking among the lampstands. We'll step back and ask what the whole sweep of these churches says to ours.