News
1. Attendance 1/25/09 -- We had 597 in Sunday School Sunday!! 294 at 8:30 and 303 at 9:45!
2. Spiritual Growth Assessment Update -- I had 500 copies made of the Spiritual Growth Assessment and only had one left after Sunday, so that means that potentially 499 adults have or are taking the assessment. I pray God uses it to give direction to individuals about areas to strengthen in their walk with God.
3. Spiritual Growth Assessment Follow Up -- You should have had your class members complete the assessment during class this past Sunday. If you did not do so, please follow up with them during this week and especially this coming Sunday morning and make sure that they completed it. We will provide registration forms for the discipleship classes as inserts in this week's bulletin, so encourage people to sign up for a class that will address their spiritual growth needs.
4. Curriculum News -- Classes using Bible Studies for Life curriculum will be following the order of lessons for the month of January during February. In other words, switch back.
5. CARE Ministry -- If your class has not been involved in the CARE ministry on Tuesday nights, please come out and get involved. One class that has consistently been involved in CARE has grown twofold in attendance. CARE is every Tuesday night -- supper at 5:30, activities at 6:00 p.m.
Lesson Supplements for February 1
Bible Studies for Life
"Gain Fresh Perspective"
Psalm 19:1-14
The series of lessons for the month of February will focus on the question, "Do you need a fresh start?" This first lesson in this series will lead students to discover that one of the first things to do to experience a fresh start is to gain a fresh perspective. How we look at things influences our attitudes and actions in life. This lesson challenges us to seek a fresh perspective on God and life. The Bible is the best place to begin the search for a fresh perspective on God and life.
However, sometimes Christians get in a rut and reading the Bible becomes less exciting than it once was. For Christians in your class that are in this boat, how can you as their teacher infuse a fresh perspective of God's word in their lives this Sunday? The Word of God is living and active! Teacher, what can you do to be an instrument of God to bring it alive this week so that your students can gain a fresh perspective on God and life? Is God's word living and active in your life? If not, pray and ask God to make you that instrument that he can use to infuse a fresh perspective on God and life in your students this week.
Psalm 19 reveals places to look to gain this fresh perspective. The three places are (1) the sky, (2) the scriptures, and (3) the heart.
(1) The sky -- Look at God's glorious creation and become amazed once again at his handiwork. Watch a Discovery Channel documentary this week on nature and the universe. Bring a DVD or photographs that have been taken that display God's creation and cause you to awe and glorify God. Show these and discuss them with your class. How does this change your perspective on God? on life?
(2) The Scriptures -- Ask your class if any of them are committed to reading through the Bible in 2009. If you have any who are invite them to share how meaningful that has been to them so far. What have they learned? Encourage the rest of the class to fall in love with God's word again and commit to read it through. How does God's word give us a fresh perspective on God and life?
(3) The Heart -- What is your heart's desire? What is the most important thing in your life? What is the sweetest, most desirable and fulfilling thing in your life? Getting one's heart right with God will bring about a fresh perspective. Confessing sins and repenting of them will give a fresh perspective. This is confession and commitment time.
Explore the Bible
"Do You Get Along With Others?"
1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Paul gives instructions to the church at Thessalonica on maintaining good fellowship among the family of believers. As you know, the church is not heaven, and in many ways, the people who say the church is full of hypocrites are correct. The church is made up of human beings who are still in this sinful world but who are attempting to live under the control of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, in this imperfect world, there are going to be disagreements and arguments. The underlying theme in maintaining good fellowship is that there needs to be a continuous exchange of love and respect in all of our relationships. Our relationship with the leaders in the church, with others, with God, and with ourselves are the specific relationships Paul addresses in this week's lesson.
Questions for Discussion:
1. How can church leaders gain and keep members' love and respect?
2. When disagreement occurs with leadership, what guidelines can be followed to help resolve those conflicts?
3. What should be done when members of the family are not "pulling their weight?"
4. How is your prayer life and what will you do to improve it? Prayer is the means of communicating with God. Communication is key in any relationship.
5. Is it a way of showing a lack of love and respect for yourself by holding on to unconfessed sin? Defend your position.
6. Are there people you do not get along with in the church? What actions will you take to show love and respect to that individual and thus restore good fellowship?
Suggested Activity
One activity to have your class do to enhance the learning experience is to break up into two groups and have each group write and perform a short skit about a possible disagreement that takes place at church. Perhaps you, as the teacher could create your own skit ahead of time and have the skit(s) acted out in class followed by a series of discussion questions about how to handle the situation acted out in the skit.
