Frequently Asked Questions

Exodus is a teaching ministry where we allow any participant to stop the discussion at any time to ask a question, pose a different view point, or even to disagree with the point being expressed.

We believe the Holy Spirit speaks through all participants, not just the discussion leader. Often, despite hours of preparation by a speaker, the most salient points are raised by one of the participants. Other times, a question or comment from a group member yields significant insight that would have been lost had that person remained silent. While speaking to an audience – rather than with an audience – is often required in larger gatherings, one way communication masks the questions, emotions and struggles that frequently prevent participants from receiving and understanding the message. There is no more honest way to evaluate how the recipient is processing the message than to give them the freedom to interact with the speaker while the discussion is still ongoing, and while there is still a chance to address those issues directly.

Group facilitators are required to be well versed in teaching through the Socratic method. This means more than being able to facilitate a question-based discussion. It means being prepared with a significant amount of background material on related topics so that questions or objections can be used to enhance the presentation rather than detract from it. The group also fosters an ethos of respect and courtesy, and requires all comments to be directed to the speaker, not at one another, to maintain an orderly discussion.

We routinely survey group participants for suggestions about which topics are most on their minds. We are generally looking for topics which have not been covered in too much depth by most churches, or which have become obstacles to faith. Some of the topics are apologetic in nature, some address current issues facing the church, while others relate to discipleship, transformation, spiritual practices and the Christian life.

Some of our most popular series include: Money in the Kingdom of God; What Will Heaven Be Like?; The Mystery of God’s Will; How Non-Christians View Christianity; Questions About Prayer; The Origin of the Bible; Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil?; The Gospel of Matthew (A 44-Week Audio Series on the entire book of Matthew); Spiritual Disciplines and the Road to Spiritual Transformation; Beliefs of the Major World Religions; How To Ruin Your Life by 40; The Parables of Jesus; Can We Believe in Science and The Bible? A full list of all the series can be found on our website, www.exoduspodcasts.com.

Exodus meets every Sunday night throughout the academic year and the summer months, except for some holiday weekends. This year we are in LAPC, located on East Campus, next to the trolley stop off of University Drive. Our meetings begin at 7:00 p.m.. We typically spend time in worship before staring the discussion, and usually end with worship after the discussion. Our discussion times last about an hour. We also encourage participants to go out to eat together afterward to foster unity and to build stronger ties with one another.

You can always download Exodus to your MP3 player or computer directly from our website (http://www.exoduspodcasts.com/Audio/), or you can subscribe to our podcast via the website or through iTunes. Each month, close to 3,000 files are downloaded from the Exodus website, reaching young adults all across the United States and as far away as Canada, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Africa and Australia. We routinely get questions and comments from our online participants and are seeking ways to increase interaction with those that cannot be physically there on Sunday nights. You can also follow along with the group’s recent posts, events and downloads on Facebook.

Most young adults are in a period of transition from the place they have known, to a kind of promised land in the future. The journey is a great part of the story during graduate school and young adulthood: sustained periods of hope and anticipation for the future, punctuated by moments of doubt, deeper questions and a search for meaning. There are great lessons that can be learned from our time in the desert, forged in the tension between the comfort of the past, the expectation of the future, and the reality of the here and now. Change and transition are givens during this time of life, but our goal is to come through such a time with a love for God that encompasses our whole heart, soul and mind.