Christian Education

Sundays at 11am, after the worship service and fellowship time. We currently are on a short break for Sunday school and men’s and women’s Bible studies. All will resume in the new year.

Christianity at its heart is a restored relationship with a transcendent, personal, relational and infinite God: the same God who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden; the same God who lead Moses and the Israelites through the Red Sea; the same God who whispered softly on the wind to Elijah.  This God wants you to know him.  How do we know this?  He says so! “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hos 6:6 ESV)

The expectation of God for this restored relationship with him is that his children would love and know him as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  How is this possible?  How can we really know an infinite and transcendent God?  Only through the Bible, His word, and he promises that “…the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.” (1Jo 5:20 ESV)  Not only do we have the revelation of God, the Bible, but we also have a promise that Jesus himself will give us understanding.

That sort of promise calls us to a responsibility that requires a concerted response.  As J. I. Packer puts it in Knowing God, “We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.  It was for this purpose that revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.”

With this expectation set, it is our belief that belief that Christian learning is:

• Unending in scope, effort and inexhaustible in depth–it is, after all, study of an infinite God
• Essential to glorification and enjoyment of God
• Rooted in scripture and a biblical view of the world around us
• Communal in general practice–most learning is done together in Christian fellowship
• Experiential in nature–it requires doing the right thing as much as it requires knowing the right thing
• Interactive in method–we are curious creatures in the image of God and knowledge is best acquired through dialog and other interactive methods
• Theological in purpose–meaning we are designed to know God, and operate best as we come to know him

We believe the majority of learning happens in community because we are to be “like living stones… being built up as a spiritual house.” (1Pe 2:5 ESV) We are called to be a community set on beginning the restoration that Christ will finish when he returns.

The actual Sunday School classes are planned and taught in order to reinforce the preaching theme chosen at the beginning of the year.  They very often providentially echo or reinforce the message of the sermon.  You need nothing but a Bible (we have copies) and an open ear to attend, though you may want to ask questions as they occur to you during the learning time.  We seek out trained teachers to create a healthy learning experience and invite feedback and suggestions to help create a better learning environment within the church.

Our goal is to glorify God in this learning experience and provide learning “so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1Pe 2:9 ESV)