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Sunday School
Sunday school
classes for those age 3 and above are offered on Sunday morning. Classes
begin at 10:50am. We utilize the Christ light curriculum. It offers
Bible lessons for children from birth through grade 12. Scripture's
focus is on Jesus, the Son of God, who came to redeem us and whose
second coming we eagerly await. This focus is reflected in the lessons
at every level. Children's Sunday school has concluded for the summer.
Children's Sunday school will reactivate on the first Sunday after
Labor Day.
Christ
light curriculum
Christ-Light ®
is based on a number of premises that guide and control the entire curriculum.
These premises are revealed to us by God in his Word. We accept them as
essential to Christian nurture only because God the Holy Spirit has led
us to this conviction by working faith in our hearts.
These premises
are as follows:
God’s Word is truth.
God’s Word is verbally inspired, inerrant, and infallible.
God’s
Word is christocentric. The chief purpose of the Bible is to reveal God’s
saving plan, which enters in Christ.
The two main teachings
of God’s Word are law and gospel.
The law teaches us
God’s holy will, that is, what he requires all people to do and not to
do. Because all are sinful by nature and sin daily, the law also teaches
us that we are all sinners who deserve God’s punishment of death and eternal
damnation.
The gospel teaches
us the good news of God’s grace and mercy. It proclaims that God in love
sent Jesus to take away the sins of all people and that everyone who believes
in Jesus has eternal life and salvation
God’s Word is:
a) the means by which God brought us to faith
b) the continuing motivation for living a life of faith-born love
to God’s glory
c) the means God has given us to bring unbelievers to saving faith
d) the means by which we continually nurture one another to grow
in saving faith and to live a sanctified life
General Objectives:
These
premises make it evident that a curriculum which is designed to carry
out God-pleasing Christian nurture will be based on God’s Word and will
aim at carrying out the purposed for which God gave us his Word.
The general
objectives of Christian nurture, therefore, are:
that by learning
the law, Christians realize ever more fully their sinfulness and utter
helplessness to save themselves
that by learning
the gospel, Christians grow in their knowledge of God the Father as their
loving Creator, God the Son and their gracious Redeemer, and God the Holy
Spirit as their enlightening Sanctifier
that by learning
the gospel, Christians keep growing in faith, ever more firmly embracing
Christ as their only hope of salvation and accepting with childlike trust
everything in the Bible as God’s inspired and inerrant truth
that by learning
the gospel as motivation and the law as a guide, Christians continue to
grow in living lives of thanksgiving to God for his undeserved grace
that by being trained
in the proper use of law and gospel, Christians are enabled to use the
gifts God has given them to share the saving faith with others and to
nurture fellow Christians in this faith
that by continual
personal and group Bible study, Christians grow daily in faith and in
leading in a Christian life
Four
Basic Elements Used in Developing Christ-Light ®
Curriculum Building
and Coordination
Eleven goals establish the framework for the Christ-Light ® curriculum.
Children are introduced to new elements as they proceed through the
curriculum. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the children continue
to grow in their understanding of and commitment to God’s Word. It is
our prayer that, by God’s grace, each student will achieve these goals
by the completion of twelfth grade.
An important feature of Christ-Light ® is its flexibility. When
complete, Christ-Light ® will contain the resources a congregation
needs to coordinate the curriculums of all its youth education agencies.
Parental Involvement
Throughout the curriculum parents are encourage to work together with
congregational agencies to nurture the faith of their children. Parents
are encouraged and taught to be responsible for nurture from birth to
age 2. They can actively share nurturing with the church agencies from
age 3 through eighth grade, while remaining involved in nurture during
the high school years.
Cognitive and
Affective Goals
Knowledge, attitude, and habit goals have been written for each lesson.
Activities, application, and directed projects of various kinds are
suggested in order to carry out the goals for each lesson. Teachers
can select those which best address the spiritual needs of youth in
their specific groups.
Mix of Chronological
and Topical Courses
The topical approach is a good way to develop spiritual truths in depth.
A Chronological approach helps to develop and understanding of God’s
plan of salvation from the beginning of the Old Testament, through the
life of Christ, to the time of the early Christian church. The curriculum
uses a mix of the two approaches in order to expose youth to the strengths
of each pattern of organization.
God’s
Plan of Salvation
There is another
progression that is vital to the nurture of young Christians. This progression
is the development of God’s plan of salvation though the Old Testament
into the New Testament. Scripture’s focus is christocentric; that is,
the focus through the whole Old Testament is on the promised Messiah,
and in the New Testament the focus is on Jesus, the Son of God, who
came to redeem us and whose second coming we eagerly await. This progression
needs to be reflected in the chronological arrangement of biblical material
at every level.
Each of these elements
serve as the key building blocks of Christ-Light ®. Portions of
the Bible are arranged so that children can learn of God’s plan of salvation
in a planned, sequential way that is appropriate to their developmental
stage.
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