Comments Please
If you have any other thoughts, ideas, or questions please post them. Don't forget to pray for one another that God will use you this week to be an instrument of change in someone's life!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
News
1. Attendance 1/18/09 -- We had 614 in Sunday School Sunday!! 337 at 8:30 and 277 at 9:45!
2. Sunday, January 25 -- Spiritual Growth Assessment Day. During Sunday School this Sunday, all adults will have the opportunity to take a spiritual growth assessment as part of an emphasis to promote spiritual growth in 2009.
Spiritual Growth Assessment
This Sunday during class time, all adults will be taking the Spiritual Growth Assessment. Please be in prayer for this that God will use it to His glory. Here are a few reminders about the Assessment:
1. The assessment will be provided for you and will be placed in your classroom box outside of your classroom. There should be enough forms in the box for your class and the other class, if you share a room.
2. If you share a room, make sure that you leave all copies of the assessment that you do not use in your box. The other class teacher will need to get the forms out of the box during their class hour.
3. PLEASE NOTE: Make sure to emphasize the final three pages of the assessment. Two of those pages will give suggestions for people to do to strengthen their spiritual walk based on their assessment results. The third and final page will list the discipleship classes that begin in two weeks. Encourage your class members to sign up for the discipleship class that will best fit their spiritual growth needs based on the result of their assessment. Students can register for the classes by filling out the bulletin insert this Sunday, by visiting the church website and registering online, or by using the final page of the assessment and turning it in to you at the end of class (I know this is something that we did not discuss at the first two teacher's meetings this past Sunday. I only added it at the end of the day. I was thinking this would make it possible for people to have an immediate means to register. This means I need the teachers to collect any completed forms and leave them in the box outside of your classroom. I will collect these after church!).
January 25 Lesson Supplements
Bible Studies For Life
"Pray For Others"
John 17:9-19
This is The Lord's Prayer. The prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 that is often called the Lord's Prayer is better suited to be called the Model Prayer because Jesus prayed it to model for his disciples how they should pray.
This being the Lord's Prayer, it gives us an opportunity to "sit in" on an intimate moment between Jesus and the Heavenly Father. As we do so, we are blessed to see how Jesus expresses himself boldly, yet humbly and compassionately, to God the Father. We hear Jesus' compassion and concern for his followers who include us today. If Jesus prayed for us, then we should follow that model and pray for each other as well.
The points that the lesson writers are emphasizing are that we should pray for one another about three things:
1. Unhindered fellowship
2. Joy in the midst of opposition
3. Devotion to Jesus' mission
The Spiritual Growth Assessment fits in very well with this lesson. Let's use part of our class time Sunday to pray for one another's walk with Jesus. Here are some suggestions:
1. Pray before the class takes the assessment.
2. Pray after the class completes the assessment.
3. Assign or pair off individuals (male-male; female-female) to spend time praying together before or after the assessment. Have them commit to become ongoing prayer partners. (I suggest the male-male and female-female partnership because couples should already be prayer partners).
4. Create a "Prayer Wheel" -- When students complete the Spiritual Growth Assessment, they will have an opportunity to graph their results on a wheel diagram. Each "spoke" on the wheel represents one of the six spiritual growth discipline areas they have just evaluated themselves on. Set up your classroom as a wheel creating six different areas from the center of the room. Label each area as one of the six disciplines in the Spiritual Growth Assessment. Close your class time by asking each student to go to the area in the room that is labeled with the spiritual discipline that they wish to improve on. Have them kneel in that area of the room and pray with all others who are in the same area. Or have them individually pray a prayer of commitment to improve that area of their spiritual walk.
Explore the Bible
"Are You Ready?"
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
"The purpose of this lesson is to help adults know and explain how to live faithfully and expectantly in anticipation of Christ's return. The lesson also challenges us to specify what we need to do to live more faithfully and expectantly and then do those things." This quote comes directly from the Explore the Bible Adult Commentary, Winter 2008-2009, on page 85.
You can see how the Spiritual Growth Assessment ties in well with this lesson. Obviously, one important way to live faithfully and expectantly is to grow spiritually! Hopefully, it can be a tool to help us specify some things we need to do to live more faithfully and expectantly in anticipation of Christ's return. We do not know when Christ will return, but He will. We do not know when we will die, but we will unless He returns. Will we be ready to see Him face-to-face? At that moment, will we have grown in our spiritual maturity to the maximum level attainable this side of Heaven? That should be our goal!
