Everyday Seminary

Every semester we open up some courses to our wider church community, giving people the opportunity to engage in weekly learning with The Way College. If you are interested in The Way College or engaging in theological studies, this is an opportunity to go deeper in your learning, while just getting a taste of what being a full-time student could be like.

About Hermeneutics:

Everyone who opens the Bible is already interpreting it, which means that every Bible reader is engaging in hermeneutics. The question is how well.

Hermeneutics is an old word for the art and science of interpretation—the work of moving from an ancient text to a living word. Christians have been at it for two thousand years, often with more variety, and at times more disagreement, than most of us expect.

This course is an invitation into the beautiful and challenging work of reading the Bible well. It takes up the different kinds of writing in Scripture and asks what each one requires of a reader, because a psalm is not a parable and a law is not a letter. We will explore the history of biblical interpretation, including the questions, principles, and approaches that have shaped how Christians have read Scripture throughout history and continue to read it today. Along the way, we will also consider what we bring to the text as readers and how our own perspectives and assumptions shape what we see and understand.

Along the way, we’ll engage some of the questions that readers often wrestle with: Why do faithful Christians read the same passage and arrive at different conclusions? How do we discern which biblical commands apply to us today?

Throughout the course we’ll keep returning to the question of not only how to read God’s word faithfully, but how to love it and how to live it, well.

Open to students and to anyone in the church who wants to read the Bible with more clarity, confidence, and joy.

About Lance Odegard:

Lance is a teacher, writer, and leadership coach based in Vancouver, Canada, committed to helping people live deeply rooted lives of faith in the modern world. With a background in theology, the arts, and pastoral ministry, Lance has spent over two decades serving the local church while engaging thoughtfully with culture, liturgy, and spiritual formation.

Lance studied at Regent College in Vancouver, where he earned a Master of Divinity and developed a love for thoughtful, incarnational theology. He has served in various ministry roles, while also founding a coaching business, unstucking, which seeks to grow individuals creative capacity to transform themselves, becoming more of who they are so that they can create more of what the world needs.

His work often explores the intersections of faith, creativity, and everyday life. He’s known for his thoughtful preaching, his care for language and liturgy, and his passion for forming communities that reflect the beauty and justice of the gospel.