Pre-K/Kindergarten Class's 9 Theses

Today the Pre-kindergarden and Kindergarten class had a lesson on the Reformation, this being Reformation Sunday.  The teachers worked with the students to come up with the class theses which are now taped to the classroom door.

Children’s Choir is back!

The LCR Children's Choir has astray practicing for the 2011/2012 school year. The choir will be starting with the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. Practice will be during the first half hour of Sunday School starting October 2nd and ending October 30th. This choir will perform at the 9:15am service on November 6th. The other children will be participating at a later date.

The Children's Choir team is lead by our Praise Band Director, LeeAnn with support from Signa (not pictured) and Michelle.

Teaching God's Love

Here is the post the September Ramblings that speaks to the start of Sunday School and our theme for the 2011/2012.

Once again Sunday School is about to start and those of us preparing for the students are excited to begin. The children and youth start Sunday School on September 18^th.  Adult Sunday School starts September 25^th. 

This year I am teaching 3^rd and 4^th grade.  I have never taught for an extended period before, so I am a bit nervous and a bit excited.  I don’t know how it is going to work, but I know if I love them and do my best it will be OK. When I talk to people about volunteering to teach Sunday School, I tell them it is not as important to be a good teacher or know everything about our faith or the Bible.  What matters most is that the teacher loves the children and that love is brought to the classroom.  It is not as important that the students memorize the books of the Bible.  While a good skill, it takes a lower priority to the students learning to love and experiencing the love we have as a congregation for them. 

The theme for Sunday School this year is “God’s Love”.  1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 

Our curriculum is much the same as last year.  The students will be taught about our faith from the stories of the bible, the seasons of the church year and catechism basics.  We are also continuing to teach Faith Skills and having the students participate in the Children’s Choir.  The goal of faith skills teaching is to teach the skills that go with the knowledge of our Faith, and to teach the students the skills necessary to engage the world through their faith.  The Children’s Choir will continue to engage the students in our faith and heritage through song and music.

As Sunday School finishes its preparations, Adult Sunday School and the Bible study classes are finalizing their plans.  In the next couple of weeks, the Christian Education book, as well as a newsletter outlining the upcoming education opportunities will be made available.

We have open positions to volunteer with Parish Education.  We need people to lead an Adult Sunday School class, to provide nursery care during Sunday School and to help administer the Sunday School.  If you would like to be part of the new school year, please see Matt Wehrman or Diane Schwiger-Alexander.

God Bless,

Matt Wehrman

There are Romans in the building!

This morning the 6th and 7th grade Sunday School class participated in a Roman Feast and Worship Service.  Weeks of planning by the students and teachers for food, clothing, activities and the worship service took place in April, all before Easter, so the students could today have a wonderful and meaningful experience.

What actually happened today is as follows:

First, the Roman Hostesses arrived to set up the table and initial preparations for the feast and worship:

The students walked into the building in their toga clothing.  They were greeted as "Romans", "Good Morning, Roman!"  Each had their share for the feast and one Roman actually brought a friend.  

Before the feast the students..ah, I mean... Romans sat down to create head wreaths and "knuckle bones" out of clay ("knuckle bones" is a game played by most middle caste Roman families, don't you know.)

Instead of the students attending worship with their families the students held a worship service together.  Their room was as it was in the time of the Romans, no electricity, only candles and natural light, no chairs just cushions and pillow.  First they simply enjoyed each others presence and played with their new "knuckle bones".  Then on to the worship where they sang the traditional songs the rest of the congregation was singing in their worship (without a piano, or music, by themselves, for themselves, it was very moving to hear.)  They broke bread and shared.  The drank "wine" and shared.  They remembered who and why they were sharing this meal.

After the worship completed, it was on to the Feast.  The food was all types of food that would have been available to Romans (minus the Ranch Dip in the veggie tray!)

When ever I peeked in, the kids were all smiles and fun.  It was a great Sunday morning for a Roman Feast.

Please see the full slideshow of photos from the Roman Feast to see in full how much fun the students had today.  

How does Pastor prepare a sermon

The 6th/7th grade class and I had a special lesson with Pastor. Together we discussed how Pastor writes a sermon.

We talked about the basic routine. Starting on Monday by reading the scripture selections, thinking/praying how the scripture speaks to the congregation, developing the outline and writing the full version and finally review and practice on Saturday. All of us were interested to hear that sometimes the sermon topic comes quickly and sometimes very late. That by the time Thursday comes around, sometimes a topic is still being developed and prayed upon, fervently.

What wowed everyone was to learn that the sermon that day was the 600th sermon Pastor wrote. Thinking about that number and the previous sermon preparation discussion made everyone's eyes open a little bit, thinking that Pastor has spent approximately 600 weeks going through the same routine of research, writing and prayer.