Have you walked into a child’s room lately and noticed what is in their room? One young boy we recently visited had Legos, miniature dinosaurs, cars, trucks, baseballs, bats, a forty inch television and oh yeah, a bed (hidden beneath the rubble – LOL). There are lots of objects that entertain and grab our children’s attention these days. As the church, we have the awesome responsibility to help our children learn about an amazing God that loves them and has a plan for their life. We need to show them a “most excellent way” to live life and love God and one another. (1 Corinthians 12:31b)
This is where YOU come in and where we need your help in two areas. First; for the church to do Sunday school effec-tively, we invite you to volunteer for one Sunday a month beginning in September. Our philosophy for Sunday school and for spiritual formation is to provide Biblical training from the cradle to the grave as people mature in their walk with Jesus Christ. Secondly, we would like you to commit to attending a Sunday School class yourself so that you can grow spiritually and lead by setting an example for our children. Again our goal here will be to have Sunday school classes that will stimulate spiritual growth for our children, youth, young adults and seasoned adults.
Jesus invited the children to be a part of the spiritual growth experience in this passage from Matthew 19:13, “Then people brought little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked them. 14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.”
To date we’ve been holding a one-room classroom for Sunday school. We have a separate nursery and room for toddlers and then one room for all the ages five through eleven. We would like to change the last part and be able to separate the age groups into three groups that are age appropriate. Then we would like to share with the entire Clewiston community what we are doing and invite the 1600 children or so that currently attend our elementary schools to come to First United Methodist Church for First Kids Church and Sunday school.
Additionally, we plan on having middle school/high school Sunday school, young adult Sunday school and we will continue offering our seasoned adults Sunday school as well. Please join me in prayer as we see this vision come to fruition for the glory of God. We know He wants us to grow in our understanding of His plan for is to live the Christian life.
Now is the time for us to embrace a vision for higher learning and growth in our faith journey. Please call me today at (863)983-5269 and say YES to serving in one of our classrooms and YES to participating in one of our Sunday school events for your age group. I’m excited, how about you!
God bless you and keep you,
Pastor Jeff