Last night we kicked-off the first ‘official’ installment of the course I am teaching on the spiritual life of “Stonewall” Jackson at Spotsylvania Presbyterian Church. I had mentioned that I had a full house last week at the meet and greet and this week I had several new students register with plans to welcome a couple more. I am especially pleased with the number of outside attendees who do not belong to our church. If I accomplish nothing else over this 10-weeks, I will be satisifed that I introduced some newbies to our congregation and perhaps they will stick around after the class is completed.

Tragically, we had a 49 year-old elder pass away suddenly last week, so many of those who regularly attend the Wednesday night dinner and programs went to the viewing at the funeral home. This meant that we had only 12 people in attendance (out of 16 or so) and I made a point of opening the session with a group prayer for the grieving family and their loved ones. Fortunately, we were scheduled to watch a DVD and will not be getting into the actual book and workbook until next week. Therefore no one missed any of the courseware.

The 40-minute film was “Still Standing: The Stonewall Jackson Story,” which is a wonderful religious documentary that specifically deals with Thomas Jackson’s faith and how it influenced his legacy. Produced by Franklin Springs Family Media and based on the work of our good friend Richard Williams Jr., I used the film as an overview of the Christian character of a man who is both an inspirational and bewildering subject. I added it so there would be some familiarity as they began the book. The film also fills in a lot of background information on Jackson’s childhood. The rest of the course will be using my books “Onward Christian Soldier” and “The Southern Cross,” as well as transcripts of Jackson’s letters to his wife and his book of maxims.

After the movie concluded I pointed out the contradictions that make this devout believer so fascinating. Here we have a man who shamelessly practiced civil disobedience while establishing a Sunday school for free and slave blacks in Lexington, then rose on the battlefields of Virginia to become one of the Confederacy’s most fearsome warriors, brilliantly commanding an army fighting for a government that maintained the institution of slavery. I also presented the irony of a man who was one of the "worst instructors" in the history of the Virginia Military Institute (Dr. Robertson’s words), yet his statue alone adorns the entranceway, his words are chiseled throughout the campus, and his horse is buried on the grounds and preserved in the VMI museum.

It seems that “Stonewall” left behind a complicated legacy that begs to be examined – especially in a spiritual sense. Secular historians can say whatever they want, but everything that made Thomas Jackson the courageous general we remember today was a direct attribute of his faith in God. If not for it, he would have succumbed to despair and disappeared from memory. Ultimately his story is just like ours. He was a believer, a sinner, and a servant - imperfect, flawed, and forgiven.

I can already tell that this is a real savvy group. The discussions, both on the history and theology side of things should be extremely insightful and enlightening. This week they have been assigned to read Chapter 1 of “Onward Christian Soldier” and we will begin the study guides and scripture readings next week (Psalms and Proverbs). We are using the King James Bible and I am looking forward to spending time in the Word.

Maybe it is because I speak at museums and universities on a fairly regular basis now, but I am really enjoying teaching and conducting a classroom. The interaction and open discussions taking place are tremendous and I have found that I am gleaning more wisdom off my students than they are probably gleaning off of me. I’ve only begun, but I can already say for a fact that you teachers out there have a great gig. (It's hard to believe that just a few short years ago, I was absolutely terrified of public speaking.)

Stay tuned as I am anxious to get into the prepared courseware which was developed to be very interactive and intimate. I’ve been in bible studies that can get emotional at times and although I will never post any personal testimonies that are shared behind closed doors, I will share general observations on them. For instance, Lesson 1 deals a lot with the multiple family-related tragedies in the Jackson home that left young Thomas an orphan and ultimately scarred him for life. The discussion point then asks participants to share a scar from their lives (voluntarily of course). This is to bridge the gap between Jackson’s faith helping him to heal - and our faith enabling us to do the same.

Spiritual strength is the goal of this entire 10-week exercise. “Stonewall” is simply the foundation for a study that is intended to show us how to find courage and apply it in our daily lives. The course is not by any means a forum for hero worship, it’s a forum for worshipping through a hero.