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All God’s Children Learn and Grow
This is the mission statement for our Christian Education team. It’s based on a firm belief that all followers of Christ, regardless of age or background, are always in need of learning how to live the Gospel.
Partly because it is so “un-natural” for us to do without intention and commitment. To be sure, the world at large doesn’t seem to fortify or accept one being kind and generous to a fault, accepting others as equally important and cherished individuals as we are ourselves.
Living as Christ taught us also goes against our natural inclination to protect and promote
ourselves as of primary importance. Between uplifting our spouse and children (and
grandchildren) in exploring and expanding their lives, there is little room for us to concentrate on our own success, reputation, advancement and pleasure. Thinking about some stranger we don’t know who has little or nothing falls somewhere further down our list of concerns.
Given limited resources (although I suspect that our resources are not as limited as we’d like to think), we have to prioritize where to spend our energy, concern, time and treasure. Here is where we are in need of always learning. Being reminded that Christ calls us to share with
others in need – not just financial, but also with our time, our supplies, our respect and our
imagination. Sometimes our learning is actually “re-learning” in that we get moved out of our
ruts and routines which narrow our focus and cause us to lose sight of our neighbors around us.
All this to say, every one of us benefits from learning so that we grow in faith. Children are not the only ones who learn the Bible stories that introduce concepts and give a sense of what God’s love is all about. Each of us needs to read or listen, reflect and discuss, wrestling with the call to be a blessing to others.
I encourage you to join our Sunday morning learning hour (9:45 -10:45). We have something for all ages. And we wrestle with this call together, raise up new questions and share our struggles.
It’s meant to be a time for building community (as Luther called “the mutual consolation of
believers”). We’re in the boat together, brought into this place and at this time for the benefit not just to ourselves and to this congregation, but for our neighbors as well.
Join us this Sunday as we start to look at:
Bridge Building Apologetics – How to Get Along Even When We Disagree
by Lindsey Medenwaldt
An appropriate topic for our coming days!
Shalom
Pr. Mark
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