Three New Short Courses for Spring 2019


We are pleased to announce 3 more short courses to complete our Spring 2019 Semester. Courses are $20 ($10 per course for those who have a 2019 ULLI membership). All courses take place in Room 1, Pleasant Hill Community Church, 67 Church Dr, Pleasant Hill, Tennessee. For directions, click here.

Tuition is $20 ($10 for 2019 ULLI Members) for each course. To learn more about and register for any of these courses, you may obtain a Course Registration Form by clicking on the course titles below, emailing ullipleasanthill@gmail.com, or by calling President Don Dowdey at (931) 277-3033. Paper copies are available on the Uplands information porch at Heritage and at the Pleasant Hill Community Church.



Tuesdays, April 2-23, 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Room 1, Pleasant Hill Community Church
As we face difficult moral, political, social, and economic decisions, we long to be certain about what is real and true. But often we are locked into one or two ways of knowing, of seeing a desired outcome. In this course we use multiple ways of knowing about what is true  to unlock new possibilities. We will analyze current news topics, “fake news” and important issues identified by the participants to gain a closer approximation to what is true and what we can do about it.
Ed Olson, Ph.D., taught in colleges and universities for 40 years. Currently, he leads workshops for churches and the Chautauqua Institution.  He has taught a course and done a Saturday Seminar for ULLI in the past.

Thursdays, April 11 – May 30, 10:00 - 11:30 am
Room 1, Pleasant Hill Community Church
In this course we will read and discuss seven short stories. Each story explores the complexity involved in relationships with others and how this complexity plays a significant role in our sense of who we are. Because the substance of each meeting will be a discussion of a particular story, it is important that each participant read and think about the story before we meet. Each of the stories will be provided in a digital format, and, if requested, in printed format. Discussion-starter questions will be distributed to participants before each class session. We will be reading stories by Graham Greene, Flannery O’Conner, Raymond Carver, among others.

Ron Johnson has been an English teacher and a pastor. He has a MAT in teaching English, a PhD in English and American Literature and an MDiv. This is his second course for us.

               Tuesdays, April 30 - May 14, 2:30 - 4:00 pm
               Room 1, Pleasant Hill Community Church
Dealing with differences as manifested in the diversity of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, class, and religion require being fully present in our engagement with others. Contemplative practice rewires our inner life, freeing us from self-oriented and distorted understandings about persons who are different from us. To see the divine in another person is to recognize and discover one’s own diversity. Participants will practice seeing that our fundamental interconnectedness is essential to dismantling the patterns that lead to bias and oppression.