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Tag: sunday school

Connecting the Dots: People Matter

I didn’t tell our High School students about our “Super Series” concept we’re currently working through at church. The idea is simple: everyone at church “rowing in the same direction” as we study the same topic across all age groups, from worship to Sunday school to Life groups.

I wish I could say it was part of some sneaky test to see if the kids caught on, but the truth is, I just forgot to mention it. So we worked through a “Families Matter” a week ago, then “Communities Matter” this past Sunday, just like everyone else.

Yesterday at Sunday School, Laura Ciminelli says “Hey, this is what the daily devotions have been about this week!” Yup. I guess she passed the test I didn’t intentionally give. This tells me there’s some real strength behind this idea. So fun to see her make the connection on her own, too!

The Discipline of Giving

Each year, we tithe from all the money we raise in Student Ministries.  We believe it’s important to model good stewardship to our youth.  This year we had $320 from Scrip to tithe.  Here’s what the youth decided:

We did the division as part of our Encountering God series where we’ve been looking at spiritual disciplines.  We wrap up this weekend with prayer.

Habakkuk: When God Seems Unfair?

We started a new series at Crossroads Sunday School yesterday focused on Habakkuk.  I chose the series based on the sub-title.  It was one of many options to fit the specific goal I had in mind: To spend focuses time working on a single book of the Bible and working through it in it’s entirety. 

There are a limited number of books that we can do this with and not take forever doing it.  Habakkuk is already shaping up to be a great topic as it focuses on something many of us struggle with: The question of whether or not God is fair.  We’re using Craig Groeschel’s material as a starting point.  The teaching videos take a long time to download, but they’re really good if you want to follow along with the basic teaching.

Sunday School, Take 2

I mentioned before that there were lots of great options to choose from for the Crossroads Sunday School this coming year.  Not final yet, but here’s where it stands now:

There are some gaps for holidays and retreats that are already scheduled, plus some padding in case something unexpected comes up.  Gospel Journey is a DVD-based curriculum that will cover the weeks leading up to and immediately after the arrival of our little girl, hopefully giving me more time to be at home and learn first-hand about being a daddy.

I reserve the right to change my mind, but here’s what I’m thinking for this year.  I also have about 5 more series ready to go, so maybe I’ll start planning for next year now.  🙂

Sunday School 2008-2009

I’m starting to get really excited about our Crossroads Sunday School next year.  I’ve been digging through various websites looking for ideas.  So far, some of the ones I’ve found:

  • 5 Words from Romans 8: We’ll work through Romans 8 together, exploring the 5 key concepts in this great chapter.
  • Encountering God: Our annual Spiritual Disciplines series.  I think this year’s will be more of a lab style than traditional Sunday School.  Still figuring out what that would look like, but I think it could be cool.
  • David: We’ll look at 5 roles that David played: Shepherd, Soldier, King, Worshiper, Friend.
  • Jonah
  • Church as it Should Be: A journey through Acts, looking at the early church.

We haven’t finalized the list of topics we’ll be doing this year, but it’s fun to have so many fun ideas to pick from.

Love Your Enemies

Jenn Bell has been teaching the 6th grade Sunday School class while Marsha Peth does Everyday Faith this semester.  I’m so thankful for Jenn’s willingness to love on the kids in our 6th grade class.  They’ve been working through the Fruits of the Spirit as a class.  For Love, one of the opening activities had them create a list of the baddest bad guys around.  They came up with:

  1. The Devil
  2. Jason (From Friday the 13th, Not their DCE)
  3. Freddy (Nightmare on Elm Street)
  4. Chucky (From Child’s Play, not Pastor Whited)
  5. Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars)
  6. Ursula (Little Mermaid)
  7. Cruella DeVille (101 Dalmations)
  8. Wicked Witch of the West
  9. Dr. Evil (Austin Powers)
  10. Sid the Kid (Toy Story)

Afterwards, they looked at what the Bible says about loving your enemies.  A tough list to love!  I’m reminded again that God’s plan is so foreign to our own thinking.  What a radical concept that must have been for the people, just as it is for us today!

A big thanks to Jenn for showing love to our kids and bringing God’s Word to them!

My Bible

Our My Bible event starts this Sunday.  For Student Ministry, this means that we lose one of our ace teachers for the quarter, namely Marsha Peth.  Marsha does such a great job with our 6th Grade Sunday School every week.  Her big heart and willingness to do anything to reach the kids are big assets in our ministry.  Our 3rd/4th grade families will be blessed by her (and Pam Stone!) through this My Bible event.

All is not lost however!  Jenn Bell, our local french teacher/translator, is going to bring God’s Word to the 6th graders in Marsha’s absence.  She’s excited (as am I!) to be doing it.  I know she’ll do a wonderful job loving on those kids while bringing God’s Word to them!

Hooked: Don’t Take the Bait of Temptation

Hooked Series Graphic

We start a new series with the Crossroads group this weekend titled Hooked. I’m looking forward to investigating temptation and how we can resist it with our youth and small group leaders. We get the basic curriculum from Simply Youth Ministry and then modify it for our needs. I love SYM because they give us all the digital copies, making my editing process much easier.

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