|
|
|
All Sunday
School Classes begin at 9:30 a.m.
Youth
Classes are divided into:
Pre-School
Grades 1 - 4
Middle
School
High School
Adult
Classes include:
Men's Bible class meets downstairs
Women's Bible class meets in Ladies Parlor
Bible Builders Class meets upstairs |
Presbyterian/Reformed Christians take educational mission seriously. We
value informational education, learning about the world
and how it functions. We value vocational education,
developing God-given talents in order to fulfill the vocation to which
we have been called. And fundamentally we value transformational
education, as the Brief Statement of Faith says:
"The Spirit gives us courage . . . to witness to Christ as Lord and
Savior, to unmask idolatries in church and culture, to hear the voices
of people long silenced, and to work with others for justice, freedom,
and peace."
Have you ever stopped
to think about why the church has a Sunday school? The Princeton
Religion Center recently asked teenagers what they would like to study
and discuss. The top three responses all had significant religious
implications. 64% said, "Is there really a God?" 56% said,
"What is the meaning of my life?" And, 55% asked, "Is
there really a heaven or hell?" Another recent survey found that
nearly half (46%) of all adults had at least one problem or question for
which they had no answers or solutions. |
…Christians
have always learned the Christian life from the experience of
congregational life. … Everything the church does teaches. |
|
Christians need
instruction in the faith, because faith is not just a matter of the
heart and soul; it is also a concern of the mind. "Speaking the
truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ" (Ephesians 4:15). |
Sunday School or the educational ministry of the church can help persons
of all ages to learn God’s Word and how to apply it to their lives.
One of the primary goals of any Sunday school should be to help people
learn about the Bible and what it says. In addition, we should strive to
help everyone learn how to apply the Bible to their daily life. What is
God saying to each person and how can they apply God’s Word and
discern God will for their lives?
Sunday School offers
opportunities for Christian fellowship. It’s hard to be a Christian on
your own. That’s why it’s important to be a part of a church, the
"family of God." Knowing that others have faced similar
problems and that they have found the answers in the Bible and in Jesus
Christ, is an important part of Sunday school. But, learning to really
get to know the other persons of your church can sometimes be a problem.
That’s where fellowship events and activities for individual classes
are so important. The fact is that most Christians say they don’t have
Christian friends that they can talk to and confide in. Getting to
really know the people of your Sunday school can be extremely important
for each of us.
Sunday School provides
opportunities for Christian service. A survey conducted a few years ago
said that over half of all persons who were first involved in service to
their church became involved in the Sunday school. Although this
statistic may not be the same for all churches today, it certainly
indicates the potential importance of the Sunday school to the overall
program of the church. Sunday schools and individual classes can provide
many opportunities for members to serve God within the church and the
community.
Sunday School provides
opportunities for spiritual growth. It’s a rule of nature –– if
something stops growing, it will soon die. Sunday schools help to
promote the spiritual growth of their members through the teaching of
spiritual practices, encourage regular prayer life, and challenging our
faith through the interaction of other Christians. |
| The
Reformed Tradition
Three
principles, guided by purposes drawn from the Bible, are especially
characteristic of the Reformed tradition. They may be described as
transformational education:
- "Truth is in order to
goodness,"
says
our Book of Order. Knowledge should be directed by
values. "If I . . . understand all mysteries and all knowledge, . .
. but do not have love, I am nothing," wrote Paul (1
Corinthians 13:2). The church's
educational mission is to help us discern the will of God in order to do
it in the world. We are called to transform the world.
Education is for the transformation
of individuals within a life-giving community. The church's
educational mission may be viewed as joining with God in the
"people making" business-- caring about individuals and
assisting them to become all that God intends for them to be. The
church at its best is the context for this kind of education as it
embodies and teaches truth that is liberating, setting people free to
achieve their full potential, and enabling them to discover and pursue
their God-given vocation.
Faith and knowledge are a unity,
although it may not always be possible to see the unity. Jesus embodied
both the dimension of the religious (grace,
faith, love) and the dimension of
truth (knowledge, integrity, light).
In John's first epistle he describes God as both love and light (1:5-7;
4:7-21). The church believes all
truth is God's truth, and as we study and learn, we learn about God and
about divine creation. We engage in a holy endeavor, loving God with our
minds. As individuals and as a Christian community our learning
transforms us and calls us to the ministry of transformation.
|
|
|
|
|
Page Last
Updated: 01/22/2008
[ Up ] [ Worship ] [ Presbyterian Women ] [ Sunday School ] [ Mission ] [ E-Link News ]
[ What's New ] [ Visitors ] [ Members ] [ Spiritual Formation ] [ Links ]
|