The final verse in this week's lesson talks about encouraging one another and building each other up. This is what the body of Christ should be doing. As you lead your class through the Spiritual Growth Assessment, spend time in prayer encouraging and building up one another. Spur one another on to attain the maximum level of spiritual growth they can attain this side of heaven!
For suggestions on how to utilize a special prayer time for the Spiritual Growth Assessment, see the ideas listed above under the Bible Studies for Life Lesson Supplements.
Comments Encouraged!
Please post your comments, suggestions, ideas, questions, answers, thoughts, etc. about the lesson. Perhaps you have thought of a creative way to approach the lesson or to emphasize a certain point. Include those thoughts as well. If you have any prayer requests share I would love to hear them!
1. Attendance 1/18/09 -- We had 614 in Sunday School Sunday!! 337 at 8:30 and 277 at 9:45!
2. Sunday, January 25 -- Spiritual Growth Assessment Day. During Sunday School this Sunday, all adults will have the opportunity to take a spiritual growth assessment as part of an emphasis to promote spiritual growth in 2009.
Spiritual Growth Assessment
This Sunday during class time, all adults will be taking the Spiritual Growth Assessment. Please be in prayer for this that God will use it to His glory. Here are a few reminders about the Assessment:
1. The assessment will be provided for you and will be placed in your classroom box outside of your classroom. There should be enough forms in the box for your class and the other class, if you share a room.
2. If you share a room, make sure that you leave all copies of the assessment that you do not use in your box. The other class teacher will need to get the forms out of the box during their class hour.
3. PLEASE NOTE: Make sure to emphasize the final three pages of the assessment. Two of those pages will give suggestions for people to do to strengthen their spiritual walk based on their assessment results. The third and final page will list the discipleship classes that begin in two weeks. Encourage your class members to sign up for the discipleship class that will best fit their spiritual growth needs based on the result of their assessment. Students can register for the classes by filling out the bulletin insert this Sunday, by visiting the church website and registering online, or by using the final page of the assessment and turning it in to you at the end of class (I know this is something that we did not discuss at the first two teacher's meetings this past Sunday. I only added it at the end of the day. I was thinking this would make it possible for people to have an immediate means to register. This means I need the teachers to collect any completed forms and leave them in the box outside of your classroom. I will collect these after church!).
January 25 Lesson Supplements
Bible Studies For Life
"Pray For Others"
John 17:9-19
This is The Lord's Prayer. The prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 that is often called the Lord's Prayer is better suited to be called the Model Prayer because Jesus prayed it to model for his disciples how they should pray.
This being the Lord's Prayer, it gives us an opportunity to "sit in" on an intimate moment between Jesus and the Heavenly Father. As we do so, we are blessed to see how Jesus expresses himself boldly, yet humbly and compassionately, to God the Father. We hear Jesus' compassion and concern for his followers who include us today. If Jesus prayed for us, then we should follow that model and pray for each other as well.
The points that the lesson writers are emphasizing are that we should pray for one another about three things:
1. Unhindered fellowship
2. Joy in the midst of opposition
3. Devotion to Jesus' mission
The Spiritual Growth Assessment fits in very well with this lesson. Let's use part of our class time Sunday to pray for one another's walk with Jesus. Here are some suggestions:
1. Pray before the class takes the assessment.
2. Pray after the class completes the assessment.
3. Assign or pair off individuals (male-male; female-female) to spend time praying together before or after the assessment. Have them commit to become ongoing prayer partners. (I suggest the male-male and female-female partnership because couples should already be prayer partners).
4. Create a "Prayer Wheel" -- When students complete the Spiritual Growth Assessment, they will have an opportunity to graph their results on a wheel diagram. Each "spoke" on the wheel represents one of the six spiritual growth discipline areas they have just evaluated themselves on. Set up your classroom as a wheel creating six different areas from the center of the room. Label each area as one of the six disciplines in the Spiritual Growth Assessment. Close your class time by asking each student to go to the area in the room that is labeled with the spiritual discipline that they wish to improve on. Have them kneel in that area of the room and pray with all others who are in the same area. Or have them individually pray a prayer of commitment to improve that area of their spiritual walk.
Explore the Bible
"Are You Ready?"
