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!