A Free Course on the Ancient People History Books Leave Out
Almost everyone who ever lived in the ancient world was a farmer, a mother, a laborer, a soldier, or a slave. Almost none of them appear in a history textbook. Solo Faith Church has had a free course open since early July that spends all seven of its modules on those people instead of on the kings.
Recovering the Forgotten Majority
That is the actual name of the first module, and it sets the terms for everything after it. The course asks what a day cost — what people ate, what they owed, who they answered to, what happened when a child got sick, what a woman's or a slave's or a soldier's life looked like from the inside. The material begins with the earliest Ice Age households and the first cities of Mesopotamia, then works forward.
Each lesson closes with a faith connection — "sometimes about the dignity God gives to ordinary life and work, sometimes about the lived reality behind the Bible's pages."
The Route It Takes
From Mesopotamia the course moves to Life Along the Nile and household life in ancient Egypt, then into the Greek world across two modules — one on how that world was made, and one called At the Edges of Greek Life, which deals with the people Greek civilization is least often described through: children, women, slaves, and the men who did the fighting.
The last three modules belong to Rome. The Roman Everyday covers work, housing, and family life; Faith and Spectacle under Rome takes up religion and public entertainment side by side, which is how a Roman would have experienced them; and Frontiers and the Long View closes on the edges of the empire and on the daily life of Jews and early Christians living under Roman rule — the exact world the New Testament was written into.
Why It Was Framed This Way
Pastor Doug built the course around ordinary life because Scripture reads differently once you know what a day actually cost a person in Rome or Galilee. A parable about a day laborer, a landlord, or a woman searching her house for one coin stops being a figure of speech and becomes a description of somebody's Tuesday. That shift is the point of the whole course.
Where It Fits on the Shelf
At seven modules and fourteen lessons, this is the shortest of the church's history courses — roughly half the length of its companions on the ancient Near East and Greek civilization. It requires no background, assumes no prior course, and issues a certificate when every step is finished. For someone who has never taken an online course of any kind, it is the easiest door on the shelf to walk through.
Enrollment is free and open at the Daily Life in the Ancient World course page — select Join, or work through it in the Solo Faith Church mobile app. The other free courses are listed at Solo Faith Church, and the congregation meets at 587 Old Charlotte Rd SW, Concord, NC 28027.
Solo Faith Church put this course together because the people it serves in Concord are working people, and history told only through the powerful quietly teaches everyone else that their lives are not the story. Scripture never taught that, and neither should a history course.
You're Invited — Visit Solo Faith Church This Sunday
Solo Faith Church meets every Sunday at 587 Old Charlotte Rd SW, Concord, NC 28027. Come as you are. Learn more here.
Community Support Note: This post belongs to Solo Faith Church's community journalism initiative, which shares free resources available to neighbors in Concord and across Cabarrus County. Its details came from a description provided directly by church leadership and from the course listing published on solofaith.org, not from independent reporting.
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