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
"The purpose of this lesson is to help adults know and explain how to live faithfully and expectantly in anticipation of Christ's return. The lesson also challenges us to specify what we need to do to live more faithfully and expectantly and then do those things." This quote comes directly from the Explore the Bible Adult Commentary, Winter 2008-2009, on page 85.
You can see how the Spiritual Growth Assessment ties in well with this lesson. Obviously, one important way to live faithfully and expectantly is to grow spiritually! Hopefully, it can be a tool to help us specify some things we need to do to live more faithfully and expectantly in anticipation of Christ's return. We do not know when Christ will return, but He will. We do not know when we will die, but we will unless He returns. Will we be ready to see Him face-to-face? At that moment, will we have grown in our spiritual maturity to the maximum level attainable this side of Heaven? That should be our goal!
The final verse in this week's lesson talks about encouraging one another and building each other up. This is what the body of Christ should be doing. As you lead your class through the Spiritual Growth Assessment, spend time in prayer encouraging and building up one another. Spur one another on to attain the maximum level of spiritual growth they can attain this side of heaven!
For suggestions on how to utilize a special prayer time for the Spiritual Growth Assessment, see the ideas listed above under the Bible Studies for Life Lesson Supplements.
Comments Encouraged!
Please post your comments, suggestions, ideas, questions, answers, thoughts, etc. about the lesson. Perhaps you have thought of a creative way to approach the lesson or to emphasize a certain point. Include those thoughts as well. If you have any prayer requests share I would love to hear them!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Sunday School
News
1. Adult Teachers Meeting -- this Sunday, January 18. Plan to attend one of the following 15 minute meetings:
8:10 a.m.
9:15 a.m.
11:15 a.m.
We will meet in the fellowship hall of the Education Building! See you there!
2. Attendance 1/11/09 -- We had 669 in Sunday School Sunday!! 354 at 8:30 and 315 at 9:45!
3. Sunday, January 25 -- Spiritual Growth Assessment Day. During Sunday School on this day, all adults will have the opportunity to take a spiritual growth assessment as part of an emphasis to promote spiritual growth in 2009.
January 18 Lesson Supplements
Bible Studies in Life Series
"Pray in Jesus' Name"
John 14:12-14; 15:14-16; 16:23-26
Why should you pray in Jesus' name?
(The following comes from Nelson's Personal Handbook on Prayer, Dr. James Wilhoit, General Editor. pp. 183-185.)
- Jesus' name is the gateway to God -- You cannot approach God in your own name or your own ability. You can approach God only in the name of Jesus Christ. He is the entry point into the presence of God. If you are going to do serious business with God, then you must pray in the name above all names -- the name of Jesus. His name gives you access into the presence of God.
- Jesus' name is your authority to tie your requests to the Father's will -- Anytime you take a request to God the Father in Jesus' name, you are tying it to the most authoritative name that ever there was. This should give us confidence in approaching God with our prayers. You need not be tentative in your praying. By praying in Jesus' name you are boldly submitting to the will of God about each request.
Explore the Bible Series
"Whose Life is Important?"
Exodus 20:13; 21:22-25; 22:21-24; Deuteronomy 24:29; Matthew 5:21-22; Luke 20:47
This week's lesson is on the sanctity of human life and will touch specifically on respecting women and their unborn children and providing for aliens, widows, and orphans. In preparation for Sunday's lesson, you may want to research statistics on abortions, foreigners, widows, and orphans to supplement your lesson. Also, pay attention to news stories that you may read or see on television as it relates to any of these people groups. One question to drive home to students might be, "How can I be an advocate for _______ (unborn children, foreigners, widows, and orphans)?"
On the topic of orphans: You may want to share that we have had several in our church family who have adopted children. You may want to invite some of these individuals into your classes Sunday to share about their experiences with adoption. Perhaps there are some in your class. We have one couple that will be leaving next week to travel to the Ukraine to adopt as many as two children. If you would like to know who some of these people are, send me an e-mail or a comment below and I can try to connect you to these individuals.
The bottom line: All of life is valuable because all of life is valuable to God. This lesson draws our attention toward the vulnerable in society. Who are the vulnerable in Lake Norman? What can each of us and what can we as a church do to help these people?
Comments?
Please post any comments you have. The comments can be suggestions you would make on how to teach the lesson this Sunday. You might have an illustration you have discovered. You may have a creative way/activity that you can share with all of us that will help make the classroom experience meaningful to the people who attend Sunday. Questions are also welcome. Let's learn from each other and spur one another on!!
God bless,
Landon
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